Element of the Week #62 – The Tents

[Whaleyland]

ELEMENT OF THE WEEK: THE TENTS

Each week, a specific element from an expansion is chosen for deeper discussion. This is an opportunity for you, Carcassonne's biggest English-language fans, to discuss strategies and problems you have encountered through the years regarding specific expansion elements. All forms of critique – from the most joyous to the most scathing – are encouraged.

This week's element is THE TENTS (from Expansion 10: Under the Big Top). This is the core component of Under the Big Top and it is the element that will most shake up your games form the expansion. There are 12 new Tent tiles included in the expansion, as well as a travelling Circus Tent figure that will visit each of these tiles throughout the course of the game. When a Tent tile is places, an Animal token is drawn and placed face-down (unseen) on the tile. The Circus Tent is then moved on top of that tile, revealing the previously-placed Animal token, which is then revealed. All meeples in the 8-tile radius (plus the Tent tile itself) score however many points are noted on the Animal tile. These numbers range from 1 to 7 (except 2), with a higher concentration of tokens in the less-valuable numbers.

The Tents draw crowds, essentially, meaning that meeples placed near them will score bonus points. That also means that meeples on the new Acrobat tiles can really benefit from being near an active Tent. But older elements can benefit too. Monasteries placed near tents will score some easy bonus points. Cities and Roads obviously can score points from such an arrangement, as well, although perhaps not as many points. Played with Towers, those stranded Guards may finally get a few points for their vigilance. The Tents are a game-changer, for sure, with Carcassonne and something that works very well and functions simply without any of the controversies that often accompany new expansions.

Discuss your relationship with The Tents, as well as your strategies for taking advantage of this element.

Next Week's Topic: The Ringmaster           

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3355.0

[Willem]

We played this expansion a couple times now. Found that it works better with 3 or more people, at least for us.
We do tend to place these tents near projects we already own, and try to get more near it.
Ive had to score someone else's acrobats once, to prevent her from getting a lot of points from the tent.
So for me its more a combination of the first and second option. Prefer to place it near a feature we own and that has no meeples from other players near it, so we can start more features around it.

[Decar]

I like the Big Tops because there are plenty of them when played with the base game.  It makes it hard to know when the big top will move next.  I like the random element.  I'm not sure of the need of the additional meeple, but it's nice.
The tile distributions are interesting too, some unusual shapes and some which can block farms.