Author Topic: Crop Circles - House Rules (Read 3394 times)

Treamayne · « **on:** December 04, 2016, 12:24:49 PM »

I tried doing a search, but came up empty. I was wondering if anybody has tried using the "remove follower" scoring from "Messenger" expansion with Crop Circles? So, when a follower is removed from an incomplete feature it scores according to end-of-game rules. Thinking about trying this with Crop Circles: Winter and wondered if anybody has tried it and how you think it worked out. Seems like it could add some strategic options to the choices the expansion brings.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3007.0

asparagus · « **Reply #1 on:** December 04, 2016, 01:45:52 PM »

I haven't thought of that. I have a feeling it would be workable but not better, and perhaps slightly worse. The advantage of crop circles is that whatever choice you make is forced on everyone. I think that makes it interesting. At least your idea maintains that. With the standard rules the advantage of the remove action is that you get a meeple back but lose the points you were holding. Your proposed house rule would simplify the tactical choice by removing the loss of points. May be no other player would have a qualifying meeple and then it is much simpler. So my criticism is that I think it would make it tactically slightly less interesting.

EDIT: As an afterthought, have you looked at the festival expansion. Making that more interesting through houserules could be popular.

stalcupojoy · « **Reply #2 on:** December 04, 2016, 08:56:22 PM »

Quote from: asparagus on December 04, 2016, 01:45:52 PM

EDIT: As an afterthought, have you looked at the festival expansion. Making that more interesting through houserules could be popular.

Or the ever-popular-for-house-ruling: Bazaars.

(For which I've just recently decided to use JPutt927's Fortune Teller rules.

Hey, they both have yellow grass.)

Treamayne · « **Reply #3 on:** December 04, 2016, 09:27:53 PM »

Quote from: asparagus on December 04, 2016, 01:45:52 PM

I haven't thought of that. I have a feeling it would be workable but not better, and perhaps slightly worse. The advantage of crop circles is that whatever choice you make is forced on everyone....May be no other player would have a qualifying meeple and then it is much simpler. So my criticism is that I think it would make it tactically slightly less interesting.

In messenger, when you get tile 8, it's always a tough choice on whether you abandon a small feature for less points, or a larger feature for more. You can sometimes remove from a contested feature as well, and at least you are getting partial points instead of nothing (and leaving 2+ of their followers in a non-contested area, but stuck until complete). I thought those same decisions could make Crop Circles interesting, while lessening the "sting." But it also makes the choice between placing or removing more intricate as there are more things to consider to make the "best" choice for any given CC tile.

Honestly, the first time we played Crop Circles, we thought it worked that way (since we had been playing Messenger for a couple weeks). Then we realized it didn't work that way, and I wasn't sure why the two "remove followers" actions worked differently for the two expansions.

Quote from: asparagus on December 04, 2016, 01:45:52 PM

EDIT: As an afterthought, have you looked at the festival expansion. Making that more interesting through houserules could be popular.

Well, we only have Winter, so I can only use expansions compatible with that (Right now we have Messenger, Gingerbread Man, and just got Crop Circles: Winter... Looking for Phantoms since I hear that works with Winter as well). There are a few of the expansions I have read about in the last week that I hope come out with a Winter version.