The very talented designers at MeepleSource have offered to help us create a mascot for Carcassonne Central!
Meeple Source have already run 7 successful Kickstarter campaigns introducing hundreds of meeple designs to be used in Carcassonne and for many other desktop games. You can see them here. The new Kickstarter is currently active - go and check it out!
Our forum's very own Danisthirty was immortalized by Meeple Source in their first Campaign:
So now is Carcassonne Central's chance to join the ranks of brilliant designs! Over the course of the Kickstarter campaign we will be running a series of polls to vote and determine how our mascot will look. For now suggesting ideas, or even submitting pictures would be fantastic. Ask yourself what should Carcassonne Central's mascot look like? Perhaps a feudal knight, perhaps a wild dragon - We'd love to hear your thoughts!
If you can find a lot more information about Meeple source here www.meeplesource.com
We played this game a few days ago and I thought I'd share the experience:
The game is a blend or Carcassonne, Tsuro and probably Metro. Player take it in turn to lay cards; to complete a high-tech rail line. Each player has their own deck & colour and is trying to complete a majority stake in a track. A track scores based on the number of different types of building on each line. Players also have hidden objective cards, giving them additional ways to score.
It's very quick to play an interesting mechanic is that depending on the number of players, the shape of the play area changes. In 2-players it looks like a diamond; the widest segment must be width 4, but it is not clear at the start of the game which column MUST be the widest, this can change about 1/3 of the way though the game.
Here's a quick photo:
Though, I understood the board-shape mechanic, I actually found it quite tricky - My wife nailed it; and took the gaming crown once again. We both managed to complete our objectives, but my wife had completed more rail lines.
It's a very fast playing game, There's some really interesting opportunities to wreak havoc with each other's strategy. The cards are beautifully designed and also include colour-blind safe 'hatching' in the centre of the line.
There's also an expansion that allows 2-players to play on a large board, the additional cards have more buildings & a cards that count as two segments of track when scoring majority.
There are a few suggested advanced-variants including map-wrapping and larger maps.
Some of you may know about a small tile-laying game in a shop in Amsterdam a few months ago, which I forgot the name of. I was able to track down the game and ordered a copy from the designer. The game is called Rifugio - http://www.rifugio.nl/index.php/en/
Rifugio is a Dutch tile-laying game set in northern mountains of Italy. If tile-laying games have taught me anything - setting your game is a different country leads to great things (...I'm looking at you Carcassonne). The game takes it's name from: Rifugi which are small mountain huts that travellers use as rest stops.
The game is really simple. Players take it in turns to place a tile and then go wandering to visit places of interest. In the base game, tiles are Forests, Grasslands or Mountains; Grass tiles cannot be placed next to Mountains and there are some passes that contain both types. Certain tiles have wildlife, flowers, mountain peaks or waterfalls which players are intending to visit. Once they've been they collect a little card, which scores points at the end of the game. The Points of Interest are grouped into sets (of flowers or animals for example) which if all collected score even more points at the end of the game.
During a player's turn they can also place one of their Rifugi; if another player visits yours: you score some points, but they are given an extra-movement card as an incentive. Some tiles have bears which score negative points at the end of the game. In a two-player game 2 tiles are placed each turn and the game ends at the end of the last turn when the last tile is placed.
This game has been self-published, which I admire greatly; the designer was kind enough to ship me a copy - the 3rd in the United Kingdom I believe.
The game is neat and short, probably only 20 minutes. I was a bit worried that in a two player game, near the end each player would be at either end of the board visiting things the other player had no chance in visiting; but the motivator is to try and stay relatively close to each other in case you need to dash for a particular tile to finish a set. I think some of these faults have been addressed with the Helicopter and River Expansions, which allow people to hop around the board more easily; but I've yet to play these.
I wasn't too fond of the scoring mechanics - the set collection is really nice, but there's a very large bonus for completing a set, which ultimately won me the game by a considerable margin. The artwork is not fantastic, but seems to do the job, I would have liked more distinct artwork for the mountain tops & waterfalls - these cards were hard to separate.
Mechanically though it's quite pleasing - and for a self-published memento from my trip, it was neat. I'm looking forward to the Dutch Windmills expansion
It is a Bank Holiday in the UK today; which means a long weekend! It was also my birthday; so with the weather being nice we needed an excuse to go somewhere....
Well it just so happens, we did find an excuse to go somewhere....Brighton - if you hadn't guessed from the title of this post. It turns out, our forum's very own Jame Cook (aka: jazbang [aka: the UK's Current Carcassonne Champion]), is a standup comedian and was featuring at the Brighton Fringe Festival. His show, titled 'Always Be Rolling', is all about boardgames. We like boardgames and comedy, so that was the excuse we needed to book a hotel, drive to the coast and make the most of the holiday. Did I mention, his show was free too!
