Carcassonne Games Marathon: July 2nd in London

[kettlefish]

Hi JT Atomico,
thanks for your detailed reports for the games.

Please explain the four numbers for example "JT Atomico 4 1 1 1" - I don't understand that.

Is it possible to put also the score for each game and not only the total score for all games.

[Andrew the Ambo]

I would guess 4 wins, 1 second, 1 third and 1 fourth placing.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

[JT Atomico]

Please explain the four numbers for example "JT Atomico 4 1 1 1" - I don't understand that.

Andrew the Ambo is correct. That means 4 wins, 1 second place, 1 third place and 1 fourth place.

Is it possible to put also the score for each game and not only the total score for all games.

The score for the game is at the top of each post.

Game 7 - Travel Carcassonne

Halfling 98 JT Atomico 98 Curt194 84 jungleboy 73

[JT Atomico]

Game 8 - New World

JT Atomico 90 Halfling 62 Curt194 61 jungleboy 48



I seem to be saying this a lot, but again I think that the New World landscape looks very nice. The awesome big start tile that doubles as the scoreboard is great and the more photo-realistic tiles are an interesting change. But then you have those pesky surveyors!

The most impactful feature of the New World is without a doubt the two surveyor meeples (the white ones on the far left row of the photo above). Without going into too much detail, the surveyors progress westward as features are completed. You get a bonus for being on the same column as them when scoring, but if you fall behind them your standing settlers are removed from the board. Trying to keep ahead of their relentless march forward is what caused this board to spindle out to the left and nearly spill off the edge of the table!

However the bonus points that they offer can be very significant and we were able to take advantage of this several times to boost a small score for a trail or a town in to a much larger one. I managed to run out to a bit of a lead by capitalising on this a bit more while the others were busy fighting for a big plains area.

In the end, despite the intense fight for majority, the plains did not provide all that many points in the grand scheme of things and the points that I had racked up during the game saw me over the line to victory.

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	5	1	1	1	(746)
2nd		Halfling	3	3	1	1	(651)
3rd		Curt194	3	0	3	2	(594)
4th		jungleboy	0	3	2	3	(578)

[JT Atomico]

Game 9 - My First Carcassonne

Curt194 8 JT Atomico 8 Halfling 7 jungleboy 5



OK, I know it is meant for kids, but I think that My First Carcassonne is great! The illustrations on the tiles are vibrant and fun, and the idea of zooming in to build an indvidual town rather than creating a whole landscape is a really clever way of giving the tiles their own unique aesthetic.

The gameplay is nice as well. Everytime you complete a road you place a pawn on each child of your colour on that road. The first player to place all of their pawns wins. Simple rules with just enough strategy to give you tactical choices when placing a tile, but enough of a luck element that nobody should worry too much about losing. I could definitely imagine enjoying this one as a young child!

The best individual tile placement was by Halfling, who managed to complete a road with three of his pawns in one move (also giving two to Curt194 and one to jungleboy).

Curt194 had the last play of the game which completed a road that let him place his last pawn and, luckily for me, also allowed me to place my two remaining pawns. This made us the joint winners.

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	6	1	1	1	(754)
2nd		Curt194	4	0	3	2	(602)
3rd		Halfling	3	3	2	1	(658)
4th		jungleboy	0	3	2	4	(583)

[JT Atomico]

Game 10 - Wheel of Fortune

JT Atomico 141 Halfling 125 Curt194 123 jungleboy 91



Wheel of Fortune brought us back to more familiar rules territory. Once again, it was surprising how high scoring this was compared with the base game, reaching over double the combined score of our first game of the day! Obviously the Wheel and its actions can count for some of this, but I think it is still a bit surprising.

The crown spaces on the Wheel provided some good points if you managed to get lucky with where the pig would go next. Most of the time the Wheel action didn't have much impact, except towards the end when Curt194 was forced to take away a valuable follower because of the "Plague".

Also, the "Tax" space came up a few times and bagged some nice points for jungleboy, who had two knights in the big city on the left of the photo with two pennants. Unfortunately he just missed out on completing this city which would have been a big score.

On the opposite side of the board, Halfling and I fought over the other large city. Each of us had one knight in the city already and one ready to glom on. Halfling was the first to join in his second follower, but I was just fortunate enough to draw the right tile to join mine in as well. It turned out to be not a moment too soon, as the very next turn Halfling had a splitter tile that would have capped the city and won it entirely for him!

I also managed a last minute glom into one of the big fields worth 21 points, which was enough to push me ahead of the others in the final scoring to win the game.

