Author Topic: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions  (Read 38315 times)

Offline dirk2112

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Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« on: February 02, 2018, 05:31:47 AM »
Hopefully everyone has had an opportunity to play with the Circus AKA Under the Big Top AKA Manege Frei.  If you have at least tried all of the main/large expansions, list them in order of most fun (#1) to least fun (#10).  For purposes of this ranking, I am not including Wheel of Fortune since 80% of it is a re-implementation of the base game.   If you are a new art person, you won't have access to the Catapult, so you can rank 1 thru 9. 

  • Hills & Sheep
  • Traders & Builders
  • Princess & Dragon
  • Abbey & Mayor
  • Under the Big Top
  • Inns & Cathedrals
  • Bridges Castles & Bazaars
  • The Tower
  • The Catapult
  • Count, King, and Robber

I apologize in advance if there is a previous rankings thread.  I couldn't find it if there was.  I saw a few asking for top 3 or favorite, but none that ranked them all. 

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3815.0

Offline jungleboy

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2018, 05:41:05 AM »
We did a favourite poll years ago but not exactly a rank. And since then, Under the Big Top has come out.

Offline dirk2112

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2018, 05:46:06 AM »
We did a favourite poll years ago but not exactly a rank. And since then, Under the Big Top has come out.

I voted in that one!  Unfortunately that was before I truly appreciated Hills and Sheep. 

Offline flipshot

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2018, 06:25:42 AM »
1 - Under the Big Top (I love this one cuz you can get tons of extra points if you play it right)
2 - Hills and Sheep (like the push your luck aspect of this one)
3 - Princess and Dragon (super fun and not so frustrating as tower)
4 - Abbey and Mayor (like barn, abbey, wagon, and mayor in that order)
5 - Traders and Builders (much better than inns and cathedrals)
6 - Castles, Bridges, and Bazaars (like all parts)
7 - Tower (can be frustrating at times but it's fun to capture)
8 - Inns and Cathedrals (good, but doesn't add too much)
9 - Count, King and Robber (like shrines and king/robber, hate river 2 and count)
10 - Catapult (never played this one, but definitely not my style)

Offline Ivano

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2018, 07:16:48 AM »
1 - Inns and Cathedrals (especially for the additional tiles)
2 - Abbey and Mayor (for the barn, abbey and mayor)
3 - Under the Big Top (for the load of extra points)
4 - Traders and Builders (for the generous twist of completing someone else's city)
5 - Tower (the expansion for evil players  ;))
6 - Princess and Dragon (the expansion for less-evil players ;))
7 - Castles, Bridges, and Bazaars (basically only for the bridges)
8 - Count, King and Robber (shrines are OK, but it's my least favourite)
N/R - Hills and Sheep (received yesterday, not played yet)
N/R - Catapult (never played since not available in the new edition)

... and yes, I am a "new edition" player ;)

Offline ny1050220

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2018, 07:51:40 AM »
It's just too hard to rank the first four...

1. Abbey & Mayor (The abbey is so great! Everyone knows. I don't have to repeat.)
2. Traders & Builders (Builders!)
3. Princess & Dragon (Dear Green Mayor, bye bye!)
4. Hills & Sheep (Now it's easy to sneak into a city or a field.)
5. The Tower (I just need to be aware all the time that a high tower might backfire)
6. Inns & Cathedrals
7. The Catapult (The physical component has caused a TON of debate between my friends, so occasionally we'd just use the tiles.)
8. Bridges Castles & Bazaars (Bridges are great. Castles don't add much so we don't bother using. Bazaars are just a nuisance to us.)
9. Under the Big Top (I don't have it, as it's only in new art. Correct and save me :-[ if this is not true.)
10. Count, King, and Robber. Wanted to keep it short but couldn't. Anyway, that this one comes after the one I've never played should make it clear how much I dislike this collection of expansions. River II is good, for some of new features in the expansions are now on the river tiles, making them more interesting. Now comes my crap of the this collection. (IMHO, worst ever, yes, even worse than the half-sized and double-sized tiles. We don't want to keep track of the count all the time, as ask everyone whether they want to parachute meeples to mess the opponents in a 3-point-road. And that 12-sized-tile takes up so much space on the table and in the storage. King and Robber... simply hard to keep track of the size. You see, we are just a bunch of lazy asses who can only keep track of one thing, the score. And shrines... Cloisters are already on the weak side in the middle-sized game because of the ratio of number of tiles invested to the revenue, so my friends seldom challenge one another, as there is not a monk in the existing cloister/shrine, and/or they don't want to deploy a meeple to the newly placed shrine/cloister, or both. Also, it requires so much attention when one places cloisters and shrines. Now one needs to examine all the features in the surrounding tiles, rather than just the four edges.)

