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We purchased this game a while back. Got it on a whim, really. The game looked beautiful, and I'm a sucker for nicely-done wood games. Should have known better (in hindsight) -- I'm not particularly enamoured with this type of game.
Game Contents
We bought the classic wood version, which came with the board (10x10 square grid), 14 light pieces (buildings), 14 dark pieces, the grey cathedral starter piece, and a short rule sheet. The wood version looks very nice, but the pieces were very poorly glued together. Over the course of a year, we had to re-glue almost every piece -- so take note: the wood version is more for show and less for heavy gaming use.
Playing the Game
Cathedral is a fairly straight-forward game that is easy to learn. Games can be very fast or they can drag on for a while, though we seldom played a game that went over 20 minutes. Initially, there doesn't seem to be much strategy to the game -- it feels more like a competetive jigsaw puzzle and you're just dropping your pieces where they happen to fit. After a few games, we got the feel for it and the strategic/planning aspect came out.
The problem is, it's not incredibly deep. To keep the game fresh, we had to start introducing rule variants. Even with that, this game spends a lot of time on the shelf and only get dusted off on rare occasions. Simply put, after we played it for a while the replay value (for us) went way down.
Going back to this wood version we have: there is a significant amount of "wiggle room" between the pieces on the board. On many occasions, this resulted in uncertainty on whether a piece could be placed in a certain spot. This is very annoying and resulted in many games being started over.
Final Thoughts
This is a reasonably entertaining game that can easily be picked up and played by anyone. We personally don't get much play from ours (other than right after the initial purchase).
For those that really like Cathedral, there is an interesting, and short, history of the game in its Wikipedia entry.
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chris schott
United States
saint louis
Missouri
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I purchased my wood copy in the eighties and I haven't had the physical issues you describe. This straightforward abstract is a favorite of mine.
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A number of people have also said they didn't have problems with the pieces falling apart. Thinking about it, it could have been one of two things:
1. Poor quality control. We just got the crappy one that slipped through.
2. Multiple moves that took us from very humid climates to very dry ones.
Probably a combination of both. We haven't had any problems once we re-glued them, though. That #2 is a killer, though. You should see what happened to our solid oak coffee table. Ugh.
I think I may be in the minority for not really being a fan of Cathedral. Most people I talk to who have played it absolutely love it. It's not Cathedral that I don't like -- it's this type of game that I don't care for. Good fun once in a great while, though.
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Russ Williams
Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk
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Indeed it sounds like your case was exceptional. I owned a wooden set that didn't have the glue problems either, and don't recall hearing of anyone else with that problem.
The game is a good modern pure abstract strategy classic (with a bit more strategic depth than I think your review gives it credit for). So yeah, if you're not a fan of combinatorial games, then indeed it's probably not going to be so enjoyable. 
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Randall Bart
United States
Granada Hills
California
Red October
Earth is one of my favorite planets
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Including mine, I knew six people with copies of Cathedral from the Renaissance Faire, the first year that Davidson brought it to the USA. At least 4 sets had a glue failure on the white tower. No other glue failures were observed.
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Mike Hoyt
United States
Durango
Colorado
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Thumbs up for mentioning the Wikipedi article, which while quite short does provide an interesting bit on the history of the game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_(board_game)
Concur strategy is not very deep, but it is certainly more than just fitting pieces in. Try to fence off territory and think about which pieces will fit there, set them aside and concentrate on getting your other pieces into the contested territory.
But hey, a light weight game that you can explain in 5 minutes, play in 15 and with none gamers... yeah, that fits a need...
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Was George Orwell an Optimist?
United States
Corvallis
Oregon
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The Wikipedia makes no mention of the plastic version published by Mattel. It cost a fraction of what the wood versions go for, and actually looks better to lowbrows like myself:
I know Randall and some others are bothered by the fact that the Mattel version has identical pieces rather than mirrored ones for the two colors, but I never found that to be a problem.
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