Messages

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News and Events / Re: Carcassonne Games Marathon: July 2nd in London

« on: July 03, 2016, 03:14:44 PM »

I will do a full write up also over the next week but for now a quick summary of the day.

Specific thanks to JT for all the perpetration done for the day, and to halfling for the original suggestion. The time lapse has come out really well and we got some great photos of the day as well. Thank you to all involved for the wonderful day! It really was fantastic.

I enjoyed playing the games I'd not had a chance to yet, such as Ark of the Covenant, as well as favourites such as South Seas. Playing cardcassonne was great fun and has encouraged me to get my copy out again to give it a try. It was also very interesting playing the various rule variations such as first edition rules and the no darling for Carc 2.

Overall a great day that absolutely flew by. I'm certainly not yet sick of playing Carcassonne in its many forms and look forward to the possibility of another event next year with around the world 3 added in for good measure 

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News and Events / Re: Carcassonne Games Marathon: July 2nd in London

« on: June 27, 2016, 01:37:27 PM »

Thanks for the cheat sheet Jamie. Merit to you, it's absolutely fantatsic!

As for cardcassonne it's an odd one but makes a bit more sense when playing I think. Have been brushing up on all the different rules and think I'm getting there!

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News and Events / Re: Abbey And Mayor - New Edition

« on: June 22, 2016, 12:39:47 AM »

It does seem odd to me to skip the tower (even temporarily) considering they are still numbering the expansions. I suppose it also makes sense to release the more popular expansions first as well though, so that people can get to the expansions they want more quickly. I just think it might cause some confusion amongst some of the more casual players perhaps?

As for the artwork, I quite like it. Certainly an improvement on the P&D box art. I like the fact they've kept all the features from the expansion on the box as well.

I'm impressed with how quickly they've been releasing the expansions so far. I just hope the UK publishers catch up with the release schedule soon so that people who are waiting for these don't have to wait too long!

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News and Events / Re: Carcassonne Games Marathon: July 2nd in London

« on: June 20, 2016, 06:19:07 AM »

My play stats with the games that will be included:

Played multiple times

Carcassonne (2000)
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (2002)
Carcassonne: Wheel of Fortune (2009)
Carcassonne: Winter Edition (2012)
Carcassonne: South Seas (2013)
Carcassonne II (2014)
Carcassonne: Gold Rush (2014)


Played once

Carcassonne: The Castle (2003)
Carcassonne: The City (2004)
Carcassonne: The Discovery (2005)
New World (2008)
Cardcassonne (2009)
My First Carcassonne (2009)
Carcassonne: Demo version (2015)
Carcassonne: Star Wars (2015)


Never played

The Ark of the Covenant (2003)
Travel Carcassonne (2007)
Carcassonne: The Dice Game (2011)
Carcassonne: Over Hill and Dale (2015)

Most individual wins makes sense to me, but I don't know how Star Wars will work, unless we try and keep track of inidividual scores as well (but that could get complicated).

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Leagues (including expansion leagues) / Re: What next for the Expansion League series?

« on: June 08, 2016, 10:30:10 AM »

I have voted for Bridges, Castles and Bazars for the same reasons given above that I think it would be good to finish off the major expansions that are implemented into JCZ. Also I actually quite like the expansion, and whilst I agree with Dan that it works well as an addition to other expansions I think it can work standalone as well. Certainly in a smaller game mega farms become less of an issue and it would be interesting to see if people manage to score many castle points.

Saying that I don't dislike the other options and a mini expansion league would also be very fun.
Having only managed to participate in the P&D league so far (of the expansion leagues) I would also very much like to go back through the ones already done before.

In any case, I'm very much looking forward to being able to join in on the next league. I'm a bit sad I'm missing out on the tower league due to prior commitments, so whatever it is I'll be very happy to join in!

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General / Re: Spinoff HeadtoHead #4 - The City vs Goldrush

« on: June 06, 2016, 08:26:36 AM »

Bit late on this one but I think I'd have to go with the city too.

I actually really enjoy both, I've just picked up gold rush and got to play them both at thirsty meeples.

I find the mining very fun in gold rush and the limited meeples make for some interesting moves. I also enjoy the nuggets as they make t more difficult to see who is in the lead, despite them being a random element. I also think the artwork for gold rush is fantastic and the landscape looks great when completed.

Despite this, the city is the better of the two for me as it feels very different from the base game whilst still having that familiarity. I think the wall building mechanic is really well executed and adds a lot to the game. I do agree that some of the artwork is a little lacklustre but overall I find the gameplay more unique in this one.

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News and Events / Re: "Mega Carcassonne" at the 2016 UK Games Expo (maybe)

« on: June 06, 2016, 06:20:24 AM »

I had a great time at the tournament despite not faring too well. I didn't have very high hopes anyway but I felt really off my game. I'm definitely not used to four player games and I vastly overestimated how many turns I had so I was never quick enough with farmers.

