A Bridge Too Far?

[Nebus]

We have a number of expansions and although we always play with all of the tiles, we don't always play with all of the rules. I'm sure this is the same for a lot of Carcassonnians. But one of the expansions we always play with, whether it's 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 players is the Bridges. Of course the Bridges make the game a little easier which is all right because in my opinion they also add a little fun and extra thought dimension!
         We also play all the rules as they are in the official rulebook except when it comes to laying bridges. Which is funny because so far all other suggested rule adaptations have been met with ''NOPE!"
         
         Our House Rules for Bridges are simple: You can lay as many Bridges as you want (Providing you have them).
                                                                         Bridges cannot be traded with or passed to another player.

So sometimes if we're only 2 players we'll play with six bridges each and with the house rule it means it's possible to lay all 6 bridges on one tile placement turn. The possibilities are endless! It's has also become an extra mission to try and lay as many bridges as possible in one placement or laying at one time a Bridge on the tiles North, East, South, West of the tile being played. It's all just good fun!

In all honesty it doesn't really change the game that much because most Bridges are still played individually but every once and a while someone will make a move using more than one Bridge that really shakes things up! There is also something very satisfying about bridging one of your own roads over loads of structures and connecting it and your farmlands to places previously thought unreachable...

Do any of you enjoy playing with Bridges or do you think it makes the game too easy?

 





Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=786.0

[Paul]

Hard to tell with me and those I play with. Usually we play with several expansions and this often have us forget to use the extra features like Bridges. We play seldom and then it's usually megaCarc at 400+ tiles which near the end everyone's brain is fried. 
  However, some of us are using the Castle feature on 2-part cities more, so that's good. 

And we do as you, not only with Bridges but also with Castles. We split all of them equally amongst the number of players.

 

[danisthirty]

I like bridges although we never play with more than 3 per player even in 2-player games. There's something very rewarding about spotting a great opportunity to place a bridge and they can get you out of some situations that would otherwise be impossible to escape from. I like how they look on the final map too; very cool!

However, I really don't like how easy farming becomes when you include bridges. One of the things I enjoy about Carcassonne is spotting the really good places to steal onto someone else's farm and then making it happen. When bridges are involved it's possible to do this without any of the "cleverness" or strategy and this can spoil the game a little for me.

I don't really play with bridges very often anymore partly because of the above, and partly because they can really slow the game down when you're playing with people who are taking it seriously...