Author Topic: Carcassonne for 8 Players  (Read 34200 times)

Offline Hounk

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Carcassonne for 8 Players
« on: January 26, 2015, 02:55:49 PM »
Yesterday I ordered at CundCo among other things two sets of meeples (white and violet) and also some spare parts to support 8 player game with (most of) the expansions. So I ordered 2 Abbeys, which are obvious needed, but also 2 tower pieces (thinking 4 pieces per person would be enough for 7 or 8 players) and 4 bridges and castles. I asked, if they agree, and the lady answered, I should order 10 tower pieces, so that even with 8 players the ratio is the same like with 6 of 5 pieces per person.

So what do you think about that? (Except, that I should not consider 8 player games at all.) Plus: do you think I should calculate at least 2 bridges and castles per person in a 8 player game, or would be one of each sufficient, so that I would not need to order any of them at all.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1487.0

Offline DLloyd09

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2015, 04:29:27 PM »
If I were ever to play with 8 players (which, first I would need to try playing with at least 5  ;)), I would only buy 2 more tower pieces and I wouldn't buy any more bridges or castles. 4 towers/person and 1 bridge or castle/person seems like plenty. I would think that the possibility of 16 castles or bridges would make them a bit too strong.

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2015, 06:15:15 PM »
I am all in favour of huge games of Carcassonne. I've played a few 8-player games myself. The biggest issue is always the number of tiles. With 71 playable tiles, that's 9 tiles for every player (8 for the eighth player). It's not a lot. I assume you are planning to play with expansions since you're asking about expansion components. I'd personally go with the scaling. If it should be 10 tower pieces, I'd get ten. And unlike DLloyd09, I would prefer each player have two bridges and two Castles. It's only fair. The odds of all sixteen of both being played is almost impossible, but at least the option is there. Plus, bridges especially often play off one another, so having two per players is almost essential to encourage that kind of use.

I honestly hadn't thought much about 8-player upgrade problems until this post. What other things should be increased to match the higher number of players? Obviously tunnel tokens. Perhaps Dragon-moves phases should go to 8 instead of 6? Extra sets of Catapult tokens are needed. Anything else required to scale up a game of Carcassonne with expansions to 8 players?

Offline DLloyd09

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2015, 07:59:26 PM »
And unlike DLloyd09, I would prefer each player have two bridges and two Castles. It's only fair. The odds of all sixteen of both being played is almost impossible, but at least the option is there. Plus, bridges especially often play off one another, so having two per players is almost essential to encourage that kind of use.

Having only played bridges with TWO people, I would think that eight people with two bridges each would turn into an absolute field nightmare, but maybe that's just me. ???

I honestly hadn't thought much about 8-player upgrade problems until this post. What other things should be increased to match the higher number of players? Obviously tunnel tokens. Perhaps Dragon-moves phases should go to 8 instead of 6? Extra sets of Catapult tokens are needed. Anything else required to scale up a game of Carcassonne with expansions to 8 players?

Off the top of my head, depending on the extent of your collection, besides the already mentioned abbeys, tower pieces, tunnels, and catapult tokens: (1) at least an extra set of Halflings, (2) some extra 50/100 tiles, (3) extra phantoms, (4) extra little buildings. Probably more that I'm not thinking of.

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2015, 11:19:41 PM »
Extra Catapult tokens absolutely not needed! Even with 2-6 players it's enough with just one set.
With Halflings we usually mix 2 sets (I & II) and choose randomly 2 tiles, so extra Halflings, IMO, also not needed.

As for bridges and tower pieces, I'll go with whaleyland: at least you must have an option, so I wouldn't reduce the amount of these.
"I never lose. Either I win or I learn." (Nelson Mandela)

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2015, 12:27:08 AM »
So, the 8-Player Kit for a MegaGame includes:
– 2 Sets of Tunnel tokens (in variant colors)
– 2 Sets of Little Buildings
– 10 Extra Tower pieces
– 4 Extra Bridges
– 4 Extra Castles
– 2 Extra 50/100 counters
– 2 Complete Follower and Figure Sets (in appropriate colors)

Optional components:
– 2 Sets of Catapult tokens (because for target practice, you need your own!)
– Both sets of Halflings

Offline Hounk

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2015, 02:11:05 AM »
I'd personally go with the scaling. If it should be 10 tower pieces, I'd get ten.
My concern about the validness of this scaling was also, because I am not absolutely sure, that the lady from HiG knew, that there is a scaling depending to the numbers of players at all. Seems to me, she assumed, everybody gets 5 pieces, no matter if 2 or 3 or 5 players are in the game.
Quote
The odds of all sixteen of both being played is almost impossible, but at least the option is there.
What would you think about this "house rule" then: each player is limited to two bridges and two castles, but they are drawn from a pool. So, once all 12 had been used, the other players are out of luck. Of course this would require to take notes during the game, who already used some of the bridges and castles. Or maybe some home made color token to mark the objects regardless of scoring for the entire game.

About the other components: Phantons are a big issue. It would be extremely nice at some time getting two extra ones, but till them, I would say, this expansion has to be simply ruled out, whenever a 8 player game takes place. The CundCo Halflings had been among the "other things" I mentioned, as are an extra set of 6 50/100 counters. And I bought a Spielbox Halflings set at eBay, so I should have enough of them. Little Buildings was among the expansion I considered skipping at all, would you considering them worth the buy? Plus Tunnels are hard to get and kettlefish mentioned somewhere, there might be a collection of the Spielbox expansion been reprinted sometime in the future. (Probably with new artwork, though.) Anyway, I would not be concerned about getting the extra color tokens before getting the expansion itself. ;) Of course this thread is open for any other thoughts about 8 players games from players, who have all expansions.

