Author Topic: Mega Carcassonne 2016 (Read 8106 times)

JT Atomico · « **on:** February 21, 2016, 09:40:33 AM »

A few weeks ago, I played my third game of true Mega Carcassonne which included every tile in print. I have played two previous games like this in 2013 and 2014. New tiles for this game included The Castles and Halflings, which added a good set of options for known tiles; The River III, which made the start tile bag alone quite large; and some new rarities such as the Russian and Darmstadt promos.

Six of us were playing and the game took us a total of 13 hours to finish. We were too tired to precisely score up all of the final fields, but the winning score was approximately 1500 points! I finished up in a slightly disappoiting fifth place, having won the previous two Mega Carc games.

As is sometimes a problem with big games of Carcassonne, the main farm was game-breakingly huge! It had about 60 cities in it which meant that if you were purely playing for score the only sensible thing to do was to try and join farmers in (since it was barned) and get 2 points each time by placing your big. We made an agreement to stop doing that as it got a little boring.

The monasteries are also very powerful in such a large game, easily grabbing at least 50 points if you are lucky enough to draw one or magic portal / fly on to one. Combined with the message that allows you to immediately score any follower (so removing the chance to attack another player's abbot with the dragon or the plague or a tower!), they were also a little over powered.

That notwithstanding, it was a thoroughly enjoyable game! It is always fun trying to work through how all of the rules play in with each other when playing with all of the expansions!

My favourite turn of the day was finding a perfectly constructed two tile hole for my German Castle. It was very satisfying to drop that in and score it immediately

Here is the all important photo of the final board:

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2466.0

Christopher · « **Reply #1 on:** February 21, 2016, 10:21:50 AM »

Brilliant! I'd love to give this a go. Well done!

Paul · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2016, 11:42:57 AM »

And no brain melted at the end of the game? I'm impressed.

Thanks for the photo!

Decar · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2016, 01:35:44 PM »

Mert for your craziness and great write up. It looks like it might be easier to list whats not being played!

MrNumbers · « **Reply #4 on:** February 22, 2016, 01:06:24 AM »

Merit for the nice report!

Quote from: JT Atomico on February 21, 2016, 09:40:33 AM

As is sometimes a problem with big games of Carcassonne, the main farm was game-breakingly huge! It had about 60 cities in it which meant that if you were purely playing for score the only sensible thing to do was to try and join farmers in (since it was barned) and get 2 points each time by placing your pig. We made an agreement to stop doing that as it got a little boring.

This should be a part of the strategy of barn owner - he could close his barn farm and try to made it impossible for further connects. Quite a challenge!

Quote from: JT Atomico on February 21, 2016, 09:40:33 AM

The monasteries are also very powerful in such a large game, easily grabbing at least 50 points if you are lucky enough to draw one or magic portal / fly on to one. Combined with the message that allows you to immediately score any follower (so removing the chance to attack another player's abbot with the dragon or the plague or a tower!), they were also a little over powered.

Never thought of this combination of expansions (Messengers+GM) in such way! There could be some good strategic turns in that

JT Atomico · « **Reply #5 on:** February 22, 2016, 03:12:12 AM »

Quote from: MrNumbers on February 22, 2016, 01:06:24 AM

This should be a part of the strategy of barn owner - he could close his barn farm and try to made it impossible for further connects. Quite a challenge!

Hehe, that's a little hard to do when it takes up pretty much the whole board and there are so many edges to get in on

Another interesting part of the big field was that everyone managed to get their barn in to it! This actually isn't particularly difficult to do when you have so many tiles and a couple of bridges each (which make joining games much simpler).

Christopher · « **Reply #6 on:** February 22, 2016, 04:29:25 AM »

Quote from: JT Atomico on February 22, 2016, 03:12:12 AM

Quote from: MrNumbers on February 22, 2016, 01:06:24 AM
This should be a part of the strategy of barn owner - he could close his barn farm and try to made it impossible for further connects. Quite a challenge!
Hehe, that's a little hard to do when it takes up pretty much the whole board and there are so many edges to get in on

Another interesting part of the big field was that everyone managed to get their barn in to it! This actually isn't particularly difficult to do when you have so many tiles and a couple of bridges each (which make joining games much simpler).

I was going to ask if that might have been the case. Makes for an interesting strategy with the farm though, connecting followers constantly to score a few points from it.

danisthirty · « **Reply #7 on:** February 22, 2016, 05:20:53 AM »

I've been waiting for your write-up for weeks. Really enjoyed reading it, and looking at the photo too!

Merit for you.

jma03 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 22, 2016, 12:06:57 PM »

the teapot is too small for that game ¡¡¡¡

interesting reading and image¡¡¡

my games with my friends usually 2.5 hours .
And when played two , my head 's take usually smoke.

I would like to try one of those,it has to be vibrant

merit for you