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.


Topics - Whaleyland

Pages: 1 ... 8 9 [10]
136
Official Rules / Idea for a Future Variant CAR
« on: May 11, 2014, 07:30:07 PM »
The CAR has been around for a long time and I just realized that we need another, slightly different CAR. A companion CAR, if you will. Unlike the current CAR that organizes everything according to expansions and release dates, we should organize an alternate CAR that is organized by expansion component, or mini expansion. I mean, once you have a lot of expansions, you end up playing with what you like. I suggest we offer an alternate CAR, even a simplified version, that organizes expansion elements alphabetically. The base game remains the same, but everything else is parsed out. So you have something like:

The Abbey
The Barns
The Bazaars
The Besiegers
The Bridges
The Builders
The Castles
The Cathars
The Cathedrals
The Count
The Cult
The Dragon (with the Fairy and Volcanoes, since they're dependent)
The Ferries
The Flying Machines
The Gold Mines
etc...

Any opinions regarding this suggestion? I think it would project to the Carcassonne community that the game does not always have to be played with a whole expansion, but that individual elements are allowed. What do you think?

137
So, Cloisters are Monasteries. Did you know that? Apparently there is no distinction between the two in German, so Z-Man is just as right as Rio Grande in calling them either. I guess once the word "cloister" is German to begin with, it was we English-speakers that made that whole thing confusing. (The French created the word "Monastery". Go figure.)

Anyway, so this expansion is different than any other one created by Hans im Glueck so far. It introduces six tiles that replace the six cloisters from your base game. It also adds a new rule and unintentionally screws with basic concepts of geography. Let's check it out.

Difficult Journeys
 :red-meeple: Operation Cloister - The rules, at least officially, state that the Cloisters from the base game should be replaced by these new monasteries. This makes sense, to a degree, because otherwise you'd have 12 cloister/monasteries in a set of 76 tiles. That's a little dense. The new monasteries can be used just like the old ones, but they also have new options. Why can't those new options can't be used with the old cloisters? Because how else would Hans im Glueck make money from you!? But the business of separating out tiles is never one I prefer, so I just mix them in anyway. Once you mix in a few other expansions, the cloisters and monasteries don't seem so abundant.
:red-meeple: Mistaken Identity - Does anyone know where Carcassonne is? It's in southeast France. Does anyone know where these six new monasteries herald from? Germany! See the problem here? Carcassonne has added some strange concepts over the years, including introducing dragons, magic portals, and fairies to the history of the region, but this is the first major geographical error in the game. Sure, some could argue that the Rainbow Over Ghana promotional The School expansion isn't in Carcassonne, but I think we can also easily shoehorn that one in. With "Monasteries in Germany", we're lost.
:red-meeple: Quick To The Draw - Hans im Glueck enjoys promotionals a bit too much, methinks. I love Carcassonne as much as the next guy, but so many of its expansions are these short-lived promotional things. The Windrose? People had to wait a year to be able to get that, and then the only way was either through a magazine or a website. The Cathars? They're still trying to fix that mistake. Wheel of Fortune and The Phantom? Both out of print. Promotionals are all fun and good, but the fact that this is only available for a few weeks before disappearing for half-a-year from public accessibility is a bit mean. Sure it will be back in October, just in time for Essen, but how about those people who miss the April 27th deadline and don't live in Europe? They've got to wait six months for this. .:.sigh.:.

