World Cup - Knock-out Stage!

[MrNumbers]

His tile placement also joined my double meeple farmer (on the cloister tile above) to both his farm and the barn farm. That's why I had placed a road tile directly above the tile he played, to set up this move.

It is a very artful set up, jungleboy!

[jungleboy]

Thanks!

I don't have time for a complete report right now, but I managed to win the third place playoff 340-325 after quevy led for virtually the entire match. It was a very close and well-played match!

[danisthirty]

I see it now, thanks for the clarification.

It was indeed a great match, here are some screenshots:





It's probably worth pointing out that this was only the second time quevy had ever played with Abbey & Mayor!

[jungleboy]

OK, here goes!

(I was also inexperienced with Abbey and Mayor. This was about the 5th/6th time I'd played with it.)

This was the first time I had played with two rivers and I wasn't sure how to approach it. I think I claimed more features than quevy on the rivers and this probably gave me a few too many cities at this early stage. I also placed a farmer on the pig herd farm and once the rivers had been laid out, I decided this farm would be a good spot for my barn. I drew the right piece and played it as soon as I could. I then spent some time trying to expand this farm to go around the end of the river by building a couple of loop roads, even though one of these finished two cloisters for quevy.

Quevy glommed on to an early city of mine with his double meeple and quickly closed it, giving him a lead that he would keep for the next 100+ tiles. Much of the early part of the game (post-river) was based on the battle for a cathedral city in the south of the landscape. Quevy originally claimed it and added the cathedral to it, so I tried to glom on with my double meeple. He eventually added his double meeple and I added another regular meeple and quevy decided to close it as a tied city when he had the chance. He also claimed a few trade goods with this move and continued to build on this throughout the game. In the end he won all three trade goods easily.

And so the game continued, with quevy always in the lead and building on his lead with some cities and roads in the north of the landscape. His lead was usually around 30-40 points.

As we came towards the last 30 tiles or so, there were two important aspects of the game which would determine the winner. The first was that quevy drew the second cathedral tile and added it to my growing city in the southwest of the landscape, thinking I wouldn't be able to complete it. Since I already had my builder on it, and it only required three tiles to finish the city, I decided to go for it. I think quevy realised he might have made a mistake and then tried to surround the city to make it difficult for me to get the right piece. But I still had my abbey, so I added to my city with one move (blocking myself in) and then used the abbey straight away (getting a second turn with the builder). I was then only a simple CXXX tile away from completing the city, and I did eventually complete it for 39 points (if I am counting correctly).

The second main aspect featured the farms in the northeast section of the landscape. Here I think there was some confusion in the scoring from both of us. Quevy had claimed several small farms in the area. My strategy was to try to expand my barn farm, so I decided to join one of his farm (containing a pig) to the barn farm to add some new cities to my barn farm. But this scored him 30 points - almost as much as my cathedral city! (I am still not sure why he got so many points since I think there were only 11-12 cities in the farm at this stage, but in any case I forgot the value of the pig.)

By this time I had also placed a double meeple farmer in the area as well, and both that farmer, and another one of quevy's in a different farm, were close to joining the barn farm. As described a few posts above, I decided to try to create a situation in which both these farmers would join each other and the barn farm at the same time, thus giving me all the points because of my double meeple. This is eventually what happened. If they had joined the barn farm separately, I believe that quevy would have won the game (given that he re-placed the pig in this new farm).

With four tiles left, I took the lead for the first time in the game (or at least the first time since the river had finished). Quevy retook the lead with an abbey cloister on his last turn. But my barn farm was the difference in the end-game scoring and was the reason I won even though quevy had more points in cities and roads and took all the trade goods. Cloisters were also a good source of points for me with 52 to quevy's 25.

This was another fun and close game and I'm sure we all learned something for our next assault on MrNumbers! 

This was a great tournament to be involved with and I want to thank Dan again for all his work. Hopefully the final between Carking and MrNumbers will take place soon.


 

[danisthirty]

Merit for another fantastic report jungleboy! I'm starting to think you should be some sort of Carcassonne journalist...

I was then only a simple CXXX tile away from completing the city, and I did eventually complete it for 39 points (if I am counting correctly).

I make it 42 as there are 11 tiles + 3 pennants = 14 x 3 (because of the cathedral) = 42.

My strategy was to try to expand my barn farm, so I decided to join one of his farm (containing a pig) to the barn farm to add some new cities to my barn farm. But this scored him 30 points - almost as much as my cathedral city! (I am still not sure why he got so many points since I think there were only 11-12 cities in the farm at this stage, but in any case I forgot the value of the pig.)

I wonder if the pig got included twice because of quevy's pig AND the pig herd from the river? If this was the case, joining his farm to your barn farm would have been worth 3 points per city which could explain the 30 points (10 cities seems about right at that time). I don't think the pig herd tile is supposed to work in addition to the pig though. Maybe I'm wrong.

This was a great tournament to be involved with and I want to thank Dan again for all his work. Hopefully the final between Carking and MrNumbers will take place soon.

You're very welcome It was a great game to watch too, even though Breaking Bad was competing for my attention at the same time! Well done to both players 

[jungleboy]

Merit for another fantastic report jungleboy! I'm starting to think you should be some sort of Carcassonne journalist...

