Messages

1

Unofficial Rules / Re: Alternative rules for the black death expansion

« on: April 22, 2023, 10:01:31 AM »

Hi Bumsakalaka,

The rules state each time a black death tile or a black death token is placed, only one follower on the surrounding eight tiles is removed and replaced. It's written this way so you can keep your own followers in play.
So each time you go round the loop you only remove one follower. As the centre tile shifts by one space each time you do this, if you are skillful about selecting which followers to replace, you can remove your opponents followers while leaving your own (similar to the Princess and the Dragon).

Regards

Dunsany

2

Unofficial Rules / Re: Alternative rules for the black death expansion

« on: April 22, 2023, 06:59:50 AM »

Hi Bumsakalaka

It means do the same again, ie,

1. Place the black death tile and replace 1 meeple in the 8 surrounding tiles with a black death token

2. Immediately (ie on the same turn) replace 1 another meeple (if there is one) on the 8 tiles surrounding this first black death token with a second black death token

3. Immediately replace 1 meeple (if there is one) on the 8 tiles surrounding the second black death token with a third black death token

4. And so on ...

You can usually remove 3 or 4 meeples in the turn like this. The highest number I have removed on a single turn is 8.

Regards

Dunsany

3

Unofficial Rules / Alternative rules for the black death expansion

« on: April 18, 2023, 08:42:34 AM »

Hi everyone,

Please find attached some alternative rules and tiles for a different take on the theme of the black death or the plague in Carcassonne. Your feedback is welcome!

Regards

Dunsany

4

Unofficial Rules / Re: Alternative Rules for The Robbers

« on: January 07, 2022, 09:34:41 AM »

No need to apologise for posting, it keeps the forum going.

On point you touched on when describing your play test is something I've struggled with - when is it better to play a special character instead of a regular meeple? In my case it was when playing the abbots mini-expansion and I came to the conclusions below:

- it's almost always better to play an abbot rather than a regular meeple on cloisters as well as on gardens

- the abbot needs to be removed when it scores 5+ to keep it available for future scoring opportunities

I haven't yet come to any conclusions with the robbers, but in a three-player base game I think that a score of 90-100 pts should be enough to win. Averaging this across the 7 regular meeples means that each would need to contribute 13-14 pts. So if you find you are getting 15+ pts per game from your robber, then what you are doing is more effective than placing a regular meeple.

While I suspect this reasoning is flawed, it does give me a target to aim at.  Scoring 15 pts would require robbing 3-5 roads or small cities - maybe you need more than 8 tiles?

In the end, you are quite right in saying that the only thing that matters is that the rules work for you and your group!

5

Unofficial Rules / Re: Alternative Rules for The Robbers

« on: January 06, 2022, 11:45:19 AM »

Thanks for your feedback @kothman. I have to say I still prefer the C1 art, so I appreciate your choice.

I have play-tested the tiles with the base set and it worked well, easy to implement and with sufficient choice in how to play to give some tactical input to the game. The robbers were mostly played on road tiles, and the options were to either ignore the robber and complete the road to get the meeple back, or to extend the road without completing it, sacrificing he meeple but gaining all the points at the end of the game and preventing the robber from being recycled.

I have not play-tested with the Inns and Cathedrals expansion, but I expect the interaction of the robbers with the inns would enhance the game play.

In response to your questions:

1. The robber is placed on the bag symbol for two reasons; to distinguish it from other meeples, and to show it is active for all the qualifying features (roads and cities) on that tile. In practice, there are only two tiles with more than one feature (one with a city and a road, and one with three roads at a junction) and until it is scored, the robber counts as being on all these features. Although the bag symbol is in the field, fields don't qualify.

2. Yes, that is correct. The robber will score for the first completed feature (road or city which includes the tile on which the robber stands.

3. Again, you are correct. Some further examples; if the city was worth 11 points rather than 10 the players will get 6 points for their meeples and 6 points for their robbers. Note that this means a player will get 12 points rather than 11 points if the player scores with both a meeple and a robber.

4. I haven't come across this scenario you describe but, in that situation, I agree the robber could score a lot of points. I think it is no more likely than, say, being able to put a cloister into a space surrounded by 7 or 8 tiles and gaining points that way but I guess the feeling of losing points to someone else's good fortune isn't the same. I don't think there is a ready countermove and the best you can do might be to mitigate the loss by not completing the city. If you find this is a real problem, I would suggest replacing the city robber tiles with alternatives showing just roads (I think these are still available individually through spielmaterial.de).

I'll check out the your alternatives as well to see what these offer.

Thanks again, and good luck with your gaming!

6

Unofficial Rules / Alternative Rules for The Robbers

« on: January 05, 2022, 09:32:25 AM »

Please find attached my alternative rules for playing "The Robbers" expansion, avoding ythe need to place the robber meeple on the scoreboard. Your feedback is welcome!