Opinions sought on "base" game and expnasions

[jvnoledawg]

Greetings,

I am new to CC, having played Carc for many years but just now discovering this fantastic site. 

I would love to ask the community what it considers to be the "base" game for playing. That is, given what I've read about Inns and Traders helping to balance the tile layout among farm, city, and road, it seems that any base game of Carc should generally include these two expansions (and possibly River I or II). Agree or disagree?

Also, my small group of gamers consists of myself, my sister, and our mother. We are not aggressive players and tend to use the tiles from expansions like Tower and Princess purely to increase the length of the game, and not for the additional elements such expansions introduce.  Even when we say we will play "cutthroat", the dragon ends up flying in circles! (Thus, you can imagine how long it has been since we played Risk, Monopoly, or Settlers, let alone Milles Borne).
That being said, we are slowly "re-learning" the expansions, making concerted efforts to use all they provide. Over the next few months we will play our "base" version above, and add:
- Bridges
- Tower
- Count
- King
- Abbey
- the Minis 1-7
- eventually Siege (thank you for the download)
- eventually Phantom (purchased from Carcatronn's on-line store today)
We won't do this as a mega-Carc, simply one at a time.

In summary, two questions:
1. What do you consider the essential "base" collection that any Carc sessions should have?
2. What expansion is first on your list when decided which to add?

Many thanks to all. I really enjoy this site and look forward to visiting regularly.

And oh yes, the CAR is FANTASTIC!  (My attempts to find this resource led me to the site.)

jvnoledawg

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=212.0

[Whaleyland]

In summary, two questions:
1. What do you consider the essential "base" collection that any Carc sessions should have?
2. What expansion is first on your list when decided which to add?

lol. I'm probably unusual compared to everyone else here, but I almost never play a "base game". I suppose when I'm teaching new people the game, I usually throw in Inns & Cathedrals and nothing else, but when I play with other expansions, I usually leave I&C out and just focus on the new stuff. I generally feel too many expansions dilute all of the expansions negatively. Only a few expansions really interact well together, though many don't conflict. I&C and Traders & Builders works well together. The River II was designed to work directly with Princess & the Dragon, so those two are paired. Likewise, River I and River II are a paired combo (and Corn Circles I & II). Other than those, though, I really don't play common mixed expansions much. I just choose an expansion or two (or three) and try them out together and see what happens. T&B gets no more play than any other expansion really, though most people would proclaim it the best after I&C.

[Carc-meister]

.

In summary, two questions:
1. What do you consider the essential "base" collection that any Carc sessions should have?
2. What expansion is first on your list when decided which to add?

Many thanks to all. I really enjoy this site and look forward to visiting regularly.

And oh yes, the CAR is FANTASTIC!  (My attempts to find this resource led me to the site.)

jvnoledawg

I'm quite new to the world of Carc, but since I've gotten the bug I've read just about every forum and game variant I can get my hands on.  While I certainly don't claim to be an expert player (not in the least!) I've learned that the base game, I & C, T & B pretty much sums up the base game for the majority...with a number of them also including the Phantom, River/II and/or the mini expansion that was available in a Games Quarterly magazine.  After that, P & D, Tower, A &M and the new mini expansions are used much less often.  (That said, I've also read that the Ferries is probably the best of the mini's and is worth using pretty often.)

In short, I & C and T & B is used most often in my household and is often the core of a "base game". If we add in P & D or A & M, then we'll probably exclude T & B but still keep I & C in there, as it easily adds to the original.

Not sure this helps much, but just wanted to add my 2 cents.

[Scott]

When I teach the game, I start with the base game only (excluding river) and then add one expansion each subsequent game. I think there is too much to remember if you throw people in the deep end.

Expansions such as river, I&C, T&B, King, GQ11, etc. tend to stay as expansions are added. Expansions such as P&D and Tower are played once and then set aside.

[Carcking]

Great question! 

Our "base" game consists of:

Tiles:
*Base tiles.
*I&C
*GQ11
*"Regular" tiles from T&B, King, A&M and BC&B
*The 6 magic gate tiles from P&D
*4 Cathars and 4 Siege tiles (we use Cathars to attack a city (minus 1 per tile) and Siege to "restore" a city to normal scoring. This helps temper the effect of the cathedral from I&C which can be unbalancing.
*Abbey

Wood:
*The wagon
*Bridges
*A subjective concensus between all the others - usually one or two of these: phantom, big follower, mayor, builder, pig, barn.

[jvnoledawg]

Very cool insight! Thanks everyone.

Expansions such as P&D and Tower are played once and then set aside.

Interesting. We use those pieces for the land tiles but don't every really use the mechanics, hence our new project.

... I've learned that the base game, I & C, T & B pretty much sums up the base game for the majority....  After that, P & D, Tower, A &M and the new mini expansions are used much less often.  (That said, I've also read that the Ferries is probably the best of the mini's and is worth using pretty often.)

In short, I & C and T & B is used most often in my household and is often the core of a "base game". If we add in P & D or A & M, then we'll probably exclude T & B but still keep I & C in there, as it easily adds to the original.

I have to think about that. Ferries does look like fun, I could see that becoming part of our "base" so as to add something to the road mechanics.  Based on your comments, I could see us going with Base to include Ferries, and then maybe pulling out T&B whenever we add an expansion. (But I&C perhaps really does need to stay to solve the 'huge farms' problem.  Then again, we all love "Bob the Builder" so perhaps he stays but we ignore trade tokens.)

