Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => General => Topic started by: Whaleyland on September 04, 2015, 05:25:18 PM
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ELEMENT OF THE WEEK: THE SHERIFF
Carcassonne has definitely taken strange turns in the past ten years, so these few expansions may not be in your knowledge bank, but that doesn't make them any less official (or does it?). So as we conclude this series over the next few weeks, feel free to express any form of praise or criticism you may have for these off-beat elements.
This week, we present SHERIFF (from Carcassonne: Around the World #2: Gold Rush). Now, Gold Rush itself is an interesting game in that it takes ideas from various Carcassonne spin-offs and merges them together with entirely new ideas. Roads have become Railroads and score the same, but the presence of a single locomotive on a completed track doubles its value. Cities are similar to Cloisters, but they score 3 points per completed (and individual) Railroad route coming out of it. Prairies are claimed like Farms but they score for Teepees and Wild Horses rather than adjacent features. And finally, the Mountains, which score for both visible gold nuggets and those mined from them. The mined nuggets can be obtained either by completing and winning a Mountain or mining for nuggets via Tents. The Sheriff introduces six new tiles which depict Sheriff Stars on them (as well as other features). Whenever one of these rascally tiles is drawn, a player must move the Sheriff figure. The Sheriff moves to an incomplete Mountain area (it does not have to be unoccupied) where he will doll out judgment on the roguish miners. For each player (except the active player) with a Tent on that Mountain, a token is taken from the available Mining Tokens and returned to the supply. Furthermore, no more mining occurs on that mountain while the Sheriff sits there and it remains incomplete. In addition to the Sheriff figure, there're also two graveyard tiles included. Graveyards are scored exactly like Cloisters in Carcassonne except a player on a Graveyard earns 1 bonus point for every city (named or unnamed) that's adjacent to it.
Once again, having not played this game or expansion, it is hard to judge whether the expansion really adds much to the game. However, it sounds like it definitely provides some fun new elements to Gold Rush. Being able to block players from claiming tokens is a bit aggressive but seems appropriate for a game that is themed around a Gold Rush. The Graveyard idea is slightly less creative, but it still is a nice nod to Carcassonne and provides an added strategic use for Cities. Discuss your relationship with The Sheriff and how you optimise your use of this strategic element.
Next Week: Baba Yaga and Bogatyr :neutral-meeple: O:-)
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whaleyland, I am so sorry that no one is talking here.
I have the mini-expansion "The Sheriff", but I played it only once or twice.
Sometimes it is important to save all the mining tokens till the mountain is finished.
And sometimes the active need the sheriff to put away the mining tokens from a mountain where only other players have a tent on the mountain and not the active player.
I voted for the "save all the mining tokens".
The golden sheriff figure is smaller than the cowboys figures.
the cowboy: 19 mm x 14 mm x 10 mm
the sheriff: 17 mm x 13,5 mm x 9,5 mm
also the hat brim from the sheriff is smaller than from the cowboy - see the picture of the figures:
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I still have not had a game with Gold Rush, unfortunately I can not comment.
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I still have not had a game with Gold Rush, unfortunately I can not comment.
Me either. I'm not very interested in the Gold Rush theme so I doubt I'll ever get it.
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On the rare opportunities that my wife and I get to sit down and play a game, it's usually one that we already know and love so that we can make the most of the time by spending it playing rather than reading rules and learning a new game. So despite owning Gold Rush, I'm yet to play it too. :@
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My $.02, really late!
I have Gold Rush, and the Sheriff, and IMHO, I like it.
The different mechanics of taking mine tokens, and moving tents DOES slow the game down some. (If this were like the original Carcassone, with all those expansions, a game would take FOREVER. But with just the game and one mini-expansion, it's not too long.)
The scoring of 'farmer' (ranchers) fields is neat, by not counting cities, but by objects in the fields (Indian teepees, wild horses). The art is also neat and very Carcassonne-like, but with a western feel to it. Moving your tent around is a rather neat mechanic - allowing you to pre-emptively steal from other players.
The single city tiles make us laugh each time though, as often you'll get something like 'Nashville' right next to 'Santa Fe'.. Who knew Tennessee and New Mexico were that close?! (Not to mention I'd like to make other tiles with city names, like 'Boise City', 'Witchita Falls', 'Amarillo', etc.. However, since the backs are different, I can't use blank Carc tiles..! :( )
The Sheriff expansion adds some neat little things as well - changing scoring for some items, and adding graves ("Boot Hill"!).
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I enjoy the Gold Rush variant of Carcassonne. The scoring is significantly different and the strategies are different too. I haven't purchased the sheriff yet but I definitely plan to do so. I wonder if the addition of the graveyards will mean that it will seem like there are not enough meeples.
I am toying with the idea of creating tiles for standard Carcassonne with French city names on road junction tiles so I can add this as my latest home made expansion. I will get the atlas out to ensure cities in the correct region in France are used.
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I will get the atlas out to ensure cities in the correct region in France are used.
Carcassonne, Toulouse, Narbonne, Albi, Perpignan, Béziers, Montpellier, Foix, Castres. I think those are all the decent-sized ones that matter historically. Any further east and you get into Provence (not Languedoc); any further West and you get into Gascony (also not Languedoc). To the south is Spain, which could arguably be part of the region at certain times. Toulouse is the heart of the region, in any case.
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The golden sheriff figure is smaller than the cowboys figures.
the cowboy: 19 mm x 14 mm x 10 mm
the sheriff: 17 mm x 13,5 mm x 9,5 mm
also the hat brim from the sheriff is smaller than from the cowboy - see the picture of the figures:
Which version do you have? The German?
Because mine, the Dutch version, the Sheriff is the same size as the Cowboys.