Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => Reviews & Session Reports => Topic started by: jungleboy on December 13, 2014, 02:19:06 PM
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Today, almost completely by accident, I participated in a Carcassonne tournament in Barcelona. Unfortunately I just missed out on making the final eight.
There were 28 participants and the games were four-player games with only the base game. Each player played three games, against completely different opponents each time. The winner of each game received 5 points, 2nd place received 3 points, 3rd received 2 points, and last received 1 point.
The standard was very high and I came 2nd, 2nd and 3rd in my games for 8 points, which was not enough to make the quarterfinals - 8th place scored 9.5 points. In the game in which I came 3rd, I was two points behind second and three points behind first, so this was a very close game. And in the last game, I lost by only one point - so if I had scored two extra points and won that game, I would have qualified for the quarterfinals. Interestingly, the reigning Spanish champion was in that last game and I beat her :)
But really, playing the base game with four players is a crapshoot. You only get 17-18 tiles each so it's very difficult. The winning score in all three games was under 70, so every point counts and cloisters are very valuable. In the first game I won the main farm outright for 21 points and still only came second because the winner drew 3-4 cloisters and capitalised on them.
Anyway, it was a fun experience even though I was disappointed not to make the final eight.
The tournament was part of an annual board game festival. More information here: http://daubarcelona.bcn.cat/en/
There should be pictures coming somewhere on Facebook soon, I assume at the page of the Spanish publisher who organised the tournament (Devir). For now here is a photo of the venue.
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Certainly sounds and looks as if it was a well organised event - must have been a nice surprise for you
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Hi jungleboy,
that is a nice report.
You are now on holiday - also on holiday for the weekly online game here at CarcC.
But I see - you are not on holiday about Carcassonne.
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Hi jungleboy,
that is a nice report.
You are now on holiday - also on holiday for the weekly online game here at CarcC.
But I see - you are not on holiday about Carcassonne.
There is never a holiday from Carcassonne!! I also bought two new expansions for my collection here yesterday: the Catapult and the GQ11 mini-expansion. It seems that there is a lot of interest in board games here.
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Catapult eh? Living life on the edge :D
How did you happen to play the tournament by accident? Sounds like there is a good story behind it.
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Catapult eh? Living life on the edge :D
Yeah, I held out for this long but I have almost everything now so I thought I'd better get it. Plus I made a variant for it so I wanted to try it out, and I'd also love to play Whaleyland's Cathar historical scenario which requires the Catapult.
How did you happen to play the tournament by accident? Sounds like there is a good story behind it.
We were in Barcelona for a long weekend and on Friday we were at a cafe for breakfast. The table we were sitting at had a Catalan language newspaper on it, and we started flicking through it while my wife said, 'I wonder how much we could understand of this,' (given that we can speak French and Spanish and Catalan is kind of a mix between the two). Then suddenly we came across this 12-page liftout for the games festival and lo and behold, it mentioned a Carcassonne tournament the following day.
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Today, almost completely by accident, I participated in a Carcassonne tournament in Barcelona. Unfortunately I just missed out on making the final eight.
Whoops! Oh darn, I've taken part in another Carcassonne tournament! :))
There were 28 participants and the games were four-player games with only the base game. Each player played three games, against completely different opponents each time. The winner of each game received 5 points, 2nd place received 3 points, 3rd received 2 points, and last received 1 point.
Sounds almost identical to the structure of the UK championships apart from the point allocations. I came joint-second, first and joint-second in my three games which would have got me 11 points in your system. In the UK championships points were halved if the position was shared though so I would have got 8 points if the same thing was true here. I ended up coming 10th out of 30-something competitors.
But really, playing the base game with four players is a crapshoot. You only get 17-18 tiles each so it's very difficult. The winning score in all three games was under 70, so every point counts and cloisters are very valuable. In the first game I won the main farm outright for 21 points and still only came second because the winner drew 3-4 cloisters and capitalised on them.
Totally agree. 4-player Carcassonne is not a test of individual skill or ability.
Well done on your games though. I wonder what would have happened if you'd won? Would you have gone on to represent Spain at the world championships?
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Awesome! I knew there would be a cool story behind it. :(y)
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Sounds almost identical to the structure of the UK championships apart from the point allocations. I came joint-second, first and joint-second in my three games which would have got me 11 points in your system. In the UK championships points were halved if the position was shared though so I would have got 8 points if the same thing was true here. I ended up coming 10th out of 30-something competitors.
I think if two players came equal second, they would each get half of the points for both second and third, so in this case you would get 2.5 for each + 5 for the win for a total of 10.
I wonder what would have happened if you'd won? Would you have gone on to represent Spain at the world championships?
No, because this wasn't the Spanish championships; it was just a competition attached to a games festival. The Spanish championships were held earlier this year (http://www.devir.es/noticia-de-eventos) and the winner (Carolina, on the left in the picture) was the one who I finished ahead of in our four-player game (but she still qualified for the last eight). I forgot to ask her if she went to Essen to participate in the world championships.
Awesome! I knew there would be a cool story behind it. :(y)
Glad you liked it; I was worried it wasn't cool enough :)
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Carolina was at the 9th World Championship at the Spiel 2014 in Essen.
30. Carolina Ruiz - Spain
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Meanwhile, here is a news report (http://www.ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/Noticies-324/Jocs-de-taula-al-Festival-DAU/video/5396453/#) (in Catalan) about the games festival, though unfortunately Carcassonne is not featured. I'm still waiting for the photos of the Carcassonne tournament to appear on FB.
While we're waiting, here is a photo of a Carcassonne cake (https://www.facebook.com/deviriberia/photos/a.117805608233926.19889.115825371765283/977666168914528/?type=1&theater) that Devir posted on Facebook.
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Here are some pictures (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.978304798850665.1073741858.115825371765283&type=1) from the festival with the Carcassonne tournament at the bottom.
Of the photos below, the first one shows me in the front left in my first game (in which I came second). The guy on the right won the game. The second photo shows my second game that was won by the girl at the back right. The guy at the front left came second, two points behind, and I came third, one point further back.
Finally, the third photo shows the final four. It looks like the Spanish champion Carolina won another tournament because she has the biggest prize (Big Box 5). The other woman in the picture is the one who won the third game I played, beating me by one point, with Carolina coming third.