Author Topic: Carcassonne Big Box 5 Review (Read 30548 times)

Paul · « **Reply #15 on:** December 29, 2014, 07:32:54 AM »

Quote from: Decar on December 29, 2014, 06:17:39 AM

I've yet to pop open my BB5, so I'll take some photos of the boards pre-popping tonight, if it'll help

Ah! That reminds me. I've taken high-res photos of all the spreadsheet unpunched so those I have in my other computer that crashed. I can hopefully recover the harddrive via external usb plug that I have. Unless you beat me to it. Crazy workload today sneaking in here while I can.

Decar · « **Reply #16 on:** January 01, 2015, 01:44:20 PM »

Finally got around to this!

Sheet 1 contains: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2359825/carcassonne-big-box-5?size=large

76 Tiles + 8 score markers.
16 Tiles contains Wheel of Fortune Numerals.
4 Tiles are from Inss + Cathedrals

Sheet 2 contains: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2359828/carcassonne-big-box-5?size=large

80 Tiles + 13 Sheep Tokens [4,5,3,1]
12 Tiles are Marked as Wheel of Fortune Tiles

The Start Sheet Contains: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2359830/carcassonne-big-box-5

One traditional Starter Tile, 3 Sheep Tokens [0,0,3,1] and Two Wolves.

So, there's definitely 72 tiles + the starter tile.

Let's mark them off.

Traditional Carcassonne Tile Set:

8 Roads - check
9 bends - check
4 t junctions - check
1 four ways - check

4 cloisters - check
2 cloisters with roads - check

3 cFcF - check
2 ccFF - check

3 long cities CfCf - check
5 corner cities - check
5 corner cities with a road - check

5 single-cities in fields - check
3 single-cities with bent road (left) - check
3 single-cities with bent road (right) - check

4 CCCf - check
3 CCCr - check

1 cccc - check

3 city and cross roads - check

and

4 city and road - check...not 3 and a starter tile.

I've taken another image here marking them off.
Interesting the tile on the top right is probably the 'starter tile'.
It would be interesting to compare the printing of BB4 with this.

Carcking · « **Reply #17 on:** January 04, 2015, 08:28:32 AM »

It would appear that the missing watermark on the particular tile in Sheep and Hills has now been included?

kettlefish · « **Reply #18 on:** January 04, 2015, 08:31:28 AM »

Quote from: Carcking on January 04, 2015, 08:28:32 AM

It would appear that the missing watermark on the particular tile in Sheep and Hills has now been included?

Yes, in the BigBox5 are all 18 tiles of Sheep&Hills with the sheep watermark.

Paul · « **Reply #19 on:** January 04, 2015, 11:41:03 PM »

Quote from: Carcking on January 04, 2015, 08:28:32 AM

It would appear that the missing watermark on the particular tile in Sheep and Hills has now been included?

This was noted in the original review.

Carcking · « **Reply #20 on:** January 06, 2015, 01:12:03 PM »

Ah, thanks. I see that now.

tangyi · « **Reply #21 on:** February 25, 2015, 06:41:00 AM »

It's my first Big Box which introduces me to the world of CarC.

Although Abbey and Mayor & Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars aren't within, I consider Big Box 5 a pleasant gift to all newcomes.

The next plan is to fill in this box with some small and promo expansions. Wonder if I have to alter the inner container, or replace it.

gabrielgeek · « **Reply #22 on:** February 26, 2015, 10:40:09 AM »

Quote from: tangyi on February 25, 2015, 06:41:00 AM

The next plan is to fill in this box with some small and promo expansions. Wonder if I have to alter the inner container, or replace it.

Perhaps the images in this thread may be of help: http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?PHPSESSID=pv8ap45q083om64sb9lbm2dvf4&topic=1552.msg20097;topicseen#new

loki · « **Reply #23 on:** June 17, 2015, 10:41:13 PM »

I know this is an older topic but, having bought the BB5, I am really disappointed that they did not include a full set of Meeples. having the Mayor, Barn and Wagon included would have made this a great set.

I find that even though those Meeples were part of abbey and mayor, I use them no matter which expansions I play. I think HiG kind of left buyers hanging here by omitting them. Which leaves me baffled as in other ways they go to a significant effort to reach out to their fans.

Hounk · « **Reply #24 on:** June 18, 2015, 03:03:21 AM »

Quite honest, this was to be expected, wasn't it? Although BB5 includes exclusive material, most notable River with H&S, it was a product mainly for new players of the game. Including "not playable wood" (messenger and robber would belong to that, too) just for the two extra colours would have been quite confusing.

