Author Topic: Carcassonne Big Box 5 Review (Read 32695 times)

Paul · « **on:** October 19, 2014, 08:06:30 AM »

Foreword

Just like the previous Big Box (4), I was hesitant to buy it and yet in the end, I did. Luckily I did not have that decision to make with Big Box 5 as it was given to me on my birthday party! As it's still fresh and many know so little about it still, figure I write this review to include everything about this box in one single thread.

Content

Let's start off with what's probably the most valuable info. What's inside the box?

12x River tiles
These river tiles contains new graphics in the way that they have Sheep and Hills. There are none with cattle, a pig, Inn or any other hint for other expansions. The segments are the same, some has city / cities or road or a combination and one has a cloister.

The watermark is in the shape of three waves. These are large and you could interpret this as River III like me.

And get this: The backside of these river tiles are light, like any other tile you draw! Something I've longed for and hope they continue to print them like this.

24x Traders and Builders
These seem to be the standard tiles and tokens like any previous released versions. The tokens are a bit larger, as with Big Box 4 compared to the old standalone expansion.

9x Barrels
6x Wheat
5x Cloth (or Flags as I call them)

18x Sheep and Hills
Again, there does not seem to be any difference regarding the tiles and the tokens. One thing that has been fixed is now all tiles has the sheep watermark, which in the standalone expansion had one tile missing this.

Wheel of Fortune and the base game
This is where things get a bit tricky.

There is one starter tile, with darker backside as usual. But what can get a bit confusing (not having read the rules from this BB5 yet) is what is what with the rest.

There are:
56x base game tiles without any watermarks or Wheel of Fortune numbers
16x base game tiles without any watermarks with a WoF numbers on it
12x Wheel of Fortune tiles with a watermark on it. Some has a WoF number as well.

UPDATE: If only playing the base game this BB5, you will have 72 draw tiles and one starter tile totalling 73 tiles in play.

The rulebook has as usual a tilesheet spread at the end of it. Although it shows every tile so you can sort out what is what, it's still tedious and a cheap way to go. They should have had the base game alone and WoF alone, i.e. extra tiles. It seems like every Big Box is cutting corners and the amount of content is becoming less and less.
Sure, we have 2 more player colours, but something like that should be a bonus content. The price for this box in Sweden is more costly than buying each part of this bundle separately.
Comparing with Big Box 3, which cost half as much as the content itself bought separately, it's becoming clear that these boxes are more for collector's need because I can't see any new player invest in such a grand box without starting small.

The rest of the content
1x Wheel of Fortune 'tile' which is 4x4 in tilesize as the old standalone expansion. This one has a new look, no text which has been replaced with images. Good or bad, it's all up to the eye of the beholder. The pink pig that walks this tile is also present, like the old standalone version.

8x 50 / 100 marker tiles to keep track of the larger scoring.

These comes in eight different colours:
8x big follower
8x builder (also known as Bob the Builder)
8x shepherd
8x pigs
64x standard follower

The colours are:

and the new colours of pink and purple.

Conclusion
So is this worth buying?
If already owning a lot already, this may not seem like a good deal. If it wasn't for the River III tiles, I'd say this was definately not worth buying. But there's also the Wheel of Fortune to consider. Because so many out there missed their chance getting this expansion (which I keep referring WoF to but it's not!), Big Box 5 is a must and thus making this BB5 an awesome find.

Pros
- New river tiles
- Sought after for many, the Wheel of Fortune
- 7th and 8th colour set

Cons
- The price is way too high compared to its content
- Exclusive and out of print material in a big box with half the content already own rendered useless to many. The Big Box should contain regular reprints of the common sets for new players, instead of forcing collectors to buy unnecessary releases.
- UPDATE: Normally this would not be an issue, but because the Sheep and Hills cloth bag was already introduced in the its own expansion box, it should also have been included in BB5. Instead, all the tokens are faced down and shuffled. Drawn when one places a tile (and chooses to do this action).

And lastly a quick peek on the rulebook. Nothing fancy here. Standard each part of the game sets explained on their own. Found one errata on the spreadsheet where it says there's 2x of one of the Trader's tile, but in fact there is, and always has been, one of each tile (24 unique ones).

Hope you enjoyed reading this and take what is written here with a grain of salt.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1149.0

Fritz_Spinne · « **Reply #1 on:** October 19, 2014, 08:13:30 AM »

In Germany the price at a supermarket is 30 Euro, I think this is cheap compared to base game 18 Euros and expansion 11 - 13 Euro. What is the price in other countries?

Paul · « **Reply #2 on:** October 19, 2014, 08:16:33 AM »

Quote from: Fritz_Spinne on October 19, 2014, 08:13:30 AM

In Germany the price at a supermarket is 30 Euro, I think this is cheap compared to base game 18 Euros and expansion 11 - 13 Euro. What is the price in other countries?

