The Ever-Growing "Spielbox Expansion"

[Whaleyland]

I love how Spielbox continues to chug out expansions with its pentagon watermark. Unlike Hans im Glück which sticks a new watermark on literally every idea that comes out of the company, Spielbox has fairly consistently stuck the same logo on each of its expansion. If you consider these one "large expansion", then it currently includes:
– The Cults
– The Tunnels
– The Plague
– The Halflings I

The expansions without the pentagon logo include:
– The Cathars (which predates the watermark concept, so could still count)
– The Little Buildings (though these are not actually tiles)
– The Windroses (II) (seriously, it was a huge oversight on their part to forget to mark these tiles; from either company! Seriously, who's checking for the watermark, people?!)

The tiles with watermarks number 15 full tiles and 12 half-tiles (or 6 full). On top of that, you add 12 tunnel markers and 18 fleas. It sounds like a full-sized expansion to me! I'd suggest Hans im Glück work on getting this released officially. Switch out The Cults with The Windroses and include the Little Buildings and you have a 22-tile expansion with a bunch of extra components. That would easily fetch $17.99 US retail and would be roughly the same size in components as The Princess & The Dragon or Abbey & Mayor.

Opinions?

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1200.0

[SRBO]

The cults are also in HiG.

Ofcourse they would need the cathars in it too.

it would be a nice expansion. but most of these exept tunnel are still available.

[danisthirty]

I agree that those could go well bundled together as the next major expansion but it does seem like a bit of a hotch-potch in that there isn’t any kind of common theme between them. You could argue that this wouldn’t be the first time this has happen since the same is true of Count, King & Consort (and perhaps Bridges, Castles & Bazaars) but hopefully that was a one-off, as a sense of commonality was restored to some extent with Hills & Sheep.

I was particularly disappointed when RGG had to cancel their plans for their expansion to include Corn Circles, Tunnels and Plague. At 16 tiles it wouldn’t have been the smallest major expansion but there would have been enough to it to make it worthwhile if they had been able to go ahead with it.

[Whaleyland]

The cults are also in HiG.

Ofcourse they would need the cathars in it too.

it would be a nice expansion. but most of these exept tunnel are still available.

I figure that The Besiegers is The Cathars according to HiG now. I don't think we'll ever see that reprinted except by Spielbox, possibly. The Cult was printed by both and there is definitely a version with the pentagon watermark so it still goes in the Spielbox expansion section. However if HiG were to print a box set of Spielbox expansions, I suspect they'd leave it out.

I agree that those could go well bundled together as the next major expansion but it does seem like a bit of a hotch-potch in that there isn’t any kind of common theme between them. You could argue that this wouldn’t be the first time this has happen since the same is true of Count, King & Consort (and perhaps Bridges, Castles & Bazaars) but hopefully that was a one-off, as a sense of commonality was restored to some extent with Hills & Sheep.

I was particularly disappointed when RGG had to cancel their plans for their expansion to include Corn Circles, Tunnels and Plague. At 16 tiles it wouldn’t have been the smallest major expansion but there would have been enough to it to make it worthwhile if they had been able to go ahead with it.

Yeah, they even got the box art done for it. It's a shame it never released. I think the hodgepodge expansions continue. What do shepherds have to do with hills or vineyards? They're just as independent as Bridges, Castles & Bazaars. Abbey & Mayor is also composed of mostly separate features. Even Inns & Cathedrals are separate features, despite the similar inns and cathedral rules. Plus, Tunnels and Plague could work together quite well while Windroses would work find with Plague. Halflings I would get features done faster in the face of the fleas. Only the Little Buildings wouldn't work well in that set. Hmm, now I want to try all those expansions together to see how well they actually work...

[danisthirty]

I agree that those could go well bundled together as the next major expansion but it does seem like a bit of a hotch-potch in that there isn’t any kind of common theme between them. You could argue that this wouldn’t be the first time this has happen since the same is true of Count, King & Consort (and perhaps Bridges, Castles & Bazaars) but hopefully that was a one-off, as a sense of commonality was restored to some extent with Hills & Sheep.

