Element Match-Ups is a new series of weekly challenges for all members of CarcassonneCentral. Each week, an element from a large expansion will be matched up with an element from a small expansion. Your job: try it out and let everybody know what you think about the pair. Consider this a quasi-scientific survey in that you are only playing with these two elements and the base game — nothing else! Otherwise the results will be skewed. You have a week to try the match-up from the time the match is announced until the next match is announced (which usually occurs sometime between Friday and Saturday, depending on time zone).
This week our elements are THE GINGERBREAD MAN and THE CROP CIRCLES (from the Brettspiel Advent Calendar 2015). This is obviously a bit of a cheat since these are currently the ONLY two Christmas-themed Carcassonne expansions. Still, they are an interesting match-up. The Gingerbread Man scores bonus points for Knights whenever it leaves a City, jumping between Cities multiple times through the course of the game. The Crop Circles, meanwhile, force players to either double-up Followers or remove a Follower, at the current player's discretion. The only proviso is that the Follower type must match that printed on the played tiles (Knight, Farmer, or Robber). Do these two expansions work well together? I can definitely seem some level of interaction with the Knight Crop Circle and the Gingerbread Man. Perhaps they do work. What do you think?
The elements are set, the challenge is issued, and now it is for you to decide whether these elements work well together or are terrible companions. Summarise your experience below in however much detail you wish, and feel free to share any strategic advice you have for other players taking the challenge.
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