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Carc Central Community => General => Topic started by: Whaleyland on February 20, 2015, 12:27:09 PM

Title: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Whaleyland on February 20, 2015, 12:27:09 PM
ELEMENT OF THE WEEK: THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

Each week, a specific element from an expansion is chosen for deeper discussion. This is an opportunity for you, Carcassonne's biggest English-language fans, to discuss strategies and problems you have encountered through the years regarding specific expansion elements. All forms of critique – from the most joyous to the most scathing – are encouraged.

This week's element is WHEEL OF FORTUNE. The Wheel actually has two completely independent elements to it that cannot be divorced from one another without ignoring some of the rules. The Wheel introduces a slight gambling element by allowing players to place a Follower on a spot around the Wheel. If the pig moves to that spot, the player gets their Follower back and any of the points on that spot (3 or 6). Some of the spots are worth double, but another player is allowed to move in, at which time all points are just split between the two players if the pig lands there. The pig moves when a Wheel tile is placed – Wheel tiles have printed numbers on them that designate how many spaces the pig will move. Just to make matters more fun, each of the six spots on the Wheel also cause something to happen in the game. It's always a one-off event and most are generally positive, at least to some players, but Plague can be a bit nasty since all players are required to remove a Follower from the board.

I'll stop the rules narrative at this point just to state how high-maintenance this expansion can be. The expansion itself includes 19 tiles with Wheel tokens, and those tiles can be counted, so gambling is closer akin to playing Blackjack with a single deck of cards than playing roulette, which is clearly what is being implied by the Wheel idea. Like so many other things in Carcassonne, gambling on the Wheel just never pays out. 3 points is a laughably small amount of points and even the most amateur player can probably find somewhere to place a Follower on the board that will earn them at least that. 6 points is a bit higher, but it allows other players to butt in and split the difference, thereby nullifying the benefit. If you play with even one other expansion, you probably will ignore the gambling aspect of the Wheel completely because the gain is just no worth enough. The effects of the Wheel itself are technically predictable, but trying to predict what will come next usually isn't in your best interest. Most players just seem to ignore the Wheel and when an effect happens, they just deal with the consequences at that time and move on. Perhaps other players are more strategic in this by specifically focusing on aspects that the Wheel rewards, but that requires a lot of forward planning for little payout. Discuss your relationship with The Wheel of Fortune, as well as your strategies for taking advantage of this element.

Next Week: The School O:-) O:-) >:D O:-) O:-)
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Whaleyland on February 21, 2015, 03:18:23 PM
Totally bumping this. While a few people have voted, this topic has gone surprisingly reply-free for over 24 hours now. What happened? Does nobody have anything to say about Wheel of Fortune? Pat Sajak is unimpressed.

(http://www.etonline.com/photo/2014/11/24113657/640_pat_sajak.jpg)
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: kettlefish on February 21, 2015, 03:23:42 PM
Hi whaleyland,
I had some work to do - again some correction reading - but this time not for Carcassonne - or almost not...

The wheel of fortune. I think I had played it only a few times. I did more play test - especially because of the clarification of rules.

Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: jungleboy on February 21, 2015, 11:37:17 PM
I recently bought it and haven't played it yet. I punched the tiles yesterday, so that's about the most I can contribute to the discussion.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: obervet on February 23, 2015, 11:02:21 AM
My experience is pretty much exactly as whaleyland describes. I basically never put followers on the rim, because it's too much of a wait for too few points. The effects are fine when they happen, but I never really base my strategy on them other than possibly having a plan for when I have to remove a follower.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Halfling on February 24, 2015, 01:03:11 PM
I prefer the Wheel of Fortune to the original base game.  The tiles are more varied and the wheel itself adds an extra element to the relatively small base game of 72 tiles.  Unlike the river I the 3 farms start on an equal size with a single city in each and this makes farming more strategic for me.

I agree that when expansions are added the value of placing the followers on the rim is diminished because of the extra tiles that are in play and the longer wait for the 19 wheel tiles to be drawn from the bag.

The Wheel of Fortune is always used in the campaigns that I create and after six or seven scenarios which have the River I or II, Wind Roses or School this bigger starting area is a welcome change.

I don't use either river with the Wheel of Fortune with the exception of when a Mega Game is played on a 25 x 25 starting board.  Then I place all of the starting tiles before the remainder of the 400+ tiles are drawn.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: jungleboy on September 17, 2015, 11:45:19 PM
I finally played with the Wheel of Fortune for the first time last night. And even though I lost, I quite liked the wheel.