We arrived in Brighton on Sunday around 12pm and James Cook's performance wasn't until 4.45pm - so we had some time to wander 'The Lanes' and take in the sights...mainly over priced boutiques. I regretfully double-took Alasdair Beckett-King (a literal 'Legendary' Comedian because not much is written about him), in the street and didn't say hello. I'll come to regret this as I backed his recently completed Kickstarter and he had sketched my wife to appear in the game.
We had time to walk about 2 miles to the only games shop I could ascertain 'might exist' according the boardgamegeek. "Dice & Saloon" is situated on the 1st floor of a tower-block and boasts a 300sq-foot area. In Brighton that's probably a lot of space. The game selection was broad and to be expected; retail prices were good. The place was busy and there were plenty of people there playing Magic in 6-8 seater booths or bigger wargames on long tables. This is obviously where most of their market came from. The staff said 'hello', but we weren't really looking for anything in particular. They appeared to have a small game library that could be used. It was definitely worth a quick visit, but there wasn't anything particularly unique for me there. They had a good selection of GMT games though.
Another place to see is: 'Dave's Comics' - apparently Dave passed away a few years ago, but his shop is still open. From what I could tell the games market had closed, so it was mainly comics/manga and Pop! Head figures now.
So onto the main attraction - The Comedy Show! My wife and I had front row seats and everyone was given a 'I think you'll find' card which we could use once during the show to 'interrupt and correct' James's inaccuracies. The venue was small, but pretty full - I snapped a sneaky photo:
My wife and I are not comedy experts, so I'm not going to analyse the jokes or spoil the show's content for anyone; in case you get the opportunity to see it. James has spent a very long time carefully crafting his show. About 2/3rds of the audience were considered boardgamers, but his show is carefully geared to educate the masses, in the short-comings of games, we know from our childhood like 'Snakes & Ladders' and everyone's favourite: 'Monopoly'. He does a good job at recommending alternative games too.
James is very comfortable dealing with audience members too; including the poor guy who called James out: "Monopoly doesn't mean One Parrot"; the cleverly crafted pun, for the enjoyment of the audience . I also got to take part in a Hungry Hippo contest too, using nothing but my mouth to transport marshmallows from a plate to a cup. Unfortunately, my one-at-a-time approach let me down.....I never did like Hungry Hippos as a child...
Now, I know what you're thinking: Does he mention Carcassonne? Yes, He even recommends it. Again I'd hate to spoil the show by telling you under what context. James is very modest too, he only quickly mentioned that he won last year's UK Expo Carcassonne Tournament and got to go to Essen and lose a few games. He didn't even draw attention to the fact he beat China - that's like beating 1.4billion people!?
What you really want to know is: Was it funny? Yes, My wife and I both laughed throughout and enjoyed the show. The tempo of the performance was very good, light and good natured. Given the show was free, my wife and I went in with moderately low expectations of this niche market of comedy, but we were both extremely impressed. We're looking forward to James's next show & hopefully next time more than donations at the exit.
We stayed for another performance, which didn't strike a chord with us at all; so it's safe to say we caught the good act.
By then, it was early evening and opportunity to walk the famous seafront in Brighton and eat food from a cart. I'm not sure what the appeal is to be honest - the view is ocean. It's long, flat and blue and there's not much else to look at, other than the burnt down pavillion.
My final recommendation for Brighton: the 'Ghost Chilli Sausage Roll' from 'Croque' shop.
A trip to one of my FLGs today: we picked up Kodama: The Tree Spirits and had chance to play it this evening.
This game oozes class. The mechanics are simple. The scoring is fast. The artwork is gorgeous. The game is nice and short.
At the start of the game, each player randomly selected a tree trunk and you take turn to select cards which depict branches of a tree; having selected a branch you must place it on your tree so: no card overlaps more than one card & cards don't overlap features and cards don't go under the base of your trunk. The cards have features on them: mushrooms, caterpillars, stars, flowers, fireflies and clouds - you score one point for each feature that appears on the card and all the way down to the trunk of your tree following a contiguous path. There are some additional rules such as: not being allowed to score more than 10 points - so you don't make a huge line, etc.
The game is broken into 3 seasons of 4 turns, with a kodama scoring phase at the end of each season. Kodama are japanese tree spirits, whose job is to look after the forest. They are powerful scoring cards that give you big bonuses for achieving their goals. The player is given 4 at the start of the game and uses 3 of them during the game; which gives flexibility to any tactics, being followed.
