Author Topic: What's your favourite way to play Carcassonne? (Read 19600 times)

jungleboy · « **on:** January 07, 2015, 10:51:30 AM »

There's a thread going on at the moment where people are discussing Mega-Carcassonne which can involve games taking three days and 20 hours to finish! At the other end of the spectrum, many players (such as our very own danisthirty) love the simplicity and purity of the base game.

I fall in between these two extremes. I like to play a game with perhaps two major expansions and a couple of small ones for about 100-120 tiles, regardless of the number of players (I usually play with 2-3 players anyway). On a typical Carcassonne night we can fit in 2-3 of these games and I love it how each game is totally different depending on what expansions we use, and that it gives everyone several chances to win.

What's your favourite way to play?

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1419.0

glh510 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 07, 2015, 11:08:17 AM »

Base game + River. For me the one and only carcassonne :-)

Darwin · « **Reply #2 on:** January 07, 2015, 12:13:36 PM »

I guess I fall directly on both of these two extremes, as I love both a small game with less than 100 tiles and the mega games with more than a 1000 tiles. So I didn’t vote

My girlfriend and I play small games 3-4 times a week (we kicked out the television set 6 years ago). When we play we mostly play the Car spin-offs and manage 2-3 games on an evening after dinner. Last year our favourite was The Hunters & Gatherers, but at the moment our favourites are The City and The Castle.

Usually we only play mega-Car with friends. We are so lucky that we know two other couples that also like to play big games. But the mega-games take quite some time, so it only happens 4-5 times a year. We had an “intended” mega game now recently, when we stayed at a cabin in the mountains together with another couple between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. But it didn’t really get mega (se game report). Our next mega-game is planned in February over tree days with 4 players. We are hoping for bad weather and 30-40 hours of effective game-play

MrNumbers · « **Reply #3 on:** January 07, 2015, 12:31:59 PM »

My answer was "With several expansions". This is the exact way we play Carcassonne on our game nights: 2 big and several small expansions, but we never play the same set of expansions twice.

franks · « **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2015, 07:11:50 PM »

Its Mega-Carcassonne for us. We use 1 base game and about 90% of the printed expansions with a few variants from here and several mods of our own. We use about 300 tiles and and it takes us about 3-4 hours. It is more of a weekend activity but we still get almost 100 games in a year.

If we want a shorter game we play on the iOS app with just a few expansions. We also get the odd game in of some of the other stand alone versions, new and old. But by far, for us, Mega-Carcassonne is the way we like to play. We use just the base game to teach noobs but I have little to no interest to play the base game on its own.

danisthirty · « **Reply #5 on:** January 07, 2015, 10:24:08 PM »

Wow, good question! This really got me thinking...

The one thing I can say for sure is that I always prefer to play against just one opponent. I do quite enjoy playing with 2 or 3 opponents but I like to really get into a game of Carcassonne and it can be difficult to do this if a) I have to wait for 3 or more players to take their turn before I get to go again and b) another player's mistake(s) give other player(s) an undeserved advantage (in my opinion).

I certainly prefer the basic game without expansions to a huge game with dozens of expansions as I find it quite distracting trying to keep track of all the rules and best tactics to exploit them. But other than this I think it depends who I'm playing against. A typical game against my wife almost always includes a handful of expansions that we're both familiar with, and I really enjoy experimenting with the different expansions available through JCloisterZone during the weekly online games.

I've said it many times before so apologies for repeating myself, but there is a certain elegant simplicity about the basic game in terms of the developing landscape, the narrow but deep tactics (i.e. less to keep track of means I can afford to think much more deeply about what I'm doing) and also the length of the game means it isn't difficult to really give it your full attention for half an hour or so.

Really interesting reading the other responses to this question!

Carcking · « **Reply #6 on:** January 08, 2015, 10:26:01 AM »

For family & friend game night it is at least several expansions for us, if not mega. The selection is randomized so we eventually get use out of all of the official expansions as well as fan-made expansions. We usually randomly pick a couple large expansions and then two or three small expansions.

Great question and poll. Thanks!

Paul · « **Reply #7 on:** January 08, 2015, 10:48:19 AM »

Our regular games mostly was base game with Inns and Traders. This was for several years until I bought my own copy.
It then grew from there and now we limit us to an average of 20-40 tiles per player depending on time.
Also, I always use the expansions that are fastpaced. Lately I've been using a mixed pile from everything to allow tile variations.

On occation we've set up a megaCarc ranging from 250 tiles up to 800.

Yellow

Decar · « **Reply #8 on:** January 08, 2015, 01:36:52 PM »

My sensible answer is:

Core + Inns and Traders + Traders and Builders + then (Princess and Dragon OR Abbey & Mayor OR Rivers + K&C) + (sometimes 1 or 2 minis). I've yet to build the stamina for a large array of expansions.

My silly answer:

With pants on.

obervet · « **Reply #9 on:** January 08, 2015, 01:48:21 PM »

Quote from: Decar on January 08, 2015, 01:36:52 PM

My sensible answer is:

Core + Inns and Traders + Traders and Builders + then (Princess and Dragon OR Abbey & Mayor OR Rivers + K&C) + (sometimes 1 or 2 minis). I've yet to build the stamina for a large array of expansions.

My silly answer:

With pants on.

Is there a Very Silly candidate that might split the Silly vote?

SettlersOfMon · « **Reply #10 on:** May 06, 2015, 11:35:13 AM »

We usually play the base game, both rivers and a couple of major expansions. Our favs at the moment are T&B and H&S.

CKorfmann · « **Reply #11 on:** May 07, 2015, 10:09:09 PM »

I get to play so seldom that I enjoy anything, but if I had my choice and nothing to do for half a day, I'd play Mega-Carc every time.

danisthirty · « **Reply #12 on:** May 08, 2015, 04:37:21 AM »

Quote from: CKorfmann on May 07, 2015, 10:09:09 PM

I get to play so seldom that I enjoy anything, but if I had my choice and nothing to do for half a day, I'd play Mega-Carc every time.

I know it's not the same, but there's often plenty of people from the forums willing to play an online game if you get the chance?

jma03 · « **Reply #13 on:** May 08, 2015, 09:49:50 AM »

I play with several expansions .
with a well.
I & C , T & B, rio rio 1 and 2 and Mayor abbey , castles and bazaars bridges , hills and sheep is my usual combination.
mega carc online multiplayer would be great¡¡¡¡

CKorfmann · « **Reply #14 on:** May 09, 2015, 11:08:05 AM »

Quote from: danisthirty on May 08, 2015, 04:37:21 AM

Quote from: CKorfmann on May 07, 2015, 10:09:09 PM
I get to play so seldom that I enjoy anything, but if I had my choice and nothing to do for half a day, I'd play Mega-Carc every time.

I know it's not the same, but there's often plenty of people from the forums willing to play an online game if you get the chance?

I do need to check that out. However, I usually don't get a chance to play much of anything until late at night which is New York time is the wee hours across the pond. How many expansions are on there?