ELEMENT OF THE WEEK: FRIDAYCarcassonne 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
FRIDAY (from
Carcassonne: Around the World #1: South Seas). I must admit up front that I have never played this game and have only read the rules (two or three times, I think). I do own it, but it sits unopened in Arizona as I type, and will be remaining there for the foreseeable future unfortunately. In any case, the stand-alone game
South Seas delays the scoring mechanics of normal Carcassonne until the end of the game by having players collect "Wares" and "Ships" which are then traded in a sort of
Stone Age-style mechanic. Wares can be used to stock Ships and then the Ships are worth points at game end. It is a rather unique take on the general Carcassonne experience. Friday, the first and only expansion for
South Seas, adds six new tiles and a new figure to the game. The expansion requires a new set-up procedure to recreate weeks (meaning that a draw bag is not allowed when playing with Friday), which are essential to recreating the Friday story. Whenever a pile is depleted, a new tile is added to "Friday's Island", which is a separate, disconnected island beside the main board. Each time a new tile is added, Friday moves to that tile. After all six tiles are placed, the player who depletes subsequent tile piles must move Friday to a different tile on the island (rather like a mandatory Count of Carcassonne). For the seven "days" Friday is on that tile, all players get the benefits of the features on that tile. The six tiles give various bonuses such as giving extra Wares, giving discounts for completing Ships, allowing players to trade Wares, and, in contrast to the others, forcing players to retrieve an Islander after placing one.
The idea behind this unusual expansion is nice and it is certainly unique among all Carcassonne expansions, but it is unnecessarily fiddling in many different ways. The thematic device of splitting the draw tiles into 11 piles is annoying, especially to those who use draw bags. It also requires a longer setup time than most Carcassonne games require. Furthermore, having a completely separate tile build elsewhere on the gameboard, disconnected, is really rather odd. First, that build should just start out built — having players build it randomly seems just unnecessary. And second, it breaks the visual look of the game when those tiles could have been used as a large start tile as with the Wheel of Fortune or the City of Carcassonne. The mechanic of bonuses is not unique — it has been used in The Messengers expansion,
Hunters & Gatherers, and
The Castle — but these bonuses are a bit strange, or at least two of them are. The ability to trade Wares comes straight out of Catan but feels strange here. Why would players trade Wares? It would only benefit both of them and, thereby, undermine the mechanics of the game. Similarly, why would players force themselves and other players to remove Islanders whenever an Islander is placed? Granted there are certainly some strategic situations where this would be useful, but forcing them to do it every time for 7 turns? That seems like a bit much. Finally, the 7-days mechanic is very odd because it means that some players will have the same bonus twice and others only once. Granted this can be a good thing, but it also is slightly unfair and uneven for those players that really want a bonus but know they will only get it once. Discuss your relationship with Friday and how you optimise your use of this strategic element.
Next Week: The Sheriff (from Around the World #2: Gold Rush) Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2027.0