I was thinking recently about what it is that I enjoy so much about playing Carcassonne in particular. I came up with five things which I've listed below and would be keen to hear from anyone else who has anything else that they feel is missing from the list or if you particularly agree with any one of these:
1) The balance of luck, lateral thinking and experience means that players who are entirely new to the game can hold their own against those who have been playing Carcassonne for years. I've played far more than my wife has, but we still have some very close games as she's very tactically-minded and is excellent at planning ahead.
2) The variety of expansions available means that games can be customised to suit different playing styles or types of game as required. Family-friendly games might include Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders whereas more competitive/ aggressive gamers may prefer the likes of The Princess and The Dragon or The Tower. Either way, adding or removing certain expansions means that whilst the basic concept remains the same, the game itself never gets boring (although it certainly can get quite complicated!)
3) It's not over until it's over! Even after the final tile has been placed, incomplete features, farms and end-game bonuses such as trade tokens can really turn things around. So it pays to keep one eye on what's going to be worth what in the final scoring regardless of how far you may be lagging behind whoever's currently in the lead.
4) One of the things I find so addictive about playing Carcassonne is the rush I get when I draw a tile that I really need! This will usually be required for completing a large city or merging two farms to give myself the most farmers on the resulting mega-farm. But regardless of how I'm able to use the tile I've just drawn, it's often more than I can manage to prevent a large smile from creeping across my face while my opponent decides where to place his tile.
5) I'm probably just weird for saying this, but I think Carcassonne is actually very beautiful and I love the way the landscape develops before you as the game is played. The combination of roads, cities, fields and cloisters is different every time and when combined with features such as rivers, towers, bridges and castles I almost always want to take a photo at the end of the game (but am not quite so bad as to print them out and put them up on the walls).
All the best,
Dan
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