New Life, New Purpose
:green-meeple: Sleeping On My Side - The Monasteries adds something to Carcassonne that has been desperately needed: a higher purpose for Cloisters. Until now, they really never gain more than 9 points. Sure you can now fight against Cults, but that doesn't raise the point count (it should have). With a besieged city nearby, Cloisters can help Knights escape (who really ever does that?). You can also now plant Vineyards nearby, which is a welcome addition. But these Monasteries really change everything. Simply by placing (permanently) an Abbot into a Monastery, that Abbot will score for the entire orthogonal cross created. This is huge! And it also is so basic it's surprising nobody thought of it. Yes you have to sacrifice a Follower to accomplish this (playing with Inns & Cathedrals or The Phantom is highly recommended to increase Follower supplies), but it's totally worth it. My wife made 21 and 22 points from two of her Monasteries at the end of the game. That's 43 points! Neither of us scored nearly that much from farms. These Monasteries definitely enter the game rough. When we play, we only allow them to be used for Abbots; regular Cloisters are for Monks. This keeps the two features separate. But we also play with both sets of tiles, so if you only use one or the other, you can play with both rules.
:green-meeple: Art & History - Sure these six monasteries aren't from France, but they look beautiful on the tiles and oddly not really out of place. There is even a brief history of each with an accompanying website address provided in the rules booklet. This attention to detail is a wonderful idea and I hope it takes off.
:green-meeple: World Tours - Speaking of taking off, some of you may not have noticed that the expansion is officially called "Monasteries in Germany" yet the listing is simply "The Monasteries". There is a reason for this. Rumor has it that Germany is only the first listing in the series. There may be other sets of monasteries in the coming years that will focus on France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, etc. I think Carcassonne-on-Tour, the group that's promoting these expansions, may have embraced a winning concept, even if it does violate Carcassonne's geographic stability. The famous abbeys, monasteries, cloisters, and cathedrals of Europe are coming to a Carcassonne game near you!

Inconclusion
This expansion adds quite a bit for only being six tiles. While there are certain aspects I wish they had not done, especially the idea that these tiles need to replace the basic Cloister tiles (the new rules should have been the only option for the new tiles, and the tile layouts should be different than the existing tiles), overall the gameplay is drastically changed by this expansion. I think these tiles will be included in most of my future games (at least until French monasteries are released) and the new rules may be rolled out to include all cloisters as an option. The future of Carcassonne is bright indeed.

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

138
When I first heard of the Sheep & Hill expansion for Carcassonne, I immediately wanted to know when it was coming out. There was a running joke my entire high school years about me and sheep (yeah, watch out what you say on camping trips) and the prospect of a sheep expansion was simply amazing. When I found out it didn't actually include sheeples, I was somewhat saddened, but that still didn't stop me from buying the expansion from German at first opportunity (Amazon.de has amazingly cheap shipping to the US). I've played it but once, but will play it many more times. And here's why:

Crying Wolf
 :red-meeple: The Wolf Ate My Sheeples - Carcassonne is a game full of meeples, those lovely little wooden people, buildings, and animals that make the landscape so much more three dimensional. The lack of sheep meeples (sheeples) is disappointing since it seems like a wasted opportunity. Granted one can simply place sheeples in a field when they pull a sheep token out of the draw bag, but still, I think this mechanics could have been worked on just a bit.
 :red-meeple: Bags For Giants - Like Inns & Cathedrals, Sheep & Hills includes a canvas bag with a Carcassonne "C" and two sheep peering around it. This lovely addition is only made obscure by its sheer size. It's huge for its purpose, yet ridiculously small for any other use. The bag is intended to hold the sheep and wolf tokens and act as a draw bag during games. Yet it is massive for that purpose, leaving enough room to fit a large child's hand inside with space to spare. But the bag isn't nearly large enough to fit all 89 tiles required to play a game of Carcassonne and it's new expansion. Who designed this bag? Something half the size would have been more appropriate to the task.
 :red-meeple: In The Distance, A...Hill? - Geographic abnormalities aside, the concept of The Hills is probably the weakest in this expansion. Hills accomplish two things: (1) They remove tiles from circulation leaving their arrangement unknown; and (2) They allow players to break ties. The first ability of The Hills is actually great. One of the weaknesses of Carcassonne is that people who have played many games know the tiles - they have them memorized. By randomly removing up to eight tiles per game, that knowledge is lessened. But this mechanic could have been done better. Perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to remove a certain number of tiles from the game at the start. That accomplishes the same goal. The second aspect of The Hills, though, is the weakest of the entire expansion. A Follower placed on a Hill will break a tie, but only in the event that they are exactly tied with another player for that feature (e.g., two players each have a Knight in a City; the Knight on the Hill wins during scoring). The problem is that this requires a combination of events to occur prior to it being useful. The Follower on the Hill must be in a feature with exactly one other Follower (which is unlikely to happen if the Hill Follower was placed first). And another player must not have placed a second Follower on the feature to break the tie.

