Author Topic: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)  (Read 10646 times)

Offline danisthirty

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First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« on: August 21, 2013, 07:35:53 AM »
My copy of the Gingerbread Man (Carcassonne Winter Edition expansion) arrived today and I was very excited! Although there were just six new tiles I couldn't wait to play with them as they featured some really interesting configurations of city segments between them. There's usually a lot of competition for cities between my wife and I, and the inclusion of these tiles balanced this out quite nicely as the possibility of shutting each other out of our cities increased from "slim" to "reasonable". As a further consequence of this, we soon found that we completed far more cities (about half of them being two-tilers) and spent much less time patiently waiting for the "right tile" to come along.

The game itself got off to a particularly bad start for me when my wife completed a city for 26 points and received a further 20 points for having had two knights and the Gingerbread Man in it when it was completed. I almost lost interest in the game altogether after this, as it was difficult to stay motivated after very nearly being lapped whilst still on my first time round the score track! But fortunately I was soon able to reduce the gap (slightly) thanks to a 14 point city, also with the Gingerbread Man in it, which netted me 21 points and kept me in the game.

A few roads and a couple of cloisters helped me to draw level by the halfway point but we then found ourselves in the unusual situation whereby one of us closed a city and there were no incomplete cities left to move the Gingerbread Man into. In this situation we took the Gingerbread Man off the board and should have waited for a Gingerbread Man tile to be played before bringing him back (as per the official rules). Because we both enjoyed the difference that he made to the game though, we immediately placed him in the first incomplete city that became available a tile or two later.

Because the Gingerbread Man is moved either when one of the six new tiles is placed or when the city he's currently in is closed, he tended to move around quite a lot in our game and this generated a lot of bonus points. These points tended to be split quite equally between us but there was one city in particular that became rather overcrowded in order to maintain this. We weren't necessarily fighting for control of the city as it didn't look likely that it would ever be closed, but its size combined with the fact that the Gingerbread Man was in it meant that every knight either of us could get into the city was well worth it for the eventual bonus.

After placing the final tile I leant back in my chair to admire the view (photo attached)! There was a long road running from east to west which separated the landscape into a north farm and a south farm. I'd placed a farmer on the south farm quite early in the game and my wife didn't make any effort to share these points as it only touched three complete cities. The north farm however ended up being worth 27 points but we shared these at a cost of three farmers each. What ultimately (and incorrectly as it later transpired) made the difference was deciding to let the Gingerbread Man dish out his bonus one last time even though he hadn't left the city he was in. This was worth 20 points for my wife but 30 for me and this was just enough to tip the final scores in my favour by just three points!

Most of the expansions I've played for Carcassonne bring something new and vaguely exciting to the game, but this excitement can sometimes be rather short-lived if there's nothing else to look forward to once the new tiles have run out. Contrary to this, I felt that the Gingerbread Man was an excellent expansion as the new tiles alone added to my enjoyment of the game and the extra mechanic of how the Gingerbread Man himself works seem to be well thought out and in keeping with the general spirit of the game. In summary, it's difficult to imagine future games of Carcassonne Winter Edition without the Gingerbread Man and this is certainly a sign of a worthwhile expansion as far as I'm concerned!


Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=393.0

Offline kettlefish

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2013, 11:30:32 AM »
Nice review.

But I have a question:
How you could place so many follower as knights in the same city?

Offline CKorfmann

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2013, 11:38:04 AM »
I can see how that could have been done pretty easily.  I'll bet she was mad!  ;)
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Offline danisthirty

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2013, 03:28:24 PM »
@kettlefish - it just seemed to happen! we both placed tiles with open city segments around the outside and gradually joined these in to the main city. normally we wouldn't have competed so aggressively to get knights into the city but the gingerbread man brought out the worst in us!

@ckorfmann - actually this game was relatively friendly despite the aggressive competitiveness! not sure why, but it was generally a very friendly game and I think either of us would have enjoyed it just as much regardless of the outcome. being open, honest and as impartial as possible when giving advice definitely helped to keep it fun and friendly.

