Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => General => Topic started by: jungleboy on November 24, 2016, 04:08:15 AM
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As another year starts to wind down, I thought it would be fun if we discussed our Carcassonne highlights for the year. There's still a few weeks to go until the end of the year but that will give everyone time to think about their highlights and add them to the thread!
2016 is the year that I finally ventured out of the Carcassonne universe and discovered other games (with Chooselife and Decar largely to blame for this), but there were still some great Carcassonne moments. Since I own pretty much everything I want to own already, my list is less about acquisitions and more about meet-ups and 'experiences'.
Here are my highlights (in no particular order):
- Meeting danisthirty and Decar in London (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2425.msg34474#msg34474) early in the year and playing my first game of South Seas with them.
- The Oxford meetup (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2430.0) with a group of CC members, where I played my first game of New World (which I quite liked).
- The 'Carcathon (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2776.0)' with JT Atomico, Halfling and Curt in July, where we played 20 Carcassonne games back-to-back in one crazy day. Unfortunately I played terribly more or less all day but it was still a great experience, plus I played a bunch of new Carcassonne games. Cardcassonne surprisingly stood out as a pretty cool little game.
- Receiving a shrinkwrapped version of Cathars (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2610.msg40308#msg40308) by surprise/accident from Cundco instead of the German Cathedrals that I had ordered.
- Playing two World Cup games in person: one against Grabushka at Essen (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2921.msg43655#msg43655) and one against Chooselife (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2921.msg44185#msg44185) in "the greatest city in the world", Estoril.
- Essen: Meeting Jéré, Grabushka, MrNumbers and Skane, and playing my first game of Amazonas (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2472.msg43685#msg43685) with danisthirty and Decar at Essen. Decar really likes drawing river tiles!
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Am I the only person who has any Carcassonne highlights this year?
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Am I the only person who has any Carcassonne highlights this year?
Sorry but I'm still too unintelligent to have thought of any because of my moustache. I'll be shaving it off on Thursday though so expect some outbursts of genius then...
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I'm hoping to make it to December, before reviewing the year :) :(y) :(y)
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The highlight 2016 for some members was the Spiel in Essen and also the special fan-members meeting.
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My Carcassonne highlight of 2016 was discovering the game, and expansions, then ending up here over the weekend ;D
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My Carcassonne highlight of 2016 was discovering the game, and expansions, then ending up here over the weekend ;D
Excellent highlights! Welcome to the forums Luthadel! :) :(y)
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They say that a picture tells a thousand words, so here's 4000 words describing some of my highlights from 2016 (click photos for full details):
(http://www.dan.tehill.net/Draughts_5.jpg) (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2425)
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/meetupOxford2016/20160430_170121.jpg) (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2430)
(http://www.dan.tehill.net/FanMeet6.jpg) (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2939)
(http://tehill.net/carcassonne/essen/spiel16/essen3_13.jpg) (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2472)
I'm sure there will be more to come later when I've had more time to think about the year overall.
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My highlights:
(1) I've played more Carcassonne this year than I have in my last 3 years put together. It's great to get back into the game more often, with my wife and I both splitting out time between Carc and her favourite game Catan.
(2) I've introduced a few more friends to Carcassonne. Sometimes as we get older we're always looking to save money, but at the same time our thoughts are that in order to have fun we have to go out and spend money. I've made more of a point of staying home, inviting friends to come play some games.
(3) Last but not least, I am so very glad that our community continues to flourish with the help of so many of you. I am thankful that we have each and every one of you, the authors, moderators, admins and most importantly community members here. I'd also like to thank kettlefish especially, she is my anchor and keeps me up to date on what is going on. Unlike most other social media platforms, this one is generally low on drama (although we have our occasional share). So from the bottom of my heart I'd like to thank you all for yet another good year here on Carcassonne Central!
:yellow-meeple:
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some of the highlights for the game Carcassonne - CC II New Edition.
I like the last page from the expansions 3rd, 5th, 4th and the next will be 6th.
The last page shows the game play with other expansions. Some of the clarification of rules are now part of the official rules.
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My Highlights:
- Being 1/140 of the awesome present the Community, with a huge merit not to Dan off course, is a clear highlight.
- The big one I 've to say it's was the in-person World Cup game with Jungleboy, the first in-person game in ages (not counting the usual frantic National Championship ones).
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After being a casual carcassonne player for some years it was in 2016 my son got smitten by the carc-virus and we started playing for real. As he turned 7 we had played quite a few mega-carc games and started developing house rules and such. We played with him having one more meeple, btw, typically in larger games. Nice handicap I also use when introducing the game to new people.