The Faithful Alcoholic
 :green-meeple: Alcoholics Anonymous for Monks - Every medieval historian knows that monks enjoyed the drink of the vine. This expansion finally acknowledges that with the introduction of The Vineyards. This lovely little component expansion adds eight new Vineyards to liven up the countryside and make all your Monks a little richer (points-wise, that is). While the sometimes annoying random factor of Carcassonne remains, this element of the expansion is still spot-on, making Cloisters all that more valuable.
 :green-meeple: Beware the Big Bad Wolves - There are two wolves in a bag of a ton of sheep. Those sheep are worth points. And if you play your luck right, you can get some nice fatty points every time you cash out your sheep. This is a concept previously foreign to Carcassonne and it makes a welcome addition to the game. Just beware of the two wolves. Sometimes they strike early, and sometimes they strike when you fear them the most.
 :green-meeple: Shepherds on High - Jesus has become a Carcassonne figure. Oh, wait! Jesus wasn't technically a shepherd, he was a carpenter. Well, whatever. The addition of the new Shepherd meeple introduce an always-welcome new figure to the family of Carcassonne meeples. While it may not be a Follower, formally speaking, Hans im Glueck finally acknowledged the existence of other expansions and added an FAQ at the end of the expansion's rules noting that shepherds and sheep are both dragon-fodder when playing with Princess & Dragon. With more FAQs like this, the game may actually rise above its myriad contradictions.

Inconclusion
There is little doubt that this is a good Carcassonne expansion, possibly its best since Abbey & Mayor. The fact that the franchise reached such a low point with The Catapult yet rebounded so well with subsequent expansions is a sign that the game is not done yet. Indeed, a new series of promotional mini-expansions has already begun with The Monasteries of Germany. Still, this expansion plays the luck game heavily, with tile draws and the sheep concepts both relying primarily on the luck of the draw. In my first game, I drew six of the Hills (and one was under a Hill), five of the Vineyards, and was the only one to successfully use the sheep. My wife, meanwhile, drew a wolf for her first sheep draw twice then gave up on the mechanic. She also couldn't place her one Hill because there were no unclaimed features to place it next to. Overall, she only profited off the Vineyards, though a number of Vineyards went unused because of a lack of nearby Cloisters. Still, an overall good expansion and one I plan to use fairly often.

SCORES
Playability: A
Affordability: A
Compatibility (with other expansions): A
Aethetics: A
Learning Curve: B+
FINAL GRADE: A

139
General / The Definition of an Expansion
« on: April 16, 2014, 01:08:23 PM »
I basically am in charge of updating the wiki page for the Carcassonne series on BoardGameGeek and the issues has come up recently: what is an expansion? It may seem obvious, but Hans im Glueck has certainly not made it as clearcut as many games.

Let's begin with The Cult. The Cult released originally with the Count, King & Consort expansion (#6) which was itself a composite of three old expansions and a new one. The symbol on these tiles is a crown. Almost simultaneously, Spielbox released The Cult as a stand-alone promo, with a pentagon symbol on the tiles. Then a few months later, Rio Grande Games released Cult, Siege & Creativity, a "mini-expansion" that really combined a remake of The Cathars with a six-tile version of The Cult (which originally only had five tiles). Are these three separate expansions? They have separate symbols (or lack thereof) and the RGG version even has an extra tile.

Moving on to the most complex of the expansions, The Cathars. This was released twice initially, once in a standard Spielbox issue and once in a promotional Hans im Glueck almanac. Many years later, Rio Grande finally released a variant version of it called The Siege (included in Cult, Siege & Creativity) with new art but almost the same rules. Now, Hans im Glueck has released a version with helmet icons, new artwork, and two additional tiles. Are these three different expansions or are they all really just the same?

Then we get to the compilations. Both have already been mentioned. Cult, Siege & Creativity was a Rio Grande attempt to bring into production two otherwise unobtainable in English expansions: Cathars and Cult. Does this count as a single expansion or as two expansions packages in one box? Similarly, Count, King & Consort was released by Hans im Glueck as their sixth expansion but really just repackaged River II, King & Robber (but not Scout), and Count of Carcassonne, with a new expansion: The Cult. It wasn't released in English except as a part of the Big Box 2, where it was titled Count, King & Cult. Then Z-Man released it finally as a stand-alone under the name Count, King & Robber. So are the original mini expansions still expansions? Is the big expansion still truly an expansion (it has a number)? What is the status of all these different entities?

Disclaimer: This is purely a rhetorical conversation asking for opinions. No final answer is expected.