Regarding the tile number: I was thinking of including I&C and T&B (maybe also River I&II with two sources and one lake) into the "8 players base game", then probably at least one other major expansion and minis depending on whatever is suggested to hit the table on that day. Would you think, it be a good idea, to buy a second set of the base game to scale it up? There might be a little bit to many cloisters i the game then, though.

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2015, 03:25:46 AM »
Well if you're scaling, scale the cloisters similarly. There is one cloister per player, essentially, so add two. I'd recommend personally tracking down a copy of Wheel of Fortune and using those tiles; that way you don't technically have two base games, but there are plenty of people here with two or more base games, so that may not be an issue. Other than that, the expansions should all work just fine more or less, though the random chance of luck draws increases with more players. One player, for instance, may draw most of one type of trade tile while another may draw none. Granted this can happen at any number of players, but I feel it gets worse with more.

Offline Durbs

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2015, 04:20:52 AM »
Eeeesh - I find 4-player games tiresome, 8-players? You'd be able to watch a film between turns, and it would be extremely hard to have any real strategy as you've only got a 1/8 chance of pulling a specific tile.

I'd enforce a strict time-limit per turn so at least you're not waiting half an hour between turns.

Offline Fritz_Spinne

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2015, 04:58:24 AM »
Well if you're scaling, scale the cloisters similarly. There is one cloister per player, essentially, so add two. I'd recommend personally tracking down a copy of Wheel of Fortune and using those tiles; that way you don't technically have two base games, but there are plenty of people here with two or more base games, so that may not be an issue. Other than that, the expansions should all work just fine more or less, though the random chance of luck draws increases with more players. One player, for instance, may draw most of one type of trade tile while another may draw none. Granted this can happen at any number of players, but I feel it gets worse with more.
Do not only scale the cloister per person but also per tile. In the basic set there should be 1 cloister per 12 tiles ... for 8 players you should have at least 8 cloisters out of 96 tiles. Simplyest way is to take two basic games ... or take the princess and dragon tiles but don't use the dragon, princess, fairy and magic gate.

Offline eddebaby

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2015, 05:00:24 AM »
Wow! This is an amazing topic - so many details I've missed when trying to prepare for a 7+ player game (Not had one yet, but I have 9 player-sets now). I had only thought about the score tiles, meeples and abbey tiles.

So, the 8-Player Kit for a MegaGame includes:
– 2 Sets of Tunnel tokens (in variant colors)
– 2 Sets of Little Buildings
– 10 Extra Tower pieces
– 4 Extra Bridges
– 4 Extra Castles
– 2 Extra 50/100 counters
– 2 Complete Follower and Figure Sets (in appropriate colors)

Optional components:
– 2 Sets of Catapult tokens (because for target practice, you need your own!)
– Both sets of Halflings

If we consider each extra player in a game with more than 6 players (making sure players are no worse off than with 6 players), then each player will need:

– 1 Complete Follower and Figure Sets (in appropriate color) [Alternate colour Phantoms not available  :(y) :@ Carcatronn :(y):@ ]
– 1 pair of Tunnel tokens (in appropriate color) [Maybe you should also add enough tunnel entrances on tiles for the number of players too.]
– 1 of each Little Buildings (3 Buildings total)
– 5 Extra Tower pieces
– 2 Extra Bridges
– 2 Extra Castles
– 1 Extra 50/100 counters
– 1 Abbey Tile
– 2 Halfling Tiles
– 1 of each type of catapult token (These could be shared without much difficulty)

Anything else we've missed?

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #11 on: January 27, 2015, 05:52:28 AM »
Eeeesh - I find 4-player games tiresome, 8-players? You'd be able to watch a film between turns, and it would be extremely hard to have any real strategy as you've only got a 1/8 chance of pulling a specific tile.

I'd enforce a strict time-limit per turn so at least you're not waiting half an hour between turns.

+1 to this! Whilst I like the idea of playing against 7 opponents at once, I think I'd find it thoroughly frustrating having so little influence over the game and would likely get bored between turns. I'm keen to hear how it goes though, be sure to take plenty of photos of your game and post them here!

Offline Rosco

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #12 on: January 27, 2015, 10:42:41 AM »
What about a game of Carcassonne where each person has his own draw bag with the same number of tiles in it. The game has a total time limit of say 45 minutes and you can lay you tiles one at time from your draw bag but with no player play order!  It would be MANIC! But could be fun.
Just lay the damn tile!

Offline Decar

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2015, 10:47:57 AM »
LOL, why not go for a free for all with no turn order; who can lay their 9 tiles down fastest wins  >:D

Offline Hepguy

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Re: Carcassonne for 8 Players
« Reply #14 on: January 27, 2015, 10:59:39 AM »
I wonder if HIG could be persuaded to offer an eight player upgrade package for the mega carcassonne/completionists among us (as I tend to be). Perhaps if as community we could come up with a consensus on a upgrade list that would acount for all existing expansion sets.  I am picturing a bundle via c undo shop online, as opposed to a boxed retail set. I doubt the public at large would ever require such a package.
Benedictio Dei


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