Wow, a Carcassonne journalist, wouldn't that be amazing? Thanks for the compliment, and I should probably mention at this point that I am actually a sports journalist by trade so it's not that far off.

I wonder if the pig got included twice because of quevy's pig AND the pig herd from the river? If this was the case, joining his farm to your barn farm would have been worth 3 points per city which could explain the 30 points (10 cities seems about right at that time). I don't think the pig herd tile is supposed to work in addition to the pig though. Maybe I'm wrong.

Ding, ding, ding! From the CAR (page 80):
"The pig-herd tile does not generate any additional points for the barn. The pig-herd tile can score an extra point per city when there is a barn on the farm."

So, not only is it not beneficial to have your barn on the pig-herd farm (i.e. you don't score any more points because of it), it can actually hurt you, because other players can get more points for joining onto it. (Of course, you can also join a regular farmer to your own barn farm and benefit that way.)

This will change the way I think about the barns. If you're playing with T&B too, a farmer with a pig on the pig-herd farm is more valuable than a barn on the same farm. Maybe a farmer with pig on the pig-herd tile is the best way to begin the game, and then you could add a barn later (or wait until someone else adds a barn later), allowing you to score a lot of points and then getting your farmer and pig back to keep glomming on to the same farm (assuming it's a big farm). On the other hand, in the last two games with A&M we've seen that placing a barn as early as possible on a farm with good potential has been a valuable move.

Carcassonne strategy - the gift that keeps on giving!

[MrNumbers]

Merit for another fantastic report jungleboy! I'm starting to think you should be some sort of Carcassonne journalist...

I said something similar before. Great report as usual and great game, jungleboy! Congratulations! See you on Carcassonne ring someday!

I wonder if the pig got included twice because of quevy's pig AND the pig herd from the river? If this was the case, joining his farm to your barn farm would have been worth 3 points per city which could explain the 30 points (10 cities seems about right at that time). I don't think the pig herd tile is supposed to work in addition to the pig though. Maybe I'm wrong.

CAR, p.61:

The pig-herd tile earns the farmer who owns this farm an extra 1 point per city. If a player
has the pig-herd and a pig (from the Traders and Builders expansion), he or she receives
an additional 2 points per city.

[danisthirty]

As always it seems that farin’s attention to detail and devoted following of the CAR has proved to be to his credit.

So if you join a farmer to a farm with a barn that also includes the pig tile, and place your pig on the joining tile (or before this), you get 3 points per city?! Still not quite as valuable as the barn itself (4 points per city) but this would definitely set the tone of the game! I had previously thought you could only get the pig bonus once, regardless of whether it came from your own pig or the pig tile...

[Guy]

The pig, pig herd discussion is excellent. If you play with the GQ11 expansion with the pig here house rule then joining the barn with your farmer, 2 pig herds and a pig will be worth the same as the barn itself! Insane.

Guy

[danisthirty]

If you play with the GQ11 expansion with the pig here house rule then joining the barn with your farmer, 2 pig herds and a pig will be worth the same as the barn itself!

That is a lot of bacon! 

[quevy]

Hello.

This is a short video extract from the match: jungleboy vs quevy:

(pretty poor quality - sorry)

The action is all in the top-right corner. Red (quevy) places a road that joins a farmer of his onto a farm containing a barn belonging to Green (jungleboy). He places the pig at the same time, and claims a 2-point road with his phantom. The farm is serving 12 cities, so it seems that this should get him a total of 2 x 12 = 24 points for the farmer + 2 points for the road. However, he gets just 2 points as the 24 points go to his opponent!

Am I missing something or does this not make sense at all?

When I played that, I zoom, I remembered the double follower of Jungleboy, once I saw the score I realized my mistake, maybe that made ​​me lose the game.

[danisthirty]

Hello.

This is a short video extract from the match: jungleboy vs quevy:

(pretty poor quality - sorry)

The action is all in the top-right corner. Red (quevy) places a road that joins a farmer of his onto a farm containing a barn belonging to Green (jungleboy). He places the pig at the same time, and claims a 2-point road with his phantom. The farm is serving 12 cities, so it seems that this should get him a total of 2 x 12 = 24 points for the farmer + 2 points for the road. However, he gets just 2 points as the 24 points go to his opponent!

Am I missing something or does this not make sense at all?

When I played that, I zoom, I remembered the double follower of Jungleboy, once I saw the score I realized my mistake, maybe that made ​​me lose the game.

Well if you hadn't done it I'm sure jungleboy would have done if he'd been able to. The question is, with just 5 tiles left would he have had the opportunity to do this? The game would almost certainly have depended on it!

[Jéré]

I am not sure if we must play with "Abbey & Mayor" while this annoying wagon bug exists. I use wagon features quite a lot and in some circumstances it can be critical, specially for the final game. IMO, two possible solutions here:
1. Exclude "Abbey & Mayor" and replace with something else (less preferable, as I like it a lot).
2. Wait until Farin will fix this issue (more preferable, but only if it won't be months).
Dan? Carcking?

I am completely flexible. I can wait or change A&M for something else.

Hellooo??

[danisthirty]

Hello.

[Jéré]

I already find that 1 week is quite long to play only one game. Imagine if you multiply by 6! At this pace, to complete a tournament of 48 games, it would take about 5 years and a half.