140
General / And The Most Expensive Expansion Is...
« on: April 10, 2014, 03:27:06 PM »
So, I have been wanting to crunch some numbers for a while now, and decided it was time. Which expansion is the most expansive per tile (all other factors such as wood pieces or cardboard tokens ignored)? To do this, I used the official published prices of every salable Carcassonne expansion with tiles (no Phantom, no Spielbox or RGG promos) and gridded the whole thing out. I used the original German Euro prices rather than the US prices, though it would be interesting to see if there is a difference between the two. I was a bit surprised by the findings:



The cheapest per tile expansion is, naturally, the base game, where you get 72 tiles for a measly 0.24 Euro each. The cheapest expansion is Count, King & Consort where 34 tiles cost 0.32 Euro each.

On the upper end of things, the most expansive full expansion is The Catapult, which costs 1.00 Euro per tile, a bit much for a terrible expansion. Even more expansive, though, is the promo expansion The School, which costs 1.50 Euro per tile (and there's only two!), though I guess you get a large transparameeple in this.

Remember none of these numbers take into account wood pieces, cloth bags, extra cardboard components, or promo books. This just analyzes the expansions for the amount of tiles they contain, which is really the primary reason why people buy most of these, let's be honest here.

Check below for a comparison to US prices to find a few similarities and a few differences.

141
Last year, Hans im Glueck decided to release an expansion as a special giveaway with their Carcassonne-on-Tour traveling tournament. Then this year, Spielbox released a slightly altered version of the same expansion with their 2013/5 issue. Let's just see how well this/these expansion(s) work by mixing them together, breaking some rules, and going with it.

Up Is Down, Down is West, East is O?
* Mixed Relations - I've always been a fan of the expansion watermark, something that was introduced with the Big Box and has been retained ever since. Even all Spielbox expansions included one. For some reason, this expansion doesn't. No watermark on the Hans im Glueck tiles. No "Spielbox pentagon" on the Spielbox tiles. And for those of you saying "Well, does it really need an icon? The tiles are pretty obvious," remember that ever Mini expansion included one as do the Corn Circles. It is an oversight that I find annoying, especially when playing with the tiles together. Which brings me to...
* Shades of Green - Can't these companies just agree on a color? They've been modifying Doris Matthaus' tiles for a decade now, yet every promo expansion that Hans im Glueck or Spielbox release includes a new shade of green. Seriously, people! Just stick to a color...preferably the one that comes with the boxed expansions. HiG's tiles are dark green...ugly dark, while Spielbox's are yellowish green. I know why we don't need watermarks on these tiles: they are differentiable because of their off colors!
* What's the Point? - But regarding the actual rules, let's just say that gaining 3-points for putting a tile in the correct quadrant isn't going to do much for me if putting it elsewhere will get me more points. Some would argue this is the entire purpose of the expansion, a cost/benefit analysis. But then others could remind that person that the entire game is about that once you start getting good enough at it. Then one realizes that 3 points is not going to win you the game, usually, especially when every other player has an equal chance of pulling the next compass tile.

Double Trouble
* Expansion Wars - A benefit of this/these expansion(s) is that there are two of them. One really isn't enough, but you double those tiles by picking up both copies (or two of the same) and you can start having fun. Granted one start tile should be set aside as well as one of the blue tiles, but why bother? As long as the players remember which tile was placed first, just toss them in the bag. Use a tower? Well, you're out of luck. Having 11(+start) tiles to draw makes the came exponentially more fun than only using 5(+start).
* Redirected - You've got to give it to Hans im Glueck for coming up with this strange idea. I mean, there are probably a hundred or more expansions that have been created by CarcassonneCentral and Carcassonne-Forum yet nobody thought up this expansion. Is that a good sign or a bad sign? Who knows, but the expansion definitely adds a bit of visual logic to the map. Because that is exactly what you are making: a map. And what do all maps need? A compass rose. It probably could have been implemented better, but still, I think this expansion fits overall with the theme of the game, even if the compass is rather confused in which direction it is pointing.
* Simplicity is Bliss - Another thing that is great about this expansion is that it is easy. It is only 6 tiles officially. The rules are simple and logical. And it plays well with other expansions. All of this is good for a game prone to terrible and complicated ideas (I'm looking at you, Catapult).