Offline Halfling

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2018, 12:24:28 PM »
1.Abbey & Mayor
2.Traders & Builders
3.Under the Big Top
4.Princess & Dragon
5.The Tower
6.Inns & Cathedrals
7.Hills & Sheep
8.Count, King, and Robber
9.Bridges Castles & Bazaars
10.The Catapult

Abbey & Mayor easily my favourite because of all of the extra wood and the Abbey tiles always get utilised.
Difficult to decide places 2-6  I like them all and each have their pros and little or no cons.
I don't like the Hills, Count, Bazaars, Castles or Catapult so these go to the bottom of the pile.  Shepherds and Vineyards, River II and Cult as well as the Bridges are all good.  So only The Catapult is totally without virtue for me. 
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Offline InTheDark

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2018, 04:43:14 PM »
I only have the New Art in English so all I have is expansions 1,2,3,5 and 10 :(.
My ranking for the 5 expansions I have is:
1. Abbey & Mayor (Extra Meeples + Great New Tile Configs + Abbeys (Everything))
2. Traders & Builders (Builders + Bag + Pig :@ + Trade Goods/Reason To Close Of Other Players Cities (Everything))
3. Inns & Cathedrals (Cathedrals + Score Tiles + A Sixth Color)
4. The Princess & the Dragon* (Lots Of Extra Tiles)
5. Under the Big Top (More Tiles + Ringmaster (Because It's Like Another Meeple))

I don't hate playing with any of these expansions and whenever I have the chance I'll play with all of them but usually we only play with a maximum 3 so we use Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders and Abbey & Mayor :).

Also just to cause some debate:
New Art FTW :D!

*Don't think I won't see your cheating by typing Princess & Dragon instead of The Princess & the Dragon! C:-)
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Offline Just a Bill

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2018, 04:58:17 PM »
Also just to cause some debate:
New Art FTW :D!

Well bless your heart.  ;) >:D
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Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2018, 01:23:05 AM »
1. Hills & Sheep
2. Under the Big Top
3. Princess & Dragon
4. Inns & Cathedrals
5. Abbey & Mayor
6. Traders & Builders
7. The Tower
8. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
9. Count, King & Cult
10. Wheel of Fortune
11. Catapult
« Last Edit: February 03, 2018, 06:35:29 PM by whaleyland »

Offline jungleboy

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2018, 01:34:02 AM »
Is it just the cult of the new that's getting Under the Big Top ranked so highly? I haven't played it or even really looked into it much, but I'm surprised to see it doing so well here. Mine would be:

1. Traders and Builders
2. Inns and Cathedrals
3. Abbey and Mayor
4. The Tower
5. Hills and Sheep
6. The Princess and the Dragon
7. Count, King and Cult
8. Bridges, Castles and Bazaars
9. The Catapult

Offline Sinscerly

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2018, 02:47:29 AM »
My ranking list would be:

1. Traders and Builders
2. The Princess and the Dragon
3. Hills & Sheep
4. Count, King and Cult
5. Abbey and Mayor
6. Wheel of Fortune
7. The Tower
8. Bridges, Castles and Bazaars

Well I haven't ranked two expansions. Inns & Cathedrals I count to the basegame. So it's included in almost every game I play.
Then Under the Big Top, I have played it once. As I do not own it. I like it a lot and it would stand on the same place as Hills & Sheep for me.
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Offline Rosco

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #12 on: February 03, 2018, 03:45:22 AM »
1. Traders & Builders
2. Inns & Cathedrals
3. Princess & Dragon
4. The Tower

After the top 4 we never play whole expansions just elements so I will rank the expansion by the element we use.  (Tower is not number 4 but as whole expansions it is)

5. Hills & Sheep - the sheep element
6. Abbey & Mayor - the abbey
7. Count, King & Cult - the cult tiles
8. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars - the castles

Never played:
9. Under the Big Top
10. Catapult



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Offline Willem

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #13 on: February 03, 2018, 04:18:06 AM »
Though one.....
I think Inns&Cathedrals and Traders&Builders are so common in our games now that they're not special to us anymore. And in Ranking the expansion to least fun to most fun i'd say:
1. Traders&Builders AND Abbey&Mayor
Shared 1St place. We like the extra tiles and the builder from T&B, that we use in almost all our games.
Abbey&Mayor bring several nice elements, like all the extra figures and the abbey of course!

3. Hills&sheep (often used without the extra tiles)
4. Under the Big Top
5. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
6. The Princess& The Dragon
7. The Tower (very hostile expansion. No 'fun' elements to add to a game)
8. The Catapult (too silly, barely play it)
9. Count, King&Cult (barely play with any of these elements)
10. Inns&Cathedrals (its so normal in our games now, feels like part of the Base game. We often dont use the tiles, but only the big meeples, to keep the overall tile count down a bit.
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Offline Vinçon

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #14 on: February 03, 2018, 04:32:03 AM »
Shouldn't this be a poll?

I'm really interested in the results since I'm following suit my 2018's "add one new expansion a month to your collection"


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