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Messages - DIN0

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331
Strategy Guide / Re: Tactical Tuesday -- Week 01
« on: September 07, 2021, 09:26:08 AM »
Option D of course! Inconveniencing two other players, not benefiting the third and still bouncing +2 points for yourself.

332
Strategy Guide / Re: Mayor - the failed concept
« on: September 05, 2021, 06:25:23 AM »
Ok, so there are two things I think are worth exploring. Both are related to Carcassonne Maps:
1) Germany Map + Chips = the chips allow you to upgrade one of your meeples to increase its majority value. The ability to do this at any given moment stems entirely from how the player played the game up until that point and it is fully under his/hers control. Depending on how it works, this could be beneficial to the Mayor.
Here the rules are unfortunately quite vague, they state: "During a scoring an upgraded Meeple counts as 2 Meeples in the respective area (like the big Meeple of the 1st expansion)." This makes perfect sense for a normal meeple and all other meeples who have base majority value of 1. However it does not make it apperent as to what happens when you upgrade a Big Meeple of a Mayor.
It all comes down to how the big meeple anility works in the first place (something we did not need to discuss nor clarify until now). Is it a +1 bonus, or x2 bonus, or is it replace the current value with 2 bonus? Depending on which one of these three it is the results would be: a) Mayor becomes N+1, Big Meeple becomes 2+1=3; b) Mayor becomes N x 2, Big Meeple becomes 2x2=4; c) Mayor becomes 2, Big Meeple remains 2.
Options a) and b) benefit Mayor and Big Meeple, option c) disadvantages Mayor and is neutral toward Big Meeple.
The wording of the Chip rule and the original Big Meeple rule is only partilly helpful - it states that the meeple in question counts as 2 meeples This might indicate a x2 bonus. It then goes to clarify that it works "like the Big Meeple from Exp. 1"  which would indicate replacement for 2 bonus or +1 bonus.
But in reality it merely tells us that the chip upgrade gives the affected meeple the ability of a Big Meeple. Since no meeple type aside from the Big could have this ability until now, we simply do not know how exactly it works. Based on the wording it would seem to be: "take the meeple in question and count it as two copies of itself". The original Big Meeple does this to regular normal meeple - the bigness is an inherent permanent upgrade. The chips would then ugrade it further by making it the equivalent of two Big Meeples. Likewise the upgraded Mayor would become an equivalent of two Mayors whose strength depends on the pennant count.
If this is the case mayor would become truly useful on the German Map with Chips.

2) Great Britain Map + Chips = the second idea is minor but has potntial and is more concrete than the previous one. On this map you can buy additional turns by sending your meeples away to the Isle of Man. You get them back back by paying the price in chips. This makes Mayor more interesting in several ways. You can send it away without losing a valuable piece to get the extra turn. Or you can wait until opponent does so and attack with yur own Mayor. The availability of necessary chips is largely under the players control, so one could deprive them of what they need to get the Mayor back. Alternatively, you can launch a surprise attack by getting a double turn and by clever chip play get the Mayor back right away and use it with the extra tile for innvasion.

So these are my two proposition on how to actually make better use of the Mayor. Number 2) is definitelly possible, but provides minor yet versatile benefits. Number 1) depends on how the Big Meeple rule actually works.

333
Strategy Guide / Re: Mayor - the failed concept
« on: September 04, 2021, 02:03:45 PM »
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We were also playing with Inns and Cathedrals, two of the players were working on a large city with a Cathedral and about 10 tiles with 5 coats of arm.  When it came to my turn they had closed all sides of the city except one.  I placed a city edge at 90 degrees next to their single needed tile and placed my mayor on it, zero coats of arm, so it was useless where I places it.  Then, the first player did not draw a city tile.  The second player drew a 3 sided city tile which he decided not to place on the possible connection that I made, then I got lucky and drew the two sided city tile, with coat of arms, that I needed!  The city they worked on for a long time was suddenly mine and I thanked them for all of their hard work and the points that I got!

Yes, this is certainly one of the few ways one can actually use Mayor - last minute forced joining to a city without opponent Mayors. Kothmann mentioned it his previous post and I agree it is plausible. But it is too circumstantial and can be averted in too many ways - the Abbey, placing the separating tile you mentioned, placing an ideal Halfling etc. It is a good opportunistic usage if you can manipulate it into such situation and have necessary luck at the right time. But I cannot proclaim it as something that makes the Mayor a good and functional piece in consideration of all its problems.

