Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => General => Topic started by: hexanauta on March 23, 2016, 02:30:11 PM
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Hey guys,
I hope you are well. I would like to host a Mega Carcassonne event along with my friendly local game shop, but I'm not sure what exactly I need in order to successfully make it. These are some of my questions:
- How many copies of the base game do I need?
- Should I include expansions? If so, how many copies of each expansion do I need?
- Is there any specific guide on how to mix all the expansions when doing something like this?
- What are the most common issues you have when doing an event like this?
- What's the maximum numbers of participants?
- How many hours you estimate for an event like this one?
Any help you could provide is greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much!
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Exciting question!
There are some guidelines on Mega-Carcassonne (in the complete annotated rules, available in downloads), but you can play however you like. I usually play with two copies of the base game and one of every expansion, but that's just my preference. You'll likely only be able to play with six players, unless you have purchased extra player sets. Or you could play in teams. More than six though will really slow things down. With six players playing Mega-Carc, you're looking at several hours at least. Maybe five/six? Depending on how quick people are.
Make sure you have a copy of the Complete Annotated Rules handy, and check out Bolieroo's flowchart for handy, easy to read help on mixing expansions (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2374.msg34463#msg34463)
Issues I have found, not to put too fine a point on it, are that people get bored in between goes! With six players choosing from lots of placement options, it can get quite slow. Give plenty of tea breaks!
I've jumped in quickly here, but I'm sure the more veteran players will have more advice!
Also, I don't think I've seen a post from you before, so - welcome!
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Welcome to Carcassonne Central.
You may be interested in hearing one of out forum members is starting a largest game of Carcassonnerecord attempt tomorrow. They are planning over 10k of tiles in around 40hrs!
The largest game of Carcassonne I've played was at meetup in Rugby last year. We played with 4 or 5 mini expansions we developed and 3 base game boxes. We had 7-8 players and ot took around 3.5 to 4hrs to complete. We did break for lunch.
How long do you want to host the event for?
How many people do you want to participate?
I would recommend some simple expansions and use a variant to allow players to buy back trapped meeple, rather than leave them waiting for that certain tile.
Hope that's helpful, we should be able to target your needs a little better with some more information. I'm guessing most of your players are quiet experienced carcassonne players?
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Welcome!
Make sure you take a look here, there are many megaCarcassonne reviews. http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?board=3.0
My definition of a mega Carcassonne game is that I take a base game with a lot of expansions. Making a total of around 400-500 tiles. But it is an opinion.
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Hello, hexanauta!
Here are more interesting topics for you to examine:
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=713.0
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=759.0
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1311.0
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1595.0
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Great reply Mr Numbers, that's actually a great questions for Carcassonne players: what's the most number of players you've had in a game. Has anyone had all 11-12 meeple colours active in one game, has anyone had more?
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Largest was 4 I think..but sadly only those 4 know most of the rules.. but not all of them
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Great reply Mr Numbers, that's actually a great questions for Carcassonne players: what's the most number of players you've had in a game. Has anyone had all 11-12 meeple colours active in one game, has anyone had more?
Ours was 6 player game, which was before the official 7th and 8th in the Big Box. I'm certainly interested watching a 12 player game.
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Exciting question!
There are some guidelines on Mega-Carcassonne (in the complete annotated rules, available in downloads), but you can play however you like. I usually play with two copies of the base game and one of every expansion, but that's just my preference. You'll likely only be able to play with six players, unless you have purchased extra player sets. Or you could play in teams. More than six though will really slow things down. With six players playing Mega-Carc, you're looking at several hours at least. Maybe five/six? Depending on how quick people are.
Make sure you have a copy of the Complete Annotated Rules handy, and check out Bolieroo's flowchart for handy, easy to read help on mixing expansions (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2374.msg34463#msg34463)
Issues I have found, not to put too fine a point on it, are that people get bored in between goes! With six players choosing from lots of placement options, it can get quite slow. Give plenty of tea breaks!
I've jumped in quickly here, but I'm sure the more veteran players will have more advice!
Also, I don't think I've seen a post from you before, so - welcome!
Hey Christopher,
Thanks for the welcome! :violet-meeple:
I'm not sure how many we would be, my flgs usually hosts tournaments and they get between 10-20 participants depending on the game.
Welcome to Carcassonne Central.
You may be interested in hearing one of out forum members is starting a largest game of Carcassonnerecord attempt tomorrow. They are planning over 10k of tiles in around 40hrs!
The largest game of Carcassonne I've played was at meetup in Rugby last year. We played with 4 or 5 mini expansions we developed and 3 base game boxes. We had 7-8 players and ot took around 3.5 to 4hrs to complete. We did break for lunch.
How long do you want to host the event for?
How many people do you want to participate?
I would recommend some simple expansions and use a variant to allow players to buy back trapped meeple, rather than leave them waiting for that certain tile.
Hope that's helpful, we should be able to target your needs a little better with some more information. I'm guessing most of your players are quiet experienced carcassonne players?
