Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => General => Topic started by: dirk2112 on February 02, 2018, 05:31:47 AM
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Hopefully everyone has had an opportunity to play with the Circus AKA Under the Big Top AKA Manege Frei. If you have at least tried all of the main/large expansions, list them in order of most fun (#1) to least fun (#10). For purposes of this ranking, I am not including Wheel of Fortune since 80% of it is a re-implementation of the base game. If you are a new art person, you won't have access to the Catapult, so you can rank 1 thru 9.
- Hills & Sheep
- Traders & Builders
- Princess & Dragon
- Abbey & Mayor
- Under the Big Top
- Inns & Cathedrals
- Bridges Castles & Bazaars
- The Tower
- The Catapult
- Count, King, and Robber
I apologize in advance if there is a previous rankings thread. I couldn't find it if there was. I saw a few asking for top 3 or favorite, but none that ranked them all.
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We did a favourite poll (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1192.msg14640#msg14640) years ago but not exactly a rank. And since then, Under the Big Top has come out.
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We did a favourite poll (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1192.msg14640#msg14640) years ago but not exactly a rank. And since then, Under the Big Top has come out.
I voted in that one! Unfortunately that was before I truly appreciated Hills and Sheep.
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1 - Under the Big Top (I love this one cuz you can get tons of extra points if you play it right)
2 - Hills and Sheep (like the push your luck aspect of this one)
3 - Princess and Dragon (super fun and not so frustrating as tower)
4 - Abbey and Mayor (like barn, abbey, wagon, and mayor in that order)
5 - Traders and Builders (much better than inns and cathedrals)
6 - Castles, Bridges, and Bazaars (like all parts)
7 - Tower (can be frustrating at times but it's fun to capture)
8 - Inns and Cathedrals (good, but doesn't add too much)
9 - Count, King and Robber (like shrines and king/robber, hate river 2 and count)
10 - Catapult (never played this one, but definitely not my style)
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1 - Inns and Cathedrals (especially for the additional tiles)
2 - Abbey and Mayor (for the barn, abbey and mayor)
3 - Under the Big Top (for the load of extra points)
4 - Traders and Builders (for the generous twist of completing someone else's city)
5 - Tower (the expansion for evil players ;))
6 - Princess and Dragon (the expansion for less-evil players ;))
7 - Castles, Bridges, and Bazaars (basically only for the bridges)
8 - Count, King and Robber (shrines are OK, but it's my least favourite)
N/R - Hills and Sheep (received yesterday, not played yet)
N/R - Catapult (never played since not available in the new edition)
... and yes, I am a "new edition" player ;)
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It's just too hard to rank the first four...
1. Abbey & Mayor (The abbey is so great! Everyone knows. I don't have to repeat.)
2. Traders & Builders (Builders!)
3. Princess & Dragon (Dear Green Mayor, bye bye!)
4. Hills & Sheep (Now it's easy to sneak into a city or a field.)
5. The Tower (I just need to be aware all the time that a high tower might backfire)
6. Inns & Cathedrals
7. The Catapult (The physical component has caused a TON of debate between my friends, so occasionally we'd just use the tiles.)
8. Bridges Castles & Bazaars (Bridges are great. Castles don't add much so we don't bother using. Bazaars are just a nuisance to us.)
9. Under the Big Top (I don't have it, as it's only in new art. Correct and save me :-[ if this is not true.)
10. Count, King, and Robber. Wanted to keep it short but couldn't. Anyway, that this one comes after the one I've never played should make it clear how much I dislike this collection of expansions. River II is good, for some of new features in the expansions are now on the river tiles, making them more interesting. Now comes my crap of the this collection. (IMHO, worst ever, yes, even worse than the half-sized and double-sized tiles. We don't want to keep track of the count all the time, as ask everyone whether they want to parachute meeples to mess the opponents in a 3-point-road. And that 12-sized-tile takes up so much space on the table and in the storage. King and Robber... simply hard to keep track of the size. You see, we are just a bunch of lazy asses who can only keep track of one thing, the score. And shrines... Cloisters are already on the weak side in the middle-sized game because of the ratio of number of tiles invested to the revenue, so my friends seldom challenge one another, as there is not a monk in the existing cloister/shrine, and/or they don't want to deploy a meeple to the newly placed shrine/cloister, or both. Also, it requires so much attention when one places cloisters and shrines. Now one needs to examine all the features in the surrounding tiles, rather than just the four edges.)