I was particularly disappointed when RGG had to cancel their plans for their expansion to include Corn Circles, Tunnels and Plague. At 16 tiles it wouldn’t have been the smallest major expansion but there would have been enough to it to make it worthwhile if they had been able to go ahead with it.

Yeah, they even got the box art done for it. It's a shame it never released. I think the hodgepodge expansions continue. What do shepherds have to do with hills or vineyards? They're just as independent as Bridges, Castles & Bazaars. Abbey & Mayor is also composed of mostly separate features. Even Inns & Cathedrals are separate features, despite the similar inns and cathedral rules. Plus, Tunnels and Plague could work together quite well while Windroses would work find with Plague. Halflings I would get features done faster in the face of the fleas. Only the Little Buildings wouldn't work well in that set. Hmm, now I want to try all those expansions together to see how well they actually work...

If followers fleeing from the fleas are allowed to flee through tunnels then this would definitely make it all worthwhile. Fleeing through a tunnel would be the best thing since placing a Phantom on a bridge!

[jungleboy]

What do shepherds have to do with hills or vineyards? They're just as independent as Bridges, Castles & Bazaars. Abbey & Mayor is also composed of mostly separate features. Even Inns & Cathedrals are separate features, despite the similar inns and cathedral rules.

I agree on H&S, BC&B and A&M as I said yesterday in another thread. But I think Inns and Cathedrals is still a very harmonious expansion even though inns and cathedrals are not inherently related. Cathedrals make cities more valuable, inns make roads more valuable, and the big follower brings it together by making it easier to claim one of these more valuable features. I think the same is true for the other 'harmonious' (if destructive!) expansion, the Princess and the Dragon. Princess, dragons and magic portals may not have much to do with each other, but they are designed to work well together in the expansion - the princess and the dragon remove followers from features and the portals allow you to put them back in.

[Whaleyland]

What do shepherds have to do with hills or vineyards? They're just as independent as Bridges, Castles & Bazaars. Abbey & Mayor is also composed of mostly separate features. Even Inns & Cathedrals are separate features, despite the similar inns and cathedral rules.

I agree on H&S, BC&B and A&M as I said yesterday in another thread. But I think Inns and Cathedrals is still a very harmonious expansion even though inns and cathedrals are not inherently related. Cathedrals make cities more valuable, inns make roads more valuable, and the big follower brings it together by making it easier to claim one of these more valuable features. I think the same is true for the other 'harmonious' (if destructive!) expansion, the Princess and the Dragon. Princess, dragons and magic portals may not have much to do with each other, but they are designed to work well together in the expansion - the princess and the dragon remove followers from features and the portals allow you to put them back in.

I agree that Princess & Dragon is harmonious. Everything about it is integrated except the Princess, which doesn't really fit at all, really. Even the Faerie protects the Followers for the Dragon. Traders & Builders is another collection of minis. The Trader can help make big cities, but it can also make big roads. The Pig does nothing to help the expansion, especially since the cities in general are bigger, which reduces the value of the farms.

[Rosco]

If a large expansion was released including little buildings, I would like to see the buildings as wooden pieces. The rules for this are very simple and I think the expansion can be vastly improved by giving a new visual component to the map.  I have personally done this already, off my own bat and it does look good and makes it easier to see when adding scores at the end.

[danisthirty]

If a large expansion was released including little buildings, I would like to see the buildings as wooden pieces. The rules for this are very simple and I think the expansion can be vastly improved by giving a new visual component to the map.  I have personally done this already, off my own bat and it does look good and makes it easier to see when adding scores at the end.

I saw that you mentioned your wooden little houses in your other thread but I wasn't sure what these were for. Seems obvious now!

Do you have any in/ after game photos where you've played using the wooden houses? I'd love to see what they look like against the final landscape...

[Rosco]

I will take a pic with my next game.

[CKorfmann]

You could easily use small blocks, and Catan settlements and cities for this.  Is that what you used?

[Rosco]

 http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1197.0
in this pic you can see at the top right corner the small houses as sheds, bigger houses as houses, and round towers as towers.