Actually, that was one of the purposes, I choosed rather BB4 as a starter. (The others were, that "Wheel of Time" seemed rather unintriguing to me and I considered the 6 minis harder to get, the later being wrong.) Now, I would choose different, but I can live with the darker green and thinner tiles of BB4.

loki · « **Reply #25 on:** June 18, 2015, 05:01:23 AM »

I thought Carcassonne II was the product aimed at new players of the game, maybe BB5 was aimed at brand new players who had a longing to play it the old way?

My point is that wagon, mayor, barn, and Phantom!!! are fully playable even if you are using just the base game. Admittedly The Abbey tiles do have several pennants but so does the base game. But it was very disappoining for them to introduce new colours with no way to get a full set without perhaps a relatively expensive mail order option and even then - no phantoms in pink or purple.

Paul · « **Reply #26 on:** June 18, 2015, 05:16:22 AM »

In my opinion, the BB5 is really awesome, except for one thing. The price. It's ridiculously high. (I got mine for free as a gift, so I shouldn't complain, though!

)

Bear in mind that the big boxes was always intended for those never owning a single copy of the base game and/or the expansions. That said, I do agree that the 7th and 8th colours for all the other expansions released, should have been included though logically they shouldn't as this big box was not intended to be used with the other expansions.

Then again, if these were included, owners that do not have the other expansions might be more inclined to buy these, since they do have the 7th and 8th colour of, for example the Mayor.

And, I'm curioius to try an 8 player megaCarcassonne some day.

loki · « **Reply #27 on:** June 18, 2015, 05:30:41 AM »

The compelling feature of BB5 was the long unavailable Wheel of Fortune and it was aimed at established players who for many years were unable to get that product as a standalone. I bought BB5 for that and to get additional tiles to make up my own expansions.

Now I fully understand and accept that over the course of 15 years, incompatibilities with various stages of product development are going to arise. The phantoms were a great twist on the game but switching from wood to translucent plastic probably meant that they could not be re-issued at the same frequency as the original wood, so I can accept that they may not return. However to go out of your way to introduce an incompatibility with extra meeple colours for only some of the Meeples at the same time as the release of Carcassonne II which (as a new line ) does not have the extra colours well that is just HiG looking for issues to upset people.

danisthirty · « **Reply #28 on:** June 18, 2015, 05:33:13 AM »

Quote from: loki on June 18, 2015, 05:01:23 AM

But it was very disappoining for them to introduce new colours with no way to get a full set without perhaps a relatively expensive mail order option and even then - no phantoms in pink or purple.

Cundco offers a part replacement service that allows you to buy individual pieces for 30 cents (Euro cents I suppose). I can't speak from personal experience, but I would imagine you could get mayors, wagon and barns via this service in both purple and pink and it would cost you less than 2 Euros + P & P (which wouldn't amount to much for such a small order). This seems like quite a reasonable way of getting hold of the missing places.

Whether it's reasonable to expect casual gamers who are new to Carcassonne to do this purely to get the "missing" pieces is another question. However, if they're new to Carcassonne they won't immediately be expecting mayors, wagons or barns even though there's nothing to stop them from using them with the tiles they do have from BB5. When they discover Abbey & Mayor, they'll get enough wood for a 6 player game, but unless they're especially fussy, or the Queen of England, it seems unlikely that this will pose a significant problem unless they wish to play with 8 players...

EDIT: I’ll try to contact the Queen via Twitter to see what colour meeples she usually prefers to have. I might even send her a Dan meeple and a CarcC business card if she responds!

Quote from: Paul on June 18, 2015, 05:16:22 AM

And, I'm curioius to try an 8 player megaCarcassonne some day.

As much as I love Carcassonne, this idea really doesn't appeal to me. When I'm playing a game, I like to actually be playing it. With 7 opponents each taking perhaps 2 or 3 minutes per turn you can reasonably expect it to take 15 - 20 minutes between turns. I'm not sure I could cope with that!

Koremu · « **Reply #29 on:** June 18, 2015, 05:34:36 AM »

Quote from: Paul on June 18, 2015, 05:16:22 AM

In my opinion, the BB5 is really awesome, except for one thing. The price. It's ridiculously high.

I imported the German edition (cost GBP £35 with free postage from Amazon) rather than buy the english edition (cost GBP £58), and then use the CAR for rules.