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1.Abbey & Mayor
2.Traders & Builders
3.Under the Big Top
4.Princess & Dragon
5.The Tower
6.Inns & Cathedrals
7.Hills & Sheep
8.Count, King, and Robber
9.Bridges Castles & Bazaars
10.The Catapult
Abbey & Mayor easily my favourite because of all of the extra wood and the Abbey tiles always get utilised.
Difficult to decide places 2-6 I like them all and each have their pros and little or no cons.
I don't like the Hills, Count, Bazaars, Castles or Catapult so these go to the bottom of the pile. Shepherds and Vineyards, River II and Cult as well as the Bridges are all good. So only The Catapult is totally without virtue for me.
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I only have the New Art in English so all I have is expansions 1,2,3,5 and 10 :(.
My ranking for the 5 expansions I have is:
1. Abbey & Mayor (Extra Meeples + Great New Tile Configs + Abbeys (Everything))
2. Traders & Builders (Builders + Bag + Pig :@ + Trade Goods/Reason To Close Of Other Players Cities (Everything))
3. Inns & Cathedrals (Cathedrals + Score Tiles + A Sixth Color)
4. The Princess & the Dragon* (Lots Of Extra Tiles)
5. Under the Big Top (More Tiles + Ringmaster (Because It's Like Another Meeple))
I don't hate playing with any of these expansions and whenever I have the chance I'll play with all of them but usually we only play with a maximum 3 so we use Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders and Abbey & Mayor :).
Also just to cause some debate:
New Art FTW :D!
*Don't think I won't see your cheating by typing Princess & Dragon instead of The Princess & the Dragon! C:-)
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Also just to cause some debate:
New Art FTW :D!
Well bless your heart. ;) >:D
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1. Hills & Sheep
2. Under the Big Top
3. Princess & Dragon
4. Inns & Cathedrals
5. Abbey & Mayor
6. Traders & Builders
7. The Tower
8. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
9. Count, King & Cult
10. Wheel of Fortune
11. Catapult
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Is it just the cult of the new that's getting Under the Big Top ranked so highly? I haven't played it or even really looked into it much, but I'm surprised to see it doing so well here. Mine would be:
1. Traders and Builders
2. Inns and Cathedrals
3. Abbey and Mayor
4. The Tower
5. Hills and Sheep
6. The Princess and the Dragon
7. Count, King and Cult
8. Bridges, Castles and Bazaars
9. The Catapult
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My ranking list would be:
1. Traders and Builders
2. The Princess and the Dragon
3. Hills & Sheep
4. Count, King and Cult
5. Abbey and Mayor
6. Wheel of Fortune
7. The Tower
8. Bridges, Castles and Bazaars
Well I haven't ranked two expansions. Inns & Cathedrals I count to the basegame. So it's included in almost every game I play.
Then Under the Big Top, I have played it once. As I do not own it. I like it a lot and it would stand on the same place as Hills & Sheep for me.
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1. Traders & Builders
2. Inns & Cathedrals
3. Princess & Dragon
4. The Tower
After the top 4 we never play whole expansions just elements so I will rank the expansion by the element we use. (Tower is not number 4 but as whole expansions it is)
5. Hills & Sheep - the sheep element
6. Abbey & Mayor - the abbey
7. Count, King & Cult - the cult tiles
8. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars - the castles
Never played:
9. Under the Big Top
10. Catapult
Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk
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Though one.....