Finding CC, wow! I have not only tried most fan expansions that the new (2016) printer at work now has been busy with, I have recieved gifts from unknown people, met people and have also discovered JCZ here which really made all players in the house (we are quite a lot) level up their game.
This year I also played my first two tournaments here (one still waiting to be finished...) and reached qf in the world cup where I lost a very tight game against one of the finalists, ok with that!
Through CC I found spielematerial.de which let us materialize some home rules and fan expansions.
2016 also saw me pay ridiculous amounts of money for printed carton.
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I've been wanting to sit down since December to write something here, but finding it hard to get started at the moment.
I thought I'd at least get started. Most of you know I try to look at all the images and photos I took throughout the year to remind myself what I was up to in the world of Carcassonne. 2016 was a pretty mixed year for me. There were some real high-highs like visiting Essen and our meetup in Oxford and meeting Jungleboy three times! But there were some pretty low moments too. Perhaps it's not possible to experience one without the other; but I don't think that. I like to think positive actions build a more positive world and between us we can make awesome things happen.
January:
I bought a trunk to fill with games:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160103_224232.jpg)
Then I bought more games, that didn't fit in the trunk:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160106_145200.jpg)
I printed some tiles for Rosco:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20160117_193508.jpg)
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20160117_151229.jpg)
And made a Colourblind Comparison sheet - my private battle with the game's industry.
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/ColourBlindCarcassonneFilters.png)
February
I shared some goodies I bought in the States in 2015 and also included a Carcassonne Box.
But no one noticed it contained a 70-point score track.
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160201_211711.jpg)
Thanks to Dan for sharing the Advent Quiz prize with me also.
I also bought a lot of tiles from Cundco - we'll see more of those and the bags of meeple later!
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160226_171152-1024x576.jpg)
March
I set my computer alight and modified JCloisterzone, ahead of Paul's 10k game to play a very big game:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/JCloisterZone_10k_1.png)
It took over a week for two AI to play.
March was Santorini season - I found the picture!
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20160330_221225-800x450.jpg)
The completionists were getting the better of me too:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160308_130824%20(1).jpg)
Happy to own this too:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160322_123921-800x450.jpg)
This was my pre-Essen shelfie:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160324_092303.jpg)
April
More purchases:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/20160406_185837-1024x576.jpg)
Printed some tiles:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20160410_171246-1280x720.jpg)
I forgot I made this Carcassonne Expansion Buyer's Guide:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/Carcassonne_Expansion_Buy_FlowChat.png)
April also saw the first Meetup of the year in Oxford:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/meetupOxford2016/20160430_170121.jpg)
and some goodies for people:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/meetupOxford2016/20160501_173025.jpg)
May
Postage nightmares...I can only hope the Meeple ex Machina is causing havoc in the gear box:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/postman/post/post5.jpg)
Fun with QR Codes:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/QRCodes/QR6.png)
A Chance Encounter with Rich the Fish in Bristol too:
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/meetupBristol/20160525_160011.jpg)
That's all I have time for at the moment. Almost halfway through the year. Hopefully that'll give enough time for people to load all the photos ;)
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Although I had several highlights this year, like the amazing Korn I finding its way into my possession courtesy of Kettlefish (which I will never forget!);
Undoubtly it's the world record game set on Mars 2016 playing a single game of Carcassonne using over 10 thousand tiles that trumped everything.
http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2382.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wM2brqgkRw
Which... I will finish the diary section some day soon. ;)
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Who are you kidding Paul? - You know giving away an infamous Dan Chard signed tile was the highlight of your year :D
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Who are you kidding Paul? - You know giving away an infamous Dan Chard signed tile was the highlight of your year :D
Those things are so hard to comeby as well. I've been searching eBay for one for much of the last few years...
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The only other person I know who has one is KJW himself!
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Undoubtly it's the world record game set on Mars 2016 playing a single game of Carcassonne using over 10 thousand tiles that trumped everything.
Wait, how on earth (or not as the case may be) did I miss this? Not only did you play a game of Carcassonne with 10,000 tiles, but you went to another planet to do it?! Merit to you for being the first man to set foot on Mars... :) :(y)
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danisthirty,
that is the real reason why we never heard the end of the story, because Paul is no more in Sweden he is still staying at the Mars...
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Aha! So now the truth is coming out...
I guess the wifi isn't so good on Mars either, which explains why he isn't able to visit the forums so much anymore.
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You know what else rhyme with Mars?
Seriously though, that is a highlight in itself I suppose, for sending out the signed tile. Reason why I made that mistake (not realising what the signed tile was) I'd say due to that I'm quite humble, never thought I'd get a signed anything or any other rarities.
And for those that may wonder what word I was thinking, rotate the M in Mars 90 degree left and put it at the end of that word...
