Messages

5491

General / Re: The King & Robber Baron – Element of the Week #5

« on: October 13, 2014, 02:31:23 AM »

Rosco and I played a game over JCloisterZone last week. It wasn’t huge but we included Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, Abbey & Mayor, King & Robber Baron and The Phantom. I forget what the final scores were exactly but it was fairly high-scoring with both of us reaching around the 450 mark +/- 20 points.

I lost our game by 30ish points (despite scoring a total of more than 200 for farms alone!) but could have turned this round if I’d managed to get either the King or Robber Baron tiles back before the end of the game as they were worth more than 50 points between them. So in this case they made a huge difference, but I wasn’t paying attention to them and ultimately lost the game because of it.

My advice is to never underestimate how valuable these can end up being!

(PS - having just read the other post that you linked to, I'd just like to point out that I always read Carcking's name as Carckling up until quite recently  )

5492

General / Re: Carcassonne by Forums

« on: October 13, 2014, 02:28:00 AM »

OK so the way I see it we have three options:

1- Create a special icon with a large “R” symbol in the middle of it which we put in an obvious place on the Carcassonne Central front page so that Rosco knows when it’s his turn here (this would be kind of like how Gotham City has a special beacon with the bat symbol for whenever they need Batman).

2- We all change our forum signatures simply to “ROSCO'S TURN” in bold, 36-point font

3- I use my special powers to change his password, log on as him and take his turn for him. This may bias the game somewhat in my favour, but probably not enough that I’d win it...

Any other ideas? 

5493

General / Re: The King & Robber Baron – Element of the Week #5

« on: October 12, 2014, 11:46:51 AM »

Here is a photo of the markers I use to keep track of the size (number of tiles) of the largest city/ longest road:



Whenever anyone closes a city or road we check the size of it against the current position of the relevant marker on the score track in order to determine if the King/ Robber Baron tile needs to change hands. It also makes it easier to see what you need to aim for if you want to win either of these from their current owner...

Obviously this doesn't help with counting the number of completed cities/ roads, but this is made easier by placing some sort of marker (meeples work well for this) on every complete city/ road on the board and then counting them all up as you collect them afterwards...

5494

General / Re: Carcassonne by Forums

« on: October 12, 2014, 12:14:10 AM »

I like the figures - at Leipzig I saw the first time such pieces - great...

Are these the things that aren't meeples, bridges or tower pieces? What are they?

5495

Reviews & Session Reports / Re: October 11, 2014 - Two base game quickies.

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:16:18 PM »

Two good games. The first in particular looks to have been very high-scoring - well played! 

Going back to basics is great. I enjoy most of the expansions well enough but there's something quite wonderful about playing with just 72 tiles every now and again for many reasons. In fact, if I had the choice of playing a 200-tile game or 3 basic games I would go for the basic game every time.

EDIT: you lost the cccc tile in both games? Sure that happens in my games sometimes and it's usually this tile that gets chucked but it happens maybe 1 in 15 games so I'm surprised it happened twice to you in two games!

5496

General / Re: The King & Robber Baron – Element of the Week #5

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:09:30 PM »

The player who completes the first road receives the Robber Baron and keeps it until another player completes a longer road. Until that time, the player receives 1 bonus point every time a road is completed. The same applies for the King and cities. (Thanks to dustyu).

That is a great idea! Definitely how I will be playing next time I get to play with this. Thanks.

5497

General / Re: Carcassonne by Forums

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:07:36 PM »

I don't think you read it in full jungleboy... 

5498

News and Events / Re: Carcassonne - 9th expansion: Schafe und Huegel (Sheep and Hills)

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:00:54 PM »

@quevy -  )

5499

News and Events / Re: another new Mini-Expansion "Carcassonne - Darmstadt"

« on: October 11, 2014, 09:07:35 AM »

I think this is going to be seriously hard to get hold of and as such there's going to be a lot of demand for it if he's even able to get hold of any at all. I would suggest that one copy per person seems like a reasonable limit in light of this but obviously it is up to Khonnor...

5500

General / Re: The King & Robber Baron – Element of the Week #5

« on: October 11, 2014, 08:21:00 AM »

Are you suggesting that the King/ Robber Baron bonus could be awarded every time the tile changes hands? Because that could make things very interesting indeed! It would certainly make it worth competing for!

5501

News and Events / Re: another new Mini-Expansion "Carcassonne - Darmstadt"

« on: October 11, 2014, 07:39:14 AM »

That would be very kind. Please pick one up for me if you're able to! 

I can pay via PayPal or direct transfer as you prefer...

5502

News and Events / Re: another new Mini-Expansion "Carcassonne - Darmstadt"

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:44:31 AM »

I might be able to get to Essen on The saturday, but it will be a 650 km drive there And back

That is dedication/ insanity! 

5503

General / Re: The King & Robber Baron – Element of the Week #5

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:42:39 AM »

I know it's not very popular amongst most players but I really like this.

The important thing to remember is that the king/ robber baron tile is awarded to the player who completes the largest/ longest city/ road (in terms of number of tiles) and is nothing to do with who owned the city/ road or won points from it. I just think this is a fairly neat concept as it means there is an added incentive to complete other people's features which can lead to far more interesting games. In this way I think it adds to the game without complicating it or taking anything away from it which is a good thing in my book!

Officially, the points awarded are based on the number of completed cities/ roads on the board at the end of the game. Counting them can be a pain, especially in large games, but this helps to keep the bonus relevant to the size of the game. A game of MegaCarc could easily have 40 or so completed roads which is definitely worth competing for. Alternatively, you can just allocate a fixed value which is often suggested as 10 points for either or 30 points for both. We normally play 10 points for either, but there's no additional bonus for getting both. Doing this makes them artificially worthless though, particularly in big games.

The 5 playable tiles themselves are quite interesting but nothing much to write home about. The only other thing worth mentioning is that I keep two spare meeples with my King & Robber Baron expansions so that I can keep track of the largest/ longest completed city/ road for the purposes of knowing when to award these.

In short, it's a big  from me! 

5504

General / Re: Carcassonne by Forums

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:17:48 AM »

I had some great plans depending on what piece I drew next. Sadly there wasn't really much I could think of to do with this piece though so I'm just playing my own little game in the corner. I might come back and play with the rest of you guys if I start drawing some useful tiles...



Over to you Yellow! 

5505

General / Re: The Pile

« on: October 11, 2014, 03:13:41 AM »

Merit from me too! Great photo. Have fun organising it all again later!