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Carc Central Community => Official Rules => Topic started by: Martin Luther Carcassonne on May 11, 2020, 01:33:23 AM

Title: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: Martin Luther Carcassonne on May 11, 2020, 01:33:23 AM
Hi everybody!

Last weekend I played the expansion Sheep and hills in combination with the main expansions Inns and Cathedrals and traders and builders and the mini expansions The watchtowers, The festival, halflings and Castles of Germany. While we were playing this combination we found out that the Hills and sheep expansion was underrepresented during the game. The sheep gave only a small fraction of the points and both the Hills and wineyards gave only a small contribution during the game. We played similar combinations before, with Hills and sheep replaced by for example the Dragon, Castles and bazars or under the big top. However, in all these cases the games had much more dynamic and tension. Compared with this the game with Hill and sheep was actually boring and long-winded.

So my questions are:
- Am I playing Hills and sheep wrong? ;p
- Is there any combination that adds a bit more spice to Hills and sheep.
- Have you had similar experiences, what is your opinion about this situation?

Thanks for the advice
Best regards
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: coldhands on May 11, 2020, 02:22:23 AM
I just bought this expansions about a week ago... Doesn't have the chance to play with it yet  ;)
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: Meepledrone on May 11, 2020, 03:12:29 AM
Hi Martin Luther Carcassonne,

Welcome to the forum! Just have a look and you will find a lot of people sharing their fan-name expansions and some willing to play online too.

You're playing H&S correctly:

* Weird city shapes: they add some spice to the game and they can be of great help to glom additional meeples in cities or fields. You may add extra tension with phantoms (The Phantom), as you can add meeples twice as fast.

* Vineyards: if you do not place them near occupied monastic buildings, the bonus points will be gone. You can take advantage of those points with castles from Exp. 8 - Bridges, Castles & Bazaars.

* Hills: they can help you take control over features with the same number of meeples as anybody else on the feature. Adding Mini #1 - The Flying machines or The Count of Carcassonne (Exp. 6 - Count, King &Robber) you can land a meeple on a hill and wreak havoc on some features.

* Shepherd and sheep: This push-your-luck element works on its own. You can use it to grab quick points from inner fields or closed fields (surrounded by roads and cities) as you place it and score it right away. You can find a fan expansion in the German forum to add more variety to this mechanic. Here you are the teaser translated into English just in case:

https://www.carcassonne-forum.de/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1827 (https://www.carcassonne-forum.de/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1827)

Quote
Sheepdogs, cabbages and black sheep

Origin: Carcassonne Forum
Author of the fan expansion: query

This expansion can only be played together with the 9th expansion Sheep and Hills.

Are the black sheep getting the herd into trouble? Does the cabbage bring a profit? Is the shepherd dog able to defend his flock from the wolves?

Content:
- 2 tokens of black sheep
- 6 tokens with sheepdog
- 1 token with cabbages
- 1 token with 2 wolves
- 1 rules document

Hope this may help.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: dirk2112 on May 11, 2020, 04:40:03 AM
So for the main expansions, my wife and I find Inns & Cathedrals the most boring.  We each get the same amount of Inns and most of the time we close a 3 point road for a whopping 6 points.  A late game Cathedral can wipe out a lot of points from a big city, but there are only 2 Cathedrals.  There are some cool tile configurations in Inns & Cathedrals, but not compared to Hills & Sheep, Abbey & Mayor, etc. 

Hills & Sheep was my wife's favorite expansion for the longest time.  She can easily get 20-30 points from sheep alone.  Every time you get a boring road, you should be doing something with your shepherd.    The vineyards are nice, but the hills are pretty worthless.  I think maybe once per game they come into play with a shared feature, but we may forget to even bother with it.  The main point of the hills is to circumvent tile counting, but we always remove or add random tiles to prevent that. 

Using the base game and only two large expansions, most of our games are won and lost by 20 points or less.  The exceptions are #1 I destroy her if and when we play with barns or #2 I get destroyed when playing my wife's NEW favorite expansion - Under the Big Top (AKA the Circus).  Barns and/or Under the Big Top can add an unbelievable amount of points to games.  I should try playing them together to see if the score gets more out of control or we get closer to even...
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: Bumsakalaka on May 11, 2020, 04:49:21 AM
Try some mini expansions
Barber Surgeons - your meeple is going to bath after scoring - it change strategy with scoring because when baths are full, you will get score points as usual, but if it's empty, you meeple is trapped there and you have to rebuy it, so when your wife's meeple goes there, it will be your chance :D
Phantom - you get extra transparent meeple which you can use in your turn
German / Dutch Monasteries or Japanese Buildings - it will allow to earch a lot of score at end of game.
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: dirk2112 on May 11, 2020, 05:05:01 AM
We have barber surgeons still in shrink wrap.  I guess we will throw that in the next time Under the Big Top comes out  :(y)
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: Bumsakalaka on May 11, 2020, 11:28:38 AM
I'm not sure it will be useful  weapon for Under to Big Top, because to Baths is going Meeple only if is scoring for feature (so not returned Abbot before finish Monastery) and it's only one.
So not for Acrobats, not for scoring Big Top. Maximum for Ringmaster and in turn had to finish only him. Not other meeple (doesn't mather on color).
It's also not usable against shepherd :(

I know it' my wife's bigger income are Acrrobats and Shepherd and Farmers. Killer combination.
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: Meepledrone on May 11, 2020, 11:57:03 AM
A good tower or a hungry dragon can be a good match... No acrobat will be unharmed!
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: Decar on May 11, 2020, 12:27:48 PM
Moving this to official rules forum
Title: Re: Sheep and hills in combination with other expansions
Post by: Bumsakalaka on May 12, 2020, 08:42:35 AM
I'm not sure if this topic is abou rules anymore.
Anyway, check fan expansion The Boy Who Cried Wolf
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=436

If add tiles with sheeps but also tiles with wolf which is the same if you check wolf token, but also will hide all sheeps on tiles on same field.