;)
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The signed tile was not from danisthirty, it was from Doris Matthäus herself - the great graphic artist for the CC I standard edition.
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The signed tile was not from danisthirty, it was from Doris Matthäus herself - the great graphic artist for the CC I standard edition.
Yes, sent by you! Forever thankful.
I was sorting in haste and so I made the mistake.
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January
For Xmas 2015 I received Carcassonne. We played the heck out of it in January and it quickly became my favorite game.
February
Sometimes a low-light becomes a highlight. I search online for information about expansions and find that I have an old art copy. This seems like terrible news as the new art is taking over and everything that matches my set is out of print. I have to decide whether or not to buy a new art copy or attempt collecting the old art. After seeing the new art, I decide to go with the old.
I discover this awesome forum. Nobody here would sell me a copy of Inns & Cathedrals. That is ok since shipping from Europe would have been $$$$
I call every game store in the Baltimore and Washington DC area. I am able to acquire Abbey and Mayor and Hills & Sheep. I also order GQ11 off of Ebay.
March
We play a ton of Carcassonne with Abbey and Mayor plus Hills & Sheep. Hills and Sheep is still my wife and son's favorite expansion. I got married on March 31st and my wife gifts me the 6 mini expansions (Goldmines, Ferries, etc). I buy pretty much anything Cundco can fit in a small envelope. We love the halflings.
April was the best month
I turn to Ebay for more expansions. I luck out and find Inns & Cathedrals for $19. I find an old original print copy of Traders and Builders, but I have to overpay for it ($28).
A trip to Frederick Maryland turns out to be a boon for my old art collection. We promised my son we would get him a couple of comic books if he was good on the car ride. Inside the Frederick comic shop is a case of board games. Included are Princess & Dragon, Count King & Robber, and Bridges Castles & Bazaars. They also had Abbey and Mayor + Traders and Builders. I wish I had bought them too, but at the time having 2 of the same expansion seemed foolish.
Kettlefish gives us a head up and I was able to order the Tunnels and The Plague from Spielbox. Spiel Doch comes out and Christopher and I go back and forth with how to use the maze.
May/June
I created Carcassonne themed pathtags. I don't think many people outside of this community have them yet.
December
Dan has a Spare Parts giveaway. I claim a copy of besiegers from Yimhj who sent them to me for free. I also receive Watch Towers and an Autographed scorecard from Dan Chard KJW!
I doubt next year can compete with this one. I am looking forward to the gaming table I ordered, but I think I got as much old art Carcassonne as I am going to get.
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Dirk - your 2016 seems to be like mine. It was all good up until June....then it was December!! (+1 merit for sharing)
Edit: whoot 3100 posts & 150 merits
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I've been wanting to sit down since December to write something here, but finding it hard to get started at the moment.
I'd forgotten about your epic month-by-month recap from the year before. Great stuff this year too! (Or at least this half-year.)
I'd also forgotten about the completionism polls (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2514.msg36069#msg36069) that I started. They were a great success so I should add them to my 2016 highlights!
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You know what else rhyme with Mars?
And for those that may wonder what word I was thinking, rotate the M in Mars 90 degree left and put it at the end of that word...
But - Mars and A**E doesn't rhyme.
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Though, you have to make sure that your phantoms are distinct enough to look different to a regular meeple, coming from someone who got a bunch of meeps from MeepleSource and used 6 of them for the Phantoms.
2 notable events in 2016: playing the game with someone that enjoyed it so much that they bought a copy themselves and getting signed up to demo Carc this past monday. Granted, the demo happened this year, but still.
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I have a couple of highlights during year 2016:
- in February I had my annual Carcassonne [live] tournament with expansions, which again had a big success. Now I am preparing for this year's tournament, 5th already.
- in April I have won P&D League and became first person to win two online competitions (second such person became Leven later this year by winning World Cup 2016).
- in May Klaus-Jürgen Wrede together with Udo Schmitz visited my home country Latvia, and there was outstanding Carcassonne game event, including KJW piano concert and playing Amazonas prototype with the author himself.
- in October it was all about Essen: unforgettable Carcassonne event with all HiG big ones, meeting many CarcC and CarcF members (Dan, Decar, Jungleboy and others), winning Carcassonne Quiz, got lucky and participated in Carcassonne World championship and was only one tile away from the semifinals (still 6th place overall).
- in December Hans im Glück used a photo of my daughter to illustrate their Christmas greetings.
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Nice highlights MrNumbers! But surely meeting me should be included? Unless you're saving that as a highlight of the decade like everyone else?
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Nice highlights MrNumbers! But surely meeting me should be included? Unless you're saving that as a highlight of the decade like everyone else?
