Author Topic: Campaign Sessions – Campaign 1: Scenario 1 (Read 5509 times)

Whaleyland · « **on:** February 26, 2016, 04:54:57 PM »

I finally printed out my own campaign series for Carcassonne a few days ago and just began the full 50-scenario series last night. Honestly, we aren't to a great start. The first campaign only uses 50 tiles, 6 Followers, and just the Windroses as the expansion. That's quite a lame beginning, it seems. Windroses is an expansion in desperate need of a rules boost and even the variant we tried came out ineffectual. We tried the recently-suggested variant where the features score bonus points when players score something within the last-placed quadrant, and we also played that the tiles must all be oriented in the correct direction. Neither of these ended up working well, though. Two of the tiles we literally could not orient properly, so at the end of the game we each just played them as normal tiles (no bonuses at all). I totally forgot to award either of us the three-point bonus for placing the other two tiles (although they canceled out anyway). And rather unfortunately, we never ended up completing a single feature that was in an active quadrant. How this happened is beyond me. Regardless, the bonus points still did not motivate us to complete features in the active zone and forcing the correct orientation just ended up being a struggle in futility. We both were even more over the expansion than usual when the game was done, which is saying something since it's been on my least favourite 5 expansions since it first released (least favourite five from best to worst: King, Count, Windrose, Catapult, Darmstadt).

Only one Farm on the whole map worth taking (12 pts) and in the end, it was a tie for it. Most of the points came from Cloisters, which my opponent nabbed the most of. My points were coming from a few Cities that didn't get completed. Overall, pretty poor game compared to some of them.

Campaign #1 Running Score:
Me: 6 pts (Raw: 129)
Opponent: 10 pts (Raw: 117)

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2485.0

danisthirty · « **Reply #1 on:** February 26, 2016, 10:51:17 PM »

Oh well, onwards and upwards! Good luck with the next scenario, looking forward to hearing about how it plays out...

Your thoughts about the Wind Roses not changing the game enough seem to be echoed by just about everyone here who has ever played it (including myself). I wouldn't say I particularly disliked it though (not enough to include it in my bottom 5 expansions anyway). True, the 3 point bonus isn't much of an enticement but I find it's usually worth playing for unless you have a good reason to use it elsewhere. It's the same with the 3 bonus points you get by moving the fairy to a claimed feature as you complete it, those are points for nothing so it's a no-brainer unless you're determined to deploy a meeple on the tile you used to complete your feature rather than move the fairy (which is sometimes a better option). Those sound like some interesting house-rules though, sorry they didn't work out as intended.

Also, King is your best worst expansion?

Whaleyland · « **Reply #2 on:** February 27, 2016, 11:37:02 AM »

I hate King and Robber Baron – way too fiddly and high maintenance. And it's funny you mention the Fairy bonus points because I literally never play with them. Again, too fiddly. I just use the Fairy as protection against the Dragon. It never does anything else in my games.

ARabidMeerkat · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2016, 01:41:14 PM »

Quote from: whaleyland on February 27, 2016, 11:37:02 AM

I hate King and Robber Baron – way too fiddly and high maintenance. And it's funny you mention the Fairy bonus points because I literally never play with them. Again, too fiddly. I just use the Fairy as protection against the Dragon. It never does anything else in my games.

Also, the fairy yields a point per turn if it stays on one of your claimed features, making you want to use it more

Christopher · « **Reply #4 on:** February 27, 2016, 01:50:02 PM »

I'm sorry to hear the Wind Rose variant didn't work out! Playing the correct orientation isn't necessary, really, that's just my personal preference because I hate it when the cardinal points move! I'm surprised that no one manage to get the feature completion bonus points!

Looking forward to hearing about the next scenario.

Whaleyland · « **Reply #5 on:** February 27, 2016, 03:42:59 PM »

It will probably be a very off-and-on series but I think enough time has passed since we played our last scenario series (in 2014, I think). I was disappointed your variant didn't work too, but it may have been partially because we were only playing with 50 tiles (plus the start tile). I really hate moving the central compass. I think that's what really screwed things up for at least one of the could-not-be-placed tiles. Not scoring any bonuses was really weird, though. We both had a number of trapped meeples, however, and we were only playing with 6 total for this first game.

Christopher · « **Reply #6 on:** February 28, 2016, 01:00:04 AM »

It always seemed such an odd thing for the expansion to have, a second compass tile which moves North. Very strange. It works better in bigger games because with more tiles on the table there are more placement options, giving a better chance of placing it correctly.

I think you're right, the fifty tile total will have inhibited the effect of the variant. In such a small game, I would imagine there are so few features completed that there's little ground in vying for three points. When I've played large games with this variant, a quadrant can remain active for a long time, and players aim to complete features there. Three extra points over ten features gives 30 points which is not to be sniffed at!

How did you come up with your campaign scenarios? How did you land on fifty tiles?

Whaleyland · « **Reply #7 on:** February 28, 2016, 02:12:39 AM »

Most of the scenarios are 75 tiles, but the first and the last of each 10-scenario campaign are different. The first is only 50 tiles using only one small expansion; the last is 100 tiles with multiple expansions and players using hands of three tiles. I felt it helps build the momentum for the campaign some and starts players off light. I see what you mean by the expansion doing well when scaled. I may cycle it out of the first scenario in the future because it is really weak. With the addition of the Cathedrals, which I really assume to be the final old-style expansion, I can do a couple of swaps and find something better to put there.