... when I play with other expansions, I usually leave I&C out and just focus on the new stuff.... Only a few expansions really interact well together, though many don't conflict. I&C and Traders & Builders works well together. The River II was designed to work directly with Princess & the Dragon, so those two are paired. Likewise, River I and River II are a paired combo (and Corn Circles I & II). Other than those, though, I really don't play common mixed expansions much. I just choose an expansion or two (or three) and try them out together and see what happens. T&B gets no more play than any other expansion really, though most people would proclaim it the best after I&C.

You know, we've never played with River I and II together, we should probably try that and see how it feels.  And I never thought about what you point out - the fact that the expansions, while not conflicting per se, don't always interact well.

Great question! 

Our "base" game consists of:

Tiles:
*Base tiles.
*I&C
*GQ11
*"Regular" tiles from T&B, King, A&M and BC&B
*The 6 magic gate tiles from P&D
*4 Cathars and 4 Siege tiles (we use Cathars to attack a city (minus 1 per tile) and Siege to "restore" a city to normal scoring. This helps temper the effect of the cathedral from I&C which can be unbalancing.
*Abbey

Wood:
*The wagon
*Bridges
*A subjective concensus between all the others - usually one or two of these: phantom, big follower, mayor, builder, pig, barn.

LOL! Sounds like you do what we do - use the tiles from the expansions but keep the rest the same. I could see this happening - keep the tiles from the expansions regardless (keeping the magic portals and dropping the volcanoes - awesome), and then just add the wood as the mood strikes. (OK, that didn't come out right.)

Anyway, this is great stuff. We'll keep experimenting over the next months and see what happens....

[hsiale]

My "base game" is:
- 72 original base tiles,
- 18 I&C tiles,
- for each player: 8 standard size meeples (with big meeple as scoring marker), a phantom, a builder, 3 bridges.

[jvnoledawg]

My "base game" is:
- 72 original base tiles,
- 18 I&C tiles,
- for each player: 8 standard size meeples (with big meeple as scoring marker), a phantom, a builder, 3 bridges.

I like that. This is sort of what we have done in the past, but with many more land tiles.

[Big Guy]

My "base game" is:
- 72 original base tiles,
- 18 I&C tiles,
- for each player: 8 standard size meeples (with big meeple as scoring marker), a phantom, a builder, 3 bridges.

I like that build as well. My wife and I have a mix that's closer to what Carcking posted:

-72 original base tiles
-RIVER 2 tiles
-I&C tiles
-T&B 'regular' tiles
-A&M 'regular' tiles

MEEPLES PER PLAYER:
-7 regular meeples (using 1 regular meeple to track scoring)
-1 BIG MEEPLE
-1 MAYOR
-1 BUILDER
-1 ABBEY

-NO barn, pig, castles, bridges

-We also play with P&D on a regular basis, but I'm excluding all those tiles from this list of our base game.

[evmillan]

In summary, two questions:
1. What do you consider the essential "base" collection that any Carc sessions should have?
2. What expansion is first on your list when decided which to add?


jvnoledawg

I'm new to the world of Carcassonne, but I'm trying to recover 13 years of experience in a few months.
I've learnt and taught with the base game, then add one expansion after two subsequent games, I&C first and then T&B, these are the "base" for me and my family.
The P&D could be funny but it's no recommended for friendly games and introduces more ramdom and reduces the strategy.
The Phantom and the Ferries are the best of the mini's and are worth using pretty often, that's because increase tactical options.

Resume in order of preferences:

- 72 tiles. Original Base game .
- 18 tiles. I&C.
- 24 tiles. T&B.
- The Phantom.
- 8 tiles. The Ferries.

Regards from Venezuela.

PD: I'm trying to buy some stuff from the Carcatronn's store (carcassonneshope) but the site still down. Any suggestions?

[kettlefish]

PD: I'm trying to buy some stuff from the Carcatronn's store (carcassonneshope) but the site still down. Any suggestions?

I have sent a PM to Carcatronn. He answers me, that his Carcassonne Shoppe will be online again in the next days.

[24hourpartymeeple]

Our game always includes:

71 Base game tiles
Inns & Cathedrals
Traders & Builders
The 12 land tiles from Abbey & Mayor
The tiles from Games Quarterly, King & Scout and Bridges, Castles & Bazaars (including the Bazaar tiles)
We usually use the River to start, sometimes combined with River II

We like a slightly bigger game so we use every basic land tile released. I&C and T&B are always present, no matter which expansions we add in after.

As for the Meeples, we use the standard 7, the big Meeple, the Phantom (always!), the Pig and the Builder. We found the Wagon and Mayor to often go unused so we don't use them anymore.

Though with teaching newer players, we'll use Base and River and sometimes I&C, if they've been gaming for a little while.

[monkeyman]

In my opinion, the only useless extension is Catapult. The others just add some more adrenaline to the game. Right now I'm playing with all "big" expansions, except Tower and Catapult, which I'll never buy. The only rule: no house rules. The rest is pretty much combinable and compatible. Well, it does take 3-4 hours to finish, but what the hell :-)

[danisthirty]

It's interesting how different people like different expansions, but not surprising that the first two expansions are so popular.

After having played with most of the expansions now, my "base" game usually starts with River 1 and 2 (22 tiles since one spring and one lake are removed) and includes the following:

Basic game
Inns & Cathedrals
Traders & Builders
Mage and Witch
King & Robber Baron

Each player has 7 regular followers at his/ her disposal, 1 large follower, pig, builder, phantom, 3 bridges and 3 castle tokens.

This setup always seems to work well for my group of friends and it rarely takes more than an hour and a half to play either!

[chrismalenurse]

Quick question, not quite on topic, but in the vicinity...

If I play Wheel of Fortune with  the base game, is it better to add all the tiles together or just to add the 19 numbered tiles and the wheel in with the base game?