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Unofficial Rules / Expansions becoming inconsistent during megacarcassonne games?
« on: December 06, 2020, 11:22:10 PM »
Hi everyone,
In my experience, some expansions have mechanics that make them too strong, or too insignificant during megacarcassonne.
I've played house rules for multiple megacarcassonne games to improve the gameplay and wanted to share them.
What do you think? Are you using other house rules like these? Do you think some other expansions are inconsistent during megacarcassonne games? Or do you stick with the original rules no matter what?
Base game's farmers:
I often had one big farm with more than 50 completed cities, thus worth at least 200 points with a pig (+ castles points, and eventually pig herd).
This makes one farm to be the central point of the game, whoever not scoring it will be left far behind. The game becomes less interesting, as any action not involving that farm becomes meaningless.
House rule: Farm's core points reduced by 1 (2 points for completed cities, 3 for castles) and do not take the pig herd into consideration, or at least make it do not stack with pig figure bonus point.
Barn:
Same problem as above.
House rule: Do not use the barn, or same as above.
Tower prisonner ransom:
Paying 3 points for a prisonner buyback may bee insignificant in games with 600 points per player.
House rule: Pay 6 points to buy a meeple back instead of 3.
King and robber:
Counting the number of completed road ans cities is long and difficult, it's almost impossible to count every roads without forgetting some... And it's worth too much points in a megacarcassonne.
House rule : King and robber are worth 20 points each, no matter the number of completed cities and roads.
Ringmaster :
Circus and pyramid spaces aren't drawned very often, so the ringmaster bonus doesn't occur very often.
House rule: Fair are also counted for ringmaster bonus, eventually fortune teller's tents too (anything with yellow background except crop circles).
Artists:
You may have to stuck meeples for to much time to make it worth 5 points per meeple.
House rule: Artists are worth 8 points each instead of 5.
Wheel of fortune :
Stucking a meeple on the wheel's crown for the whole game isn't worth the few points you'll get.
House rule : Double the crown's points (6-12 points instead of 3-6)
The plague:
Spreading the plague can become very boring, especially when there's only one outbreak left with all of the 18 flea tokens connected, in a region of the game that has no meeples (I know that makes a lot of conditions, but this may be the case during 80% of the game during megacarcassonne).
So every player has to move a flea token, but with nothing at stake...
House rule : When every flea tokens are connected to the same plague, players may move one during their turn, or may ignore that action.
Messengers:
Message action can take place many times during a turn, especially when there's a builder's double turn. This takes a lot of time during each and every turn to perform the message actions and to calculate how to draw as many messages as possible, and may even lead to "new tile" message beeing drawned twice during a player's turn !
House rule: Use only one scoring meeple instead of two, and perform the message action only at the end of each player's turn instead of after each round of scoring (C1 rule).
Wind roses:
There's not much at stake with those little 3 points during a big game.
House rule: Placing a wind rose in the correct quarter gives 3 points, but placing it in another quarter is minus 6 points.
German monasteries :
Placing a meeple as an abbot may be worth more than 100 points! That's ok when you have to stuck a meeple during the game, but when someone draws a monastery near the end of the game, that's quite a jump with nothing to lose...
House rule: Don't use the possibility to place meeples as abbots, or keep the original rules but place the German monasteries in the first half of the tiles in the dispenser, that way they'll be drawned only during the first half of the game, and players wanting to place an abbot'll have to stuck a meeple for a long time.
Little buildings:
Variant 2 is ok, but variant 1 doesn't bring significant points during a big game. I don't understand why it's only one point, so 18 points for every buildings, when variant 2 is 36 points for every buildings.
House rule: With variant 1, buildings are worth 2 points.
Baba Yaga:
Unless it's drawed at the end of the game, it's not worth placing a meeple as it'd be stuck here for a long time with almost no possibility to earn more than 1 point (eventually 2 or 3 if it isn't completed at the end of the game.
House rule : Consider Baba Yaga completed as soon as it is placed. That way, it'll be scored during the scoring phase of the same turn, making that tile a lot more interesting (you can't place a meeple with a flyer or magic portal later as it's considered as completed).
