Topics

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General / Spiel Doch 2016 Article

« on: April 19, 2022, 02:44:49 AM »

Hello All

First, apologies for my long absence but quite a bit has been going on for me, including a house move and multiple large MA deadlines so sadly playing Carcassonne and being pro-active on here have unfortunatly taken a backseat (Though I have treated myself to Zamek which I'll open once I've handed in these essays!).

It is actually because of one of my essay's I'm making this post. In short I'm discussing how we can study how modern board games are used and apply those principles onto how people used the gaming boards we have found from pre-history, and I'm using Carcassonne as an example. Primarly how Carcassonne is used extensively to teach maths and geography today, and so perhaps board games in the past where likewised used as teaching tools.

Whilst I have a good number of sources already, I own the 2016 edition of Spiel Doch that discusses Carcassonne, but I can't read German! I'm assuming there is some good things in there I may be able to use in my essay either as direct points about Carcassonne being used to teach concepts, or just as a general information about the game I can put in it's intro section of my essay. As such I'm wondering if anyone has gone to the trouble of translating this article already and would perhaps be happy to share this with me? Long shot but I thought I'd ask here. Equally if you have anything about Carcassonne you think I should mention, drop something here!

Thanks in advance

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The Marketplace / FT: Carcassonne Probeerspel

« on: March 12, 2022, 05:54:08 AM »

Hello All

I am offering up for trade a complete and in decent condition (see pictures) copy of 999 Games' Carcassonne Probeerspel from 2015.
Ideally I would like to trade it for the German Version of the same item, the Demo-Spiel, but open to any/all reasonable offers.

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General / Whats your Favourite Tile?

« on: March 10, 2022, 10:55:04 AM »

So it seems (from a quick search of the forums) this topic has not been discussed in about 7 years but I was giving some thought to what my favourite Carcassonne Tile would be. For me it has to be from Hunters & Gatherers as thats the version of Carc I grew up playing and exclusively played for almost 20 years. Within that I had a couple of stand out candiates. The Starting Tile was one of these, in H&G V1 it has a volcano on for a start and when I saw that on a table as a 6 year old kid (as it still does) it filled my head with the possibilities and fun of the game ahead. However I eventually settled on a different tile from that set. One that I think does not quite look as pretty but the emotion of drawing it, or seeing your opponent draw it, was what gave it the edge. So here it is, my favourite tile;



Not only do I think its a great looking tile (albeit with a sad lack of Volcano) but whenever I draw it from the Bonus Stack it always brings me a big smile as I could usually get 11+ points for its placement (7+ from a Fisherman and 4 end game on hut points) and that would be ontop of the score I just had for finishing the forest that allows me to get this bonus tile. Seeing an opponent draw it also always crushes my soul a little so I think that feeling is an indicator of how much I like this tile.

So what is everyone else's favourite tile in their collection (from any Carc of course)? I know that is a tough question as some people on here have 9k+ plus tiles but hey, one has to be a fave right? It can be for any reason, nostalgia, how hard and satisfying it was to get if it's a rare one or how it turned the tide of one game.

Looking forward to the responses here

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General / Knock off? Fake? What is this box?

« on: March 02, 2022, 01:18:06 PM »

First thing's first, to the person on one of my earlier posts who joked how easy it is to get roped into building a 'collection' after you have more than two versions of Carc... well you'll be pleased to know I spend a fair bit of time trawling ebay now looking to expand my own collection of Carcassonne Items

It was on one of those searches I spotted this box that I had never seen before, you can view it here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183876047759?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D0486bd8df8ae415a96a3b2ffa1f735ad%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D183876047759%26itm%3D183876047759%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DRio+Grande+Games&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A682090dc-9a6d-11ec-a147-8e883158967a%7Cparentrq%3A4c79c4b617f0ad343a9cc6fdfff3352c%7Ciid%3A1

This doesn't match anything I have seen on Wicarpedia and based on the fact I have heard about Chinese knock off's of Carcassonne before and the very clear "Made in China" written on the box along with "We trust that you value of natural products, which may have small imperfections, making each game unique" makes me think this might just be one of those fakes. In-fact I am pretty certain it is a fake, but as every day is a day to learn more; anyone who knows more about the Game and knock-off versions care to enlighten?

Thanks

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Reviews & Session Reports / Carc Print & Play Demo - A fun gaming experience?

« on: March 01, 2022, 05:06:22 AM »

So I have seen the Carcassonne Print & Play Demo that was released in 2020 as part of the Stay at Home campaign discussed a couple of times on this forum but I was yet to see (and apologies if I missed it) anyone talking about the Merits of actually playing this game and this got me thinking - would it actually be a fun and interesting game for someone who already owns Carcassonne?

Well for the cost of some ink, prit-stick, and 15 minutes infront of a Hairy Biker's Cooking programme with some tea I got to work sticking the printed out tiles to cardboard and familiraising myself with the rules of this free to download demo (here if you are interested: https://www.hans-im-glueck.de/_Resources/Persistent/ad61310df34c6546a94213079763bc3d3eb389db/Carc_Demo_EN.pdf)

The first thing of note is this game has only 48 tiles and they are smaller than normal and in C2.1 style, in fact they are same size as (if you print the rules in standard A4) as Carcassonne Für 2 and further - feature the exact same distribution of tiles. This includes the two tiles variants that don't feature in base Carcassonne;a RFRF with a Monestry and a FCFR. But unlike Carcassonne Für 2 this game can be played with up to 5 players and importantly it doesn't include farmers. However the multiple games I played of this, like 90% of my Carcassonne games, was 1v1.