I ended up coming 2nd/3rd/4th coming 2nd in my final game (I believe I was playing against asparagus who won the match).

Great write up Dan on your games! Sorry we kept missing each other but was good to have a quick catch up with JT between games.

I feel I've learnt a lot for next year so I hope to enter again and hopefully do a bit better! Was a really in day though. Thanks Scott for organising everything.

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Leagues (including expansion leagues) / Re: Expansion League #5: The Tower - SIGN UP HERE!

« on: May 23, 2016, 02:59:24 PM »

Thanks for the PM Jéré! Unfortunately I'm not sure I can commit this time round, I don't have any free weekends for the next 5/6 weeks, and weekdays are getting quite booked up too. Hope you all have fun though! Love the tower, so it's going to be a great league for all involved!

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Reviews & Session Reports / Re: Alternative World Record Attempt 2016?

« on: May 12, 2016, 01:52:54 PM »

Sounds good to me as well, I'm definitely still interested   

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General / Re: Completionism Poll #12 - Phantom Boxes

« on: May 08, 2016, 01:56:46 AM »

Like almost everyone else, one does me just fine. I was lucky and got my player colour (blue) which probably helped me feel satisfied with this.

I can see why people would want all 6, they do look really good together, but I'm not really a completionist outside of playable items.

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General / Re: Favouritism Poll #7 - Big Boxes

« on: May 06, 2016, 03:20:16 PM »

I'm having a lot of trouble deciding on this one so I'm holding off voting for now. I own two big boxes, 4 and 5. I am happy with both of them, however I feel the earlier big boxes probably offered better value.

Despite the original content on offer in big box 5, and the chance to get wheel of fortune as well, I feel as though I'd be less happy with this if it were the only Carcassonne I owned, as opposed to say big box 2 or big box 3 so I'm leaning towards either of these.

I do, however,  also really like the mini expansions for BB4 as they feel like quite nice first expansions to try out after starting with the base game then I&C and T&B. The darker tiles don't bother me too much, but I can see how it can also be seen as a bit of a negative compared to the other boxes.

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Leagues (including expansion leagues) / Re: Princess & Dragon League: Groups D1 - D9

« on: May 02, 2016, 02:58:36 PM »

Curt194 173 | Khalid 161

I had my game with Khalid earlier today. Had to rush off after the game so hadn't had time to sort screenshots etc until now.

A very close game throughout, we were nearly level for a large portion of the game with Khalid just ahead towards the end. There was quite a tense battle for the farm but Khalid had a few meeples trapped in cities which gave me the edge to secure the farm. In the meantime I managed to join the city at the top of the map to equalise some points, we actually scored exactly the same for cities in total! The dragon didn't get a lot of dinner this game although the threat was very much present.

Thanks for the game Khalid!

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Reviews & Session Reports / Re: Alternative World Record Attempt 2016?

« on: May 02, 2016, 09:38:17 AM »

I'm very much up for this! Had a lot of fun playing through the spin offs on Saturday and this sounds like great fun too.

I have Hunters and Gatherers, The discovery and Cardcassonne but it sounds like we are covered there anyway, but I can bring them as spares if need be.

A rota for the castle makes sense, we would also need to consider the castle with it being a max of four people (in case all the other games end up with 5 players in them).

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Reviews & Session Reports / Re: ThirstyMeeples - 30th April 2016

« on: May 02, 2016, 09:29:48 AM »

Late report from me but thank you everyone for a wonderful day. Was lovely seeing people again as well as meeting a couple of new faces.

I arrived just after 11 (after numerous train delays) and we all quickly got into a base game with the new artwork. This was my first time playing the new art and abbots, and I thought the abbots were a nice addition, making Monastries a much less risky proposition.

I then very much enjoyed playing through all the different spin-offs, a lot of which I have been wanting to try for a very long time. I think it might be time for me to try and get hold of a copy of the city! The castle was interesting but I'm not sure I could quite get my head around the different features in this one. Goldrush was a lot of fun with the mining mechanics, more so than I was expecting.

I look forward to seeing everyone who's going to the games expo in June and hopefully another meet up later in the year.

Merit to Decar for organising the day and the souverniers! Also merit to JT for the food recommendation!

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General / Re: Favouritism Poll #6 - Spin-Off Score Tracks

« on: April 26, 2016, 02:40:43 PM »

I have voted for cardcassonne and hunters and gatherers. I'm most familiar with both of these which probably has something to do with my choice, but I really love the H&G artwork in general, and the scoreboard matches it really well.

As for Cardcassonne, I've only played it a couple of times but having the score track going alongside the rows of cards is a nice reminder of how everyone is doing when you're taking your turn. Plus I like the little meeples that you use for the score track as well!