Author Topic: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei  (Read 88642 times)

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #195 on: July 10, 2017, 09:28:29 AM »
Just played a 2 player game.  The scoring potential of Expansion 10 is amazing!

Yep, it's definitely not something where you can just ignore the newly introduced bits and bobs and hope to win just by generating points in the classic way. When Decar and I played a little while ago I think the final score was something like 301 each for a basic game +this expansion only!

EDIT: OK then, maybe it was 209...
« Last Edit: July 10, 2017, 09:30:37 AM by danisthirty »

Offline reddalek

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #196 on: July 10, 2017, 03:56:13 PM »
Agree with you both! My girlfriend and I also found it had a nice, co-operative feel for most of the game, with both players joining pyramids or being jointly invested in the circus tent reveal. Not sure that it would scale well to playing with lots of expansions together, but it was more enjoyably 'different' and quirky than I was expecting.

The Ringmaster feels a little underpowered though... I kept forgetting to use him!

Offline Decar

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #197 on: July 11, 2017, 02:43:01 AM »
EDIT: OK then, maybe it was 209...

Hehe,  I was going to look - I don't recall it being quite so high!

Edit:  The Ringmaster was a great addition.  It acts just like an extra meeple, which is required for the tile count, but it also scores a few extra points near Circus tiles.  :(y) :(y)
« Last Edit: July 11, 2017, 02:44:47 AM by Decar »

Offline flipshot

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #198 on: July 14, 2017, 08:35:59 AM »
Hope you enjoy it! Let us know your thoughts!
Played one game last night with base game, river, abbots, and Under the Big Top. Usually playing just base, river, and abbots (2 player game) our scores are each between 100-150. With under the big top added in final score was 260 (me) to 246 (wife). So with just UTBT added in, an extra 120+ points each. Seems like a lot of extra points for just 20 tiles. There was only one circus where nobody scored any points because we didn't have any meeples nearby. My wife 2 different times had 2 meeples on acrobat tiles and she ran out of meeples, so she had no way to finish and score the acrobat tile right away. Both times I was nice and played my meeple on the acrobat tile so she could score and get them back. It was definitely fun getting the extra ringmaster points. We got 4 or 6 extra points each time our ringmasters scored. My wife played her ringmaster out 5 or 6 times, and I only played mine 3 times. I made the mistake of playing him on a monastery that I couldn't get completed for a long stretch in the middle, but at least he scored on 2 different circus tents while waiting. My wife kept asking the strategy on where to place tent/acrobat tiles. I said you want to play the tent close to your meeples out on the board, and the acrobats in as open an area as possible, so you have the most opportunities to play around it and build up the acrobat tower. Several times I purposely did not complete a city or road with my meeple in it because it was near the current circus tent and wanted to wait until after the tent scored to complete it. I kept thinking during the game that I was getting so many extra points from this expansion. The only expansions that I've played that give a bunch of extra points during game play are Inns and Cathedrals (from scoring the inn roads and cathedral cities) Hills and Sheep (from scoring the flock and vineyards). But I think Under the Big Top gives even more extra points than either of those expansions. The winning strategy will capitalize on all the extra points they can get from this expansion, because there are a ton of extra points available here. And points are always fun to get!!!

Offline TheSteveAllen

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #199 on: July 14, 2017, 08:41:01 AM »
Hope you enjoy it! Let us know your thoughts!
Played one game last night with base game, river, abbots, and Under the Big Top. Usually playing just base, river, and abbots (2 player game) our scores are each between 100-150. With under the big top added in final score was 260 (me) to 246 (wife). So with just UTBT added in, an extra 120+ points each. Seems like a lot of extra points for just 20 tiles. There was only one circus where nobody scored any points because we didn't have any meeples nearby. My wife 2 different times had 2 meeples on acrobat tiles and she ran out of meeples, so she had no way to finish and score the acrobat tile right away. Both times I was nice and played my meeple on the acrobat tile so she could score and get them back. It was definitely fun getting the extra ringmaster points. We got 4 or 6 extra points each time our ringmasters scored. My wife played her ringmaster out 5 or 6 times, and I only played mine 3 times. I made the mistake of playing him on a monastery that I couldn't get completed for a long stretch in the middle, but at least he scored on 2 different circus tents while waiting. My wife kept asking the strategy on where to place tent/acrobat tiles. I said you want to play the tent close to your meeples out on the board, and the acrobats in as open an area as possible, so you have the most opportunities to play around it and build up the acrobat tower. Several times I purposely did not complete a city or road with my meeple in it because it was near the current circus tent and wanted to wait until after the tent scored to complete it. I kept thinking during the game that I was getting so many extra points from this expansion. The only expansions that I've played that give a bunch of extra points during game play are Inns and Cathedrals (from scoring the inn roads and cathedral cities) Hills and Sheep (from scoring the flock and vineyards). But I think Under the Big Top gives even more extra points than either of those expansions. The winning strategy will capitalize on all the extra points they can get from this expansion, because there are a ton of extra points available here. And points are always fun to get!!!

Nice write up. A merit from me.