But you were included! You are HiG big one, don't you? ;)
Seriously: of course, meeting you, Dan, and also Decar, Jungleboy, Jéré (for the second time) and other members from CarcC and CarcF was one of the biggest Essen highlights, which gainfully differs this visit from other Essen trips :)
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2016 was my first year at Carcassonne Central (I joined in December 2015). Becoming a part of this community of fellow fans was my first Carcassonne highlight of 2016 and the one that led to all the rest. Other highlights for me were:
Discovering Fan Expansions. When I first discovered Carcassonne Central (and CarcF), I immensely enjoyed looking through the library of Carcassonne fan expansions that I had never known existed. It was (and is) a treasure trove of creativity, and I was impressed with the quality of several expansions which I considered on par with (or better than) many official expansions, both in gameplay and tile design.
Some I loved for their elegant simplicity (meepleater's Wells, Fritz_Spinne's City Gates (http://www.hans-im-glueck.de/carcassonne/fan-erweiterungen/die-stadttore/)), others for their interesting gameplay mechanics (Trebuchet's Bards of Carcassonne (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=193), CKorfmann & Jputt927's The King's Gate (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=108)), others for their quirky creativity (aenima's The Big Black Pig Escape (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=279), PresetM's Questionable Creativity (http://carcassonne-forum.de/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=2713&start=94#p41844)), and others for their beauty (wolnic's The Coast (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=311), and Astargoth's Kingdoms (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2990.0)). These, and a wealth of other fan expansions which I very much enjoyed looking at, even inspired me to create my own.
Creating Fan Expansions. After "cutting my teeth" on some tiles for a relative's birthday (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2772.0), and learning a lot from the more experienced authors here at CarcC and especially at CarcF about how to design quality looking tiles, I went on to create five fan expansions in 2016: Fiefs, Vistas, The Schoolhouses, The Labyrinths, and still in-progress, The Royal Gates (an update to The King's Gate).
I really enjoyed the process of creating these (many hours in GiMP while listening to music) and, of course, the finished products. I also enjoyed the community input (both affirmation and helpful constructive criticism) and even had the pleasure of Leven designing a mini-expansion for Vistas called The Hiker (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2900.msg44249#msg44249). It was especially fun, if I may dip into 2017 a bit, to see Decar's beautiful prints (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2794.msg45819#msg45819) of Fiefs yesterday.
I dare say I like creating for Carcassonne more than playing for it -- and not because I don't enjoy playing it. :) I just love creating for and drawing out the potential of this beautiful and elegant game.
Experiencing Generosity. I have been amazed by the generous spirit of the Carcassonne fan community. For starters, the newbies here (like myself a year ago) are helped rather than talked down to, steered clear of bad Carcassonne deals rather than taken advantage of, and quickly welcomed into the life of this community.
And then there is the love for giving to each other. I saw it in the I love the postman... (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1205.0) thread before I ever experienced it personally -- people sending little gifts, even surprises, from across the world, just for the love of the game and because they liked each other. As I continued to take part in the Caracssonne fan community, I experienced this same generosity myself. quevy sent me a tile to sign for KJW's gift (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2939.0) when I had no tiles of my own to spare. Fan from CarcF sent me a surprisingly large gift package (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1205.msg44130#msg44130). And danisthirty sent me The River II, along with one of his ever-caffeinated Dan meeples, as part of his Spare Bits Giveaway (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2896.0). I continue to be amazed at this community's generous spirit toward each other.
Adding to the Fun. Lastly, I made a few purchases this year: German Castles, Halflings II, The School, The Labyrinth, and a custom deck of Carcassonne Selector Cards (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1205.msg45174#msg45174) including cards for my favorite Fan Expansions listed above.
Thanks you to all of you who have welcomed me into this community so warmly and treated me with such kindness and generosity. Though I live way over in Thailand and am not able to attend any of the meetups in Europe or the U.S., I am glad to be able to at least be a part of this fan community over the Internet and through the mail. I look forward to what new fun we will have together in 2017.
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March was Santorini season - I found the picture!
(http://www.tehill.net/carcassonne/fun/20160330_221225-800x450.jpg)
I had just been googling "boardgame shelfies" to demonstrate to my wife what proper shelfies are supposed to look like i.e. without little doors or drawers or anything silly like that to make it look tidier, and after my proving my point I kept on scrolling down until stopping at the first interesting looking Carcassonne picture which, quite by surprise, turned out to be this one! Obviously I didn't know where it had been posted, or who had posted it, so it was a nice surprise to see that it was here and that it had been posted by Decar.
Isn't it a small internet?
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Haha that's amazing - I must have been being 'shelfish' taking up all that internet :(y) :(y)
Which reminds me I really need to sit down and close the door on 2016!!!