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Oh there you go!  Just be sure you connect the Mayor before the completion square is surrounded so the opponents can’t close it with the Abbey.  Nice.
Well of course  :D but even if we squint and disregard the possibility of other players both surrounding and filling the final gap, leaving the city extendable or reachable creates opportunities for other Mayors joining.

I will also continue to try and think of something useful.

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We played a Mayor variant years ago where the Mayor stayed in a city and scored points at the end for every farmer in a neighboring field.
Interesting idea! Not exactly a direct fix to the Mayor, but very good unrelated ability. Reminds me of 1st edition farm scoring.

334
Strategy Guide / Re: Mayor - the failed concept
« on: September 04, 2021, 07:34:18 AM »
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But let me try to mount a defense of the poor Mayor.  To score, a big city has to close.  And to close, it has to be one tile away from closing.  If you mount a Mayor invasion at that moment and get lucky to draw the connecting tile before your opponents are able to block or counter, you can glom on.  If your opponents have concluded that their Mayor is useless for defensive purposes (per your analysis), you might get an outright steal.  And of course it isn’t all luck.  You can try to set up favorable conditions, such as getting two road edges facing the completion square, so that when you place your city cap with the Mayor, the only tile that fits will be a CCRR, of which there are 5 in the base game!  (Mayor tiles include a CCRR city splitter, perhaps to counter this very idea?)
Thanks for the response!
Your proposed scenario is certainly plausible, but I do not believe it is sufficient to grant Mayor a strong role. If one were to set up a situation where one tile is necessary to complete a large city, and that tile would simultaneously lead to joining of enemy Mayor, the city-owner can purposefully evade this by filling the gap by their Abbey tile (which is once again included in the very same expansion ::)), which would cut off the invading Mayor. And since they would see the enemy Mayor coming, simply by turn order, they could do this beffore it had a chance to join.
Although I do agree with your surmission that one could take advantage of the "no use in deploying a defensive Mayor" conclusion of the city-owner. Perhaps there could be a set up with an incomplete, non-extendable, Mayor-free big city, needing a last tile to completion, where one could use a flying machine with their Mayor to invade the metropolis. Then the Abbey would not help and the original owner would need to rely on a random chance of drawing another flying machine and sucessfully landing in their city.
That could work, but I am not convinced that as sufficient for a stable role of flying invader. One, this could be quite situational (although not extremely rare), two after the first time someone pulled this off, it would incentivise other players to include Mayor in their big cities devolving the meeple back into a formality.

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In other words, when playing the mayor, follow your advise about the barn:
Well I did do that  :D after all I included some potential scenarios in my post as well, but I was unable to find anything reliably or consistently viable, no real niche. There are many ways to counteract the barn, one can let imagination loose on that one, but built something up as a ueful piece is more difficult than counter an already useful piece. Anyway, this is something I hoped others would propose (as you did).

There is something else that comes to mind and that is to make an anequal playing field by capturing Mayor(s) with the Tower. This would create actual opportunities to make use of your own. But this would have to be timed really well, because it is easy enought o reclaim your Mayor from captivity - exchange or straight up ransom payment.

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Your idea to fix the Mayor is interesting, but it seems too unlikely to me that a player would be able to exploit the pennants of their color.
That was a simplest solution thatcame to mind. I agree there are certainly better ways to do this by not using the pennants altogether. Pennants being six colors would dillute the useful ones in terms of Mayor value and that would need to be solved by inflating total pennant quantities. Then again this exact "problem" may prove to be another strategic choice (majority value vs point value of the city with risk of stronger enemy Mayor), but this would have to be tested.

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Here’s another thought: what if the Mayor worked similarly to the barn?!  Some sort of restriction on when a Mayor could be placed, perhaps only if a city has at least 3 pennants, for example, a Mayor can be placed in a city with other meeples.  The player with majority control when the Mayor is placed scores for a completed city, and all non-Mayors are returned to the players.  Any time other meeples join the city, they score for an incomplete city and are returned.  The Mayor only scores once and is never returned.  This would give players strong incentive to avoid mega-cities, which I think would be a good development.  There may be other reasons this wouldn’t work...

Since I don’t use the wagon either, maybe it should do the same thing for a road...
I do not think making them barn equivalents for other features would be possible. The barn relies on the fact that fields are never complete, which is not true for roads and cities.

