Been a lurker for a little while but I think this is my first post. Hope this hasn't been done before.
I'm a collector by nature so of course I want every expansion I can get my hands on. I typically only get to play 2 player vs my wife and I love to introduce more expansions but she isn't hardcore so I try to incorporate the simple ones and wait on the harder ones.
I'm also a chronic listmaker so I figured why not try to rank them based on difficulty. I defined difficulty based on both the rules themselves and being able to follow it throughout the game. I haven't used all the expansion components so I put an asterisk next to those and am basing it from reading the CAR6.4 file.
Tier 1: No rule changes
GQ#11 Expansion - just added tiles to my knowledge
The River - New starting tile sequence, no biggie
The River II - I combine this with River I to make a 2 spring, 1 lake river
Tier 2: Easy to learn/follow along
Big Meeple - no issue explaining
Festival* - 10 tiles in the mail from cundco
Inns and Cathedrals - no issues explaining
Phantom* - 4 clear meeples in the mail (couldn't get red or purple)
Wind Roses* - in the mail
Mayor* - haven't tried
Trade Goods - easy enough but wife hates antagonistic expansions(she thinks I'm stealing her trade goods when I give her city points lol)
Pig - one time placement, pretty easy to know +1 pt per city
Tier 3: Medium difficulty/needs more monitoring
King and Robber - pain to keep track of and then count all the completed roads/cities at the end
The School* - in the mail from cundco
The Flier* - just received, haven't tried
Magic Portal - only tried once, likely will become tier 2
Abbey* - haven't tried
Cult - could forget about the challenge while playing
Dragon - not hard, maybe wife not liking it caused it to fall here
Princess - hardly ever play with dragon so princess goes here along with it
Siege* - don't think I've introduced this yet
Besiegers* - just found out it existed but looks to be same as siege but different tiles
La Porxada* - printed out a copy but haven't tried it
Mage+Witch* - just received, haven't tried
Builder - no idea why it's here, just felt the "when to use" adds some complexity
Crop Circles* - too expensive for now
Crop Circles II* - just received, haven't tried (same rules as CC I right?)
Little Buildings* - in the mail
Bridges* - do not own
Messages* - just received, haven't tried
Fairy - easy to forget about the 1pt bonus
Goldmines* - just received, haven't tried
Ferries*- just received, haven't tried
Robber*- just received, haven't tried
Barn* - haven't tried
Castles* - do not own
Catapult* - do not own
Tower - played once with a friend complexity plus antagonistic = wife won't try
Tier 4: Hardest to learn or keep track of with good strategy(added most complexity)
Tunnel* - likely easier than this but do not own
Wagon* - haven't tried but I get confused trying to explain it
Bazaars* - do not own, seems like a pain to do
Count of Carcassonne - strategy makes this hard for me to incorporate
Wheel of Fortune* - do not own but looks harder than Count
Plague* - do not own but geez, adds way too much to get anyone to try this
Added notes:
1) 43 expansion components, holy cow.
2) I did not include the Cathars since the tiles are identical to the Siege(I would only use Siege rules so the cloister can be anywhere adjacent to the city).
3) I did not include both Wind Roses I and II, just one of them due to same tiles (I know there's a rule change between the two but it seems unnecessary)
4) I haven't used a lot of these as you can see many asterisks so they may become easier in practice than in writing(The wagon in particular confuses me for some reason)
5) I tried to rank within each tier with easiest at the top but it's certainly not gospel
Anyone ever play with everything? That's my carc dream.
Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=577.0