You might add in the Watchtowers for an even bigger points kick!  :))

Offline flipshot

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #200 on: July 14, 2017, 08:47:38 AM »
Nice write up. A merit from me.

You might add in the Watchtowers for an even bigger points kick!  :))
That's one of my next purchases.

Offline Halfling

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #201 on: July 15, 2017, 05:17:16 AM »
Anyone painted white stripes on the big top yet?
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Offline Xan

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #202 on: July 17, 2017, 08:34:52 PM »
Agree with you both! My girlfriend and I also found it had a nice, co-operative feel for most of the game, with both players joining pyramids or being jointly invested in the circus tent reveal. Not sure that it would scale well to playing with lots of expansions together, but it was more enjoyably 'different' and quirky than I was expecting.

The Ringmaster feels a little underpowered though... I kept forgetting to use him!

My wife and I played a multi-expansion game last night (second game with Under the Big Top) with the following expansions:
- Base game
- The River
- Inns and Cathedrals
- Traders and Builders
- The Princess and the Dragon
- Mayor and Abbey
- Under the Big Top
- Watchtowers
- The Festival
- Labyrinth, Spiel 15, and Spiel 16

When we play big games like this, it is always a nice surprise when one of the special or unique tiles comes up, but it was particularly fun last night every time a circus-type tile appeared.  We discovered that our tendency was to keep all circus type tiles near each other, to work together, and that the dragon became less of a game piece because we didn't want to destroy our circus work.  We moved the fairy to our acrobats quite a bit.  Ringmaster was utilized pretty well, about 6 times each, by each of us, and always it seemed to claim a feature attached to a circus.  His bonus points were nice to include.  The anticipation of the animal score value was fun, with our highest score happening when we had two acrobat tiles surrounding the big top as an elephant appeared.

As for scoring, I won 566 to 549.  Insane. 

All in all, we typically play with 1-2 large expansions and a small expansion each time we play.  I anticipate this will become one we use quite often. In fact, we talked about a "fun" themed game, with Base, River, Festival, and UTBT as well as our three promo tiles.  In my opinion, it is a solid expansion.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2017, 08:51:17 PM by Xan »

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #203 on: July 19, 2017, 02:27:25 AM »
That sounds like a fun game Xan, thanks for the write-up. I don't suppose you took any photos did you?

Offline Paul

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #204 on: August 23, 2017, 01:14:49 PM »
So happy I finally found one of my local store selling this. But at 18 Euros, I prefer to wait for the other local store to release theirs at 13 Euros.
  The difference is, I believe, the expensive one is the English version which sadly is the one I want.
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Offline Just a Bill

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #205 on: August 24, 2017, 07:58:25 AM »
The English stuff always costs more. :(  It was cheaper for me to order Schafe und Hügel and Brücken, Burgen und Basare from amazon.de than to order Hills & Sheep and Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars from amazon.com in the U.S., where I live.

I have a feeling that if I lived somewhere in Europe, I'd also have Belagerer/Besiegers by now.
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Offline Paul

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #206 on: August 24, 2017, 08:11:04 AM »
The English stuff always costs more. :(  It was cheaper for me to order Schafe und Hügel and Brücken, Burgen und Basare from amazon.de than to order Hills & Sheep and Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars from amazon.com in the U.S., where I live.

I have a feeling that if I lived somewhere in Europe, I'd also have Belagerer/Besiegers by now.

The reason the English versions cost more here according to the local clerks is because they seem to only be printed in the US and Europe has to import them. Scandinavian version is a lot cheaper no doubt due to producing seems to take place here in Sweden by Enigma.
  Of course, should I stop enjoying life and get a real job, none of this would be an issue.  :@

Offline ARabidMeerkat

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #207 on: August 24, 2017, 08:39:51 AM »
We had this same problem when my wife and I bought Takenoko Chibis (an epic expansion to an epic game!) since we find it for about £20 in German but a lot more in English.
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Offline dirk2112

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #208 on: August 25, 2017, 06:21:42 AM »
We finally acquired Under the Big Top.  It was $18 at the FLGS.  I think you can get it for $15 or less online.  We have had a lot of family issues going on, so we haven't had a chance to play it yet.  It really sucks walking past the unopened box and not having time to get the family together for a game.

We had this same problem when my wife and I bought Takenoko Chibis (an epic expansion to an epic game!) since we find it for about £20 in German but a lot more in English.

Really?   It wasn't that expensive in the US.  Maybe it has gone up because it is out of print. We love Takenoko, but we found Chibis to be very lacking.  My wife loves the female Panda figurine though. 

If you really want to spend $$$ there is a LARGE version of the game. 

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Re: Carcassonne: Expansion N°10 Under the Big Top / Manege frei
« Reply #209 on: August 25, 2017, 10:46:45 AM »
Just bought Under the Big Top. It was either that or pay almost the same price on CoolStuffInc for shipping of my Kingdom Builder Big Box (Second Edition). Expansion 10 pushed my price over $100 by 25¢. Win! Even though it is in the new art, I liked the mechanics of this expansion enough to get it. I suspect I, like most people here, will inevitably start polluting their tiles with Carc2 material until they eventually buy Big Box 7...or 8...or 9....


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