Inconclusion
This expansion is not ideal nor is it even remotely necessary. Most people won't even remember it when thinking of expansions, and I would any day play with another expansion before this. But if you enjoy adding a few tiles without much complexity, this may be an expansion for you. In fact, I'd go so far to say that this with the River I would be a great combo. Throw in The School and Corn Circles I and you have yourself enough tiles for a boxed expansion of its own. Seriously, 26 tiles, a meeple, and some new rules that don't conflict with each other. Sell it, Hans im Glueck! In the end, it shows that HiG hasn't given up on new ideas and that while they keep making new spin-offs, they are still putting at least a little time into expanding their flag-ship series. And this, I feel, is a good thing.

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

142
Other Games / Complete Dominion Companion
« on: August 07, 2013, 03:56:43 PM »
I hope that some of you are Dominion fans, or at least aware of the game. I've been managing the Dominion Complete Annotated Rules for about three years now but with the release of Guilds, the Dominion series is now, at least officially, done. That being said, I am upgrading my rules into a new, high-caliber version for professional (private) printing and use on digital devices. If you are interested in helping with this project, please check out this BGG thread where I've been posting page samples and asking questions about formatting.

For whatever reason, despite this being a Top 100 File for the past two years, people are not being very helpful this time around, and I could really use the assistance. Please check it out. If you'd like more, I can send you my current working draft by request. Thanks!

143
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-

144
Official Rules / Rules Questions for Hans im Glueck Thread
« on: February 13, 2013, 01:56:22 PM »
Please post your questions for Hans im Glueck on this thread. kettlefish will periodically take the questions to her contacts at Hans im Glueck for formal clarification. The responses will be published in the next edition of the Carcassonne Complete Annotated Rules.

Furthermore, kettlefish requests that questions and clarifications be asked IN COLOR.

Questions for Hans im Glueck should be written in BLUE.

kettlefish will strive to find answers to all questions and report them in GREEN.

If the question has already been addressed and is printed or pending printing in the current CAR, a reply will be in TEAL.

If kettlefish is unable to obtain an answer from Hans im Glueck or from the Spielbox, she will reply in RED.

145
Official Rules / Priority: Need Links to New CAR
« on: February 13, 2013, 09:13:29 AM »
Title says it all. We need to get links to the new version of the Carcassonne CAR up and easily accessible. I can't even find them. Also, we need to get the new edition uploaded to BoardGameGeek. If Matt Harper is still contactable, perhaps he'd be willing to at least continue updating the file on BGG so we can keep the 214+ thumbs the file already has. Otherwise, we should probably ask him to put a notice on his file to go to the currently updated copy.

146
Reviews & Session Reports / The Barbarian Report: MEGA MINI MAYHEM!!!
« on: February 12, 2013, 10:27:09 AM »
Chaos reigns in the County of Carcassonne. Mages and witches have moved in just as gold is discovered in the hills. Robbers ply their trade on unsuspecting travelers while messengers crowd the roads. Ferries clog the waterways even while flight is achieved overhead. And rumors abound of crop circles appearing in fields throughout the land. Carcassonne is no longer safe...

Prologue
In a short hour and a half last night, I ventured down the path of mayhem by combining all six minis plus both Corn Circles expansions. After having tested out the minis individually, I felt that each was designed in such a way that they limit their conflicts with other expansions. But even as the tiles were tossed in the draw bag and the other materials were set aside, I could see that the scoreboard would become a confusing morass of followers and followed.

Early Defeats
The game began with a raucous thud. The first tile out was a Flyer, with no real prospect for use. The second brought out the Robbers early, but the third also was a Robber tile, again proving to be a dud. As the game progressed, a long stream of vanilla tiles appeared, pushing the stream of expansion tiles to the end of the game. Cities were built, fields were claimed, and everything was set for confusion.

Crashed Fliers
The Fliers were the first expansion to bottom out. Used only once and just to tie for a long road, most of the tiles were brought out when no situations presented themselves for theft. Flyer tiles became field connectors, eventually merging one large field that spanned most of the board. Their original purpose was lost as heavy winds batted the courageous fliers from the sky.