Hey Decar,
Thanks for your response. I think between 5 and 6 hours is okay, we could take a break for lunch. In regards to the number of participants I think the best thing is to determine a limit by myself because otherwise lot of people will participate. My flgs hosts tournaments and they usually get between 10-20 participants, probably I won't get so many as not everyone is willing to spend 5-6 hours playing.Great reply Mr Numbers, that's actually a great questions for Carcassonne players: what's the most number of players you've had in a game. Has anyone had all 11-12 meeple colours active in one game, has anyone had more?
Ours was 6 player game, which was before the official 7th and 8th in the Big Box. I'm certainly interested watching a 12 player game.
6-player game sounds like a nice number!
Hello, hexanauta!
Here are more interesting topics for you to examine:
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=713.0
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=759.0
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1311.0
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1595.0
Fantastic! I'll have a look at those right away.
Welcome!
Make sure you take a look here, there are many megaCarcassonne reviews. http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?board=3.0
My definition of a mega Carcassonne game is that I take a base game with a lot of expansions. Making a total of around 400-500 tiles. But it is an opinion.
Thanks! I'll have a look at this one too. I only own two copies of the base game but I could ask some friends to bring their copies in order to reach those numbers.
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Be carefull though when using only the base game. If you only take the base game, I think the game would be less interessting when playing 4-5 hours.
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Be carefull though when using only the base game. If you only take the base game, I think the game would be less interessting when playing 4-5 hours.
I can attest to that!
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Be carefull though when using only the base game. If you only take the base game, I think the game would be less interessting when playing 4-5 hours.
I agree, I would definitely include some expansions to keep it interesting. Just the base game could get a bit monotonous. But you can add more copies of the base game to balance things out a bit if you're adding lots of expansions.
The most players I have ever had is 12, but I cheated and had teams of two. Really, there were only six player sets in use. But you could consider this if you had more people that wanted to play.
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Great reply Mr Numbers, that's actually a great questions for Carcassonne players: what's the most number of players you've had in a game. Has anyone had all 11-12 meeple colours active in one game, has anyone had more?
I've never played an in-person game with more than 4 players. :(
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I've played once with 11 players - some years ago.
We used the rules from the base game and 1st and 2nd expansion.
To get enough tiles - I put twice the base game, and the both expansions and tiles from many of my printed fan-expansions.
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I'm sure there will be time for a big game at Essen :)
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I played a couple of games with every expansion I owned about 4 or 5 years ago. I wouldn't say my collection has doubled since then, but I've certainly added several new expansions. That was about 350-400 tiles and took about 5 hours with 5 players. We weren't playing very quickly.
If I were in your shoes, I don't think I would include more than one base game. You might consider adding in a complete Wheel of Fortune set if you are inclined to multiply them. I usually pull out the 19 wheel specific tiles and add to my other base game when using it. If I were to play in this game, I'd rather play with lots of different expansions.
I would highly recommend downloading the latest CAR (the Complete Annotated Ruleset) that is put out by Obervet on this site. It is a fantastic resource. I would have it available to reference during the game and would probably also print out some helpful tools like an order of operations guide and such. When you do combine several expansions, it's easy to get lost.
If you do end up with more than six people that would like to play, one method that was suggested here a long time ago was to have two players (sitting opposite each other at the table) take turns simultaneously. For example, in an 8-player game, player 1 and player 5 would go at the same time. I would suggest keeping track of the actually first player, essentially having a primary and secondary player each turn, to decide who wins if both players want to place their tiles in the same spot. This method seems like it would make playing with a higher number of players much more plausible.
I hope this is helpful. Please give us a session report on the other side. Good luck! :yellow-meeple:
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I played a couple of games with every expansion I owned about 4 or 5 years ago. I wouldn't say my collection has doubled since then, but I've certainly added several new expansions. That was about 350-400 tiles and took about 5 hours with 5 players. We weren't playing very quickly.
If I were in your shoes, I don't think I would include more than one base game. You might consider adding in a complete Wheel of Fortune set if you are inclined to multiply them. I usually pull out the 19 wheel specific tiles and add to my other base game when using it. If I were to play in this game, I'd rather play with lots of different expansions.
I would highly recommend downloading the latest CAR (the Complete Annotated Ruleset) that is put out by Obervet on this site. It is a fantastic resource. I would have it available to reference during the game and would probably also print out some helpful tools like an order of operations guide and such. When you do combine several expansions, it's easy to get lost.
If you do end up with more than six people that would like to play, one method that was suggested here a long time ago was to have two players (sitting opposite each other at the table) take turns simultaneously. For example, in an 8-player game, player 1 and player 5 would go at the same time. I would suggest keeping track of the actually first player, essentially having a primary and secondary player each turn, to decide who wins if both players want to place their tiles in the same spot. This method seems like it would make playing with a higher number of players much more plausible.
I hope this is helpful. Please give us a session report on the other side. Good luck! :yellow-meeple:
Thanks for your input, it's really helpful. The idea of two players taking turns at the same time is great, that would save some time for sure.
Thanks for your help my friend, it is really appreciated.