GenCan't SoloCon Competition 2017

[Decar]

Gencant has quite honestly crept up on me this year!

It's a very large unconvention for people who cannot attend GenCon. 
You can read all about it here: http://www.gencant.com/. 
If you didn't know Gen Con is the original, longest-running, best-attended, gaming convention in the world!

You can read about 2015 here.
And about 2016's contest here.
And about 2017's contest....here!

When is it?
It runs from 17th August until the 20th August 2017.

Don't forget to tweet about the event, including: #gencant #carcsolocon @carcassonne

If you need help getting JCloisterZone running, there's usually plenty of people in the SLACK chatroom willing to help!

Contest Submissions
I should make clear, that contest submissions must include a screenshot from JCloisterzone, or other digital platform. 
Physical Submissions MUST include a clear photo showing the entire board and scoretrack at the end of the game but with follower on incomplete features in situ - this way we can check your maths
To win spot prizes, the maximum number of chances will be 5 per player, but you are welcome to submit more attempts.  One additional chance will be given to anyone who includes #gencant #carcsolocon @carcassonne in a tweet with their submission.  You can submit on twitter, or on this thread, or in the #general Slack Channel.

Carcassonne Contest

The first contests being run in parallel from: NOW until Sunday 20th August 2017 23:59:59 SST.  No entries can be submitted after the deadline.

I'd recommend using JCloisterZone to set up your games, but you're welcome to play a physical game with real tiles and score tracks if you prefer.

This year's setup will include the following expansions/Options:

• Base Game - 2005+ rules (with No River or Abbot)
• The Princess and Dragon
• Abbey & Mayor

Please note, if you are playing a physical game:

• If you are using the new art style, the River and Abbot expansions should be removed
• There is a subtle difference in rules between the original and new editions.  Thus, abide to the rules of the edition you are using.

Contest Submissions
I should make clear, that contest submissions must include a screenshot from JCloisterzone, or other digital platform. 
Physical Submissions MUST include a clear photo showing the entire board and scoretrack at the end of the game but with follower on incomplete features in situ - this way we can check your maths

Prizes

There will be 3 prizes.  Again this will be different commemorative personalized tiles!

The 1st Scoring Player
The 2nd Scoring Player
A Random Spot Prize

The random prizes will be awarded as above.  Up to 5-chances per player, plus an extra for a tweet including:   #gencant  #carcsolocon @carcassonne  with their submission.

Leaderboard

• Leven - 965
• Leven - 909
• thodekey - 879
• thodekey - 859
• thodekey - 856
• thodekey - 854
• Leven -841
• Jungleboy -812
• Carc-Throat Killa - 838
• glh510 - 781
• Carc-Throat Killa - 759
• What If? - 758 -no pic
• Rosco - 755
• Danisthirty - 748
• Leven - 743
• Carc-Throat Killa - 739
• danisthirty - 718
• Rosco - 717
• Rosco - 700
• glh510 - 695
• Carc-Throat Killa - 687
• Danisthirty - 680
• Danisthirty - 679
• Danisthirty - 679
• DaFees - 665
• Rosco - 656
• Carc-Throat Killa - 648
• The StevenAllen - 621
• DaFees - 606
• jungleboy - 601
• danisthirty - 567
• yimhj - 534
• Carc-Throat Killa - 528
• TheSteveAllen - 501
• stickboy (welcome! ) - 484

The Abbot's Walk Contest

The Second Contest this year is a Physical-only Solo Variant which requires only the base-game to play.  It is called 'The Abbot's Walk', however the 'new artwork' is not required to play this expansion.  An alternative coloured meeple can be used instead.

In this variant, a player completes features to move their Abbot and followers from one cloister to another.

You can download it here

Contest Submissions
As with the first contest, submissions must include a photograph of your end game - here's an example.


Prizes

There will be 3 prizes.  Again this will be different commemorative personalized tiles!