Communist Gold
Another victim of bad luck and worse strategy became the Goldmines. Placed across the table, the gold bricks shone elegantly, but their wealth was dispersed. One-by-one, my wife claimed the treasure, but when her thirst was only whetted, I took the remainder, eventually tying and canceling out any bonus from the gold. The instructions sat at the corner of the table, scoreboard visible but ultimately useless. The gold rush was over and both players were left wanting.

Ferries to Nowhere
The Ferries had a better life, but their use declined as focus shifted toward cities and fields. Most of the Ferries came out in the middle game, and they were moved rarely if at all. A few large roads early on proved to be fought over, but the last five ferries were clearly in my wife's camp, and I didn't dispute her claim. Only once did I claim a Ferry-road, and that was more by accident than strategy.

The Sinful Habits of Traveling Mages
While the Mage and Witch appeared about mid-game, they rarely roamed the board for long. The Mage was used like a common Las Vegas streetwalker then discarded just as quickly, his bonus points added to the scoreboard. The Witch languished on one feature then another, only being used at the end of the game. While the Mage decisively gave me an edge in scoring three times, the Witch did little to hurt any player and ended up on a feature shared between us.

Robbers Among the Messengers
Robbers descended on the scoreboard early, but did not remain for long. Smart scoring ensured that my wife only ever received two points (from small cities) from her Robber, while she decided that since she has two followers on the scoreboard, she could just never move the one that was being tailed. Both strategies worked in the end, but one made the Robber and extra Follower worthless to her, while the other meant I never profited once off my Robber. Oddly, the Messages were about evenly claimed but neither of us used a Message for a decisive purpose. For whatever reason, whenever the Message was drawn, the last feature of that type had just been completed, triggering the scoring that triggered the Message being drawn. It was a vicious cycle that saw more default 2-point Messages claimed than I would have predicted. The "immediately score one follower then remove" Message was only drawn once and used to good effect -- my wife was out of followers. But that was the only time a Message was used well. In the end, the Robbers profited little and the Messages only slightly more.

Fight on the Scoreboard
Somewhere in the mayhem of Messengers and Robbers, however, the scoring itself came under peril. Circling the board, it was difficult to remember which follower had just scored, and if they had passed the "0", and if they had flipped their "50/100" chip or needed a new one. Technically I won...we think...but it is possible I flipped a chip twice in the confusion. Having six meeples on the scoreboard for just two players only is a prelude to what would happen in a Mega Mini game with six players. Eighteen meeples on the scoreboard is just too much, and the players have to be aware of their own scoring since it is important for determining which follower moves, since both the Messages (landing on dark spots) and Robbers (meeples will have stalkers) are important factors to consider when moving meeples.

Deus Ex Machina
The final determining factor in my ultimate victory (assuming scoring was correct) was the proper use of Corn Circles. The Corn Circles arrived in a perfect frequency for me, while my wife continued to discount them or forget about them. Three times they depleted my follower reserve, and twice I used them to deprive my wife of a feature. Corn Circles are most powerful when a player either has no remaining followers, and thus cannot place a follower while the other person can, or when a player has disposable followers on features while the opponent does not. The latter was my path to ultimate victory. Twice when "Shield" circles were drawn, I was able to sacrifice a low-value city in exchange for my wife having to sacrifice her share in a high-value city. Once, I even used the Corn Circle to complete the feature she had to then abandon before scoring. It was devious and evil. At the end of the game, I also ensured that the large field remained shared rather than become hers by smartly predicting that one of the last tiles would be a "Pitchfork" circle and placing an extra meeple in another, decent-valued field as insurance in case my wife tried to remove followers rather than add them. She wouldn't risk handing me the entire field, since she had no other field to remove followers from, so she forced an add-follower action, which I was able to do.

Conclusions After Armageddon
After the game, we discussed the game in some detail and determined that the Minis, while individually fun, are not meant to be played together. Despite their general lack of rules conflicts between them, the seven minis create a situation that does not entirely balance between them. We determined that most of the minis would go better with other expansions, such as:

The Fliers – The Tower, Princess & Dragon (expansions where features are frequently vacated, incomplete)
The Ferries – Inns & Cathedrals, Abbey & Mayor, Bridges Castles & Bazaars (expansions where roads feature prominently)
Mage & Witch – Not Inns & Cathedrals (concepts too similar)
The Messages – Not The Robber (too conflicting), works well with most other expansions
The Robber – Not The Messages (too conflicting), works well with most other expansions
The Goldmines – Works well with all expansions
Corn Circles II – Not Corn Circles I (too many Corn Circles makes them too powerful)

Perhaps the Corn Circles aggrandizement was the biggest problem. There were too many corn circles and they were randomly drawn which gave the active player an immense advantage in many cases. One set of Corn Circles is probably enough. Unlike the River expansions which just add an aesthetic appeal to the game, Corn Circles adds a distinct and problematic advantage to the drawing player that can't really be countered. In a 3+ player game, it can become downright devious.

