Spin-off Rankings?

[chris6507]

Hey all, found plenty of websites ranking carcassonne's expansions, but not seeing much in the way of rankings for the spin off games. If anyone would like to share their ranking of the spin off games from best to worst or know any reviews that have done so already. Would love to have you share!
Just ordered Safari and Gold Rush from a store I've never heard of cheap, but worth the risk. Worst case scenario I'll getmy money back tgrough paypal. :-D

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6552.0

[Halfling]

My ranking list for starters

1. Wheel of Fortune
2. The City
3. South Seas
4. Winter Edition
5. Hunters and Gatherers v1.  (the newer version has unbalanced bonus tiles)
6. Goldrush
7. Cardcassonne
8. Star Wars
9. Ark of the Covenant
10. Mayflower / New World
11. Amazon
12. The Discovery
13. Mists Over
14. Hill and Dale
15. Castle
16. My First
17. Dice Game

apologies to any that I have missed.

[Decar]

1. South Seas
2. The Castle
3. Hunters and Gatherers
4. Others

[chris6507]

Thanks for both your input. I've gone nuts in December buying all the spin offs. Got everything including new Hunters and Gatherers. Only ones i have left to track down are Original H&G and The Castle. Also want to find the Sherriff expansion for Gold Rush (love Gold Rush by the way). Wouldn't mind getting 2012 Winter edition, but given up on in after buying two clone copies!  Only Spin-off I'm not looking for is Star Wars because it's super expensive and i don't love tge look of it.

[Decar]

There were some reasonably priced editions of Star Wars available in Greece last year.

I quite liked the fighting elements of Star Wars.  Sounds like you'll be busy playing all these spin-offs. Hopefully you can report back which ones are your favourites!

[dirk2112]

South Seas is by far my favorite.  Amazonia is ok.  I didn't particularly care for The Discovery, Hill & Dale, or Safari.  I haven't played the others.

[Whaleyland]

1. Winter Edition
2. Hunters & Gatherers
3. The Castle
4. Mists Over Carcassonne
5. Ark of the Covenant
6. Safari
7. Gold Rush
8. New World/Mayflower
9. Star Wars
10. The City
11. Wheel of Fortune
12.The Discovery

I haven’t played the rest but I have a copy of South Seas sitting unopened in storage and I’d like to get Amazonas.

[NGC 54]

TWoF is not a spin-off. And let's be honest, neither the WE is.

[Willem]

Wheel of Fortune could be seen as both, like Mists over Carcassonne.
Winter edition, if it's not a spin off, how would you classify it?
It doesn't have its own rules, so I can imagine it's not as clearly different from the base game as other games, however keeping terminology for 1 or 2 games out of ~20 doesn't seem practical 
They are not the base game, not are they a clear cut expansion, so spin off works for me

[chris6507]

Wheel of Fortune could be seen as both, like Mists over Carcassonne.
Winter edition, if it's not a spin off, how would you classify it?

Wheel of Fortune is a bit of a weird one. But personally only have it in BB5 which definitely makes it feel more expansion like. I do however agree while Winter is basically a reskin I personally keep it on my spin off shelf.

Have been wondering though, is there any news on future spin offs? Hasn't been anything for 6 years now (not counting mists as a spin off here either). Spin offs seemed to come out every two years or so then they just stopped. Does feel like in the retail sector Carcassonne has really slowed down. Not much new outside of Cundco.

[Decar]

HiG consider Mists of Carcassonne a standalone game as well as an expansion, so I think that explains why there hasn't been a totally new "spin-off". Amazonas is considered a "standalone" game too by the way, so they're equivalent.  I believe KJW was working on one before the pandemic, and I think HiG has tried to focus on more solo and cooperative games since then, for obvious reasons.  We'll have no idea if some of the mechanisms in Mists were originally intended for the spin-off, or whether that's it's own entity. KJW has also been busy creating a few other games, he's a great designer, and it must be tough having to keep going back to the grindhouse when there are so many other areas of development he'd like to explore.

I think the retail scene is very different from a few years ago. Global distribution is more expensive. HiG has to consider the production cost and the market. HiG likes to use local manufacturers where they can to reduce environmental impact, and ensure staff are paid fairly for example.  Looking back at 2018, Carcassonne was still considered a/the 'gateway' game for a lot of folks.  Now, I think there are a lot of board gamers who have never heard of it or played it.  I also think the boardgame bubble may have burst for a lot of smaller outfits. I think HiG don't simply want to churn out another Carcassonne game when they are busy producing many of games to maintain their pedigree as one of the greatest board game publishing houses.  Most of the mini-expansions that Cundco produce have not been made available at retail, or at least never consistently. I think the difference now, compared to a few years ago, is that online knowledge, and sharing of new things, is much greater and easier for Carcassonne fans.

Anyway, most of this is off-topic.   I think you were interested in people's thoughts on spin-offs

[kothmann]

...
17. Dice Game

Unless it is played with my variant rules 
https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6218.msg90009#msg90009

Then it more like...

5.  Dice Game