I think Inns&Cathedrals and Traders&Builders are so common in our games now that they're not special to us anymore. And in Ranking the expansion to least fun to most fun i'd say:
1. Traders&Builders AND Abbey&Mayor
Shared 1St place. We like the extra tiles and the builder from T&B, that we use in almost all our games.
Abbey&Mayor bring several nice elements, like all the extra figures and the abbey of course!
3. Hills&sheep (often used without the extra tiles)
4. Under the Big Top
5. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
6. The Princess& The Dragon
7. The Tower (very hostile expansion. No 'fun' elements to add to a game)
8. The Catapult (too silly, barely play it)
9. Count, King&Cult (barely play with any of these elements)
10. Inns&Cathedrals (its so normal in our games now, feels like part of the Base game. We often dont use the tiles, but only the big meeples, to keep the overall tile count down a bit.
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Shouldn't this be a poll?
I'm really interested in the results since I'm following suit my 2018's "add one new expansion a month to your collection"
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I think I will next week make it into some statistics and we can see the number one :D.
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Shouldn't this be a poll?
But a poll does not rank.
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1. Traders & Builders
2. Princess & Dragon
3. Inns & Cathedrals
4. Abbey & Mayor
5. Under the Big Top
6. Count, King & Cult
7. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
8. The Tower
9. Hills & Sheep
10. Catapult
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Shouldn't this be a poll?
You can still vote in the original poll (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1192.msg14640#msg14640) although UtBT is not in it.
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Is it just the cult of the new that's getting Under the Big Top ranked so highly? I haven't played it or even really looked into it much, but I'm surprised to see it doing so well here. Mine would be:
It is a surprisingly good expansion if you like high scoring. I was really surprised to see it so high on Whaleyland's list as he usually hates themes that don't work well for 12th - 13th century France. The acrobats are pretty lame, but we like everything else.
I think I will next week make it into some statistics and we can see the number one :D.
The previous poll shows that Traders and Builders are #1. I can't imagine that changing too much.
I am sure you can make some really interesting stats, but I don't see how they will help. So far, you can see that the Americans don't think too highly of Inns and Cathedrals. Maybe if you are a typical American, maybe you should go with Princess and Dragon instead. The British folks (not named Rosco ???) tend to really love Abbey and Mayor. Unfortunately women are greatly underrepresented on this site. My wife votes Hills & Sheep #1 and Under the Big Top #2. She hates the tower. She thinks the others ones are just ok. Her vote doesn't count because she isn't a member here though.
I guess you could assign points to people's lists (#1 gives an expansion 5 points, #2 gives 4, #3 gives 3, #4 gives 2, #5 gives 1, #6 thru #9 give 0, and #10 gives -1) and then find an overall ranking. It may convince some of the old art folks to acquire Under the Big Top and convince newbies to stay away from Count, King, and Robber/Cult. Then again you put it in your top 4, so what do I know.
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1. Traders & Builders (builder is the best strategic addition, trade goods for completer rather than owner is really nice)
2. The Princess & the Dragon (fun expansion with great tiles, I love eating people with dragon)
3. Inns & Cathedrals (all very interesting strategic elements)
4. The Catapult (unpopular opinion - I think the flinging element is really fun)
5. Abbey & Mayor (abbey mechanic is good but the tile is really ugly on the landscape)
6. Under The Big Top (very creative expansion but a bit overpowered for scoring)
7. Hills & Sheep (nothing special but quite fun)
8. Count, King & Cult (the count is too overpowered but I quite like the king and robber baron)
9. The Tower (too easy to remove opponent followers with no defensive options)
10. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars (I hate bazaars - slow and prone to huge over analysis)
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\ I was really surprised to see it so high on Whaleyland's list as he usually hates themes that don't work well for 12th - 13th century France. The acrobats are pretty lame, but we like everything else.
