Poll

How do you primarily use The Mayor?

To tactically claim Cities with multiple Pennants.
15 (83.3%)
To half-heartedly claim Cities with one Pennant.
3 (16.7%)
To wishfully claim a City with no Pennants yet.
0 (0%)
I use it in some other creatively strategic manner (describe below).
0 (0%)
I don't ever play with or don't own Abbey & Mayor.
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 18

Voting closed: December 26, 2014, 11:48:52 PM

Author Topic: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15  (Read 13005 times)

Offline Whaleyland

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The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« on: December 19, 2014, 11:48:52 PM »
ELEMENT OF THE WEEK: THE MAYOR

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 THE MAYOR (from Abbey & Mayor [Expansion #5]). This is perhaps the most overrated Follower in the Carcassonne universe. It does virtually nothing that a normal Follower can't do better, and it can only be placed on Cities. What does a Mayor do? It can claim a City so long as that City has at least one Pennant. For each Pennant, the Mayor is worth one strength. Thus in a large City with many Pennants, it can be worth quite a lot of strength against other Followers. But this only helps a player if other non-Mayor Followers are in that City. If they aren't, then it just works like a normal, albeit fiddly, Follower. That's pretty much all that can really be said about the Mayor, a figure-to-be-underutilized extraordinaire! Discuss your relationship with The Mayor, as well as your strategies for taking advantage of this element.

Next Week's Topic: The Cathedrals    >:D O:-) >:D O:-)

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1362.0

Offline danisthirty

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2014, 02:31:19 AM »
Wow, it sounds like your mind has already been made up! This said, I do agree with you. Unless you can get your mayor into an opponent's city and close it quickly, the opponent will usually be able to respond with their own mayor so they end up cancelling each other out. If however, other players have their mayors trapped elsewhere it can be handy to keep back for a quick steal should the opportunity arise. In my experience this rarely happens though, and it's more often the case that all the mayors will end up in the same city...

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2014, 07:52:18 AM »
Given the self imposed constraints of the game, the Mayor is a reasonable addition to the range of followers.  It has a negative in that it can only be placed with effect in Cities with the positive that it enjoys a boost from pennants in cities.  Maybe the number of pennants in the game makes it less effective as a strategic specialized follower.

I do find it difficult to visually discriminate between the mayor and the large follower but that is when I reach for my tiny coloured rubber bands. 

Offline Carcking

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2014, 10:41:27 AM »
He can be really handy in conjunction with the Count of Carcassonne. And comes in handy for a glom here or there. He largely gets forgotten in our group.

If I had a dime for everytime someone in my group has uttered the string of statements: "Now, which one is the Mayor again? ... Oh OK, what does he do? ... Oh, that's all?!"...eeesh
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Offline Paul

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2014, 02:10:01 PM »
Never was fond of The Mayor. Usually the case is, can't get enough pennants in a city to make it worthwile. Albeit, this is yet another experience from semi-mega to megaCarc games and thus these devious strategies often are easily dispersed by a simle tile placement or one of the vast elements at disposal.
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Offline Rosco

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2014, 06:35:11 PM »
I will buck the trend. I like the mayor and I even have a pretty name for him - 'baggy trousers '. He is great for that city where you have the builder, then first tile you get the tile that adds to the city but has a second city segment, then with the second tile you close the city! Fantastic move!

Although, it does need to be a fairly big game to be truly useful.
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Offline jungleboy

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2014, 11:32:57 PM »
Unless you can get your mayor into an opponent's city and close it quickly, the opponent will usually be able to respond with their own mayor so they end up cancelling each other out.

This is where I am too. Often there's one big city that everyone tries to go for, and everyone ends up with their mayor in it so he ends up being pretty useless.

