Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Whaleyland

Pages: 1 ... 96 97 [98] 99 100
1456
Reviews & Session Reports / The Barbarian Report: Little Houses Review
« on: March 06, 2013, 01:46:31 PM »
The Little Buildings, Carcassonne's second attempt at creating an expansion that doesn't introduce any new tiles (2012's The Phantom was the first), has created a strange conundrum compared to most other expansions. Whereas most expansions scale poorly as more players are increased, Little Buildings does just the opposite. Let me explain...

Life without Tiles
* Differentiation Is Not a Bad Thing - The 18 new tokens introduced with Little Buildings are not the best designed things on Earth. While the quality is Spielbox superior, the size of these tokens is massive in comparison to the landscape they are intended to be set upon. The tower tokens, if any, are the closest to scale, while the sheds are downright gigantic in scale. To make matters worse, the houses and sheds look fairly similar in shape and size, and the images aren't exactly so different that people couldn't get confused. Considering Spielbox has made rather small tokens in the past (Tunnels, Fleas), it is a wonder why they decided to place such monstrous tokens in this expansion and then have the nerve to recommend placing these tokens in such a way that features are not obscured. Ha!
* Three Tokens for Every Player - Scaling becomes an issue with this expansion. In a six-player game, three tokens for each player is fine or even too much. But for a two-player game, three tokens equals six at the end of the game, and the points earned from six of these tokens, even when playing with the expanded rules, is negligible. The rules should have two or three players use two sets of tokens (like in Tunnels) to better scale.
* Your Usual Spielbox Rules - Spielbox has always had fun with their exclusive expansions, but I've never liked their rules translations. They just lack a certain something in polish and clarity. For this expansion, it really regards the scoring of Farms. For all other features, the rules are clear: score for the building when it is touching the feature. But for farms, the entire green area is a feature, does the building add points to that? That doesn't really follow the logic of scoring fields, which are usually linked only to completed cities. In our game, we scored them when they touched a field, but it didn't quite feel right for some reason, though we could not think of another way to score them.

Broadening Horizons
* "Expanded" Rules - I admit, when I first read the rules for this expansion, I was caught off guard that the "Expanded Rules" were not the standard rules. Carcassonne hasn't had separate rule sets before except when it comes to number of players in a game. These extra rules regarding points (Towers = 3, Houses = 2, Sheds = 1) are much better than the standard rules (All Buildings = 1). Why would anyone play any other way? The bonus points are already fairly negligible unless there are many players in the game, so why not make the buildings have a more strategic value by upping the values? Silly Spielbox. But when playing with the expanded rules, this expansion deepens the Carcassonne game tremendously.
* Using Tiles for Tiles' Sake - The Little Buildings bring a somewhat new concept to Carcassonne: scoring tiles for their own sake. No previous expansion has allowed players to score for a single tile, regardless of owner or features. In the simplest terms, if this tile is on something that is scoring, then its bonus points get added to the total. The building keeps on scoring until the end of the game, and that is pretty cool. In fact, I rather wish these Little Buildings had been made as tiles instead of tokens, so that the special features could just be placed immediately instead of taking a player's turn (though I have argued against this before). Sure it provides the occassional rules concern, but overall it adds a fun change to the usual "place your wood" actions of the game.
* Maximizing Building Placement - Alongside the new concept (and with the expanded rules especially), this expansion gives a fun strategic bonus that can have long-term effects. During my first play-through, I placed a House on a tile with a road, city, and farm. I already owned the Farm and City, and the road I claimed the next turn. I scored 6 points for that one house throughout the game (I wish I had placed the Tower instead!). While a single building is not worth a lot overall, eighteen buildings will definitely change up the game.

Inconclusion
This expansion isn't for everybody. If you play only in small groups of less than four, I wouldn't really recommend it without making some changes to the overall rules. It also may not play well with other expansions, though I don't see any specific conflicts, just because it adds quite a bit of time to end-of-game scoring with the Farms. If you play with large groups up to six, this expansion will have a lot to add to the overall game and I'd definitely recommend it. Like most Carcassonne expansions, it may get watered down when mixed, but I don't see that overly effecting this expansion. As a final thought, I still wish this expansion had been tile, rather than token, based, but it will definitely come out again soon. I like it better than a few of the Minis, for sure.

Playability: B
Affordability: B-
Compatibility (with other expansions): B
Aethetics: C
Learning Curve: B
FINAL GRADE: B-

1457
Other Games / Re: What game is hitting your table?
« on: March 03, 2013, 12:34:47 AM »
We use Alvin & Dexter occasionally, and find it quite fun. It also mixes well thematically with the Halloween Freight expansion.

1458
Official Rules / Re: ZMG vs RGG Rule Booklets
« on: March 03, 2013, 12:33:35 AM »
Interesting. That definition definitely doesn't come up in my translation dictionary. So "Konsorten" could probably be best translated into English as "consortium", using a loose definition that basically means "a collection of other stuff." Fun! So the Spielbox expansion we all are hoping will someday be released should really be called "Tunnels, Plague & More".

1459
Official Rules / Re: ZMG vs RGG Rule Booklets
« on: March 02, 2013, 02:31:04 PM »
The bigger issue with Graf, Konig und Konsorten, though, was that there was no included "Consorts" expansion. Instead, it was just River II and Cults (HiG edition). When Rio Grande translated the expansion for Big Box 2, it translated as Count, King and Cults, to recognize one of the skipped expansions. But there still was nothing "consort" about the expansion and the term doesn't appear anywhere in the rules test outside the title.

