Author Topic: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle  (Read 8074 times)

Offline jungleboy

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First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« on: January 22, 2015, 06:00:41 AM »
Last night I finally played Carcassonne: the Castle for the first time with my regular Carcassonne partner, and it was great! Plus I won :)

Some random points and observations:

- I love the castle walls and I really like the rest of the artwork.

- Not having to match the edge exactly with another edge except for paths is really confusing when you're so used to regular Carcassonne, but from an aesthetic point of view it works so much better with the mostly square sides of houses and towers than it does in Carcassonne: the City.

- The wall tiles and the fact that incomplete features don't score at the end means you really have to make sure you keep the scoreboard ticking over throughout the game, which isn't always the case in regular Carcassonne, especially if you are playing with something like Traders and Builders where trade goods and pig farms can give you huge points in end-game scoring.

- The wall tiles can really change your strategy. I had a large house that was becoming impossible to complete towards the end of the game, but I scored the wall tile that allowed me to score one incomplete house, so I kept adding to my house when I otherwise wouldn't have.

- Joining your opponents' features is so much harder because blocking is so much easier when almost any tile can be placed in any space.

- The keep and the wells (which are called fountains in the rules but are clearly wells!) are cool because they add extra value to the two features that are otherwise the least important.

- Finally, we have a yin-yang style wooden coffee table where the two halves are different colours of wood. These two colours almost exactly match the colours of the two players, so that's fun. (The spare followers are on the opposite coloured table in the photo below, and the lighting here doesn't show how close the colours really are to the colour of the wood).

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1471.0
« Last Edit: January 22, 2015, 06:02:17 AM by jungleboy »

Offline Decar

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2015, 10:22:25 AM »
Fantastic summary jungleboy,  I recently got a copy of this and it looks totally alien to regular carcassonnne; sounds like the 2 player balance has been tightened so both players have to work.  What was your point differential at the end?

Offline jungleboy

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2015, 10:28:22 AM »
The difference was nine points. Basically, the key to the game was that I managed to get into her court with five markets, while she couldn't get into my court with four markets. So I guess, just like regular Carcassonne, it all came down to farms in the end!  8)

The scores were very even throughout the game as we both tried to finish features where possible rather than extend them to try to get the wall tiles.

Offline jungleboy

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2015, 08:44:07 AM »
Last night I played another game of Carcassonne: the Castle and even though I lost (not a great night for me!) I continue to be super impressed with this game. I like it how there's some familiarity with regular Carcassonne but yet it's very, very different (much more so than, say, Ark of the Covenant). The fact that only the paths have to match up makes things like expanding features, glomming on etc completely different. I like it how after a couple of plays I still really have no idea how to win or what strategy to use. Plus I like the walls/scoreboard, the wall tiles, and the artwork which always helps :)

In last night's game, my opponent took an early lead on the scoreboard and did a good job of making sure she picked up all the wall tiles along the way. She also completed an eight-tile house midway through the game to virtually guarantee her the largest keep (plus she got the +2 keep wall tile anyway), and I was playing catch-up for most of the game. I did overtake her at one point but her end-game scoring (aided by all the wall tiles) saw her win fairly comfortably. The photo below is after the final tile was placed but before final scoring - I'm light and she's dark.

One question: does anyone know where I can find a tile overview for Carcassonne: the Castle?
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 08:46:22 AM by jungleboy »

Offline Decar

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2015, 09:30:56 AM »
Another great review, I can't wait to pull out my copy of Die Burg and give it a spin!

I did find this image:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/p-m-m/4252681752/in/pool-board-games/lightbox/
Looks to me like there's a much larger spread of tile types than regular Carcassonne.

I found this link too which might help, half the story anyway:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carcassonne-The-Castle-Board-Game-Replacement-Castle-Tiles-33x-Lot-of-33-/351043677809

Looks like you need to do some photos ;)

Offline jungleboy

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2015, 10:28:45 AM »
I did find this image:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/p-m-m/4252681752/in/pool-board-games/lightbox/
Looks to me like there's a much larger spread of tile types than regular Carcassonne.

This image has more tiles than the standard game. There aren't enough tiles to entirely fill all the space inside the walls (and the gaps, which I think comprise 16 tiles, are also part of the game as they affect the points for the keep). Anyway, I can just get out my own tiles and 'study' them, but I was hoping for a CAR-style sheet showing all the combinations and how many of each combination there are.

Offline Decar

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2015, 02:17:24 AM »
I got to play my first game of The Castle yesterday - and decided to reread your review.  Amazingly, I think I agree with everything you said.

I love the artwork; all the people going about their business is really fun.
Only matching paths is confusing for a regular Carcassonne player.
Midgame the board becomes claustrophobic, finishing houses and towers is really important.
I find the wall tiles a strange strategy; they can change end-game scoring quite drastically.  I lost the game by a huge margin; scored no more points during the last quarter. :(
Fountains are clearly Wells.

The tile distribution is so varied, it's very difficult to formulate a tile counting strategy - basically chances are you can finish something if you want to.

I'll definitely reserve judgement until I've played a few more games.

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« Last Edit: February 21, 2018, 12:23:35 AM by Decar »

Offline aenima

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2015, 02:49:30 AM »
I and my partner really love this game! is easy, fast and really fun!
thanx for the list of the tiles! :)

Offline jungleboy

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Re: First game with Carcassonne: the Castle
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2015, 06:21:49 AM »


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