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Messages - kothmann
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136
« on: October 05, 2022, 05:01:10 AM »
Always. Only expansions without house rules are Goldmine and Mage & Witch. Our favorite base game house rule is proportional scoring of farms. 
137
« on: October 04, 2022, 01:44:40 PM »
I strongly prefer the game with 3-4 players. The most brilliant feature of the game is that in a shared feature, both players get ALL the points. So, the player who manages to cooperate most often will frequently win. This unique aspect disappears completely in a 2-player game, where the final game result would be unchanged for any equal distribution of points in a shared feature. We usually play smallish games (under 100 tiles), with a variety of house rules similar to my old city "expansion". We especially enjoy variants for more exciting roads (like Inns), some kind of collection element (like Traders or Goldmines), and eclectic tile mixes with some fixed-wood tile topology modifications (like bridges and gates/walls). Occasionally we add variants for occupied-feature invasion (like Fliers) or more powerful meeples (like Large meeple). Having said all of that, a 2-player base game is a genuine treasure as well. :-)
138
« on: October 04, 2022, 05:35:28 AM »
+1 merit just for the spreadsheet! Wow!
This looks like a lot of fun. Please share photos, not just of the final landscape but also of exciting moments / lucky draws, etc!
139
« on: September 25, 2022, 02:04:01 PM »
I made up the following for personal use ... is this the sort of thing you were thinking of?
Great tile! Like an updated version of the original Inns & Cathedrals CRCR tile, which we always play as a single road. But what I was actually thinking of would be a bit different, because I want the farm between the two separate cities on the CCRR tile to be isolated from the corner between the two roads. So you could put a farmer on the tiny patch of grass with a maximum possible score of 6. It wouldn't make sense to have a tiny farm where you have a well on the CRCR tile, because then the roads would enter each city twice. my least favourite tile is the 3 FRRR tile from CC1. The tile shows 1 road with 3 different branches, but the clarifications told us that they are 3 separated branches. I don't like that, and therefore I don't like this tile
Right. Like the original CRCR tile in I&C. Agree this is awful. I don't have CC1 but would definitely play that as a single road. I agree with the "visual game" rule, but also want some (not too many) realism constraints. Also, as I was thinking about this today, I wondered whether there are any tiles with a single road segment, so you could place and score a farmer for 1 point in a turn? I think a CCFF tile with separate city segments and a single short road connecting them would be cool. Could place a farmer (between road and cities for max score 6, or outside the road for a potentially bigger farm) or a thief for an immediate score of 1!
140
« on: September 24, 2022, 01:49:55 PM »
I dislike the tiles that totally abandon realism in order to get a desired topology. There are three of these in Abbey & Mayor:
CRCR, where the road goes straight through a wall and then into a tunnel to emerge from the other side.
CCCC & CCCF, both of which have ridiculous bridges over a city.
I don’t dislike novel topology, just unrealistic engineering. For contrast, I like the CCRR tile in Abbey and Mayor with 2 road segments and 2 city segments, which I think is the only tile of this edge combination that separates the cities. I would probably like it better if the roads joined in a circle at the center of the tile, because it is difficult to imagine that the road would not have been constructed that way.
141
« on: September 21, 2022, 09:57:07 AM »
For each separate city you make the following calculation: v=k*(k+p)
I love this, but most of my friends prefer "rules with no algebra".  I prefer the current concise wording, but it would be nice to add another meeple (red or blue) in the lower left corner of this example image:  The extra meeple earns 1 point, making things a bit clearer.
142
« on: September 19, 2022, 03:43:24 PM »
I would score 4 for pink.
143
« on: September 19, 2022, 02:33:26 PM »
I've been experimenting with removing meeples from the wheel when the pig passes by (hops over you due to moving 2 or 3 spaces).
This wasn't very good. Too much betting on the wheel and randomly placed road tiles. One other idea I haven't tried yet is to use the Builder, but only allow it to be placed on roads, as an extra incentive to put meeples on roads. I didn't like this much. Placing the builder takes a "moving wood" action and there is already the alternative to place a meeple on the wheel, so no builder for me with the Wheel. [/quote] I'll post again after I ... settle on a tile distribution.