Offline CARC_Zoner

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2013, 09:24:17 PM »
My copy of the Gingerbread Man (Carcassonne Winter Edition expansion) arrived today and I was very excited! Although there were just six new tiles I couldn't wait to play with them as they featured some really interesting configurations of city segments between them. There's usually a lot of competition for cities between my wife and I, and the inclusion of these tiles balanced this out quite nicely as the possibility of shutting each other out of our cities increased from "slim" to "reasonable". As a further consequence of this, we soon found that we completed far more cities (about half of them being two-tilers) and spent much less time patiently waiting for the "right tile" to come along.

The game itself got off to a particularly bad start for me when my wife completed a city for 26 points and received a further 20 points for having had two knights and the Gingerbread Man in it when it was completed. I almost lost interest in the game altogether after this, as it was difficult to stay motivated after very nearly being lapped whilst still on my first time round the score track! But fortunately I was soon able to reduce the gap (slightly) thanks to a 14 point city, also with the Gingerbread Man in it, which netted me 21 points and kept me in the game.

A few roads and a couple of cloisters helped me to draw level by the halfway point but we then found ourselves in the unusual situation whereby one of us closed a city and there were no incomplete cities left to move the Gingerbread Man into. In this situation we took the Gingerbread Man off the board and should have waited for a Gingerbread Man tile to be played before bringing him back (as per the official rules). Because we both enjoyed the difference that he made to the game though, we immediately placed him in the first incomplete city that became available a tile or two later.

Because the Gingerbread Man is moved either when one of the six new tiles is placed or when the city he's currently in is closed, he tended to move around quite a lot in our game and this generated a lot of bonus points. These points tended to be split quite equally between us but there was one city in particular that became rather overcrowded in order to maintain this. We weren't necessarily fighting for control of the city as it didn't look likely that it would ever be closed, but its size combined with the fact that the Gingerbread Man was in it meant that every knight either of us could get into the city was well worth it for the eventual bonus.

After placing the final tile I leant back in my chair to admire the view (photo attached)! There was a long road running from east to west which separated the landscape into a north farm and a south farm. I'd placed a farmer on the south farm quite early in the game and my wife didn't make any effort to share these points as it only touched three complete cities. The north farm however ended up being worth 27 points but we shared these at a cost of three farmers each. What ultimately (and incorrectly as it later transpired) made the difference was deciding to let the Gingerbread Man dish out his bonus one last time even though he hadn't left the city he was in. This was worth 20 points for my wife but 30 for me and this was just enough to tip the final scores in my favour by just three points!

Most of the expansions I've played for Carcassonne bring something new and vaguely exciting to the game, but this excitement can sometimes be rather short-lived if there's nothing else to look forward to once the new tiles have run out. Contrary to this, I felt that the Gingerbread Man was an excellent expansion as the new tiles alone added to my enjoyment of the game and the extra mechanic of how the Gingerbread Man himself works seem to be well thought out and in keeping with the general spirit of the game. In summary, it's difficult to imagine future games of Carcassonne Winter Edition without the Gingerbread Man and this is certainly a sign of a worthwhile expansion as far as I'm concerned!

Nice review!

CARC_Zoner
I'm having meeple management issues...

Offline Carcking

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2013, 05:19:12 PM »
Great review danisthirty! We really enjoy the gingerbread man mechanic too. Funny that we have not played winter Carcassonne since the winter. It feels better to play it in season  :D
« Last Edit: August 27, 2013, 09:04:17 AM by Carcking »
I just drew the perfect tile for my MonKnighThieFarmer!

Offline danisthirty

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2013, 08:40:33 AM »
It's been pretty hot in the UK lately so I'm particularly enjoying playing the winter edition a lot at the moment as it helps me to cool down! :)

Offline jungleboy

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2015, 12:46:10 AM »
More fun with the Gingerbread Man: going from 123 points down to 72 points up in one move.




Offline Halfling

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2015, 02:37:14 PM »
My copy of the winter edition came with the gingerbread expansion. Is this unusual? I assumed it was standard until I read this.
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Offline danisthirty

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Re: First Game with the Gingerbread Man (90 tiles)
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2015, 02:41:53 PM »
My copy of the winter edition came with the gingerbread expansion. Is this unusual? I assumed it was standard until I read this.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong (which is likely), but I don't think the Gingerbread Man expansion was included until the Z-Man games release. It was available for a little while before this via the HiG release, and also by download, but neither of these versions included it.


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