Author Topic: Star Wars Carcassonne Session  (Read 3418 times)

Offline Whaleyland

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    • Derek R. Whaley, PhD | Librarian, Historian, and Writer
Star Wars Carcassonne Session
« on: February 14, 2016, 02:05:07 AM »
We just sat down and played our first game of Star Wars Carcassonne tonight and I must say I am a bit underwhelmed, although this doesn't surprise me in this instance. The game played quite predictably with all the quirks of a Carcassonne spin-off and few of the surprises. I'd say the game plays most similarly to Ark of the Covenant, in that it is a nearly-identical game with simply a tweaked mechanic.

The game began simple enough but I took the opportunity to fight for the first played planet. I won it and another later in the game. The planets still score like cloisters but there are quite a few more of them (12 maybe?) so that makes a big point swing in the game. The use of the allegiance markers also swings the game a lot since each scores essentially like a pennant but score on planets and routes as well as asteroid fields. While I didn't really strategically use the allegiance markers, I didn't really have to since they are on so many tiles. And each one adds 2 points regardless of when they are scored!

The fighting mechanic, which attracted me at first, felt a bit more forced than I thought it would. It just felt like you either had to fight for something (rather than just groam) or aggressively invade a planet. In either situation I felt kind of mean for doing it, although I did lose my fight for the big asteroid field which I had no part in building to begin with. The mechanic just kind of fell flat for us.

Lastly, with us both being Star Wars fans, the choice of planets (or moons) was really bad. Seriously, Hans im Glück couldn't ask a single Star Wars fan what the top 12 most important planets are? Very bad job HiG and it makes the game look even more like a property rather than a fleshed out game set in the Star Wars universe. The theme felt tacked on and it didn't even look visually that great. And while the meeple stickers are kind of fun, they are all the same, have big ugly LFL(c) logos on them, and don't look great on the meeples.

While I will eagerly buy the expansion for this game, it will be partially because the base game is so uninspired and uninteresting, regardless the context. The battle mechanic is interesting but not that great, and the overuse of pennants makes score inflation run rampant (my score was 146, hers was 141 – both too high for a base game).

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2449.0

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Star Wars Carcassonne Session
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2016, 02:46:36 AM »
Hi whaleyland,
thanks again for your great report.

All what I know is that Schmidt Spiele and HiG have to use the parts what DisneyWorld like to have.

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Star Wars Carcassonne Session
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2016, 03:18:58 AM »
Hi whaleyland,
thanks again for your great report.

All what I know is that Schmidt Spiele and HiG have to use the parts what DisneyWorld like to have.

I don't doubt that at all. All the graphics are stock images and the box cover is honestly pretty poorly done. But I'm sure there was flexibility in the planets names. Using "Naboo" and "Naboo Moon" is plain lazy while having "Yavin" and "Yavin 4" is redundant.

The planets should have been:
Imperial:
– Coruscant
– Naboo
– Kamino
– Mustafar

Rebels:
– Yavin
– Hoth
– Endor
– Kashyyyk

Bounty hunters (should be Hutts or unaligned):
– Tatooine
– Bespin
– Geonosis
– Ord Mantell

Offline totor66

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Re: Star Wars Carcassonne Session
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2016, 01:51:14 AM »
i think honestly you worry to much, being hard core fan of Star Wars + Carcassonne is reserved just for some people.  ;)

I honestly didn't even look the name on the planet, stickers feel ok for me

It seems to me that final score always end up very close and it is almost necessary to fight at every opportunity, I don't think I will buy the expansion though since I was not overwhelmed also by the game play.
Carcassonne Fan since 2014


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