Maybe we could experiment with some house rules to try to change this dynamic. Two that come to mind are:
- The mayor can only be used once in the whole game (like the big follower in the Ark of the Covenant), so choose wisely!
- Only one mayor can be in any one city at a time, so the first person to add their mayor has an advantage. If two different cities, each containing a mayor, join up, the city that had the most tiles before they joined is the one whose mayor stays, while the other mayor is booted out but can be replaced by a regular follower if desired.

Offline AlbinoAsian

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2014, 12:40:05 AM »
I like him. It means I can usually stop my brother from steal both of my cities at the same time!

We call him "MC Hammer" because of the pants / trousers

Offline jungleboy

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2014, 12:57:15 AM »
We call him "MC Hammer" because of the pants / trousers

 :(y)

Offline danisthirty

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #9 on: December 22, 2014, 01:27:32 AM »
We call him "MC Hammer" because of the pants / trousers

Ha ha! I know someone else who refers to the mayor as "MC Hammer Trousers"...

Maybe we could experiment with some house rules to try to change this dynamic. Two that come to mind are:
- The mayor can only be used once in the whole game (like the big follower in the Ark of the Covenant), so choose wisely!
- Only one mayor can be in any one city at a time, so the first person to add their mayor has an advantage. If two different cities, each containing a mayor, join up, the city that had the most tiles before they joined is the one whose mayor stays, while the other mayor is booted out but can be replaced by a regular follower if desired.

I like these ideas. I think the second would probably work best, but perhaps determine the most powerful mayor by the number of penants in his city (rather than number of tiles) before the two mayor cities were joined? If it's a tie they can be joint-mayors.

Offline jungleboy

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #10 on: December 22, 2014, 01:44:46 AM »
I like these ideas. I think the second would probably work best, but perhaps determine the most powerful mayor by the number of penants in his city (rather than number of tiles) before the two mayor cities were joined? If it's a tie they can be joint-mayors.

Agreed, number of pennants is a cooler tie-breaker. I had only put about 10 seconds of thought into the idea before I posted it :)

Offline danisthirty

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #11 on: December 22, 2014, 01:51:34 AM »
I like these ideas. I think the second would probably work best, but perhaps determine the most powerful mayor by the number of penants in his city (rather than number of tiles) before the two mayor cities were joined? If it's a tie they can be joint-mayors.

Agreed, number of pennants is a cooler tie-breaker. I had only put about 10 seconds of thought into the idea before I posted it :)

Impressive! I've been so sleep-deprived for the last year or so that 10 seconds isn't long enough for me to have a clear thought about anything!  ;)

EDIT: It also seems to be more in keeping with the game that since the number of pennants is used to determine the strength of a mayor, the strongest mayor ought to be able to oust the other...
« Last Edit: December 22, 2014, 02:01:49 AM by danisthirty »

Offline Rosco

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2014, 03:03:57 AM »
Rather than ousting the weaker mayor why can't he stay as a deputy mayor?  I.e. If mayor one has 3 pennants in his city and mayor 2 only has 2, then the 2 cities join, M1 now it's worth 5 pennants and M2 is worth only 4. As he had less votes/subjects before the merger.

This way the stronger mayor outs still worth more, but it is still possible to oppose him with careful placements.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2014, 03:05:58 AM by Rosco »

Offline danisthirty

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2014, 03:10:54 AM »
Rather than ousting the weaker mayor why can't he stay as a deputy mayor?  I.e. If mayor one has 3 pennants in his city and mayor 2 only has 2, then the 2 cities join, M1 now it's worth 5 pennants and M2 is worth only 4. As he had less votes/subjects before the merger.

This way the stronger mayor outs still worth more, but it is still possible to oppose him with careful placements.

I suppose there's nothing to stop you from doing it this way if you prefer, but personally I quite liked the idea of forcibly ejecting the weaker mayor from the city, perhaps using the catapult?  :)

Offline Rosco

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Re: The Mayors – Element of the Week #15
« Reply #14 on: December 22, 2014, 04:31:49 AM »
Talking of the catapult, I have just bought it!!


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