Author Topic: Early C1 miniexpansions - which to seek for? (Read 3100 times)

Weetek23 · « **on:** April 27, 2021, 03:35:42 PM »

When we started to take Carcassonne seriously, we soon realized that while many expansions are still easily available, few are very difficult to haunt down and of a significant price. A humble completionist wannabe inside me whispers "get them all" but as we acquired a solid update of the minis within a year, it became apparent that while some got instantly popular, others are a little more than another tick on the list and we actually hardly ever play them. This is for sure purely a matter of personal taste and other players will evaluate them differently, but the distinction is very visible: we include several minis automatically (Phantom, Sheep, ... ), others hit the board rarely (Little Buildings, Tollkeepers).

Now we came to a point to decide which of the hard-to-get minis we shall pursue. Excluding collectibles like Porxada, Darmstadt, Russian Promos and earlier annual promo tiles (although I was more than happy to grab my 2020 tile within a Cundco order and secretly I´d like to have them all), being fine with just one version of Wind Roses and Crop Circles (yet I happily collected all 3 versions of C1 The River, agreeing that there is actually no real River III) and not necessarily complicating the landscape of Carcassonne with Dutch or Japanese shrines (damned that I missed the short Easter offer), we want to narrow our effort on one of these three items:
- any of the "Siege Trilogy" (Cathars, Siege, Besiegers)
- The Tunnel
- The Plague
Since the availability of these is not great and prices are rather high, I will appreciate your thoughts, experience and oppinions regarding the actual value of these expansions for the game. Which one is your favourite to play and recommendable to spend rather more than few euros on?

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=5245.0

corinthiens13 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 27, 2021, 09:24:53 PM »

Hi,

I have them all and, to be honest... They're great as ticks on the collectible list, but none of them are played very often.

For the plague, there is a fan conversion to C2 created by PresetM on Carcassonne Forum. You will find the files here but you will need to register first:
https://www.carcassonne-forum.de/viewtopic.php?f=352&t=4579&start=60#p62345

You may want to try it before deciding to buy a real one.

The plague is nice and changes the gameplay a lot, but it significantly increases the lengts of the game and it is not appropriate to mix with mor than basegame +1-2 expansions (can't play with too many tiles).

Tunnels are nice too but doesn't really add something to the game. And you have to be fair play, as you could very easily use them to make an opponent's road impossible to close (put a tunnel tile on a good opponent's road, place one of your tunnel token, and never place the second... It's even better if the road has an inn and your opponent's builder, he'll get 0 points, and his meeple + builder will be stuck for the rest of the game... )

Siege/Cathars/besiegers are good looking tiles

Probably more worthy than tunnels and adding something to the game.

Anyway, that's a personnal opinion and other players may think differently

Bumsakalaka · « **Reply #2 on:** April 27, 2021, 10:43:26 PM »

Well due todifficulty to get them, I play them on JCloisterZone. siege not very often but tunnels are one of my popular.
Plague not yet implemented so can't tell if it is good expansion or not. Maybe it is good to print them conversion to C2 and then decide.
Absolut "winner" is Darmstadt promo which brings just 9 points extra bonuses plus 2 cloister like buildings. For 100 EUR which was last price I saw on eBay as sold.

Odoslané z SM-A202F pomocou Tapatalku

Allograft · « **Reply #3 on:** April 27, 2021, 11:30:38 PM »

My youngest REALLY likes the gold mines, Wheel of Fortune, and Mage & Witch

Wife likes Bridges and Castles (not so much the bazaars) and she likes the Abbey and Mayor expansion. She's getting into trying to place the barn strategically.

Some of the older kids variously like the dispatches and Spiel promo tile. One is really into the intricacies of the artwork, which is cool to see her appreciate something besides SnapCrap.

I like the Fliers, everyone else gets pissed.

There's general disinterest in the ferries.

Bumsakalaka · « **Reply #4 on:** April 27, 2021, 11:47:30 PM »

Well if we talk about mini expansions at all my favorite is Barber Surgeons and Truit Bearing Trees.
From C1: Messages

unclewill · « **Reply #5 on:** April 28, 2021, 06:55:03 AM »

We've only just started getting C1 so nearly all my experience is playing with C2 sets. The closest I will probably get to owning one of the three minis Weetek23 lists is getting outbid for them on eBay, although I did enjoy 'being the winner' of all three of these and Kornkreise I for a while recently.

That said, I share the conflict between the desire to collect and the desire to play. As much as I would like to have all those elusive sets and promos, I am unlikely to play with them even if I did to preserve their condition. At the prices some of them reach, I can't buy a 'keeper' as well as a 'player' although I think that's great if that is something you want to do.

I think Bumsakalaka's idea of playing on JCloisterZone with the more obscure minis is something I will follow up too.

I guess the more expansions you play with in a game the less impact in scoring terms and 'flavour' each one has, so we are starting to favour smaller games with a tile/ rule mix chosen to our group mood. We still enjoy the 'all in' 5+ hour games too.

