Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => General => Topic started by: Whaleyland on July 17, 2015, 04:54:00 PM
-
ELEMENT OF THE WEEK: DARMSTADT
Carcassonne has definitely taken strange turns in the past ten years, so these few expansions may not be in your knowledge bank, but that doesn't make them any less official (or does it?). So as we conclude this series over the next few weeks, feel free to express any form of praise or criticism you may have for these off-beat elements.
This week, we present DARMSTADT, an expansion released for the Darmstadt Spielt game festival. This small expansion is unique for multiple reasons: it is the first Carcassonne expansion to intentionally represent anachronistic structures to the landscape (technically, The School was the first); it was the first to be included on a print sheet with more than one other game's components (those co-printed with one other being King & Scout and The Cathars [Spielbox edition]); it was the first to include a non-Western religious structure (the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene); and finally it was the first to include a colored watermark (a blue fleur-de-lis). These aspects have all turned many off from the expansion, including some previous completionist collectors. The tiles are well-illustrated in their own right, but they do not fit with the other Carcassonne tiles. Their initial cost and the difficulty to obtain them even today all have made this one of the most obscure Carcassonne expansions.
All of this was done to introduce an amazingly simple expansion composed of only three tiles. All the tiles reward the player who scores for the feature (either the City or the Cloisters) with +3 bonus points. That's it. Perhaps that element, too, turns people off. The tiles are otherwise just treated as normal tiles and are mixed in with the rest. Discuss your relationship with Darmstadt and how you optimise your use of this strategic element.
Next Week: German Castles :gray-meeple: :black-meeple: :gray-meeple: :black-meeple:
-
I'm disappointed on the lack of comments on this topic. Nobody has anything to say about Darmstadt? Granted it isn't a very point-heavy expansion, but come'on people! Gripe!
-
I've never actually played with it or had a lot of interest in it. It seems like it was made because somebody wanted to be able to give it away rather than because they had a good idea for an expansion... :(n)
Anyway, I know at least one person on these forums has some very strong feelings towards this particular expansion so I was going to leave the majority of the griping up to him. You know who you are. :)
-
I have this expansion for my Carcassonne collection. I don't think to play this mini expansion one day.
-
I like the tiles but they are not in keeping with the game. The rules are clean and simple and I have played with it a couple of times.
-
Anyway, I know at least one person on these forums has some very strong feelings towards this particular expansion so I was going to leave the majority of the griping up to him. You know who you are. :)
Why hello there! Did you call for me? :)
As Rosco said, my problem with Daarmstadt is that it's not in keeping with the game. Now, you can argue (and I think whaleyland has argued) that some of the other expansions don't have strict medieval themes. But I think they are plausible or at least the publishers have tried to make medieval themes or adaptions.
But Daarmstadt is just an abomination. I think that having a modern convention centre on a Carcassonne tile is ridiculous. It basically means that any building can be placed on a tile. Sydney Opera House? Burj Khalifa? Wembley Stadium? Why not?!
The theme of the game is a massive part of why I like it, and I would say it's a least a decent part of why the rest of you like it too. Messing with the theme messes with the game. If the theme has run its course, the game should be left alone rather than expanding out of its theme. C:-)
OK, that's all from me for now. Have at it :)
-
Anyway, I know at least one person on these forums has some very strong feelings towards this particular expansion so I was going to leave the majority of the griping up to him. You know who you are. :)
Why hello there! Did you call for me? :)
As Rosco said, my problem with Daarmstadt is that it's not in keeping with the game. Now, you can argue (and I think whaleyland has argued) that some of the other expansions don't have strict medieval themes. But I think they are plausible or at least the publishers have tried to make medieval themes or adaptions.
But Daarmstadt is just an abomination. I think that having a modern convention centre on a Carcassonne tile is ridiculous. It basically means that any building can be placed on a tile. Sydney Opera House? Burj Khalifa? Wembley Stadium? Why not?!
The theme of the game is a massive part of why I like it, and I would say it's a least a decent part of why the rest of you like it too. Messing with the theme messes with the game. If the theme has run its course, the game should be left alone rather than expanding out of its theme. C:-)
OK, that's all from me for now. Have at it :)
Thank you! All of you. That made my day. I still have to write my Barbarian Report for this expansion, and it will be scathing, even though I still will have to find three good things about it (quality or art, simplicity of rules..., I dunno, brevity of size?).