Comparison in size of a C1 start tile and the Print & Play Demo C2.1 Start Tile


The two different tiles

The Print & Play Demo also does not come with Meeples and even though I have 115 in my small collection I thought that would not be "in the spirit" of playing a Demo Carcassonne and without needing to worry about follower orientation in this game I elected to use small wooden cubes from another of my borad games to represent my followers in this. You'll need 5 in each colour and a 6th to use on the printed out scoreboard if you aren't tracking scores with pen and paper.

The opening tiles placed, the stage is set

With the stage set the battle commenced over several matches. The first thing I noticed was that without farmers there was no incentive to make small towns (2 tile Cities) if one could use an end tile for anything else as it would score you only 4 points rather than a potential 7 that it can if you had farmers next to it in base Carcassonne. For me and my playing partner this actually meant we were far more aggressive in this version than in a normal game. This could be chalked down to the fact both of us are new to standard Carcassonne (I have 20 year or so of H&G expereince but we've both only played about 10 games of Carcassonne and 50 of various other Carc's together) but I do think aggressive plays are brought out more in the version. Firstly with only 48 tiles it felt more paramount to block your opponant knowing the likelihood of getting tiles that can fit certain holes was diminished and further (as mentioned before) without farmers you can't double benefit from your own cities or benefit at all from ones your opponant can finish on their own.

One of our games in a well under way state, note that of the three small towns 2 were completed as a 'bonus' as the tiles that finished them were more useful in extending a road that eventually scored 10 points and a Monestary that scorred the full 9

Another thing that we noticed was with a different distribution and variance in Monestary tiles, as well as less tiles in the game overall, they felt slightly harder to finish and whilst you may be able to gurantee at least 6 end game points they felt like they were places you were more likely to get a follower stuck for the rest of the game than in normal Carcassonne. Which is especially a problem in a game where you only have 5 as opposed to 7 (this does slightly balance out as you never place followers as farmers but still feels more constricting and makes you think twice before playing a follower as a Monk).

The end state of one of our early Games

So what were our final thoughts on this Print & Play Demo? Well again, with the caviat that the majority of our expereince comes from Carcassonne versions that were not the original, this game was still great fun to play and forced us to think about tile placement quite differently than in our normal play sessions of any Carcassonne game. The bigest thing for me was certainly the lack of farmers which certainly turned my normal gameplan for a Carc into a non starter (In H&G I pretty much always have the biggest medow by building it myself or stealing and same for farmers in base out of the games I have played of that). Equally the quick paced nature and more aggressive feel of the game created by limiting the tiles you get to play to about 2/3rds of normal further made it an enjoyable experience. Is the Print & Play Demo sufficiantly different tactically to warrent it getting more table time than a standard and full version of any Carc box? No. But is it a game that you should consider giving some table time to every now and then for a different Carc expereince? I would say for sure yes, if not at least for the novelty and for the fact that after you have made it - well you have a basically free version of the game you can play on train tables...

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General / Entertainment for this evening sorted...

« on: February 25, 2022, 07:24:45 AM »

My copy of South Seas arrived in the post today and becomes my fourth version of Carcassonne in my collection. No better way than to welcome it to my Carc shelf than playing all four of them tonight is there...?

(Pictures attached in two ways as Im still unsure about sharing pictures on here lol)

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General / C1 Edition Identification Help

« on: February 24, 2022, 04:20:40 AM »

Hello All

So I recently purchased an advertised early edition of Carcassonne which arrived today and I would like some help in its identification. Personally I think the box and contents have a small mismatch but perhaps a version was released that matches what I purchased. First off the box I bought is (at least it seems to me) definatly a original first edition English Language one from Rio Grande, complete without the "Game of the Year" award and depicting the elusive 70 Scoreboard on the back of the box... (Also apololgies if pictures are considered too big, not great at figuring out the old resizing of them even after reading that thread)

However, the contents don't quote match this. What I bought came with The River tiles and hand typed rules for this, as my box does not say that it includes the river and no mention of this expansion is covered in the actual rules that came with game I can only assume this was added to this box either by the person I bought it from or before that. The main query I have as to if this is a mix-matched box in terms of the contents and the box itself, or an actual edition that was released, is that (sadly) this game didnt come with a 70 point scoreboard but rather the grey 50 one. This is depsite the fact that the 70 scoreboard is depicted on the box and even on the rules...

The rules are definiatly for first edition farmer scoring as well, with no mention of laying the farmers down. So yeah thats my new box. As I said, I think its an original first edition box that at one point contained a 70 scoreboard but since has had the Grey 50 scoreboard added and The River tiles added. Though as I said I am by no means an expert on early editions of Carcassonne hence this post becuase perhaps an edition like this (sans The River) was brefily sold. Any help in pining down the most likely or indeed definite identification of this edition would be most helpful. Thanks in advance!