Author Topic: Wheel of Fortune - help me make a decision (Read 8891 times)

jungleboy · « **on:** January 04, 2015, 06:00:32 AM »

Hi guys,

After a few little things that I've ordered arrive (hopefully this week), I'll have only two things missing from completing my Carcassonne collection (as I see it): Wheel of Fortune and the Tunnels.

I'll be in Bern on Wednesday and it looks like there's a shop there with both Wheel of Fortune (CHF29/€24) and Big Box 5 (CHF54.90/€45.50). These seem like pretty reasonable prices, especially for Switzerland and with no shipping costs.

My issue is that I would prefer to have Wheel of Fortune without German text on it. I see that the English RGG editions are out of print and hard to find / very expensive, and there don't appear to be versions in French, Spanish or Italian (languages that I speak and that I would be OK with having). Big Box 5 solves this problem with a text-free wheel, but the only other things in it that I don't already own are the River (III) and the 7th/8th followers, so a lot of what's in the box would be a waste of money.

The other thing to consider is the other differences between the standalone Wheel of Fortune and the Big Box version. Can someone who has both or who knows this better than me remind me about these differences - something about the watermarked tiles?

So what should I do?

Thanks!

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1402.0

kettlefish · « **Reply #1 on:** January 04, 2015, 07:08:10 AM »

First: Both versions are playable.

I think that is more a problem of the aesthetics. But for this I can't decide for you.

I like in the stand-allone game that all landscape tiles have the wheel watermarks.
The BigBox5 has only 12 wheel watermarks for the expansion.
I personally prefer the big wheel start tile from the BigBox5 than the wheel start tile from the stand-alone game.

If you can't decide - buy both and mix them.

Guy · « **Reply #2 on:** January 04, 2015, 08:07:58 AM »

Hi jungleboy,

I have both wheel of fortune and bb5. I find the stand alone wheel of fortune much better as all the tiles are watermarked. The pros for bb5 are that it means you only need to add 18 tiles to the base game for a mega carc game instead of 72 but it does mean you have to always play with the bb5 base game otherwise you don't have enough tiles marked which move the wheel.

B1nder · « **Reply #3 on:** January 04, 2015, 08:23:50 AM »

Hi Jungleboy!

If I where you, I would have bought the wheel of fortune in German. Then you can print out the start tile with english text on it and glue it over the original start tile

Decar · « **Reply #4 on:** January 04, 2015, 09:18:48 AM »

I had a similar decision to contend with recently, except I don't speak Dutch/Italian/German/French or Spanish.

Luckily, I didn't have Hill & Shepherds either so for me: BB5 was £46. A copy of WoF assuming I could even find it was £25 + HnS was £12. So for £9 I got another copy of Carcassonne, InC + TnB, The River(alt) and all the extra playing pieces.

I eventually decided that a MegaCarc with 2xTrade Goods was worth duplicating on. So an easy decision for me!

I suppose you should also ask: are you going to be annoyed with the 16 tiles that have the WoF 1/2/3 on them but no watermark? If you just want vanilla Carcassonne, you would use another set? I've added links to photos of the unpunched decks on the BB5 Review, if you want to look.

Enjoy Bern!

jungleboy · « **Reply #5 on:** January 04, 2015, 01:07:35 PM »

Thanks for all the response - very helpful. I guess at the moment I'm leaning towards just the standalone Wheel of Fortune even with the German text ... but we'll see

Quote from: kettlefish on January 04, 2015, 07:08:10 AM

If you can't decide - buy both and mix them.

Haha, that defeats the purpose of this exercise a bit, but I like your style. Maybe if there are January sales and they are even cheaper I'll think about it.

kettlefish · « **Reply #6 on:** January 04, 2015, 01:24:48 PM »

Hi jungleboy,
if you travel through Germany - then you can buy the BigBox5 for 30 EURO at Real Kauf.
This store is in many towns here in Germany.

jungleboy · « **Reply #7 on:** January 04, 2015, 11:36:42 PM »

Quote from: kettlefish on January 04, 2015, 01:24:48 PM

Hi jungleboy,
if you travel through Germany - then you can buy the BigBox5 for 30 EURO at Real Kauf.
This store is in many towns here in Germany.

Thanks for the tip. I was in Konstanz the week before Christmas and I looked at Müller and Seetroll, but I didn't find Big Box 5 or anything else I was missing. I don't know if there is a Real Kauf there.

B1nder · « **Reply #8 on:** January 05, 2015, 10:09:17 PM »

You can buy a Wheel Of Fortune, Language Independent, Wheel Starter Tile at http://www.carcassonneshoppe.com if you still are going to buy the the wheel of fortune in German.

kettlefish · « **Reply #9 on:** January 05, 2015, 11:18:08 PM »

With following link you can find stores here in Germany:

example:
Real Kauf - Konstanz

http://www.meinprospekt.de/konstanz/filialen/real-de

There isn't a store in Konstanz but you can see the stores in that area. The nearest is Singen around 26 km from Konstanz.

jungleboy · « **Reply #10 on:** January 07, 2015, 08:55:56 AM »

Quote from: B1nder on January 05, 2015, 10:09:17 PM

You can buy a Wheel Of Fortune, Language Independent, Wheel Starter Tile at http://www.carcassonneshoppe.com if you still are going to buy the the wheel of fortune in German.

Yep, that's what I'm going to do, cheers. I bought the German edition of Wheel of Fortune today and I will order the language-independent wheel ASAP.