At the start of each season a decree is drawn, which applies a short term affect to the season - adding extra variety.
This game really appeals to the builder in me. That part of the psyche that makes you want to finish your Carcassonne cities vs playing the best move. The game is very light and there's very little opportunity to 'hate-draft' or ways disrupt the other players' trees. For some this may be the only negative part of the game - it's not very aggressive. If you can accept that you're in for a light-hearted treat.
Every detail of this game is classy - The 1st player kodama-meeple & the 3 Kodama the winner is given to place on their tree to celebrate their victory are awesome touches.
Here's my winning tree:
That Caterpillar branched scored me a lot of points in the last round - 4 points for every card that touches it that has a caterpillar on it.
My wife's tree (was somewhat wonky - but the branches were above ground at least):
Here you can see one of the Kodama cards too - which earned 20 points in the final around!
Here's a quick shot of the table too:
You can see the lovely score track, decree cards and the available branch-cards at the end of the game.
As a final note, there are some 'sprout' Kodama cards which are much easier to score - these were aimed at children - we took them out of our game, but are a very nice addition for a family game. I would strongly recommend this variant for anyone with children beyond 'Kids of Carcassonne' but not quite ready for full 'Carcassonne'.
This is top of the list of games I really, really, really wished I backed during the kickstarter campaign!
Edit: I forgot to add:
I can see this game receiving some great expansions or variants in the future too. Perhaps, a 4th season for longer games. Games where you swap trees between seasons. Additional Kodama or scoring opportunities all spring to mind!
Rich the Fish was in Bristol today and because I live so close by, it was a great opportunity for me (and Mrs Decar) to cross the bridge into England and play games with him all afternoon!
Our venue was 'Chance & Counters', Bristol's first board game cafe. It's newly opened, so we were both keen to check the place out. I thought it would be helpful for forum members to hear my micro-review on our afternoon's play.
I want to start by saying: Chance & Counters is the best name for a board gaming cafe I've come across. In my mind, it's next to 'Assault and Battery', a Fish & Chip shop in Battery Park - NYC.
We didn't have much difficulty finding games to play and the knowledgeable staff were on hand to make good recommendations. I think this was a great opportunity for us all to play some of the games we'd seen but not found time to play. The catalogue was extensive, to my eye all of the games were new; so if someone was looking for an ancient copy of Carcassonne: The Dice Game - they'd be disappointed (tbh: they'd be disappointed after they played it).
We started with something we knew: 7 Wonders Duel - Rich decided to sit back and see how this 2-player game worked. Somehow I won - I have no idea how; I think Wonder points gave me the edge.
Next we took a recommendation to play Knizia's Battleline. We made a few mistakes on the first 2-games, but managed to work out what we were suppose to be doing. Thankfully the game is pretty short. I really liked this game; you're essentially balancing sets of 3-cards against your opponent at 9-flags along a battleline. Sets are like: a run of 3 cards in the same suite, which beats 3 of a kind, which beats a run in different suites...all the way down to 3 random cards. I have a feeling that going first is a big advantage, but the strategy cards probably change this. Rich and I couldn't work out when they should be used. It was safe to say it earned the easy-to-play hard to master category of game, as the staff suggested. I'll be looking for this in the future.
I had my Carcassonne travel box with me and one staff member was knowledgeable and explained that they worked with moulds and silicon. My wife had explained the meeple I made using a rubber mould last year. I have no doubt I'll be heading back to get crafting/forging tips in the future!
After these light games, we moved onto something larger: 'Isle of Skye' (Skype). I'd heard a lot about it - it's nominated for a Kinnerspiel SdJ award. I was expecting good things. The game had been freshly popped - we were the first to play with it! It might be that I'm a carcassonne player, but the roads confused me. You can't go building roads which end in a mountain. It was compared to Carcassonne and 'Castles of Mad King Ludvick'. It's much closer to 'Carcassonne:The Discovery', IoS has 3 types of areas which make the landscape: grass,mountains and seas (just like Discovery).
There are so many ways to score things, it's hard to know what to invest in. My economy tanked at the start of the game and I struggled, for the rest. My wife liked the buying/pricing of tiles; but Rich managed to storm ahead - considering his slow start: a worthy victory.
Here's the end game:
I think we all liked the game's scoring mechanic. But people refer to this as the 'Carcassonne Killer' - safe to say: it isn't. The game wasn't terrible, but I didn't find many moments where I had any control over what was really happening. Mind you, it's hard to say how good a game after one game. So, I'd be keen to give it another go now I've got a grasp of the rules.