I agree they botched the theme terribly with this when they really didn't need to, but the gameplay mechanics are amazing. On my first playthrough, I didn't quite understand the power of the Ringmaster, but that has changed considerably after two more playthroughs and reading some other peoples' thoughts. And while the Acrobats are lame thematically, they work so perfectly with the Ringmaster to really boost the points. I played a 4-player game with the expansion and it went really well. We all used our Ringmasters well to maximise points and we also really liked the travelling circus with its random bonus points. It is the first wholistic expansion, really, since Princess & Dragon, which is also one of my all-time favourites. Although I like mixing up elements, there is something to be said with an expansion that actually uses everything.
So far, you can see that the Americans don't think too highly of Inns and Cathedrals. Maybe if you are a typical American, maybe you should go with Princess and Dragon instead.
The main reason I don't like Inns & Cathedrals is it's kind of lame. I mean, it is basically a tile expansion that just makes players double-or-nothing features. The Cathedrals are SUPER lame when you pull them because they are so hard to complete and so easy to sabotage. I rarely place them in my own cities. Inns are okay and probably a necessary boost to roads, but they just aren't that interesting. And adding a sixth player is nice, but 6-player games are very slow and I generally don't recommend them (although I have actually played a 10-player game before using my own components, so I'm a terrible example). I like Hills & Sheep the most because all three elements are fun and useful. Vineyards makes Cloisters a bit more fun. Hills kills the tile-prediction factor of the game and also often the predicability of knowing who's going to get the last tile. And the Sheep is a fun push-your-luck mechanic that, when done right and with some luck, can really bring you some bonus points. I do like Princess & Dragon a lot, largely because of its wholistic feel. But I actually like the Princess mechanic, the Magic Portals, and the Dragon all separately, too. The only thing I don't care for is the Fairy bonus thing, which seems unnecessary (we usually ignore that rule).
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The main reason I don't like Inns & Cathedrals is it's kind of lame. I mean, it is basically a tile expansion that just makes players double-or-nothing features. The Cathedrals are SUPER lame when you pull them because they are so hard to complete and so easy to sabotage. I rarely place them in my own cities. Inns are okay and probably a necessary boost to roads, but they just aren't that interesting. And adding a sixth player is nice, but 6-player games are very slow and I generally don't recommend them (although I have actually played a 10-player game before using my own components, so I'm a terrible example).
I completely agree, but you still ranked it third!
The main thing I hate about the Cathedrals is that there are only 2 of them. In a 3 player game, that means someone isn't going pull one. It really stinks when the same player pulls both in the second half of the game. I can't recall the last time someone completed a city with the Cathedral in our house.
The only thing we use from that expansion are the 50/100 points tiles and that is really sad. My wife hates the big meeple because in Mega-Carc it blends in too well with the regular sized meeple. Much sadness has occurred over farms where she thought she had a majority only to find out it was a tie.
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I completely agree, but you still ranked it third!
The main thing I hate about the Cathedrals is that there are only 2 of them. In a 3 player game, that means someone isn't going pull one. It really stinks when the same player pulls both in the second half of the game. I can't recall the last time someone completed a city with the Cathedral in our house.
The only thing we use from that expansion are the 50/100 points tiles and that is really sad. My wife hates the big meeple because in Mega-Carc it blends in too well with the regular sized meeple. Much sadness has occurred over farms where she thought she had a majority only to find out it was a tie.
There, I corrected my ranking—it's now in fourth place. In hindsight, it always should have been there. I just don't like CCCC tiles, regular or Cathedral ones, so I think 2 is too many. But that may just be me. I forgot about the Big Follower, but I also don't like that. It doesn't stand out well and generally causes confusion when scoring. The 50/100 tiles are great, but they really should have been included in the base game and you can buy them separately online so they barely even count. Same with the blue tile bag.
