Least fun Carcassonne game you've played?

[Doom_Shark]

What is the subjectively worst game of Carcassonne you've ever played? What made it so bad? Was it too long, or the combination of expansions unfun, or just plain bad luck, or something else entirely?

Mine was the other week playing a game with my girlfriend using the full BB6. The robbers were more of a pain than anything, being basically invalidated by the messengers. The mage and the witch were hurt by the large number of tiles as well, as they didn't come up often enough to move around at all or be actually interesting. To cap it off, the number of tiles combined with the extra time to track additional components like ferries, gold bars, etc. as well as resolving a ridiculous number of messages had the game last far too long - easily the longest game we've played - with all these other issues bugging us the whole time.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6056.0

[Scott]

The worst game I played is my first BGA game in the tournament which is currently happening. I am not an aggressive player so I was very unprepared for a 1-on-1 game, and I did not get the tiles I needed when I needed them.


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[carca82]

I don't think it never happened I didn't have fun while playing a game (even while losing hard) but I must admit I remember one specific game being very very hard to endure.
March, 11th. Game was composed by:

• Base game (+Abbotts +Fields)
• River I
• River II
• whole Inns and Cathedrals expansion
• whole Traders and Builders expansion
• whole Princess and Dragon expansion
• Majors and Wagons expansion (except for the Barns)
• Count, King and Robber expansion (except for the City/Count)
• Hills & Sheep expansion (except for the Shepherd/Sheeps)
• Flying Machines
• The Messages
• The Ferries
• The Goldmines
• Mage & Witch
• The Robbers
• Crop Circles

It was a VERY LONG game whose winner got almost 700 points. The most difficult thing was not the size of the game itself but being forced to handle A LOT of specific situations that happened because of the interaction of so many different expansions and mini expansions. We had to stop playing to check the rules many times and the game was obviously slowed down by that. It was the last time we played with so many different pieces.

[Decar]

I think the worst game I played was at a meetup in Rugby.  It was still fun, playing with people, but we played with 3 base games and a mixture of mini fan-expansions.  It took about 3 hours to play as there were about 7 players.  Basically it just took too long for me, a real marathon with lots of down time.  I think it might have been better to play 4 or 5 games with groups in the same time.  On the other hand I have a very vivid memory of all being sat around the massive table and explaining the rules of the fan expansions as they came up. So as much as I like to complain about it, it was still a great experience

[danisthirty]

I think the worst game I played was at a meetup in Rugby.  It was still fun, playing with people, but we played with 3 base games and a mixture of mini fan-expansions.  It took about 3 hours to play as there were about 7 players.  Basically it just took too long for me, a real marathon with lots of down time.  I think it might have been better to play 4 or 5 games with groups in the same time.  On the other hand I have a very vivid memory of all being sat around the massive table and explaining the rules of the fan expansions as they came up. So as much as I like to complain about it, it was still a great experience

As games of Carcassonne go, for sure this wasn't a great one. I don't remember the time between turns seeming excessive, so was surprised we managed to burn so much time playing it and would rather we'd broken into perhaps a 4 and a 3 and played some smaller games instead. From my perspective it was still enjoyable though, and there was a good atmosphere around the table which was a good reminder that it was all a bit of fun and great community building.

I usually have 3 or 4 games going round my head that feel like they're my worst game ever. Generally it's the near losses that I regret most though, especially if the loss was down to a mistake on my part rather than merely bad luck. It's always the "what ifs...", the "should haves" and the "could haves" that I dwell on the most.

This said, I will occasionally have games where I feel pretty much powerless and can't seem to make any kind of difference to the outcome of the game regardless of whatever I try to do. I recently had a game like this against my good friend Ven Gee Lim (3 times UK Carcassonne champion) who plays on BGA as "ted the notty bear". We happened to meet in round 7 of one of BGA's weekly Swiss-style tournaments and both of us were unbeaten at that point. I won't pretend that a loss against Ven Gee was unexpected, but we've played a lot and are usually quite evenly matched so I wasn't expecting our game to go quite as badly as it did! BGA users can watch a replay of our game here: https://boardgamearena.com/gamereview?table=281705792 .

(Ven Gee went on to win the tournament with a perfect record of 8 wins from 8 games while I managed 2nd with 7 out of 8 wins. Another former UK champion and member of the UK Carcassonne team - @JackFace - finished in third to make this one of the most successful BGA tournaments for UK players ever!)

[Decar]

It was certainly a memorable game; and a close finish if I vaguely remember.  I think the mistake was having 3 core boxes rather than 2. 

The other game I remember not liking was playing all of the expansions in BB5. Exp 1 and 2 along with the 5 mini expansions.  I spent so much time checking rules.

[danisthirty]

...I think the mistake was having 3 core boxes rather than 2. 

All added to the fun of separating everything out after the game had finished!

[Decar]

I can still never remember if there are 3 or 4 cccr or cccf tiles. Confuses me everytime 

[DIN0]

The robbers were more of a pain than anything, being basically invalidated by the messengers.

Yes! Thank you! I love the 2012 minis, but this has always bothered me immensely. The minis are designed to be easily compatible with each other but these two just clash uncompromisingly. I hate it.

[Decar]

Yeah of all of the minis these two being played together cause a lot of questions. To be honest, I'd not been playing Carcassonne very long, so playing with all the minis was probably a bad idea to begij with.  Since, I much prefer one or two expansions... no more!

[DIN0]

Well, I don't really have a "least fun game", but some time ago I made a topic where I mused over what the most annoyingly aggressive constellation of expansions could be concentrated into a swirling mass of hatred of a game.
https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=4612.0

I wonder what the result would be...

[Drodo]

Plague, tower, count, siege, barber-surgeon. Basically any expansion that forces you to make small cities because your meeples could be removed or make a big city worthless, plus expansions that add extra actions to almost every single turn, are the worst that there is in the world of Carcassonne.

[Halfling]

Base game only. Game is too short, not enough variety given all the extra boxes of tiles I have, so our face to face games have 1 major expansion and 2 or 3 smaller expansions. Not too short, not too long either.

[Decar]

I've started a separate thread: Most fun game of Carcassonne played?

https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6058

Seemed only reasonable to have a sister thread!