In my experience, some expansions have mechanics that make them too strong, or too insignificant during megacarcassonne.
I've played house rules for multiple megacarcassonne games to improve the gameplay and wanted to share them.
What do you think? Are you using other house rules like these? Do you think some other expansions are inconsistent during megacarcassonne games? Or do you stick with the original rules no matter what?
Base game's farmers:
I often had one big farm with more than 50 completed cities, thus worth at least 200 points with a pig (+ castles points, and eventually pig herd).
This makes one farm to be the central point of the game, whoever not scoring it will be left far behind. The game becomes less interesting, as any action not involving that farm becomes meaningless.
House rule: Farm's core points reduced by 1 (2 points for completed cities, 3 for castles) and do not take the pig herd into consideration, or at least make it do not stack with pig figure bonus point.
Barn:
Same problem as above.
House rule: Do not use the barn, or same as above.
Tower prisonner ransom:
Paying 3 points for a prisonner buyback may bee insignificant in games with 600 points per player.
House rule: Pay 6 points to buy a meeple back instead of 3.
King and robber:
Counting the number of completed road ans cities is long and difficult, it's almost impossible to count every roads without forgetting some... And it's worth too much points in a megacarcassonne.
House rule : King and robber are worth 20 points each, no matter the number of completed cities and roads.
Ringmaster :
Circus and pyramid spaces aren't drawned very often, so the ringmaster bonus doesn't occur very often.
House rule: Fair are also counted for ringmaster bonus, eventually fortune teller's tents too (anything with yellow background except crop circles).
Artists:
You may have to stuck meeples for to much time to make it worth 5 points per meeple.
House rule: Artists are worth 8 points each instead of 5.
Wheel of fortune :
Stucking a meeple on the wheel's crown for the whole game isn't worth the few points you'll get.
House rule : Double the crown's points (6-12 points instead of 3-6)
The plague:
Spreading the plague can become very boring, especially when there's only one outbreak left with all of the 18 flea tokens connected, in a region of the game that has no meeples (I know that makes a lot of conditions, but this may be the case during 80% of the game during megacarcassonne).
So every player has to move a flea token, but with nothing at stake...
House rule : When every flea tokens are connected to the same plague, players may move one during their turn, or may ignore that action.
Messengers:
Message action can take place many times during a turn, especially when there's a builder's double turn. This takes a lot of time during each and every turn to perform the message actions and to calculate how to draw as many messages as possible, and may even lead to "new tile" message beeing drawned twice during a player's turn !
House rule: Use only one scoring meeple instead of two, and perform the message action only at the end of each player's turn instead of after each round of scoring (C1 rule).
Wind roses:
There's not much at stake with those little 3 points during a big game.
House rule: Placing a wind rose in the correct quarter gives 3 points, but placing it in another quarter is minus 6 points.
German monasteries :
Placing a meeple as an abbot may be worth more than 100 points! That's ok when you have to stuck a meeple during the game, but when someone draws a monastery near the end of the game, that's quite a jump with nothing to lose...
House rule: Don't use the possibility to place meeples as abbots, or keep the original rules but place the German monasteries in the first half of the tiles in the dispenser, that way they'll be drawned only during the first half of the game, and players wanting to place an abbot'll have to stuck a meeple for a long time.
Little buildings:
Variant 2 is ok, but variant 1 doesn't bring significant points during a big game. I don't understand why it's only one point, so 18 points for every buildings, when variant 2 is 36 points for every buildings.
House rule: With variant 1, buildings are worth 2 points.
Baba Yaga:
Unless it's drawed at the end of the game, it's not worth placing a meeple as it'd be stuck here for a long time with almost no possibility to earn more than 1 point (eventually 2 or 3 if it isn't completed at the end of the game.
House rule : Consider Baba Yaga completed as soon as it is placed. That way, it'll be scored during the scoring phase of the same turn, making that tile a lot more interesting (you can't place a meeple with a flyer or magic portal later as it's considered as completed).
