Author Topic: Experience with the Carcassonne map Benelux  (Read 2175 times)

Offline Windekind

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Experience with the Carcassonne map Benelux
« on: May 12, 2020, 12:50:13 AM »
We have played the game with 2 and we even want to share our experience here.

We played the game with the base game, Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders, as directed. I also added the 2 Spiel promo tiles (2018,2019) what I added for the beauty.

The first game we followed the basic rules of the folder. We had misinterpreted one line. We understood that there is a road on the edge of the map, you have to end with a road. Ditto for the cities. But because of this we have interpreted that if there is no road or city, then a field should be placed on the edge of the map.
We played with this rule and found it challenging. The search where you can place a tile and so do your best to minimize giving points to beat your opponent had a system that we quite liked. This will most likely be a permanent house rule for us.



The second game we only played the basic rules, but with the right rules and then we found it a bit boring. There were fewer obstacles and so was just laying tiles and scoring points.

Then we played the third game with the extra rules of the Benelux map. The chips ensure that your tactics move a bit and that you build more towards the chips. You are, of course, curious what is underneath. The values ​​of 1 and 2 don't matter that much in your score. But it does make chances if there is a tile on a pile that you really need. Then your focus becomes more focused on  a chip to discover to find the correct color. Sometimes you just want to take an island tile to ensure that your opponent cannot get it, even if it is not always interesting for yourself.
The Island Tile game has a distinct twist in playing the game. But it depends on which tiles are determined in the stacks. Our experience is that tiles with roads are less interesting than tiles with cities or a monastery.

The fourth game we played the extra lines of the benelux card with the rules of each expansion (Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders). This makes the game very interesting. It makes the game more challenging. Especially if there is a cathedral connected with a large city with many coats of arms. There the use of the large meeple was useful. In the rest of the game, the large meeple was hardly made of dune. It ensures that you have extra meeple. The master builder has fewer options in this game, because you do not make large projects. We did not use the pig because it was not played with farmers. Neither have done this in the other games. The Inns make a lot of points, especially if you can link it at the end of the map where a road has a coat of arms.
The goods also make a nice extra, because you get goods; but here and there. You must carefully monitor how many goods your opposition has.

I do have some questions here. If you end a road with an inn in nothingness against an edge of a map. Is the road finished and do you get the points or is your road not finished and do you get 0 points? Do the meeples have to stay until the end of the game because the road is not finished? These questions are the same for the cathedral.


The gene we don't want to test is:
  • The same as the fourth game, but with our house rule that edge tiles must be fields.
  • I would like to try out other extensions. The thing that I now have in my head are bridges, magic portal, ferries, the Mayors, the wagon and the abbey tile (and Halflings (?)).
  • A game with farmers. How does this work? I suspect that farmers will be less interesting, because they will be more blocked, because roads are more everywhere the shape of the map. Bridges would then be more interesting for this.


Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=4649.0
« Last Edit: May 12, 2020, 01:06:23 AM by Windekind »

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Experience with the Carcassonne map Benelux
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2020, 03:08:20 AM »
This is actually the only map I haven't tried yet so I am impressed that you've played it so many times. We decided to follow the rules to the letter with these maps, though, so no expansion rules but always Chips rules. We also play with the Base Game and Wheel of Fortune tiles (but not rules) to just keep it extra vanilla-y.

To answer your questions, all open areas (borders) complete features on those sides and score accordingly. So a Road or City is finished on that side when it hits the border, and Farms do not extend beyond the border; Monasteries score for however many actual tiles surround it. When the feature is completed, you get the Meeples back and score it like usual. Just assume part of the features sit outside the national boundaries—this was a fairly common problem in medieval times, where boundaries moved a lot and counties did not always sit evenly within duchies and/or kingdoms. Farmers work fine for me (I never play without them and feel it lessens the game when it's not include), but it is one of the reasons why you are supposed to use extra Meeples when playing on the maps.


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