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	7	1	1	1	(895)
2nd		Curt194	4	0	4	2	(725)
3rd		Halfling	3	4	2	1	(783)
4th		jungleboy	0	3	2	5	(674)

[jungleboy]

Game 8 - New World

In the end, despite the intense fight for majority, the plains did not provide all that many points in the grand scheme of things and the points that I had racked up during the game saw me over the line to victory.

Yes, I seem to remember fighting hard for the biggest plain only for it to be not at all worth it!!

[JT Atomico]

Game 11 - Cardcassonne

JT Atomico 192 Halfling 186 jungleboy 174 Curt194 154



Cardcassonne was next up, the first of two games that step outside the tile laying genre. I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was - an impressively well done departure from the core series gameplay. I believe Halfling, in particular, was convinced enough to make it his next Carcassonne purchase.

The basic gameplay is about playing cards down in to rows and judging when the right moment is to claim the cards in that row for yourself. Wait too long and someone else can take the cards that you want, but it is equally frustrating seeing all of the cards that you could have won if you held your nerve a little longer!

In the early game, we were all still feeling out the best way to play and collecting a bit of an assortment of cards. The 10 point bonus for facedown cards played in to the wrong coloured row scored a lot of points early on but became less common later as we tuned in to the strategy a bit more.

The animals cards grew in value as the game went on. I managed to collect quite a nice flock of sheep. If memory serves, the best play on people cards came from Halfling who netted 28 points in one round.

In the end, I had collected up enough building cards to make two full sets, giving me a full 60 points which was enough to edge a narrow win over Halfling.

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	8	1	1	1	(1087)
2nd		Curt194	4	0	4	3	(879)
3rd		Halfling	3	5	2	1	(969)
4th		jungleboy	0	3	3	5	(848)

[JT Atomico]

Game 12 - The Dice Game

JT Atomico 47 Halfling 31 jungleboy 15 Curt194 3



While Cardcassonne proved that the series can produce a good game not based on laying tiles, I think it is fair to say that The Dice Game does not live up to the same standard. It is a basically enjoyable little risk vs reward game, but lacks any real tactical depth.

The option to collect three knight dice to double your score in the next round and keep a dice (to reduce the number of dice for others) sounds good in principle, but it backfired a couple of times for Curt194 and jungleboy who ended up doubling a zero after collecting knights which meant they scored nothing over two rounds.

The target score is also quite low (42 points, perhaps a Hitchhiker's Guide reference?) which means you have very little chance to recover if you get behind. Curt194 was particularly unlucky in this respect, over the four turns that he had during the game the dice only granted him 3 points.

I managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over and got the win. A six tile city doubled by the knights was my last roll.

(The coloured dice cups are from Perudo.)

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	9	1	1	1	(1134)
2nd		Curt194	4	0	4	4	(882)
3rd		Halfling	3	6	2	1	(1000)
4th		jungleboy	0	3	4	5	(863)

[Halfling]

Spot on Jamie, Cardcassonne has been ordered from Cundco.de. 

Also The City is on it's way via the Geek market - thanks Curt for this tipoff.

I'm still not feeling it for The Castle and decided not to bid for the copy on Ebay today.

[jungleboy]

I'm still not feeling it for The Castle and decided not to bid for the copy on Ebay today.

Once you start feeling it, Paul might be able to get you a copy to save you from having to bid. That's how I got my copy. In fact, my playing partner calls the Castle, to this day, 'the Swedish game'.

[JT Atomico]

Game 13 - Winter Edition

Halfling 90 JT Atomico 80 Curt194 77 jungleboy 75



Along with Travel Carcassonne, this was one of only two games of the day that was played entirely under the full modern base game rules (we didn't play the "supplementary" farmer rules in Carcassonne II).

The first tile played completed the city on the start tile and was then followed by the road ending monastery, immediately opening up the potential size of the snowfield. When on my turn I drew a CRFR (like the start tile), the farm was already too tempting and I placed my first follower of the game as a farmer.

This set the tone for the game with the main field growing to take over most of the board. Indeed, all ten of the completed cities in the game were a part of the main farm. By the end of play I had six farmers in the field, jungleboy had five, and both Curt194 and Halfling had three. My sixth farmer was joined in by Halfling's final tile, much to the annoyance of jungleboy!

However, despite grabbing all 30 points for the field, it was not enough to win me the game. Over emphasis on farmind had cost me points in play, crucially missing out on a 26 point city that was shared by all of the others.

It was Halfling who ultimately took the honours, vindicating his last play to take away jungleboy's share of the field. This was Halfling's fourth win of the day and broke a seven game winning streak for me.