But no, I don't want to call it "place of worship", I just feel that it doesn't hurt to put in the actual translation of the term when listing translations.

1460
Official Rules / Re: ZMG vs RGG Rule Booklets
« on: March 02, 2013, 09:25:50 AM »
I disagree. If the translation by Z-Man and/or Rio Grande doesn't adequately translate the word from German, or if there is a tie between versions, I think going back to the original German translation is a good option. I mean, for Kultstätten, Matt translated it as "shrine" even though Rio Grande chose "cult place". In the end, the actual translation was "place of worship". Oddly, Hans im Glück then went and called the expansion Graf, Konig und Konsorten, which means, in English, "consorts", a term that has nothing to do with the expansion.

1461
Official Rules / Re: ZMG vs RGG Rule Booklets
« on: March 01, 2013, 09:46:54 PM »
Not true, Scott. Z-Man has released them in the Big Box 4. And I forgot that I had the RGG version rather than the Z-Man, but no, Z-Man hasn't published the individual expansions yet, only the Big Box.

I think a full terms comparison dictionary would be good, especially for use in future versions of the CAR. Perhaps in places where Hans im Glück, the direct German, Rio Grande, and Z-Man versions differ, the majority term should be used in the CAR.

1462
Official Rules / Re: ZMG vs RGG Rule Booklets
« on: March 01, 2013, 07:31:50 PM »
Gefolgsfrau - woman follower (CAR) / messenger (ZMG)
Goldstück - gold piece (CAR) / gold ingot (ZMG)

Z-Man just calls it "followers in 6 colors". They don't call it a "messenger", unless the rules are different in Big Box 4 than in the rules insert in the Minis 2 box.

On some other notes, direction translations of the German should also be noted if not otherwise used:
Gefolgsfrau - woman follower (CAR+German) / messenger (ZMG) / follower woman (German)
Goldstück - gold piece (CAR) / gold ingot (ZMG) / piece of Gold (Germany)
Warenplättchen- trade good tokens (RGG) / trade counters (CAR) / goods tokens (ZMG) / goods wafer (Germany)
Korn - grain (CAR+RGG) / wheat (ZMG) / corn (Germany)
Tuch - cloth (CAR+RGG+German) / fabric (ZMG)
Wappen - pennant (CAR+RGG) / banner (ZMG) / coat of arms (German)
Kloster - cloister (CAR+RGG+German) / monastery (ZMG)

1463
General / Re: Fictitious Box Images
« on: March 01, 2013, 09:27:39 AM »
Excellent. Now someone just has to actually make the box. I asked henrysomerset at BGG to make a box for the Little Buildings, but he never replied.

1464
Official Rules / Re: How to combine Robbers and Messages minis?
« on: February 26, 2013, 05:40:31 PM »
After reading rules it looks like Messages and second follower on score board almost completely removes ant potential benefit of robbers. Player with robber over his head will just use second follower until he could score something very small and get rid of robber with minimal loss.

What's your opinion on the matter? Do I understand rules correctly?

I've played the two together and this is exactly what happens. In fact, my wife decided to just ignore her second meeple entirely. It backfired slightly when she lapped the board and landed on her own space, allowing me to finally claim a reward, but the odds of that were rather small. The two expansions don't conflict, but they also don't add much when played together.

1465
General / Re: Fictitious Box Images
« on: February 22, 2013, 12:16:16 PM »
The crown is the watermark for the Count, King & Consort expansion, which the Count is included in.

For other art from Doris Matthäus, check http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/74/doris-matthaus. Perhaps you can find some images there for the boxes if you can't find anything from the actual boxes.

1466
Official Rules / Re: English Rules for Roi, Comte et Brigand
« on: February 21, 2013, 05:38:38 PM »
Not entirely true, the expansion was included in the Big Box 2 a while back, which means RGG rules were included in that. I don't think those rules are digitally available, though.

1467
General / Re: Fictitious Box Images
« on: February 21, 2013, 05:36:40 PM »
You could look up art by the artist used in other games. I forget who does the box art—I don't think its Doris Mathäus—but it shouldn't be too hard to find out.

1468
News and Events / Re: ebay trader sells CornCircles II as a punched sheet
« on: February 21, 2013, 09:12:06 AM »
Woah! Weird. Wasn't expecting that to come out of left field. Okay, so they are legit? I thought the texture of the tiles was off a bit. Anyway, you still deserve a refund because you ordered Corn Circles I and he gave you Corn Circles II. He delivered the wrong product to you. But it's good to know the tiles are legit. Now the seller just has to reword their item for future use to reflect that the tiles are coming from Big Box 4.

1469
News and Events / Re: ebay trader sells CornCircles II as a punched sheet
« on: February 20, 2013, 11:17:32 PM »
Hmm. Good job on their part. At least their illegal goods seem to be decently made.  C:-)

1470
News and Events / Re: ebay trader sells CornCircles II as a punched sheet
« on: February 20, 2013, 02:02:28 PM »
It's still illegal to sell the tiles, even if they're out of print.

Pages: 1 ... 96 97 [98] 99 100