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1. Traders & Builders (builder speeds up the game and makes completion of a city with cathedral/large cities more possible, contains lots of useful, unique tiles, trade goods for completer rather than owner is really nice, the pig is a nice addition but not that crucial)
2. Inns & Cathedrals (the upgrade of the roads puts more balance in the game, I like the mechanic of the "higher risk/higher reward" of the cathedrals if the don't show up in the end of the game)
3. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars (I like how the bridges change the game to 3 dimensions and their ability to open the farms - I like the castles mechanic although I often forget to use them - the bazaars, hmmm, that depends on the people you play with wether it becomes a time-robbing thing or a fun strategic extra but I like the fact you can obtain that one tile you really need even if you didn't draw it yourself)
4. The Princess & the Dragon (aggressive but fun expansion, gotta love that big wood chunk of a dragon - 1 disadvantage: we all tend to forget the extra 1-point scoring for the fairy)
5. Abbey & Mayor (I like the mayor although its shape should differ more with the big meeple - the barn gives the farming aspect a bit too much priority but I like how it makes the gameplay completely different - the abbey is a nice addition but it should blend more in the landscape then it does now)
6. Hills & Sheep (after the upgrades of cities and roads, I like the vineyards as an upgrade of the cloisters - the shepherd and sheep is also a quite nice addition with the push of luck - the hills, well, I don't like them that much: I do see the extra in it to win a "tied" project but I don't like the idea of turning around tiles, although I don't count them)
7. Count, King & Cult (I like the King and Robber Baron as a simple but important addition to the game - the Cult Places seem a bit redundant for the already hard-fought 9 points for a completed cloister but I like it's competitive mechanic - the Count, well, I just get to know that mechanic; at first sight it seems quite powerful, maybe too powerful and the reason I have hardly played it, is because I just don't find it a natural/logic addition to the game - and hooray for adding a River to the landscape - I do like to unique extra tiles in this expansion)
8. The Catapult (I have the expansion but never played it - I think it might be a nice thing to add if you play it with children or if you wan't to keep the game light and add some dexterity for people who are put off too much by the strategic aspect of the game - I play with the idea of using the expansion as an offensive way to attack meeples on the tiles that surround a catapult tile...if you use the dice from the Flyers mini, you could attack tiles within a range from 1 tot 3 tiles, according to the number you roll - with exception of the roundabout, it's a pity the tiles in this expansion are hardly unique)
9. The Tower (to me, this expansion is apart from aggressive also somehow out of balance - apart from that, I just miss some extra game mechanics - the other expansions, usually add 3 different game mechanics/themes while this one only adds the towers and a redundant tile holder)
x. Under The Big Top (due to esthetics-authistic-compulsive-old-artwork-behouviour, I never bought/tried out this expansion - some people seem to like it a lot but apart from the new artwork, I just think the theme anachronism is just a bridge too far for me)
If you could count 3 mini-expansions as one big expansion (3 game mechanics, approximately 24 tiles in total), here's where I would rank them in the above:
5b. Minis 1-3 (The Flyers is probably my most favorite mini-expansion, easy to comprehend and nice addition of a game mechanic - I find The messages a bit redundant and they make the scoring track a bit too busy - The Ferries is a nice upgrade of the roads - all in all, the tiles aren't that unique in these 3 expansions)
5c. Minis 4-6 (I like how The Goldmines make people play in a very different, sometimes aggressive, sometimes cooperative way - The Mage & Witch is a tough one for me, I like the game mechanic but it sometimes might get a bit too personal - I don't like The Robbers that much, it makes the scoring track a bit too busy and I find the game mechanic redundant - these 3 expansions, add quite many unique tiles to the game)
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My ranking:
place 1: 1st, 2nd and 3rd expansion
place 2: 4th, 9th and perhaps the 10th expansion (I've done the correction reading, but I played the 10th expansion only two or three times.)
place 3: 5th expansion
place 4: 6th and 8th expansion - mostly I like to use only some parts of these expansions.
last place: 7th expansion
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It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[
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It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[
I thought that most of us CarcC members are Carcassonne experts. Please look into the profile of the members, there you can see what number is which expansion of Carcassonne.
