Author Topic: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?  (Read 13569 times)

Offline MrNumbers

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #15 on: September 01, 2014, 11:22:38 PM »
I think it's a bit odd to own more versions than one of the same expansion... for example the belagerer, siege and cathar... Like basically they are the same expansion in different versions.. :) Same with corn fields.. there is number one, and number two.. I have the corn fields that came with the mini expansions and that is enough for me.. :)

My thoughts exactly! I am a completionist at some degree, but also think that it's not worth to buy, for example, Corn Circles I if I already have Corn Circles II, even at standard price.
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Offline jungleboy

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #16 on: September 02, 2014, 12:00:01 AM »
I agree in theory but the Cathars/Siege/Besiegers is an exception for me since I am fascinated by ancient/medieval sieges and I really like the artwork on the tiles.

Though strangely, the only one I have is the Cathars. I don't have Cult, Siege and Creativity because I already have the cult tiles from King, Count and Robber, and I'm not interested in the creativity tiles. I don't have the Besiegers yet because you need to buy so much other stuff to get it, but I hope it will soon be available on Cundco by itself.

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #17 on: September 02, 2014, 12:48:21 AM »
My thoughts exactly! I am a completionist at some degree, but also think that it's not worth to buy, for example, Corn Circles I if I already have Corn Circles II, even at standard price.
I don't even remember where I got my copy of Corn Circles I, but I have it and I'm glad I do. At least Corn Circles I and Corn Circles II are different tile configurations. Siege and Cathars are exactly the same, though the art is different. Besiegers also includes the same tiles, though it adds two which is nice. They pulled a Rio Grande on that one like RGG did with the Cult by adding a tile. Man! It is kinda hard to get everything. You have to be in the right place at the right time and know people.

I bought one expansion through Joff a number of years ago. Since shipping or something was such a pain, I sent it to him in the UK, let him take one copy to cover shipping and handling, and he sent over the second copy to me. I forget which expansion it was but I remember they wouldn't ship to the United States for some reason.

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #18 on: September 02, 2014, 01:06:26 AM »
hmm... as far as I know the rules for the Corn Circles I and II are the same...

The rules for the Windroses (CundCo) and Windroses (Spielbox) are a bit different...

Offline Scott

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #19 on: September 02, 2014, 06:06:51 PM »
I would venture to say that the majority of my Carcassonne collection has never seen gameplay, though the same can be said for most games in my collection.

Offline henrysunset

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #20 on: September 03, 2014, 11:12:54 PM »
I need to own most of them just to design the tuckboxes!  But in all honesty, I think I have played with every expansion (except crop Circles) at least once.

The new Sheep and hills is quite fun.  I played it with some extremely competitive gamer friends last night and it went well.  Everyone enjoyed how follwers on the hill are worth "a little" more than those who aren't.  We essentially agreed that the follower is worth 0.1 more because on a hill.


Offline Carcking

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #21 on: September 04, 2014, 06:49:19 PM »
...We essentially agreed that the follower is worth 0.1 more because on a hill.

Cool! Did you play it that Hills are cumulative? Or no benefit for being on more than one?
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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #22 on: September 06, 2014, 10:32:18 PM »
Honestly, I just don't really like the trade goods in general or the massive cities that appear when using that expansion.

This comment has been niggling at me since I read it, not because I disagree our doubt it, but I just did not understand why large cities would result from using Trader and Builders.

I played with the basic game / traders combination - computer vs computer on jcloister and sure enough cities kept growing but I put that down to the aggressive nature of the program where each player kept trying to get another follower onto the same big city and making it grow and grow.

I played a real version with Traders tonight 2 copies with 1 copy of the basic game and even though we were playing non competitively (not trying to attach to each others structures) and I really wanted to complete the city and score it, the cities just kept growing and growing.  It was only when I looked at the tile layouts in the documentation that I realized that the basic game has a far higher proportion of crescent city tiles which are the easiest way to complete a city.  Traders also has a higher proportion of city extender tiles than the base game.

So if you want to limit the size of cities when using traders then maybe add several extra copies of crescent city tiles from an extra copy of the base  game if you have them.

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #23 on: September 06, 2014, 11:10:27 PM »
I have Wheel of Fortune, which as mostly the same arrangement of tiles, but you just touch on my other problem: mega games. I don't like or enjoy them. We usually try to keep our tile count below 100 which means only an expansion or two plus the base game. When we play Traders & Builders, we do so knowing that cities are going to be a major factor in the game.

I will admit that Abbey & Mayor plays especially well with T&B.

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #24 on: September 06, 2014, 11:52:02 PM »
I prefer to avoid huge games too as I find the increased complexity involved in keeping track of all the different rules and pieces in play detracts from my enjoyment of the game. It's difficult to play tactically or strategically when there's so many expansions that everyone has literally dozens of options with the majority of their tile placements. The extended tile configurations make it much more difficult to trap meeples too although I guess this isn't always to everyones tastes anyway.

100 tiles seems a bit low though. I wouldn't consider a base game + Princess & Dragon to be a mega game yet this is 102 tiles. One of my favourite setups is River 1 + Inns & Cathedrals + Traders & Builders + The Phantom (sometimes with King & Robber Baron and/or Mage & Witch) which comes to 126 - 139 tiles but doesn't feel too bloated. I suppose it's the number of expansions rather than the tile count that determines how complex a game is; you could add 5 or 6 much smaller expansions for a total of less than 100 tiles and it would end up being very complicated.

With regards to the big city problem with Traders & Builders I can't say that this is something I've really experienced. This expansion was used in the quarter-finals of the "World Cup of Carcassonne Central" (two matches left to play!) and there are some good screenshots/ post-game reports on this thread: http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=991

Most of the games seem to feature one or two large cities but the trade goods are split between plenty of other cities as well. In general I wouldn't say the number of completed cities was disproportionately lower considering the number of tiles, although this may be because Inns & Cathedrals was also included.

Offline Paul

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #25 on: September 07, 2014, 01:51:23 AM »
If someone (like me) is not fixed on the given set of rules provided in the base game or the expansions, one will have an endless pool of variety options.
  Having more tiles or duplicates can never hurt, except your wallet if the budget is limited.

There's always a choice to not use something, whether it's an expansion, certain tiles or certain rules. Test things out for yourself, what works for you? What would your friends, family and community think would be a fun variant?

In our community of friends and family it's usually the base game with Inns'n'Cathedrals and Traders'n'Builders when we are the full gang.
  Once every three months or so, we try to organise a megaCarc with what's been collected so far. (Next game we plan this year will have almost 1500 tiles!)

megaCarc has definately a huge drawback. The diminishing return of time vs fun, complexity arising from clashing rules and the scoring going beyond hard earned are a few examples.
  I like to think of it as a mental challenge.  :))
World record holder for a single game of Carcassonne using 10 007 tiles!

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #26 on: September 07, 2014, 06:19:42 AM »
You can understand the attraction of a big or mega game, if your main problem is coordinating your time with the other players and you only get the concessional chance to play. 

You know that people will not want to start another shorter game after the first so you want to go for the longer duration game.  However you risk turning the long game into a chore.

 I am definitely leaning towards developing a number of different mixes for shorter games.

Offline henrysunset

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Re: Do you own expansions you never play yet still rush out to buy new ones?
« Reply #27 on: October 15, 2014, 10:47:05 PM »
...We essentially agreed that the follower is worth 0.1 more because on a hill.

Cool! Did you play it that Hills are cumulative? Or no benefit for being on more than one?

I think the rules give no benefit to >1 hill, but I prefer the idea that the guy with two hills beats the buy with just one.


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