Carcassonne Central

Carc Central Community => Reviews & Session Reports => Topic started by: Whaleyland on October 17, 2021, 12:51:09 PM

Title: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Whaleyland on October 17, 2021, 12:51:09 PM
Note: This is only a review of the 20 extra tiles in the game. This is not a review of the edition as a whole.

Carcassonne has been around for over two decades now, so it is pretty impressive that expansions are still being released annually for it. The only other game with such a track record is Catan. That being said, many of Carcassonne’s expansions have been less than impressive, and some have been downright dull or confusing. The 20th Anniversary Expansion—or rather “inspansion” since it is exclusive to the 20th Anniversary Edition of the base game—chose to play it safe, but as a result it sort of just makes parts of the first three full-sized expansions redundant. Let me explain…

Pride & Prejudice

Sense & Sensibility

Inconclusion
This expansion was certainly not Hans im Glück’s best, but it also was far from its worse. At least everything was fairly straightforwards, which is more than can be said about the Carcassonne Minis and half of its promo expansions over the years. Nonetheless, I feel that this expansion was a missed opportunity to do something that respected the legacy of the series but in a new way. Simply copying mechanics from the first three expansions doesn’t respect the legacy, it undermines the first three expansions! In 2011 and 2016, The Festival was released as a new expansion with a simple but useful mechanic. I think that 15 bonus tiles (not the new River tiles—those are fine) could have done something similar, perhaps by borrowing concepts from some of the most popular spin-offs or creating something equally useful and new. This is not the place to propose alternatives, but it is the place to say that Carcassonne deserved something more useful and interesting to commemorate 20 years of an amazing game. Fortunately, Hans im Glück is giving us The Gifts at Essen this year, so there is perhaps some little bonus expansion that will satisfy, if not replace the disappointment that is the 20th Anniversary Expansion.

Playability: B+
Affordability: D
Compatibility (with other expansions): B
Aesthetics: B
Learning Curve: B
FINAL GRADE: B-
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Meepledrone on October 17, 2021, 03:52:58 PM
Great review!

+1 merit from me.

The HiG rep on Discord told me this about the 20th Anniversary Edition back in April 2021 when asking about interactions with the double-sized river source tile:
Quote
The anniversary edition is not a Substitute for the base game. So the same statement applies here: We won't give you official rules for combinations of expansions.

So it seems they included the 20th Anniversary expansion as if it was never supposed to be combined with any other expansions. Really?

This all sounds kind of too lazy to me.

But at least the rules explain how to score a monastery adjacent to the river source, something I asked them about when discussing double-sized tile with them back in January 2021...  :o
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Whaleyland on October 17, 2021, 05:10:31 PM
That's true! This edition finally seemed to address the double-tile issue in a satisfactory manner. Of course they count as two tiles in most situations, why was this so hard of an answer to come to?

The fact that Hans im Glück thinks this edition is some quasi-spin-off and not a base game is ridiculous. I still had not purchased a copy of the base game in the new art style until I got this and without this, I probably wouldn't have bought one at all (my partner is still wondering why I bought it...at least until I told her it has an exclusive expansion, then she just rolled her eyes). Instead of using the 20th anniversary to try to attract new players while also providing something fun for old players, they made this: a beautiful box with beautiful tiles that neither satisfies old players nor attracts new ones. I feel it's a wasted opportunity. Wheel of Fortune was far more bold and even the 10th Anniversary Edition with The Festival at least provided an interesting, if basic, expansion.
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: carlium on October 18, 2021, 07:07:15 AM
I know that making the 20th-anniversary edition a quasi-spin-off is a bad idea, as you both mentioned, but I hope this becomes true. I don't want to buy any mini-expansion or maxi-expansion that includes that iconography. I can deal with the clipped buildings  :'( ; however, those icons in the 20th-anniversary expansion are so discordant with the entire aesthetics of the game that I wish they just discard and never use them again.

Really, I wish they "catapult" them!    ;)

Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Bumsakalaka on October 22, 2021, 08:34:24 AM
Bad news is, that it looks line new design standard. We can call it 2.2? Or 20 but this can be replaced with 2.0. so I prefferen 2.2 used in Peasant revold for first time. We will see how it will be when otherimi will be released. I hope that it will be on december, like last year

Odoslané z SM-A202F pomocou Tapatalku

Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Meepledrone on October 22, 2021, 10:41:33 AM
Will be the Spiel '21 tile the last instance of C2.1 our eyes will see?  >:D
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Bumsakalaka on October 22, 2021, 02:52:32 PM
Will be the Spiel '21 tile the last instance of C2.1 our eyes will see?  >:D
I hope (maybe 0.5% change) that you will not be rigth. But as I said, only for 0,5% (for english men [who is in new york] 200:1)
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Whaleyland on October 22, 2021, 03:08:52 PM
Bad news is, that it looks line new design standard. We can call it 2.2? Or 20 but this can be replaced with 2.0. so I prefferen 2.2 used in Peasant revold for first time. We will see how it will be when otherimi will be released. I hope that it will be on december, like last year

Odoslané z SM-A202F pomocou Tapatalku
I would definitely call it 2.2, especially since it did not originate with the 20th Anniversary Edition. I suspect like the roll-out of 2.1 that it will take a few years to trickle down from Hans im Glück to its distribution partners, but I also assume the Spiel '21 tile is the final official iteration of 2.1, just like the Spiel '17 tile was the final of 2.0.

I am in the minority with this, I know, but I welcome the change. The tiles look tremendously better than 2.0's tiles and work fine with the 2.1 tiles since the colors still match, but these tiles are the first in Carcassonne's 21-year history to actually depict a lived-in city. It just seems right even if the aesthetics around the edges are less than ideal. The fate of any tile-laying game is that things will be unusual around the edges—Carcassonne has avoided this problem somewhat by making the edges really boring, but making them more exciting naturally leads to other problems.
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: carlium on October 23, 2021, 10:11:43 AM
Yes, for sure C. 2.2 (a.k.a. clipped buildings) are here to stay, but what I was trying to say is about the iconography of the 20th expansion, those blue arrows. I feel that they do not fit well with the aesthetic of the tile itself.

(https://i.ibb.co/DCgb23q/Annotation-2021-10-23-130804.png)

 :red-meeple:
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Bumsakalaka on October 23, 2021, 01:41:44 PM
Yes. Arrows are by C20 design of box. Which is funny, that rules are "middle age book design" and box and arrows modern design. Sure, they don't fit together.
Title: Re: The Barbarian Report: A Little Bit of Everything (20th Anniversary Expansion)
Post by: Whaleyland on October 23, 2021, 02:56:00 PM
Ah yes, the blue arrows. Too small. Too aesthetically displeasing. They aren't the first time that Hans im Glück has gotten lazy with designs, but they are far lazier than the Fliers, which is probably their closest equivalent.