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Anyway, thanks for such a detailed and interesting post.  Really enjoyed thinking about it.
Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it. I am looking forward to further constructive discussion.




335
News and Events / Re: Carcassonne maps: Taiwan
« on: September 04, 2021, 05:42:33 AM »
Please include me in the list for the Taiwan map also!  EU  :(y)

336
Strategy Guide / Mayor - the failed concept
« on: September 04, 2021, 05:40:26 AM »
With the current discussion on the 5th major expansion ongoing, I decided this was ripe time to post the topic i had in mind for a long time.

Let's discuss the titular component of this expansion box - The Mayor.

Mayor is the first of the highly specialized meeples tied to a specific feature-type, namely the cities. It's main function is simple enough, it is meant to serve as a guardian of your main big city you are currently working on. The intention is that if used correctly, Mayor would thwart the invasion efforts of the opposing players by making it so demanding and resource expensive, that such tactic would quickly become inviable. With such overwhelming support, the city would be guaranteed to be in the ownership of the Mayor-player when completed and net great points, or if not completed trap a lot of enemy meeples for the cost of one (Mayor).

All of this sounds very good and promising on paper, but this is where the problem comes. The concept is good, however its actual implementation is an utter failure. Let me elaborate...

Mayor can only be deployed to a city and its majority value equals the number of pennants (shields) in the city it occupies. This has potential to grant it tremendous majority strength. Other players would surely need a lot of meeples to overpower a Mayor right? Not exactly.
Let's look at the way a typical city invasion usually occurs.
Player A establishes a city with a single meeple.
Player B places a nearby city tile and places their own meeple with intention of joining.
Player A places a tile inconveniencing Player B by making the joining more difficult.
Player B lucks out and draws a tile he needs anyway and joins the cities into one. Both players have equal strength 1A=1B.
Player A does not intend to go down that easily and prepares a new nerby city segment with a big meeple. He succeeds in joining it to the big city. 3A>1B.
Player B now needs at least two meeples to neutralize the majority of Player A, and an extra meeple to gain majority of his own.

This goes on until the city is completed and one of the players gains majority and points. Other player can join too in the process. The players go back and forth by joining in individual meeples (or rarely more than 1 by single tile placement if set up beforehand), which translates to majority values of 1, or perhaps 2 if using big meeple. Majority is generally gained/lost by increments of 1 or rarely 2. Larger the increment and/or the number of increments, larger the necessary amount of actions (tile and meeple placements), thus total value change requires an equivalent amount of setup.

How does Mayor change this dynamic?
Let's modify the previous scenario with the Mayor included. Player A builds a city with two of his normal meeples. Player B invades by joining a big meeple catching up 2A=2B. Player A in subsequent turns joins in the Mayor. The city already has an X amount of pennants (let's say X is an arbitrary number bigger than 5). Player A just swung the majority largely to his side by minimal effort, which is the intended function of the Mayor.
Player B is now in a position where she needs a very large investment to overpower Player A. Or does she?
Player B proceeds to join a city segment with her own Mayor. Since all Mayors draw their strength from the same pennants, Mayor B will have exactly the same strength as Mayor A, effectivelly neutralizing it on the spot.

And this is the problem with Mayor. It does not matter how many pennants there are in the city and how powerful your Mayor becomes as a consequence. All the opponent ever has to do is to invade with their own Mayor and the advantage will be lost instantly with the same minimal effort. The increments by which the majority changes, regardless of how large, are always the same for all Mayors.
There is no difference between a normal meeple and Mayor fighting for the majority: its is either +1A=+1B; or +XA=+XB. You gain majority by one tile/meeple placement, then opponent catches up by one tile/meeple placement, equal effort.
This effectively negates any special privileges Mayor has.

When there is big city on the map, the opponents WILL try to join in. Original owner would want to increase his/her presence in that city and Mayor is the obvious choice, but it is rendered functionally useless because opponents can just proceed with the invasion with their own Mayors, making the process no different from when just normal meeples where included.

So how does the Mayor change the dynamic of city invasion? He doesn't - at all.
If you want to effectively use your Mayor, you would have to wait until the opponents are already using their Mayor in a city of their own. But why would they do that? Surely not for defensive purposes, that would mean they are trying to defend a big city, which would just invite the other Mayors including yours. They wouldn't waste their Mayor in a small city either because then they couldn't join in with the others Mayors in some different large city when opportunity arises, leaving them out of big points.
Even if one or two players did have their Mayors stranded, chances are remaining enemy Mayors will invade anyway.
There is one other situation when one could use the Mayor ability with no fear of it being negated - that is when every single player has their Mayor deployed in their own city. But by that point, if used correctly no one will even try to invade the other's Mayor-ruled mega-cities. Additionally, when such cities are completed and scored, big point gains will roughly equalize each other, making the Mayor usage once again inconsequential.