My regular playing partner often likes to suggests variants as soon as I explain the rules of an expansion to her, and she did it again with the wheel. So we played with two house rules: that for the plague sector, each player chooses a follower of the other player to be removed (rather than removing your own follower), and that if you have a follower on a crown space and that becomes the active sector of the wheel, not only do you receive 3/6 points, but the other player doesn't receive the bonus that comes from that sector (if the active sector is the plague, that player doesn't get to remove one of your followers). We found that this second house rule meant that the wheel had more of an impact on the game and that it was more worthwhile to place followers on crown spaces. So overall we both liked the Wheel of Fortune and will play it again!
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: jungleboy on October 16, 2015, 04:21:10 AM
I saw this image from a medieval manuscript this morning and I thought you guys would enjoy it. It's two monks spinning a Wheel of Fortune with the abbot at the top and a praying monk at the bottom. It's from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford; the shelfmark is Lyell71.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Christopher on February 25, 2016, 05:35:16 AM
I enjoy the wheel as a way to throw what is essentially a luck element into the mix. Very rarely does anyone bother with a crown space as the points just aren't worth the follower being sat there, although I will occasionally stick one on there if I have plenty of followers to spare.

However, the wheel never forms part of any strategy. The pig lands where he may and we all reap the benefits or suffer the consequences. I can't recall anyone altering the way they play their followers because the wheel is being used. It's a nice element though, it just changes things up a little. Since getting Big Box 5, I've played a game with the spin tiles from the stand-alone wheel of fortune and the spin tiles from the big box too, just to give the wheel a bit more of an impact.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Karcalijn on February 25, 2016, 11:37:15 AM
Quote from: Christopher on February 25, 2016, 05:35:16 AM
Very rarely does anyone bother with a crown space as the points just aren't worth the follower being sat there, although I will occasionally stick one on there if I have plenty of followers to spare, and it is useful to have one on there to reduce the impact of the plague section.

Ehm, i always have interpreted the rules from the plague section to be that it's not allowed to take a follower from the wheel. I tought the rules state that you have to take a follower from the field, not the wheel. In our playgroup we don't consider the wheel part of the field, but now i'm wondering if this cleary states in the rules or if it's just our interpretation of the rules...
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Christopher on February 25, 2016, 11:45:54 AM
Quote from: Karcalijn on February 25, 2016, 11:37:15 AM
Quote from: Christopher on February 25, 2016, 05:35:16 AM
Very rarely does anyone bother with a crown space as the points just aren't worth the follower being sat there, although I will occasionally stick one on there if I have plenty of followers to spare, and it is useful to have one on there to reduce the impact of the plague section.

Ehm, i always have interpreted the rules from the plague section to be that it's not allowed to take a follower from the wheel. I tought the rules state that you have to take a follower from the field, not the wheel. In our playgroup we don't consider the wheel part of the field, but now i'm wondering if this cleary states in the rules or if it's just our interpretation of the rules...

Nope, right you are. In fact, the CAR clearly states that they cannot be removed from a crown space. My mistake!...
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Karcalijn on February 25, 2016, 11:55:24 AM
Pview, what a relieve! ;) Otherwise i've been "preparing" for the plague all wrong. I always try to keep in mind that i have to have one follower placed on the field who's not a disaster to give up. A small road or something. Altough, some times the plague comes in handy,  if your in a project that you know your gonna lose because someone has overtrown you in power for example.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: SithlordRPGA on May 20, 2016, 08:07:07 AM
OK so I just played using this for the first time last week.   I had the original version and for x-mas got Big Box 5 and my son wanted to play with everything in BigBox as one game.

Now I noticed we never really placed any meeples on the wheel and used the results from moving the pig around. 

So my question is when you guys use the wheel do you usually place Meeples on the wheel or just use the random results of the pigs movement?
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Paul on May 20, 2016, 08:29:27 AM
I suppose this depends on how many expansions are used in the game.

Fewer would probably make it worthwhile but with expansions there are so many easier ways to score, and score big.
  This is why we in our playgroup rarely use it let alone the expansion itself. Rather, we use it mere as a starting tile without the expansion rules WoF for our megaCarc games.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: Karcalijn on May 20, 2016, 01:41:25 PM
 I agree with Paul that it depends on how many expansions you use. But it also depends on your own playing style. I rarely put my meeple on the wheel, but my husband does it very frequently. Especially when you play with a fairly large playing group and just a couple expansions it can be worth it because then you almost always have enough meeple anyway.
Title: Re: Wheel of Fortune – Element of the Week #24
Post by: SithlordRPGA on May 20, 2016, 03:09:10 PM
Interesting like I say I have owned it since it came out years ago but never used it.  I got it again in Big Box 5 and my son wanted to play with everything that came in that set.   Now I may consider using it as a starting tile once and a while.

I usually start with the river 1&2 (and always use the river when playing with the Dragon so he starts nice and early) or I use the School house.