For the minis we have played with, we really like:
- Phantoms is a staple of nearly all our games, irrespective of number of players or what mood we are in.
- Fruit Bearing Trees is a favourite too; we like collecting piles of tokens and there is something very nice and wholesome about little piles of colourful fruit!
- Ferries in combination with I&C (although my girlfriend has a much better knack of using them and often scores roads in the teens, occasionally the twenties).

Less popular minis/ combos:
- We found the combination of Messengers and Robbers to be flawed so if we use them, we house rule to use the message rules and tiles without the Messenger meeple.
- Flying Machines rarely has much impact, but on occasion has the opportunity to be spectacular. When we use it, we house rule the flier tiles to conceal a tile beneath like Hills do. We like the unknown tile distribution particularly with things like Fruit Bearing Trees - "Do I risk that the last tree will get played?" etc

I am sure there aren't any surprises there, as some of the expansions and minis do seem better balanced and/ or work better in combination. It is nice to talk about it all though!

Cheers

DIN0 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 28, 2021, 06:58:03 AM »

unclewill, if you prefer physical play, ou can always just buy one copy as a keeper and then make homemade replicas for the actuall play. That is pretty much necessity with Russian promos, but can be applied to any rarity. Sleeveing the tiles also helps.

PS: Igreed, Messengers + Robbers combo is indeed flawed. Ironic since both are part of the same set of minis, but you cannot combine them effectivelly. Fortunatelly that is the only negative, otherwise these minis are amazing.

I also recomend Small Buildings (with the 2nd variant rules) - they shouldn't be too expensive and you can add them to anything very easily.

Drodo · « **Reply #7 on:** April 28, 2021, 07:23:18 AM »

Tunnel is only 4 tiles that affect roads, and most of my friends don't even understand how to use them so I'm the only one doing it. They can only be used to either trap another player's meeple (which he can remove if you're playing an expansion that lets you like Festival), or to steal/share a road easily.

Plague is very chaotic, it changes the game a lot and it's fun the first time but, since every single turn everyone has to move a flea token, it gets very tedious after a while and people just want to skip that action afterwards. It should never be played with more than the base game and 1 expansion at most, as it makes the games too long and tedious. My friends don't want to play it again now, but you can always make custom rules to make it less annoying.

Katharer/Siege/Belagerer is probably the best choice, its rules aren't complicated and it's a nice "take that" addition, effectively ruining another player's city while making a few extra points for farmers.

If you have to pick only one of the three, get Cult, Siege and Creativity. That version includes 1 unique tile for the Cult expansion that none of the other versions has. Kathars and Siege have the same 4 tiles but Kathars has a symbol. Belagerer has 6 different tiles. For the sake of consistency, I got both Siege and Belagerer. Didn't get Kathars because it would be weird to have some tiles with a symbol and others without it, in the same expansion. The only downer for Siege is that the artwork doesn't show broken city walls like the others.

MeepleFriend · « **Reply #8 on:** April 28, 2021, 09:26:00 AM »

Between those, count my vote for the “Siege” trilogy as you put it, for basically all the reasons you’ve read above. If you’re able to get them in the old artwork (you specified C1) you may really enjoy the double-tile Castles in Germany as well.

Meepledrone · « **Reply #9 on:** April 28, 2021, 12:39:52 PM »

I'm praying for Besiegers to become the next C1 expansion to be released in C2.

DIN0 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 28, 2021, 03:59:35 PM »

Highly likely. I am surpsised it is taking this long.

KBellon · « **Reply #11 on:** April 28, 2021, 04:31:28 PM »

I just bought them all last week.
Paid 50 for plague, but no more than 35 for any other including darmstadt, cathars, tunnel, japanese temples and spiel promo tile 16-17-18-19-20.
You should go to ebay.de and especially go for biddings. Every once in a while you will find advertisements that are less expensive than the rest.

As for sleeveing etc. I will just play with the originals, because after thats the reason I am buying them. My orignale base game is 15 years and in perfect shape. As I have all expansions (except for the Russian promos), I will only play each exclusive expansion a few times a year so I guess they won't wont show aging signs that much.

Allograft · « **Reply #12 on:** April 28, 2021, 07:17:49 PM »

WOW! €35 or less for Darmstadt is AMAZING!

I've cleaned up nicely on eBay.de also, but one has to have a friend in Germany to collect the packages. Many of the sellers won't ship to USA, and even if they do, international shipping on a per piece case will kill ya. I've actually got a consolidated shipment coming from Germany as we speak.

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totec55 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 28, 2021, 08:34:14 PM »

I find it hard to believe that anyone found "Darmstadt" for that price on Ebay (At least with the Carcassonne tiles still with it). Possibly BGG, but not Ebay. I have been watching ebay.com, .de, and .uk for about the last 6 months like a hawk and have not seen one go for less than 100 Euro.

I really wish I wouldve kept it when I had the chance. I only held onto the Catan Wedding Tower as I was sheepily unaware of how awesome Carcassonne was 6 years ago

.

Additionally, I am right there with you Meepledrone regarding Besiegers. I would love to see it in C2!