So the only two optimal ways to use Mayor meeple are either the opportunistic invasion leading to all mayors being in the same mega-city negating each other, or each Mayor being in their own city where no one gains any advantage from them. This makes Mayor completely useless.
The only instance where Mayor's intended function would be used effectivelly is when opponents make suboptimal play. In other words, if all players play well or at least decent, Mayors end up in one of two situations where they are useless, and it is always a bad idea to play them otherwise.

So far I described how the special ability of Mayor is useless, but it is actually far worse then that. One could argue that if not for its special ability, Mayor could at least be used as an additional meeple. This is where the specialization comes to haunt the Mayor once again. It can only be played in a city, so its overall usefulness is reduced significantly. And when inside the city, not only does it not provide any advantage, but it can very easily be worse than a normal meeple. Since it draws its value from the number of pennants, if there are 0 in the city Mayor alone cannot score any points upon completion. This forces the player to make the cities with Mayor bigger and more valuable which in turn invites others for invasion, where Mayor once again fails to do its job.
So you effectivelly end up with a meeple without any special ability, which can only be placed specifically in a city and even there it is worse than a normal meeple. :o

One has to reach to other expansions and combinations in order to look for some kind of saving grace for this meeple, but do not be surprised to be dissapointed even there.
There is some invading potential when combined with the Count of Carcassonne or Flying machines. A surpise attack with massive majority value can be advantageous, but it only prolongs the inevitable equalization by the enemy Mayor, or Mayor-Count counter strategy.

There is the interesting tidbit about Mayor being able to be the Knight in the castle from Exp. 8, but this curiosity is useless, because the castle cannot be scored due to no pennants. The only exception to this is playing with carcassonne Maps, which do in fact have convertable small city segments with a pennant, so one could have a Mayor in castle here which can be scored. But keep in mind these special segments are always located on the edge of the map, making the value of th castle lower because of the reduced castle area. So while somewhat viable if you wish to make such castle but not dedicate a meeple that could better be used somewhere else, this is still not a major advantage. The fact that the best way to use Mayor is to make it a throwaway piece that shall not be missed if its castle will go wrong (and only when playing with Maps), does not paint a pretty picture for this piece of wood.

So because of all I described, I consider the Mayor to be the most useless splinter of wood to ever be introduced to the world of Carcassonne. And yes that includes the Catapult - I genuinely consider it to be more useful than Mayor.

 :orange-meeple: :orange-meeple: :orange-meeple:

So now that we established all that is wrong with the Mayor, is there a way this could have been averted or corrected?
I propose a modification that could have been made when concieving the rules,one that actually allows Mayor to do what it is supposed to:

General rules Mayor remain the same with one adjustment - the pennants in the game are subdivided into six colors based on the player color. When a Mayor is deployed to a city, it only gains value based on the pennants of the same color. This way, Mayors inside the same city have different values and this number can be adjusted by adding additional pennants of the chosen color. It creates further tactical decisions when deciding where to put your Mayor.

Of course this might introduce few difficulties of their own such as the need to keep the number of pennant colors at least roughly equal. But it's not like this is impossible - games like Bang! the card game have been doing something like this for years. Each expansion there seeks to keep the suits of the cards balanced and percantages at their set values. This could surely be solved when it comes to Carcassonne.
Another issue might be the fact that Mayor comes in the 5th Expansion, so there would be a lack of foresight from the previous material released. In the original C1 release perhaps, but what about C2? There is a lot of foresight and forward planning in C2 already, the farmhouses and sheds, the robbers at the roads. All of these are elements that had no function upon first release and then for some time, but were clearly included with some function in mind later down the road. Not to mention the still as of yet unused water towers. All of C2 material could have easily included pennats of six colors from the very start and only make use of them when Exp. 5 was re-released in C2.
Changing or adjusting the functionality of already existing elements from C1 in C2 is no new concept either - look at the wagon. The fact that its change occured in the very expansion where the Mayor comes from makes this a no excuse situation.

One would hope there is still a chance for this amazing concept with a failed implementation in the future.

