Should a Mega Game have barns?

[Halfling]

I have a mega game coming up and I'm thinking of using the barns.  It will allow the meeples to be used for cities and roads instead of laying around for 2 hours.

However, I have seen others say they don't use barns.

What's your advise lads and lasses?

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3123.0

[danisthirty]

I suppose it would depend on the type of game you want it to be. Barns change things a lot as it becomes a race and a gamble to be the first person to place your barn somewhere that it will score well and which can be expanded. Then you spend the rest of the game trying to score by getting extra farmers onto your barn farm for quick points. In this way, it changes the feel of Carcassonne a lot, although it also provides another source of points if/ area to focus on.

If players are aware that it's going to be a big game and Barns aren't involved then they need to pace themselves with their meeples. Meeples shouldn't be placed as farmers and left sitting around for hours if the players pace themselves and save the farm fighting until the end of the game! Those are my thoughts anyway...

[franks]

Not sure this helps you at all, just some personal experience. In the end I think it depends how many people were playing with, I wouldn't play a mega game with more than two, (depending on the number of tiles. We usually play near the 200 range of tiles). I think the remarks about tying up workers is a key point to consider.

The mega game is still our favourite way to play and wouldn't likely play without Barns. This really runs up the scores. We usually end up with a mega 'farm' that is likely jointly scored. The nuance comes from farmers and pigs sneaking in during the game, again runniing up the score. The second photo is zoomed into a mini-meta battle to score with barns that are off the shot. This can push our games into kind of ridiculous scores, (1000 points isn't that uncommon). Regardless thats our game but might not work for all.

In the 1st photo we use pips to keep track of the cities to make it easier to score. We have never liked playing with the any of River additions. There is also some custom bits in our games 

The only little thing thats annoying for me is the theme. The crazy amount of points that can be scored don't seem to match the theme. I have been thinking about these as some sort of tax/fees that are collected for the base of your Fiefdom. Not the nicest theme but maybe not too far off base for certain points in history.

Again not sure this helps just sharing some experience. Enjoy your game and maybe let us know how it went!

[thodekey]

I recognize those pigies...from my childhood and that's a long time ago.

[Dragonlord]

I'm playing mega game with barns, and I like with two rivers starter with branch on each other, so this gives good beginning for différent fields. 

[Halfling]

Keep the thoughts coming.  We are playing mid-February.

Our start tiles will be the Wheel of Fortune 4 x 4, River I and River II.

[Ry4Christ]

Not sure this helps you at all, just some personal experience. In the end I think it depends how many people were playing with, I wouldn't play a mega game with more than two, (depending on the number of tiles. We usually play near the 200 range of tiles). I think the remarks about tying up workers is a key point to consider.

The mega game is still our favourite way to play and wouldn't likely play without Barns. This really runs up the scores. We usually end up with a mega 'farm' that is likely jointly scored. The nuance comes from farmers and pigs sneaking in during the game, again runniing up the score. The second photo is zoomed into a mini-meta battle to score with barns that are off the shot. This can push our games into kind of ridiculous scores, (1000 points isn't that uncommon). Regardless thats our game but might not work for all.

In the 1st photo we use pips to keep track of the cities to make it easier to score. We have never liked playing with the any of River additions. There is also some custom bits in our games 

The only little thing thats annoying for me is the theme. The crazy amount of points that can be scored don't seem to match the theme. I have been thinking about these as some sort of tax/fees that are collected for the base of your Fiefdom. Not the nicest theme but maybe not too far off base for certain points in history.

Again not sure this helps just sharing some experience. Enjoy your game and maybe let us know how it went!

  What is the ccff tile near the upper left side of the first photo? It's to the right of the princess tile and looks like there are several tents/encampments? (I'm not talking about the fairgrounds on a catapult piece). In the field section. I don't recognize the tile.

[jungleboy]

What is the ccff tile near the upper left side of the first photo? It's to the right of the princess tile and looks like there are several tents/encampments? (I'm not talking about the fairgrounds on a catapult piece). In the field section. I don't recognize the tile.

It's from Siege. The Siege tiles don't have broken city walls like Cathars and Besiegers.

[Valheru]

What is the ccff tile near the upper left side of the first photo? It's to the right of the princess tile and looks like there are several tents/encampments? (I'm not talking about the fairgrounds on a catapult piece). In the field section. I don't recognize the tile.

It's from Siege. The Siege tiles don't have broken city walls like Cathars and Besiegers.

Think it's a Catapult tile.

[franks]

What is the ccff tile near the upper left side of the first photo? It's to the right of the princess tile and looks like there are several tents/encampments? (I'm not talking about the fairgrounds on a catapult piece). In the field section. I don't recognize the tile.

It's from Siege. The Siege tiles don't have broken city walls like Cathars and Besiegers.

Jungleboy is right! Though I have Catapult in a closet somewhere, I haven't used any of the tiles, (that I can recall anyway).

[ARabidMeerkat]

Mega Carc with two people is perfect (even if you end up being beaten by your wife!). Why not Barns?

[Ry4Christ]

What is the ccff tile near the upper left side of the first photo? It's to the right of the princess tile and looks like there are several tents/encampments? (I'm not talking about the fairgrounds on a catapult piece). In the field section. I don't recognize the tile.

It's from Siege. The Siege tiles don't have broken city walls like Cathars and Besiegers.

Jungleboy is right! Though I have Catapult in a closet somewhere, I haven't used any of the tiles, (that I can recall anyway).

Ah ok, thank you Jungleboy for the clarification! 
Franks, I see several catapult fairgrounds tiles in the second, lower photo, or did I misunderstand what you meant?

[franks]

What is the ccff tile near the upper left side of the first photo? It's to the right of the princess tile and looks like there are several tents/encampments? (I'm not talking about the fairgrounds on a catapult piece). In the field section. I don't recognize the tile.

It's from Siege. The Siege tiles don't have broken city walls like Cathars and Besiegers.

Jungleboy is right! Though I have Catapult in a closet somewhere, I haven't used any of the tiles, (that I can recall anyway).

Ah ok, thank you Jungleboy for the clarification! 
Franks, I see several catapult fairgrounds tiles in the second, lower photo, or did I misunderstand what you meant?

Apologies, you are absolutely correct. We've played this way for so long that I forget where the tiles come from and also sometimes think the variants we use are 'real' rules.

In this instance we use a variant when the Fairground is placed you take the Count Meeple as a reminder, (that we don't use in the game); on your next turn you can draw to tiles and place one, (return the other to the bag). I think this variant was suggested from someone else but can't recall. Regardless, we really like what this adds to the game.

In the photo; through crazy chance a whole load of them came out in succession!

More apologies for going off topic!