Mega Carcassonne Tile Balancing

[Christopher]

Hello, hello!

I wondered if I could collect a few opinions on this topic. I usually play fairly large games of Carcassonne. Not mega exactly, I don't tend to use everything, but for a typical game (we try to make time), I use:

Inns and Cathedrals
Traders and Builders
Abbeys and Mayors
Princess and the Dragon (sometimes)
Bridges, Castles and Bazaars (although we usually leave out the bazaars)
Hills and Sheep
The River I and II
Cult, Siege and Creativity (without creativity)
The Wind Roses
The Fliers
The Ferries
The Goldmines
The Mage and the Witch.

This adds up to approximately 264 tiles. With this many, some features which I feel are fairly integral end up becoming significantly less  relevant. I can't remember the last time I played a game without Inns and Cathedrals, for example, and so I consider inn and cathedral tiles to be pretty much standard. But compare the ratio of inns to tiles if we were playing, let's say, I&C and T&B. That would be 114 tiles, six of which are inns. At least you stand a decent chance of getting an inn when you have a good road going. But compare that to 8 tiles out of 264? There's almost no point in having them. And forget about your two cathedrals.

The same goes for the minis. Eight lakes feel fairly insignificant in 264 tiles. And with only eight Mage and Witch tiles, which each let you move EITHER the mage OR the witch, it just doesn't happen.

So, my question is this. Does anyone ever play with multiples of these expansions? I'm not decided on the minis, but I was thinking an extra set of Inns and Cathedrals tiles would be very welcome. Or does the fact that with all those expansions included there is so much else going on mean that it doesn't matter? Or if I want to enjoy the inns properly, should I play smaller games?

Thoughts?

Thanks!


Christopher

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1595.0

[jma03]

hi
it will tell you a little of my experience can be a bit similar.
I have a couple of years playing (my girlfriend and another couple friends ours) to carcassonne twice a week , we did a mix which not bored.
almost always played with :
Inns and Cathedrals - dealers and builders - bridges, castles and bazaars - the Abbey and Mayor - princess and the dragon ( this only tiles princesses ) -the river I- II
and two weeks we bought the hills and sheep but only once tasted ago.

took a few days in this forum where I had the chance to try several expansions that did not know (thanks to the forum and jcloisterzone )
 and there are a couple of variations have liked and we will include our game coming : the king and rober baron and instead of starting with the river I- II will begin with the earl.

and of course we'll try again, but for now this is going great.
Usually take 1.5 hours.

  

[CKorfmann]

I've only gotten a chance to play a mega game two or three times.  This was several years ago, maybe even before the Wheel, but I'll say this... There is quite a lot going on.  Especially with some of those expansions where you have to remember something every turn, like the Fairy, it can be quite difficult to keep track of all of it.  I think it might be somewhat welcome to only find one of those tiles that there are only two of, like the Cathedral.

If you would like to address these issues, I'd give you two suggestions.  The first being Whaley's Campaign.  If you get the opportunity to play regularly (not only would I greatly envy you) I'd highly recommend trying out his campaign.  I haven't even played it yet and I believe I can say that with confidence.  If you are unfamiliar with it, look it up and it will explain itself much better than I can.

Secondly, you might look up some of our fanspansions, especially the older ones.  There are several that simply add more tiles with specific expansion features.  Some old ones from Novelty even add two or three per tiles.  If you can acquire the materials and are willing to put in the work, that could go a long way to addressing your issue as well.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful.

[SRBO]

Also search in the forum, there are multiple topics already about expansions and mega games,

Remember that in a huge game you have multiple possibilitys, going on roads alone, inns, robbers, fairies, bridges. Each feature needs to contain a bonus and is exclusive. Its what you feel is right, in mega games some times i just take the two kathedrals from a spare set and add them..

[Paul]

Here is a game we played with multiple expansions:

http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=723.0

Took us a weekend and in the end everything was just a blur. It really takes you on a journey to test the strength of your mind.

[franks]

Hi Christopher,

I personally would rather add more variety in more mini expansions than multiples.

We mostly play Mega and though I have been tempted to double up some of our favourites. We find the balance and appearance to be just fine for our game. Sure some of those features don’t show up as often but some of the other interesting expansion will.

I’ll add, that there is no doubt adding too many expansions can water down some of experiences. For us one of those was the Wind Roses; we had so much going on that these were just forgotten about. I finally just took them out, at least for now.

All that doesn’t really answer your question but when you decide what to do, it would be interesting to hear how things worked out for your game.

Cheers,

[Paul]

One thing to look out for is to try find a balancing with the cloisters. These can stack up to 60 or so easily if using many expansions.

[Christopher]

I'll have a look at Whaley's Campaign, thanks CKorfmann.

We mostly play Mega and though I have been tempted to double up some of our favourites. We find the balance and appearance to be just fine for our game. Sure some of those features don’t show up as often but some of the other interesting expansion will.

I’ll add, that there is no doubt adding too many expansions can water down some of experiences. For us one of those was the Wind Roses; we had so much going on that these were just forgotten about. I finally just took them out, at least for now.

This is the problem we had. A three point Wind Rose bonus ends up as not really important. I think I need to experiment a little and see what works. I actually have a spare set of inns and cathedrals, I replaced them years ago because they didn't have a watermark. I'll throw them in and see what happens. I'll probably play some games with fewer expansions too, the better to enjoy those expansions.

One thing to look out for is to try find a balancing with the cloisters. These can stack up to 60 or so easily if using many expansions.

It's funny you should say that, I actually spent an evening a few weeks ago doing some maths to calculate how the ratio of cloisters changed over the course of adding more expansions, to see if I could add some monasteries without removing the base game cloisters as it says in the rules. I haven't got round to posting it yet, but I can do, if you're interested.