And if someone can find some special niche actually useful usage or interaction with the Mayor please post it here. Other ideas for adjustments to the basic rules are also welcome.

337
Strategy Guide / Re: A personal opinion about barns
« on: September 03, 2021, 02:32:10 AM »
Barns are indeed quite powerful pieces and have many different functions and advantages. But just like any other element in Carcassonne, I do not consider them overpowered - there are always ways to combat certain strategy, either by the way you play, what combination of expansions you choose or how you interact with other players. There is a myriad of approaches and it is up to the player to choose the ideal one.

If barn were a player specific figure then perhaps argument could be made for unbalanced abilities, however, since every player has access to it, it would be disingenuous to suggest that.

If someone is continuosly getting beaten by other players barn, then I would simply recommend them to put in the work, be creative and just get better  :orange-meeple: Come up with a counter-strategy and select the right expansions to make it work. That is the beauty of Carcassonne, you can always find ways to adjust and balance the game.

338
The Marketplace / Re: Looking for CutCassonne
« on: August 28, 2021, 09:33:50 AM »
That is very exciting news Allograft! I'll be sure to keep an eye on them.

339
News and Events / Re: Carcassonne maps: Taiwan
« on: August 28, 2021, 02:56:41 AM »
Looks like some rule translations will have to be made, based on the info we got.

340
News and Events / Re: Carcassonne maps: Taiwan
« on: August 27, 2021, 11:00:47 AM »
This is amazing. I hope we can ge our hands on it! :orange-meeple:

341
Other Games / Re: Carcassonne and Catan
« on: August 23, 2021, 09:19:57 AM »
Catan and Carcassonne are indeed comparable in terms of overall complexity and perhaps the number of expansions/spin-offs/promos.
There are several major differences between the two:

1) Carcassonne expansions are entirely cross-compatible, you can play pretty much everything at once. Catan on the other hand is much more modular and more often than not operates on the basis of "scenarios", most of which cannot be combined, but if played in a succession, create a loose story.

2) Catan is much more strategic game (long term planning), while Carcassonne is way more tactical (short term planning). You need to be worrying about the future of the game and need to know what you're doing from the very start in Catan, otherwise, you might put yourself in a basically unwinnable position. In Carcassonne, you can plow throught the game just by calculating the best possible move in any given moment and not look more than one or two turns into the future and still be fine. On the other hand, a single turn is more valuable in Carcassonne and small mistakes are much more unforgiving. In Catan, you can have a random sub-par turn (or even multiple ones in a row) and it wouldn't affect you much.

When it comes to luck, purely base Catan is much more luck driven than Carcassonne, however make no mistake - that is a luck governed by statistics, which is and always was the part of the strategy. You need to take advantage of the statistics to sway the luck your way in a snowball like fashion.
In Carcassonne, you have much more immediate control over what you're doing at any given point.

Both games are great. But when it comes to purely base game, I consider Carcassonne to be better. If anyone is interested in Catan but feels it might be too simplistic, or luck driven, I recommend the Cities and Knights expansion. That basically serves as advanced rules for the game and adds several layers of depth.

342
The Marketplace / Re: Looking for CutCassonne
« on: August 21, 2021, 02:42:24 PM »
Want more ? >:D Remember the Brettspiel adventskalender's ? Some of them had a secret 25th present hidden in the back compartment. I wonder how many people never noticed and threw away the cardboard husk with the promo still inside  :o

Good thing I kept all of the leftover cardboard - otherwise I could have been one of those people.

343
The Marketplace / Re: Looking for CutCassonne
« on: August 21, 2021, 12:40:18 PM »
Who would have thought CutCassonne of all things would be hard to find :o
It is possible some of the copies were destroyed when people didn't notice the tiles on the bottom of that gift box.

344
The Marketplace / Re: Looking for CutCassonne
« on: August 21, 2021, 11:56:31 AM »
No problem  :(y) If by some miracle I happen upon two copies of CutCassonne, I'll let you know  ;)

345
The Marketplace / Re: Looking for CutCassonne
« on: August 21, 2021, 11:52:44 AM »
 ;D I did not mean the ones from School Allograft. I was talking about the set already containing 13 different Teachers sold at Cundco (I believe the name is 13 different colored transparent meeples).

I will also repost this here so that Meepledrone does not miss it from the previous page:
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Hmm... even still, could you PM me some pictures if you find time? I would like to check something.

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