Next it was time for Alhambra, a Spiel des Jahres winner! I've only played 2 player Alhambra on my phone against AI - this was my first time against real opponents and with 3 players. Obviously, my opinions on this one are totally distorted because I won. I really enjoyed the purchasing mechanics, the tile laying and the scoring, but we all thought the game could have been over.....about 21 tiles sooner. AP set in and we all wanted it to end a little sooner. Having said that though, the scores were pretty close!
Here's a photo of me looking smug with myself for winning
I don't think I missed anything - but should just add some more factoids about the Cafe: The coffee was much better than at Thirsty Meeple & my wife enjoyed the cake she had. The staff came with good recommendations and explained rules clearly (impressively so for IoS, which had not been played but read through about an hour before). The staff were friendly to talk to about all aspects of gaming too!
It's safe to say the afternoon was extremely well spent and I'm happy knowing there's a great venue, just up the road (and over a bridge) away! Thanks for a great afternoon Rich the Fish!
My wife and I are already looking forward to the next visit, so if anyone's in Bristol for a day with nothing to do, let me know
It is time to start a new 'I love the postman-contending' thread. It's a pretty simple topic and there's a chance for everyone to take part. I like to call it 'Meeple in the Wild', the general idea is spot meeple in everyday objects, but can also include meeple out-and-about with everyday objects. Some other suggestions include:
Where nature has tried it's best to construct a meeple: Pieza de Inicio's Facebook page.
Or perhaps where mankind has lent a helping hand: 3DWilson's Coffee Stencil
Or an accidental Meeple shaped construct: Fort Clonque
Or perhaps just a simple Meeple in an unusual location: From Udo Schmitz's Carcassonne-on-Tour collection
Hopefully that will give you some ideas - Hope you can share some of your favourite Meeple in the Wild photos.
Last year we had a hugely successful Tournament to introduce new members to Carcassonne - A Welcome Tournament. One member went on to Win the Carcassonne Central World Cup a few months later!
The idea was to have players who are new to the forum and have NOT entered a major tournament here on Carcassonne Central before.
It was a great way for new members to learn the ropes and get used to scheduling games and learning to use JCloisterZone & the chatroom.
I've already had one request to take part and I know there are several forum members who have yet join a tournament; so now is an ideal time organizing Welcome Tournament 2016!
Like last year, the format will be dependent on the number of players.
Currently the only entry requirement is that you have NOT entered a tournament or league on Carcassonne Central before.
Let me know below, if you're interested!
Entry will be open for a few weeks; so Dan and other members can convince people at the UK Games Expo to join up and take part.
A note for any newcomers to the forum: It's worth looking at your notification options so you receive emails for all updates on a thread. Otherwise you may only receive one notification until you next visit the forum and may miss important announcements.
Take it easy guys. Dice Tower compares the artworks of both versions
Edit: also going to add. It's always worth watching reviews of games you know well. It gives you an indicator of how well they review games you have no idea about....
Carcassonne Central is a global community and we try best to cater for everyone! We seem to have quite a few new members looking for games, but I'm not sure how successful we've been scheduling games with them!
I'd really like to get the weekly games going again by scheduling an online chatroom event, maybe 3-4hours over one weekend where we can all try to join. It's quite possible that timezones will overlap - perhaps we can get a 24hour gaming event!
Timezones are a big concern, I'd like to see if we can determine a good 'block-of-time' for everyone to try and join the chatroom and initiate some games. This will give a target for new members, perhaps without the experience of setting up games in JCloisterZone or Yucata.
If it's successful we can make it a regular occurrence, perhaps once a fortnight or once a week. I suspect we'll find different times suitable in different timezones, but this means our global community and people who come to the site aim to join a game or get help.
Polls are all the rage at the moment: I've created a poll which broadly speaking covers our 3 primary Time Zones over a weekend Friday-Monday: America, Europe, New Zealand.
Roughly speaking, the Afternoon in America, is the Evening in Europe Morning, which is Early Morning the next day in New Zealand and the cycle continues between each phase.
I appreciate some of you work at the weekends or have other commitments, so it may be difficult. This poll is a rough attempt to determine a reasonable time to play! If the weekend is out of bounds for you: there is a 'None of the Above' vote. I usually find, I've left a glaring hole in my list of choices, usually Asparagus finds them first so: there's also an option just for you
I've allocated everyone 3 votes:
Please pick two good times for you (at a weekend). with the 3rd vote select your timezone.
I'm hoping we'll get a pretty good idea of when the best 'block-of-time' to schedule our online-event for everyone, and it should give us a good idea of the numbers of participants in case we need to schedule two-events!
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