Ultimately, the mayhem in Carcassonne receded to a dull grumble from my wife. While she enjoyed the game — it was actually pretty short — the relative strengths of the various mini expansions really came to light. Early on, we had to consult the instructions frequently, though we found no major conflicts between the expansions. Eventually, the game just went on at pace, with each new tile presenting new opportunities that were largely a waste. While adding fun mechanics to the game, the randomness of the draw still hampers these expansions and their relative strengths.


147
Reviews & Session Reports / The Barbarian Report: The Robbers Review
« on: February 09, 2013, 10:47:09 PM »
With The Robbers, the Carcassonne Minis series is technically over, though the bonus tiles constitute an additional expansion in themselves. Regardless, the Robbers add an interesting element to the game that is both revolutionary and rather simplistic.

Fat Little Meeples Waiting For Some Gold
* A Wealth of Bad Icons - I find it funny that I'm complaining about the same thing in the same spot as my previous expansion review, but the point still stands: stop adding strange and overlarge icons to my Carcassonne landscape. There are better ways to implement mechanics that basing it off of tiles that decrease in importance as more tiles/expansions are added. The new icons look terrible and a bit creepy, depicting a Robber's head on a bag of gold. Ugh. Furthermore, linking abilities to tiles means that sometimes the ability cannot be used. In a 2-player game, we drew four robber tiles while both are Robbers were already out. In a 3+ player game, that means a player could move their Robber to a different meeple, but not so in a 2-player game. Wasted opportunities, all because the ability is linked to a specific tile.
* Fields Galore - I'm not really pleased with the tiles in this little box. Of the eight new tiles, two are straight roads and two are curved. Another is an intersection, and the remaining three are cities (one with a road). All of these tiles are vanilla tiles. Give us something new like with the previous expansions! Adding more vanilla tiles to the mix just makes the game more homogeneous.
* Robbing Does Not Begat More Robbing - It seems obvious that robbery does not initiate further robbery. That would just be confusing. But having new meeples on the scoring track, stalking opponent's meeples and "stealing" from them whenever they gain points is made significantly more confusing by having to remember that points earned from robbing do not earn another robber points. For two people, this isn't too difficult to track. For six people, nightmares abound.

Creeping Up to a Victory
* Sharing is Caring - Despite the name "robber", the little meeples don't actually "rob" anything. They simply share half the points of the player who earned them. Honestly, I think robbing may have been a better way to go, but that also would have made the game much more aggressive. In any case, the mechanic is fairly sound (see above for exception) and players can even switch which meeple they are following if another one ends up on the same space as the one they are stalking.
* Universal Suffrage - Also unlike previous expansions, when a robber tile is drawn and placed, ALL players get to place their Robbers in turn order. No one is left out in the cold, waiting for their lucky draw from the bag. This is especially important for large games with many players. It also means that someone usually will be able to benefit from the robber tile, even if not the player placing the tile.
* Underwhelming Odds - A feature I find good with this little expansion is that, while player can basically sift off other players' points, its pretty difficult to win that way. In fact, it's impossible in a 2-player game. One player will still get the majority of points so the other player will move up, but not as much. This makes the mechanic helpful for stragglers, but not game winning. Normal strategy and lucky draws will still be required for victory.

Inconclusion
Despite my reservations, I actually liked this expansion quite a bit. It surprised me by its relative simplicity, its easy of use, and its universality with other expansions. Indeed, most of the Carcassonne Minis can be played with other expansions without any real conflicts, which is a great thing that some expansions are not so good at. If you do not plan to purchase all the Minis (which you should), I'd recommend this as one of the items to choose. It doesn't clutter the board (except the score board) and adds a simple little mechanic to the game. Play with The Messages and you can double the amount of meeples you can stalk and "steal" from.

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

Pages: 1 ... 8 9 [10]