Here is what I decided on:  - Kept 72 total tiles to preserve the frequency of Numbered Tiles.
- Included 5 of each Trade Good from T&B. We use Alternate scoring of Trade Goods to keep things exciting to the end.
- Included 6 Magic Portal tiles to recover features abandoned during Plague
- Included 10 Das Fest tiles. House rules: all players have the option of removing a meeple from the wheel whenever any player draws a DF tile. This will happen before the tile is placed (same sequence as wheel actions when a numbered tile is drawn) and does not affect the active player's ability to place a meeple. Note that the usual "remove a meeple from the landscape" action is not available--that happens when the pig lands on the Plague space.
- Reduced the number of pennant tiles from 10 to 7. There is a curious strategy in which a player may attempt to repeatedly invade their own large city with multiple pennants. If they get lucky enough to draw a lot of pennant tiles, this can create a very lucrative payout when the pig lands on the Tax space. For example 3 meeples in a city with 4 shields pays out 21 points. This could potentially be repeated 2 or 3 times in the game, for a huge payout. Having slightly fewer pennants weakens the Tax space a bit, but it seems to be okay.
- Note that the tile mix includes at least one of every edge combination, so the variety is even better than in the original Wheel mix.
Completed a couple of 3-player and 4-player self-play tests and I really like it. Hope to have actual game results in a couple of weeks...
144
« on: September 17, 2022, 02:10:15 PM »
Thanks for the comments @Decar, @Halfling, @Weetek23. This got put on the back burner for a bit, while I experimented with Delonge's Fjords and Trans Europa, but I opened the box again last night for some self-play tests. Based on the comments and a few quick tests, I decided to try to keep the total number of tiles at 72, keeping all 19 of the Numbered Wheel tiles, but replacing other base wheel tiles with some of the tiles from Traders and Magic Portal. That way I don't mess up the frequency of Number tiles, and keep the game from getting too long. You can probably tell it's not one of my favourites 
I expected to feel this way, too. But I actually really like it! I think the added tile variety and collection tactics of Traders may help? I find this expansion and strategy don't work well together. It's definitely chaotic. But maybe not totally devoid of strategy: just a bit more like Poker than Chess? I noticed that most of family players largely refuse to deploy a meeple on the wheel...
And when the tiles run out, your meeples are stuck (on the wheel) doing nothing.
I've been experimenting with removing meeples from the wheel when the pig passes by (hops over you due to moving 2 or 3 spaces). So, meeples never get trapped in the center (assuming you don't place a meeple behind the pig on the 5th and final lap!) This takes away the risk of a stranded meeple, but you still have the trade-off of passing up other opportunities for your meeple. Also, the meeples on the wheel only give you 3 or 6 points, so you shouldn't have risk similar to a monk. Plus you can't remove them during the plague. I'll have to evaluate in a real game, but I think this is a fun change. The Magic Portals work well, but were less important than I expected because it seems like players usually don't abandon monasteries, so the unoccupied features are quickly reclaimed anyway. One other idea I haven't tried yet is to use the Builder, but only allow it to be placed on roads, as an extra incentive to put meeples on roads. I'll post again after I have some real games and settle on a tile distribution...
145
« on: September 02, 2022, 04:49:39 AM »
Thanks so much! The inn markers are such a good idea!
I also love extra wood bits on the landscape! Shameless self-promotion: maybe you would enjoy my Guesthouses expansion.
146
« on: August 17, 2022, 12:23:06 PM »
The game … probably wouldn't require any special house rule since it's only tiles from the base game.
