Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => General => Topic started by: jungleboy on March 07, 2016, 02:36:20 AM
-
The Completionism Poll is a weekly series where we ask how much of a completionist you are by breaking the game down into different expansions and elements. This week we look at the Halflings.
The Halflings is a unique expansion not only because it features triangular tiles, but because two different versions were released at the same time, unlike other two-version expansions such as Crop Circles, Wind Roses and the River. This fact and the relatively recent release date (2014) make it quite easy to own both expansions, unlike, say, the Crop Circles.
Halflings 1 (released through Spielbox Magazine) features the Spielbox pentagon watermark and none of the 12 tiles have any features relating to other expansions on them. Halflings II (released through HiG's Cundco store) features the Carcassonne meeple watermark. Four of the Halflings II tiles contain features from other expansions: three from Hills and Sheep (a vineyard, a sheep and a hill) and one from Crop Circles, this time with a 'wildcard' crop circle.
So, do you own both of these? Is one of them enough for a complete expansion? If you feel you need both, is it purely for completionism, for variety (i.e. changing which set you use), or for practical purposes, i.e playing with both sets at once or playing Halflings II with the appropriate expansions?
-
I have both - but it's for practical reasons...
-
I own one (Spielbox) and also believe both versions are needed to feel that sense of completion. This, even if they where identical with only different watermark. :)
-
I own both and definitely think they are different enough to be "required" for a complete collection.
I think that the Halfling tiles are a great addition to the game, they bring a really interesting new option to the gameplay and look pretty cool!
-
We own both and really can't play without them all included due to their variety and versatility. I don't think you need to both for a complete collection, but having both really makes games more interesting (also, both can be easily obtained!)
-
I am the lone voter who doesn't own either. I think I will pick up Halb So Wild II the next time I order something from Cundco. I'm not sure how often new min-expansions show up on the site, so it may be a while before I get them.
-
Ooh, Halflings! Given the different tile configurations and the different watermarks, I consider these both essential for completion. They seem to be different expansions, they just happen to have a common theme in the triangular configuration. And thanks to the ease of acquisition of these two, I have both!
It is also nice for practical purposes. When playing very large games, we give players an extra one or even two halflings.
I haven't yet posted in the Halfling Element of the Week. This must be rectified...
-
The best mini expansions ever. Obviously.
Both owned.
-
I've just finished a post in the Halflings Element of the Week thread. It's so useful getting your thoughts written down, isn't it?
The other reason having both expansions is important for completion is because of how differently they play!
-
Boy, that one is a clear one! I owe both versions too and consider them two different parts of the same expansion.
-
Well, this one was a bit of a slam dunk, as I expected. Basically, everyone wants both sets of halflings!
Meanwhile, I'd like to make a small announcement about the completionism polls. Firstly, thank you to everyone for voting and contributing so far; the response has been greater than I anticipated!
As a 'light' or 'functional' completionist, I wanted to raise what I call the 'mainstream' completionism issues, such as the River (III), the three versions of Cathars/Siege/Besiegers etc, and see what others thought about these. The variety of answers and the interesting discussions were great to see.
Now that these 'mainstream' completionism issues have been discussed, we're moving into a new phase of completionism and favouritism, e.g. the exciting world of missing watermarks and River tiles with weird code on the back! And for this, I will defer to Decar, who is fast becoming one of the foremost experts on Carcassonne completionism. He has some great ideas for taking completionism and favouritism even further, so look out for some new threads soon!
-
Thank you for running these threads, Jungleboy, it's been a blast. I will be bowing out now, however, as I fall into the 'light(ish) completionist' camp. I have little interest in coded rivers, and my interest in missing watermarks extends only to replacing sets that I have which are missing them, for ease of sorting. I don't need to own both versions of a tile, I would prefer to have the watermarked versions.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
-
The fun doesn't end here - We're just changing the spin a little and asking you a new Question:
What's your favourite Scoring Track? (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2523.0)
-
They are very strange; by far not my favourite, but I own both. Well, obviously: you kinda hafta.
-
I am considering the purchase of the halflings expansions. One thing has me scratching my head. What is the value of the full city tile with shield on Halflings II? It seems like it would be used 95% of the time to prevent someone else from finishing a city. I can't imagine a likely scenario where that shield would turn into points unless you are playing Abbey and Mayor.
-
My Current understanding is it is one tile. So 2points + 2 points for pennant = 4, just like a regular tile.
-
My Current understanding is it is one tile. So 2points + 2 points for pennant = 4, just like a regular tile.
Yeah I get that, but how would you ever close off that city? The empty space created by that Halfling needs to be closed by an Abbey or other Halfling. Without the Abbey, I don't see how that city could be closed.
-
An abbey cannot close that city because it is square and the hole is triangular.
-
There are two other halflings that can close the city:
(http://www.carcassonne.lv/wp-content/uploads/Halflings_small.jpg)
That second halfling would be another tile, that's another 2 points.
-
That second halfling would be another tile, that's another 2 points.
These are sooo confusing. I thought when combined they counted as one tile. I just imagined playing with 4 players where each player gets 3 tiles, the odds of getting that tile along with one that can be used with it to help close off a city seems low. When playing with the other set of halflings, there is an additional Halfling that can close off that city.
A CCC halfling seems like a weird choice to me.
-
Well if you really think about it, is genius. Use it in your own city and complete that city and you have a bonus pennant. Use it in someone else's city, potentially preventing them from completing but risk then having that tile to complete in their set. A gamblers tile.
-
Thanks everyone!
-
Requiring 2-halflings to complete a space next to a cloister makes this a grim expansions for me. It might be ok if there were more halflings tiles there's just not enough to make it feasible to actually complete anything!
-
I agree. We are going to play a cloister is completed as long as the halfling is on the side of the cloister. We already have a few house rules, so what is one more?
-
Requiring 2-halflings to complete a space next to a cloister makes this a grim expansions for me. It might be ok if there were more halflings tiles there's just not enough to make it feasible to actually complete anything!
Can you refresh my memory on this one? Didn't the original rules say that a halfling was a full tile for the purpose of cloister completion? When/why did this change?
-
Essen, during the time we discovered German Castles didn't make a huge amount of sense either. There is an example that shows cloisters requiring 16 halfs to make a whole.
-
I rather use this house rule with Halfling: distribute at the beginning of the game evenly all halfling tiles amongst all players.
-
This is the one expansion, I too own both versions. Originally, because I wanted to be save with 8 players, but now, I'm quite happy for other reasons, too. One version is great with H&S, but I would rather not use it, when playing other expansions, unless required.