-
Anyway, I know at least one person on these forums has some very strong feelings towards this particular expansion so I was going to leave the majority of the griping up to him. You know who you are. :)
Why hello there! Did you call for me? :)
As Rosco said, my problem with Daarmstadt is that it's not in keeping with the game. Now, you can argue (and I think whaleyland has argued) that some of the other expansions don't have strict medieval themes. But I think they are plausible or at least the publishers have tried to make medieval themes or adaptions.
But Daarmstadt is just an abomination. I think that having a modern convention centre on a Carcassonne tile is ridiculous. It basically means that any building can be placed on a tile. Sydney Opera House? Burj Khalifa? Wembley Stadium? Why not?!
The theme of the game is a massive part of why I like it, and I would say it's a least a decent part of why the rest of you like it too. Messing with the theme messes with the game. If the theme has run its course, the game should be left alone rather than expanding out of its theme. C:-)
OK, that's all from me for now. Have at it :)
Thank you! All of you. That made my day. I still have to write my Barbarian Report for this expansion, and it will be scathing, even though I still will have to find three good things about it (quality or art, simplicity of rules..., I dunno, brevity of size?).
How about ratio of Ds, As and Ts in the title? I'm struggling to think of anything else it has going for it... ???
-
Although the art is not in keeping, it is beautiful!
-
Anyone know where/how I can get this mini? I search a few places but came up empty.
Thx for any info you can provide!
-
Anyone know where/how I can get this mini? I search a few places but came up empty.
Thx for any info you can provide!
The official page for it is located here (http://www.darmstadt-spielt.de/darmstaedter-erweiterungen/), although there does not appear to be a purchase page. I'd use the Kontact link and email them about it.
-
Thx Whaleyland! Merit for you. I also just found the Where to Find it thread.
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1830.msg24308;topicseen#msg24308
-
All right, Darmstadt. I don't have a problem with the small number of tiles or the minimal points. At the end of the day, it was a promotion so no one was expecting great things. The bonus three points to the majority in the surrounding tiles in interesting, although largely circumstantial. I can't recall seeing a player deliberately deploy additional followers to the landscape just to get the three points. The art on the churches in nice, too. They fit beautifully when playing with the Monasteries, and hopefully will with the upcoming Cathedrals.
It's almost an expansion just for completions sake. With no ground-breaking rules or changes, it was just promotional and something fun for the collectors to vie for.
The watermarks are a bit of a pain. The normal translucent watermarks are easily disregarded when playing and are obviously just for sorting. The large blue watermarks are harder to ignore and breakup the landscape, much like the 10 icon in the festival expansion.
And, of course. Darmstadtium. This I do not like. The building is completely out of place and ruins the theme of the game. I realise some buildings from other expansions are anachronistic, but they are at least thematically fitting, being of older architecture. Some themes, such as Cathars, are not chronologically correct, but at least they are approximately correct and workable unless the player happens to be a history enthusiast. I also realise that some elements from other expansions are arguably misplaced in that they are fictional, such as dragons and magic portals, but these are at least thematically correct. They fit with the medieval theme. It's not as though we have a robotic monster, or teleportation, or modern buildings made of steel and glass... oh, wait. Darmstadtium is not remotely fitting and looks ridiculous in a city. I understand this was a promotion, but couldn't they have made it look older? Smoothed some edges, changed the colouring, and pretended it fit?
-
This seems like obvious candidate for fan rules. How about:
Darmstadium
The player who completes the city containing this tile, may move one of his followers from the board to the city so long as it is connected to the city by roads. This would happen at the same time as the parachuting from the City of Carcassonne and would be the same as it except in where the meeple came from.
The extra churches.
These count as monasteries for all purposes except scoring. They score one two points every turn that the follower is installed on the monastery (including when its completed). However if the monastery is uncompleted at the end they lose two three points for every tile that is missing from completion. (This is very loosely based on an old goldmines fan expansion).
Edit Tweaked the proposed rules.