This is something I have not considered. It would be nice to know the price in other countries. 30 Euro is definately a good deal! I'd buy 3 copies more for that price.

mas9dj · « **Reply #3 on:** October 19, 2014, 08:28:01 AM »

45 in spain in some places if you're lucky, 50 normally

quevy · « **Reply #4 on:** October 19, 2014, 08:29:45 AM »

Quote from: Fritz_Spinne on October 19, 2014, 08:13:30 AM

In Germany the price at a supermarket is 30 Euro, I think this is cheap compared to base game 18 Euros and expansion 11 - 13 Euro. What is the price in other countries?

In Italy is 55 euro.

Gerry · « **Reply #5 on:** October 19, 2014, 08:59:52 AM »

Quote from: Fritz_Spinne on October 19, 2014, 08:13:30 AM

In Germany the price at a supermarket is 30 Euro, I think this is cheap compared to base game 18 Euros and expansion 11 - 13 Euro. What is the price in other countries?

some Canadian prices from my local store

Carcassonne Big Box 5 Board Game Price (CAN): $82.95

Carcassonne Board Game Expansion The Wheel Of Fortune Out of stock Price (CAN): $34.95

Carcassonne Board Game with The River Expansion Out of stock Price (CAN): $38.95

Carcassonne Board Game Traders & Builders Expansion (Z-Man Version) Out of stock Price (CAN): $19.95

Carcassonne Board Game Hills & Sheep Price (CAN): $19.95

Carcassonne Inns & Cathedrals Expansion (Z-Man Version) Price (CAN): $19.95

Carcassonne Board Game Big Box (Z-MAN Edition) 6 mini expansions Out of stock Price (CAN): $74.95

Rosco · « **Reply #6 on:** October 19, 2014, 09:04:35 AM »

The trouble of buying from Germany is the high postage costs.

Jéré · « **Reply #7 on:** October 19, 2014, 09:52:04 AM »

Quote from: Yellow link=topic=1149.msg14004#msg14004

18x Sheep and Hills
Again, there does not seem to be any difference regarding the tiles and the tokens. One thing that has been fixed is now all tiles has the sheep watermark, which in the standalone expansion had one tile missing this.

What about the white bag for the sheep/wolfes tokens? Apparently it is missing.. Would add that to the "cons", if true.

Gerry · « **Reply #8 on:** October 19, 2014, 10:31:46 AM »

Quote from: Jéré on October 19, 2014, 09:52:04 AM

What about the white bag for the sheep/wolfes tokens? Apparently it is missing.. Would add that to the "cons", if true.

My original big box from Rio Grande also came without the blue draw tile bag, fortunately I really enjoy traders and builders so I bought a second copy and got the bag, then I had so many trader tiles that it was difficult to finish cities so I had to pull 14 city ending tiles form a spare copy of the base game to balance things out again and so it goes on.

Paul · « **Reply #9 on:** October 19, 2014, 10:49:43 AM »

Quote from: Jéré on October 19, 2014, 09:52:04 AM

Quote from: Yellow link=topic=1149.msg14004#msg14004

18x Sheep and Hills
Again, there does not seem to be any difference regarding the tiles and the tokens. One thing that has been fixed is now all tiles has the sheep watermark, which in the standalone expansion had one tile missing this.

What about the white bag for the sheep/wolfes tokens? Apparently it is missing.. Would add that to the "cons", if true.

Updated the original review with this info. I agree it should have been included.

Also updated the base game info. It's actually 73 tiles in this version. 72 draw tiles and one starter tile. This would go well for 2-4, 6 and 8 players. You can always remove 2 tiles or disregard the last 2 tiles in the heap when there's 5 and 7 players, for the sake of fairness.

pjmcmullan · « **Reply #10 on:** December 25, 2014, 04:46:02 PM »

Hi, so what is the additional tile?

Fritz_Spinne · « **Reply #11 on:** December 25, 2014, 10:06:26 PM »

I think there is an extra tile like the starter tile.

danisthirty · « **Reply #12 on:** December 29, 2014, 03:08:52 AM »

Thanks for this review Yellow.

So the 73rd tile in the "basic" tile set is another crfr tile?

Paul · « **Reply #13 on:** December 29, 2014, 03:53:11 AM »

Quote from: danisthirty on December 29, 2014, 03:08:52 AM

Thanks for this review Yellow.

So the 73rd tile in the "basic" tile set is another crfr tile?

I think so. Did not think to check what tile it was and now all the tiles are mixed together so I myself can't tell. And I don't trust the spreadsheet because it already has at least one error.