Author Topic: The Festival – Element of the Week #27 (Read 13841 times)

Whaleyland · « **on:** March 13, 2015, 02:36:03 PM »

ELEMENT OF THE WEEK: THE FESTIVAL

Each week, a specific element from an expansion is chosen for deeper discussion. This is an opportunity for you, Carcassonne's biggest English-language fans, to discuss strategies and problems you have encountered through the years regarding specific expansion elements. All forms of critique – from the most joyous to the most scathing – are encouraged.

This week's element is THE FESTIVAL (from Carcassonne 10th Anniversary Edition). This 10-tile expansion was originally packaged with the 10th anniversary edition of the base game but later was made available on Cundco for a relatively low price. As a simple expansion, it introduced a very simple concept: removing a Follower. Granted, the randomness of the game means that often you don't have any Followers that need removing, but having the option occassionally is nice, especially when you have Followers on the table that are unlikely to score (or score until the end of the game) or extraneous Followers left from a competition with another player. Again, very basic, but nice all the same.

That being said, The Festival is one of the few post-Abbey & Mayor expansions not to get the watermark treatment (the others being Windroses, and The River I [except in BB5] [and Darmstadt because colored watermarks don't count!]). The strange "10!" logo on the tiles rather breaks up the natural feeling of the board, as well. One last gripe about this expansion is that though there are 10 tiles, the random factor really undermines their usefulness as they cannot be predicted or expected thereby making their appearance often useless. This would be a great element for players who like keeping a tile supply for each player since these tiles could be saved for when needed. Discuss your relationship with The Festival, as well as your strategies for taking advantage of this element.

Next Week: The Catapult

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1613.0

Paul · « **Reply #1 on:** March 13, 2015, 03:26:10 PM »

Sadly do not own this one. Not sure why I never bought a few copies.

Whaleyland · « **Reply #2 on:** March 13, 2015, 03:54:16 PM »

Quote from: Yellow on March 13, 2015, 03:26:10 PM

Sadly do not own this one. Not sure why I never bought a few copies.

No need to be sad! It's still available from Cundco.de!

kettlefish · « **Reply #3 on:** March 13, 2015, 03:59:07 PM »

I like the festival, because only with this mini you can remove your own figures (not only the followers).
That means you can remove your barn, sometimes it is useful if you can claim a better farm with more cities for scoring. The same is with the builder and the pig.

In the CundCo rule you can only remove the followers.

I still play the original HiG rule.

Whaleyland · « **Reply #4 on:** March 13, 2015, 04:55:16 PM »

I didn't realize the original rules allowed for the removal of any figure. That totally changed the Barn mechanic because you could pull the Barn and then drop it on another of your fields, thereby double scoring for it (having presumably done that already with its previous drop). Crazy!

kettlefish · « **Reply #5 on:** March 13, 2015, 05:04:37 PM »

Here is the original rule from HiG:
http://www.hans-im-glueck.de/fileadmin/data_archive/Regeln/CarcXBasisRegel_Low.pdf

see at the page 12

Quote

• er stellt 1 eigene Figur nach den üblichen Regeln auf diese Landschaftskarte oder
• er nimmt 1 eigene Figur von der gesamten Auslage zurück in seinen Vorrat.

Figur = figure
Gefolgsmann = follower

aenima · « **Reply #6 on:** March 14, 2015, 04:12:07 AM »

sorry but... I thought that hans-im-glueck and cundco were the same thing...
kettle can u explay me? so I can make some correction on the italian CAR

Hounk · « **Reply #7 on:** March 14, 2015, 04:41:59 AM »

It seems, HiG used a different rule on their initial release of the expansion. Like they changed the farm scoring later on. I agree with whaleyland, that removing your barn can get extremely powerful, less because of the option to find a better place, but since you can score multiple farmer then in game for full points.

kettlefish · « **Reply #8 on:** March 14, 2015, 05:01:31 AM »

aemina,
CundCo and HiG are almost the same - but they are still two different comanpies.

CundCo has changed the rule not HiG.
For me is still the rule from HiG the important rule.
The rule from CundCo is the "easy" version - in my opinion without thinking about all the other expansions.

The festival was only important and interesting for me with "figure" but the festival republished by CundCo lost the interesting rule, because the follower has more ways to come back to the players supply (dragon, tower, Crop Circle...) The barn can't be replaced from the game area, but only with the special rule from the original HiG rule.

aenima · « **Reply #9 on:** March 14, 2015, 06:28:29 AM »

thanks!
yes... the hig version is more interesting...

Hounk · « **Reply #10 on:** March 14, 2015, 07:07:42 AM »

I never considered buying this expansion, when I placed my CundCo order a few weeks ago, because like whaleyland I disliked the design with this awkward logo and like kettlefish I thought, there are other options to remove followers, incorporated in a more interesting way into the game than here.

The "barn removal" (to a lesser degree, also that of builder or pig) can be of course considered an unique feature, nevertheless I probably still won't go for this add on, there is still the aesthetic aspect, I dislike and there are so many other ways to alter the game in different ways, I think, I would never need this particular one.

Leven · « **Reply #11 on:** March 14, 2015, 08:04:27 AM »

Not only the logo is awkward but this is one of the expansions, along with Plague and Wind roses (cundco version) where they didn't take care of the proper green colour of the farms. It's so disappointing.

aenima · « **Reply #12 on:** March 14, 2015, 08:58:03 AM »

Quote from: Leven on March 14, 2015, 08:04:27 AM

Not only the logo is awkward but this is one of the expansions (along with Plague and Wind roses (cundco version) where they didn't take care of the proper green colour of the farms. It's so disappointing.

well.. I have this expansion since I bouth my first Carcassonne in the 10° anniversary edition...the colours of the tiles is the same, I don't know if something change when you buy this on cundco

Leven · « **Reply #13 on:** March 14, 2015, 09:41:54 AM »

Quote from: aenima on March 14, 2015, 08:58:03 AM

Quote from: Leven on March 14, 2015, 08:04:27 AM
Not only the logo is awkward but this is one of the expansions (along with Plague and Wind roses (cundco version) where they didn't take care of the proper green colour of the farms. It's so disappointing.

well.. I have this expansion since I bouth my first Carcassonne in the 10° anniversary edition...the colours of the tiles is the same, I don't know if something change when you buy this on cundco

I bought it from cundco, so it seems that only this version is problematic.

kettlefish · « **Reply #14 on:** March 14, 2015, 09:56:53 AM »

The BigBox4 has also the same green at the CundCo Festival version.
The tiles have a darker green than the usual yellow green.

I didn't buy the jubilee edition in 2011. I bought the Festival from CundCo.
I am not the fan of the Festival symbol. But I use the rule from HiG.