I have only played El Caballero once, and that was the basic game with 4 players. I had been expecting to really like this game, as I really like El Grande and generally enjoy exploration and map creation games.

However my initial encounter was not favourable. Going through the rules and then playing the basic game took us 2.5 hours, which we all felt was vastly too long. I'd expect it to drop to 1.5-2 hours for the same 4 of us if we played again.

Now I don't expect we had a full grasp of all the strategies and it is possible we had some rules wrong (but I don't believe so), but what we all found was that after the first couple of rounds where we didn't really know what we were doing, it was essential to look hard at what the possibilities were with regard to both placing new Caballero cards, removing one before placement, possibilities of knocking off other player's Caballero cards from important islands, as well as trying to ensure that other players don't have easy ways to hurt you back. This all took time, and will in future games of El Caballero too - at least it will whenever I am playing :-)

We found that you had to think hard when deciding what your Priority card for the turn was and then rethink when it was your turn as the other players would have changed the board considerably by then.

In our game one very big island developed (worth 46 points to the 1st placed holder), and who won depended entirely on who would hold possession of this. On the last turn this depended on the player before the last player choosing to use one tile or another, for their own purposes, leaving the very last move as either a minor one or a game winner. Thus there was a Kingmaker problem too...

More generally though we all felt that while it was hard to develop a strong position, but relatively easy for other players to hurt your hard won position sometimes even without really wanting to, just as a side effect of their move.

Right now, El Caballero brings a bitter taste to my mouth, and it will take some time before I am willing to give it a second chance.

Before being scared off El Caballero, do bear in mind that I have only played it once, and that a number of other people have found it to be a good or even very good game. Furthermore, several people have commented that Big Island syndrome which occurred when I played does happen from time to time and does spoil the game when it happens, but that the expanded rules do provide some mechanisms which reduce the effect when it does occur. In conclusion then I would try to give El Caballero a go before buying since it does seem to have flaws.