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It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[
I thought that most of us CarcC members are Carcassonne experts. Please look into the profile of the members, there you can see what number is which expansion of Carcassonne.
Haha I love this. Maybe we can make / add smileys for each expansion ;D
Pls make this posible, it is posible to do >:D follow this link (https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Add_a_smiley_set)
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It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[
I thought that most of us CarcC members are Carcassonne experts. Please look into the profile of the members, there you can see what number is which expansion of Carcassonne.
There are always members who are new to the forum and to Carcassonne, and this thread is a good one for these 'non-experts' to see which expansions they might be interested in. You are the only person here who refers to expansions by their numbers. So: please refer to the name of the expansion and not the number, and then no one else has to click anything.
Welcome back, by the way :)
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Just to make it easier for you, Kettlefish, I've done the job for you:
My ranking:
place 1: Inns & Cathedrals (1st expansion), Traders & Builders (#2), and Princess & Dragon (#3)
place 2: The Tower (#4), Hills & Sheep (#9), and perhaps Under the Big Top (#10) (I've done the correction reading, but I played the 10th expansion only two or three times.)
place 3: Abbey & Mayor (#5)
place 4: Count, King & Cult (#6) and Bridges, Castles & Bazaars (#8) - mostly I like to use only some parts of these expansions.
last place: The Catapult (#7)
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Thank you whaleyland.
When I do the correction reading for HiG or ask HiG some questions about how to play - then we use only the numbers not the names of the expansions.
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HiG are the experts.
One might even write a post in German or even Zulu, just be aware that a significant portion of the audience can't understand without that extra click.
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HiG are the experts.
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
From what I've seen it's usually kettlefish making corrections to the rules
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
From what I've seen it's usually kettlefish making corrections to the rules
:D :D :D :D :D
Kettlefish is undoubtedly THE expert. Let me just call HiG "experts" then, without the "the".
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In a new BGG poll and geeklist (https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/237431/30-best-game-expansions-all-time-according-bgg-use/page/1?) about the top 30 expansions for all board games, Inns and Cathedrals came in at No. 27 (the only Carcassonne expansion to make the list).
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In a new BGG poll and geeklist (https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/237431/30-best-game-expansions-all-time-according-bgg-use/page/1?) about the top 30 expansions for all board games, Inns and Cathedrals came in at No. 27 (the only Carcassonne expansion to make the list).
Meh... Number 2 was the 1910 expansion for Ticket to Ride which basically gave the player full sized cards. Ticket to Ride Europe came with the bigger sized cards and is much better than the USA version with the lame 1910 expansion. I think 1910 and Inns and Cathedrals made the list because they were first.
I 100% agree with the Wizard Tower expansion for Castle Panic. That really improved the game play there.
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In a new BGG poll and geeklist (https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/237431/30-best-game-expansions-all-time-according-bgg-use/page/1?) about the top 30 expansions for all board games, Inns and Cathedrals came in at No. 27 (the only Carcassonne expansion to make the list).
Actually they have top 50 now, and Carcassonne: Expansion 2 – Traders & Builders took 49th place :D
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I guess you could assign points to people's lists (#1 gives an expansion 5 points, #2 gives 4, #3 gives 3, #4 gives 2, #5 gives 1, #6 thru #9 give 0, and #10 gives -1) and then find an overall ranking. It may convince some of the old art folks to acquire Under the Big Top and convince newbies to stay away from Count, King, and Robber/Cult. Then again you put it in your top 4, so what do I know.
I was bored so made an excel list using Dirk's scoring.
My ranking:
1 Traders & Builders
2 Tower
3 Under the big top
4 Princess & Dragon
5 The Catapult (makes it a bit more hectic, nice to break a game of mega-carc)
6 Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
7 Inns & Cathedrals
8 Hills & Sheep
9 Abbey & Mayor
10 Count, King & Robber