The 1st Scoring Player
The 2nd Scoring Player
A Random Spot Prize

The random prizes will be awarded as above.  Up to 5-chances per player, plus an extra for a tweet including:   #gencant  #carcsolocon @carcassonne  with their submission.

Leaderboard

• Rosco - 1137 
• TheSeveAllen - 1092
• Cobyhectic - 1015
• TheSteveAllen - 982
• Rosco - 939
• Cobyhectic - 807
• Cobyhectic - 775
• dthmtlgod - 447
• @Portsmouthsg - 6

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3508.0

[Decar]

I'd just like to qualify that 'The Abbot's Walk' was written rather quickly - so I'll be updating and clarifying rules tomorrow.

And extremely big thank you to thesteveallen for staying up very late to proof read it 

[Decar]

Here's an example of the scoring:



RULE CLARIFICATION: At the end of the - incomplete features do not score.  There is one exception to this rule.  Cloisters with followers present will be scored, even if they are incomplete.  In the example above, the cloister will score 8 points.

I'll be updating the PDF later today to make that clearer.  Thanks for the help!

Clarifications Topic

TheSteveAllen's scoring spreadsheet

[Decar]

I've just updated the rules PDF, with the clarification.

It may be easier to explain scoring in the following way.

For each column, identify any completed features in that column which have not been included in another column and record the total for that column.
Incomplete Cloisters with meeple present are also scored, even though they are not completed.
Each meeple will score, the sum of each column between first column and the column the meeple is located in.
Meeple on the start-cloister are not scored.  The Abbot scores on the far-cloister.



Kinda wish the holes were cumulative negative points now; but too late.

[TheSteveAllen]

Here is my first attempt at the Abbot's Walk. I make the score 982, but it needs to be checked very well.

[jungleboy]

My top score in the Carcassonne Contest so far is 601.

[Rosco]

Next attempt 939!

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

[TheSteveAllen]

No prizes for this one, I'm afraid. I even forgot to use my abbey. It is a good trial run though, as I now have a feel for what needs to be done.

[danisthirty]

My top score in the contest so far is 718

(this was my second game - first game score was 567)

[Decar]

Great to see so many entries.

Also great to see that Dan has his MS SQL Server Client running in the background too 

[danisthirty]

Also great to see that Dan has his MS SQL Server Client running in the background too 

Oops, I forgot to crop that one. Shhh! Work laptop...

[jungleboy]

My top score in the contest so far is 718

Nice! I suspect you are out-farming me by joining new farmers onto your barn at every opportunity. I'll have to do more of that...

[danisthirty]

My top score in the contest so far is 718

Nice! I suspect you are out-farming me by joining new farmers onto your barn at every opportunity. I'll have to do more of that...

I did manage to do it quite a few times, but was lucky in terms of how the tiles came out as the farm itself was very easy to glom onto from various points.

The other thing to consider is where your tipping point is for placing the barn. The earlier it's down, the more time you have to glom farmers onto it for 1pt per city, but you don't want to do it too early as it's worth 3pts per city (assuming you're already farming it) when your barn first goes down.

The only thing the P & D adds is the Fairy which is very useful too. I've been claiming features that are almost complete so that I can move the Fairy to those features when they are completed (for 3 points) rather than claiming them as I complete them (and not being able to move the fairy to them) as I've done in previous solo competitions.

[Cobyhectic]

Just did my test run on Abbots Walk to figure out the workings. Really excited to play this properly tomorrow evening. Thanks Decar!

[stickboy]

First post!  As I had time this evening, I wanted to get in on the GenCant action and get a game in/recorded.  I played via JCloisterZone for the first time.  I know nothing about Princess & Dragon nor Abbey and Mayor.  Here was my score.  If I have time tomorrow, I'll read up on the expansions and see if I can better my score.  Although, I had a Volcano come out for my 2nd tile, so with the very little understanding I had, that seemed to have impacted the play a little.  But who knows!