I think it depends a lot on how your group tends to play. With base game tiles only, there are 7 edge combinations missing, so trapping a meeple in a feature that can never be completed is pretty easy. When you play with I&C and T&B, you are only missing CFFR, so trapping is quite a bit harder. If your group naturally avoids traps (“plays nice”), this might not be a problem. But with players who try to trap opponents’ meeples, a game with 3X base games but still only 7 meeples might tend to an unpleasant meeple shortage late in the game. Players can of course adjust their strategies, but if you have Das Fest (10th Anniversary), you could add one or more copies of those 10 tiles, which leave only CCRF, CCFR, CRCF combinations missing, and of course allow you to escape when trapped. Since you seem amenable to house rules, you could also keep just base game tiles and allow the “meeple removal” mechanic whenever a player places a tile with a pennant but doesn’t place a meeple. Or (shameless self-promotion), you could try my “Gates and Walls” expansion, which helps players avoid trapped meeples with a simple new mechanic. I hope you’ll share more photos!
147
« on: August 16, 2022, 08:22:07 PM »
Done! It was not the chaotic game we feared it would be but it was awesome anyway. Here's just a few info about the game as requested.
Great photos and explanation! Thanks so much for taking the time to share all of this. +1 merit from me. Tile-counting is heavely hindered with repeated tiles, and that makes strategy a lot more intriguing, and adding house rules made the fight for goods and big cities more tight.
The final landscape and scoring looks very well balanced: about 24 completed cities of a variety of sizes, all (?!) of the roads with Inns completed, a nice mixture of small and large farms, with the Green pig well placed, and great house rules for double Trade Goods. I’m jealous. :-) … we never found ourselves wishing the game was over (in Monopoly, yes, but in Carcassone? Never!)
Indeed. Thanks again.
148
« on: August 14, 2022, 08:37:50 PM »
Wish us good luck! 
Good luck! Also, please take photos and note the final Trade Good counts and other important data and then post again to share the results! Trade good rule sounds good to me. Cathedrals and Inns seem likely to become mostly weapons of destruction? Eager to hear actual results…
149
« on: August 02, 2022, 12:13:53 PM »
I'm hoping to have a few games with the Wheel of Fortune soon, and I'm wondering about tips for tactics and also what expansions work best? Here are my thoughts, but would love advice from those who have actually played. Adjustments to Basic Play:- Be more eager than usual to have two knights in a city, particularly when there are multiple pennants in that city.
- Place farmers earlier--you will probably have chances to remove them later and they can bring you points from the wheel even if you aren't winning that field.
- Similarly, be more likely to place monks, because you can get points from the wheel and have a chance to remove them.
Placing a Meeple on the Wheel:I started with some math. The distribution of pig motion distances are: 11 one tiles, 5 two tiles, and 3 three tiles. So, the chance that the pig hits the next space around the wheel when the first wheel tile is drawn are 11/19, or 58%. The chance that it hits the second space on the first tile is 5/19, or 26%, but it will also hit the second space on the second tile 58% of 58% of the time (33%), so the total chance for hitting the second space on the first two wheel tiles is 59%. By similar math, the chance of hitting the third space on the first time around is 65%. Since you don't want to wait too long to get your meeple back, you should always pick the first or second spot after the pig, preferring the one that pays 6 points if there is no other meeple on that spot? Expansions to Use- Magic Portals Because of the Pestilence wheel space, there will be empty features, so these should 6 tiles should be useful?
- Traders & Builders Because 17/19 wheel tiles are roads, it would be good to make cities more exciting?
- Flying Machines Because of the city-heavy Traders tile mix, it might be good to add some more roads and open fields, as well another way to sneak into features?
- Shrines Still more tiles that are heavy on roads and fields and create empty features after a challenge? (I'll actually be using the volcano tiles from P&D as surrogate shrines.)
Looking forward to hearing other thoughts. Thanks!
150
« on: July 29, 2022, 02:27:41 PM »
Nice house rules. One clarification: Microbetile:
Placing a follower on this tile opens up new options for further placement. Tiles adjacent to microbetile (not diagonally) are now legible for follower placement, but only to an unclaimed, unfinished feature. Placement on previously placed tiles in the growing “microbezone” is limited to one meeple per subsequent turn, when the player on the microbetile does not take any other “moving wood” during Step2 of the turn?
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