Cundco.de news! New expansion available - Die kloster

[rfielder]

I tried to order this expansion, and it did not work.  Seems that the number of fields on the website does not allow me to enter my address in a format that agrees with what Paypal is expecting.  As a result, Paypal refused to pay since the address did not match.

I have emailed the vendor, but have not heard anything back yet.  All I can say is - thank the gods for Google Translate! 

A small question - can we not treat this as a rule change for existing monasteries?  Rather than getting the new tiles, why not just allow the sideways follower on a monastery to be an abbot?

[Whaleyland]

House rules are always allowed if everyone in a play group agrees to them. But officially, the rule only affects the German Monasteries, not the standard Cloister/Monastery.

Also, kettlefish: I've been playing around with the word "Kloster" and "Kloester" (you know which spelling I mean) and both apparently translate equally to monastery/cloister and monasteries/cloisters. So in German, is there no actually difference in monk monasteries and nun cloisters? In English, the two terms are different and, apparently, they should have been "monastery" all along in Carcassonne (makes sense for monks). Was Z-Man right in renaming them "monasteries" from Rio Grande's "cloisters"?

As an aside, did anyone notice that "pennants" became "banners"? Which is a better translation of the German word for that feature?

[rfielder]

House rules are always allowed if everyone in a play group agrees to them. But officially, the rule only affects the German Monasteries, not the standard Cloister/Monastery.

While correct, keep in mind that the first thing you do is remove the original monasteries.  If you have expansions, then you may have even more monasteries, of course.

[coyote]

House rules are always allowed if everyone in a play group agrees to them. But officially, the rule only affects the German Monasteries, not the standard Cloister/Monastery.

While correct, keep in mind that the first thing you do is remove the original monasteries.  If you have expansions, then you may have even more monasteries, of course.

I thought this could be used as a replacement for them, or in addition?

[Whaleyland]

Yeah...totally not replacing my monasteries. This will always be purely an expansion for me, not a replacement of a core component of the base game. I will always treat these as different than the standard cloister. I know that's just a recommendation in the rules, but they devote quite a lot of space for that "recommendation".

[rfielder]

Yeah...totally not replacing my monasteries. This will always be purely an expansion for me, not a replacement of a core component of the base game. I will always treat these as different than the standard cloister. I know that's just a recommendation in the rules, but they devote quite a lot of space for that "recommendation".

Looking at the English translation of the rules posted here, it looks like this is not option.  The preparation is to remove the monasteries that were supplied with the base game.

House rules may be done, but that will be a house rule that overrides a pretty clear statement.

Then again, I don't read German, so perhaps it is phrased differently there?

[Carcking]

Yeah...totally not replacing my monasteries. This will always be purely an expansion for me, not a replacement of a core component of the base game. I will always treat these as different than the standard cloister. I know that's just a recommendation in the rules, but they devote quite a lot of space for that "recommendation".

Agreed. We will play the Monastery tiles along with our Cloister tiles, not as a replacement. We typically play with several more cloisters than the base game anyway, since we play with approx. 170 tiles.

[Whaleyland]

Yeah...totally not replacing my monasteries. This will always be purely an expansion for me, not a replacement of a core component of the base game. I will always treat these as different than the standard cloister. I know that's just a recommendation in the rules, but they devote quite a lot of space for that "recommendation".

Looking at the English translation of the rules posted here, it looks like this is not option.  The preparation is to remove the monasteries that were supplied with the base game.

House rules may be done, but that will be a house rule that overrides a pretty clear statement.

Then again, I don't read German, so perhaps it is phrased differently there
?

Interesting and kind of inconsistent with any other expansion they've ever released. I guess I'll wait for a super clear CAR version to find out what it says. I'm still going to just add them in, though.

Anyone else notice that with this expansion, Carcassonne has moved geographically from southern France to Germany? Why didn't they choose famous abbeys, monasteries, and cloisters in the Carcassonne region? I think this is one of the many problems with the German game market, they start with a game that is solidly in a region, then just say heck-with-it and stick crap from other regions. Agricola is supposed to be in Germany at a specific point in time, yet they've released all sorts of expansions that span most of Europe and beyond. Catan began with a mythical island in Scandinavia (think Iceland) then decided to make it fit wherever they feel fit (scenario maps, historical scenarios, promo stuff, etc). And don't get me started on Stone Age: Style is the Goal. Yeah, because that was the top of the priority list in the stone age.

[kettlefish]

If you play only the tiles of the base game, then 12 monasteries or cloisters are to much. That is the reason why HiG use the replacement of the "original" monasteries /cloisters.

The right translation of the German word "Kloster" is monastery. But many years were for the Carcassonne world cloister the word. With the spelling - cloister is almost the same as the German word. That is my reason why I personally prefer cloister. But since Z-man Games use the word monastery...

We already have a dictionary for the world of Carcassonne. There you can find many differences in the word for the English translation of the official rules.

[coyote]

Anyone else notice that with this expansion, Carcassonne has moved geographically from southern France to Germany? Why didn't they choose famous abbeys, monasteries, and cloisters in the Carcassonne region? I think this is one of the many problems with the German game market, they start with a game that is solidly in a region, then just say heck-with-it and stick crap from other regions. Agricola is supposed to be in Germany at a specific point in time, yet they've released all sorts of expansions that span most of Europe and beyond. Catan began with a mythical island in Scandinavia (think Iceland) then decided to make it fit wherever they feel fit (scenario maps, historical scenarios, promo stuff, etc). And don't get me started on Stone Age: Style is the Goal. Yeah, because that was the top of the priority list in the stone age.

I have, but I'm okay with that, really. I think it's interesting. (And your Stone Age comment - I just thought of making a little FFFF tile with Stonehenge on it..!)

Did I read somewhere that this Kloster could be the start of releasing other minis with monasteries/abbeys from other countries or areas? Or is my memory really faulty?

[kettlefish]

Moritz Brunnhofer (HiG) told me, that in different countries will come other monasteries. Monastery for the license publisher - perhaps from the Netherlands, France, Poland...

In the middle age monks and abbots were traveling through Europe, why don't they travel from France (Carcassonne) to German monasteries?

[Carcking]

Anyone else notice...

I did, but I figured it was HiG paying homage to their home country. Somehow I didn't give it a thought that it should have been French monasteries. 

And I agree that with the base game it would be too many cloisters - but it wouldn't be adding cloisters - it would be adding monasteries. They have different mechanics. We would just house-rule that you have to play a monastery as an Abbot, or don't claim it. Same choice as playing a Monk.

[Whaleyland]

Moritz Brunnhofer (HiG) told me, that in different countries will come other monasteries. Monastery for the license publisher - perhaps from the Netherlands, France, Poland...

In the middle age monks and abbots were traveling through Europe, why don't they travel from France (Carcassonne) to German monasteries?

I don't deny that French monks may have visited German monasteries. I only point out that this game is supposed to be focused on the countryside surrounding the city of Carcassonne in southern France. German monasteries were not in southern France, they were in Germany (well, the Holy Roman Empire).

[SRBO]

Moritz Brunnhofer (HiG) told me, that in different countries will come other monasteries. Monastery for the license publisher - perhaps from the Netherlands, France, Poland...

WANT!!!!! Netherlands tiles

[quevy]

I would like the Italian monasteries