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	9	2	1	1	(1214)
2nd		Halfling	4	6	2	1	(1090)
3rd		Curt194	4	0	5	4	(959)
4th		jungleboy	0	3	4	6	(938)

[JT Atomico]

Game 14 - South Seas

Curt194 29 Halfling 26 jungleboy 23 JT Atomico 22



​South Seas is one of my favourites among the spin-off games. I think winning resources to trade with the ships is a really neat way of removing the need for the scoreboard. I like the tropical theming as well, it makes me feel summery! It is also the only spin-off that I have played at all of the Carcassonne Central UK meet-ups.

The biggest individual feature of the game was an 8 banana island which jungleboy managed to win on his own with two islanders against one each from me and Halfling. It's strange, but I think this was actually the first time that I have played South Seas and seen a feature competed for by more than one follower per player. The game has a tendency to be less directly competitive in my past experience. This is not a criticism of jungleboy, who used his banana bounty to good effect, just an observation that I found interesting!

I have also found that the game usually ends because all of the trading ships have been purchased, rather than when the last tile is played, but on this occasion it was the tiles that ran out first.

Curt194 took his fourth win of the day in this one, thanks in part to a great effort to complete a market just in time to grab a newly revealed 6-point ship.

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	9	2	1	2	(1236)
2nd		Curt194	5	0	5	4	(988)
3rd		Halfling	4	7	2	1	(1116)
4th		jungleboy	0	3	5	6	(961)

[JT Atomico]

Game 15 - Gold Rush

jungleboy 114 Halfling 98 Curt194 89 JT Atomico 72



Gold Rush is the second game in Carcassonne's "Around the World" series. Perhaps I am just not used to it yet, but I am not nearly as keen on it as I am with its series predecessor, South Seas.

My biggest gripe is with the mining tokens, which can end up being quite overpowered and undermine (pun very much intended) the value of a big mountain. For a completed mountain you get one point per gold nugget but for each of those nuggets there is also one mining token placed on the mountain which is worth just under two points on average. So if you have your mountain heavily mined (which you can't really prevent) you give away a lot of points. This disincentivizes the building of large mountains, which is contrary to almost all other Carcassonne features.

But then perhaps I am only complaining about it because it cost me a lot of points in this game! The big mountain at the bottom of the photo belonged to me and was heavily mined by others, while on the other hand all of my own attempts to mine mountains were quickly shut down in the next round of tiles.

I also managed to miss that there was a huge prairie that everyone else had a share in and I acted too late to try and glom in. It ended up being worth 38 points so missing out was a total game breaker! Overall, this was my personal worst performance of the day. I think fatigue was starting to set in as we approached the final stretch of games.

On a more positive note, jungleboy played a very good game including a share in a big un-mined mountain, which won him a lot of points and mining tokens, and also a good number of points from his cities. This put jungleboy quite far ahead of the chasing pack and earned him his (long overdue) first win of the day!

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	9	2	1	3	(1308)
2nd		Curt194	5	0	6	4	(1077)
3rd		Halfling	4	8	2	1	(1214)
4th		jungleboy	1	3	5	6	(1075)

[JT Atomico]

Game 16 - Carcassonne II

JT Atomico 71 Halfling 60 Curt194 45 jungleboy 45



​Next we moved on to Carcassonne II (as it is called on the forum), otherwise known as just "Carcassonne" to the publishers! The new art style has been the subject of much controversy and discussion on the forum, but actually it seemed that all of us in attendance quite liked it… I hope that doesn't mean we lose credibility as true blood Carcassonne diehards!

Since the new edition of the rules puts farming under the "Supplementary Rules" section, we decided to play without fields since the spirit of the day was to play all of the games as they were originally intended and without any expansions or variations. I found that this changed the feel of the game quite dramatically and made tile placement options much more straightforward than normal. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, especially at this stage in the marathon when we were all ready for a slight mental break.

Without fields, the monasteries arguably became the pivotal point scoring feature of the game. I was very fortunate to draw three of them. Two of them completed alongside each other after finding just the right tiles in a classic cloister zone play. Halfling and jungleboy nearly completed a very big shared city, but I just managed to block it off with my other monastery tile, which cost them some points and trapped two meeples each.

These two things were enough to win me the game, which took me in to double digits for victories over the course of the day.

Overall standings

1st		JT Atomico	10	2	1	3	(1379)
2nd		Curt194	5	0	7	4	(1122)
3rd		Halfling	4	9	2	1	(1274)
4th		jungleboy	1	3	6	6	(1120)