The Barbarian Report: Wondering About Wonders (Wonders of Humanity)

[Whaleyland]

Does Carcassonne have any wonders of the world around it? No, none even close. Does Hans im Glück care about that little inconvenient fact? Not a bit. I guess the definition of “Carcassonne” expands yet again with this unique expansion…

Throwing Geography into the Trash Heap

• Facts are inconvenient – Up to this point, Carcassonne has had dragons, ferries, magic portals, circuses, mages, witches, giant compass roses, a Ghanan school, cult shrines, cathedrals from Germany, the Low Countries, and Japan, and modern buildings from Darmstradt. Historical accuracy is not this game’s strong suit. So sure, let’s just throw in four impressive architectural structures, only one of which is even in France (and hardly the most impressive structure of its type in the world). Did anyone ask for a Wonders of Humanity expansion? No, and I don’t really understand why these specific structures were even chosen. I suspect it was due to marketing. The worst part: there are going to be more of them.
• And this thing goes where? – If you can get over the inaccurate history of this, then welcome to the next obstacle: trying to put it on the map. The mechanic is simple enough. As soon as a player reaches 10 points, they get to place this anywhere on the map where it fits and then can place up to two meeples on it, including a bonus meeple they just got from the 10 point spot on the board. Oh, and also the other players’ meeples now move to the 15 spot on the board. Oh, and you need two extra meeples per player, one to act as your bonus and one to mark your wonder as your own. Got all that? Great! Good luck finding a place to put this goliath that benefits you in some way, because all normal placement rules apply.
• And it does what now? – Okay, you are now historically/geographically indifferent to the wonder, you somehow managed to figure out how to get a wonder, and you’ve placed it haphazardly on the board. Now what? Oh right, get ready to jump back and forth between the (unprinted unless you paid a Euro) rulebook and the board as you try to remember what your specific wonder does. You probably should also remember what everyone else’s does too, just to make sure they’re not intentionally or accidentally cheating or misunderstanding the rules. Shoot, did you forget to do something? Just wait, the next Wonders of Humanity expansion is probably coming out soon and will add four more rules to the mix. Playing with this expansion feels like as much work as building the architectural wonder depicted on the Tetris-like tiles.

What have we done?!

• Setting the record straight – Carcassonne versions 1 and 2 got pretty confusing regarding multi-tile features and what they counted as (1 tile, 2 tiles, 5 tiles!). Carcassonne 3.0 finally just says what we all wanted it to from the start: each thing that looks like a tile is a tile. Thank. God! They really dropped the ball when they started releasing multi-tile expansions and this clarification makes life so much easier. All of the new tiles in Wonders of Humanity are 5-tile features and count as 5 tiles for all intents and purposes. How hard was that? I will never play any other way again.
• For the win – Once you figure out the sometimes confusing rules, the four Wonders are quite fun in game-changing ways. Notre-Dame, for example, gives a player points for placing a meeple adjacent to a Monastery. Just placing—it doesn’t even have to score for the future. Pretty cool, though difficult to remember. Similarly, players with Stonehenge score 3 points whenever they complete a Road. No meeple required! Circus Maximus and Alhambra are end-game bonuses, so a little less interesting. The former rewards a player for every meeple of other players’ colors still in a City at the end of the game—this one could go either way and your own meeples and multiple meeples of the same color in an incomplete City don’t score. The latter rewards a player for the number of Farmers they have out, which makes this the least profitable since a player rarely has more than 2-3 farmers out at the end of the game. That being said, a player with this bonus may intentionally toss some out there since they will get both 4 points for their farmers and 3 points for any completed adjacent Cities, like usual.
• A risky gambit – The Wonders of Humanity, especially as a series, is a daring move by Hans im Glück and it is not a terrible idea, despite the historical inaccuracies involved. Adding impressive architectural works, presumably from around the world and not just Europe as with the current iteration, could attract new players from other countries and also introduce some truly game-altering rules to Carcassonne, for better or for worse. The tiles, too, are interesting in their shapes and format. By having them so large, there are a lot of features that get introduced with these new tiles, making the board grow quickly and giving players many new tile placement options all at once. The art on the tiles is also beautiful, like always, so somehow fits with Carcassonne even while being historically off-putting.

Inconclusion
Conceptually, Wonders of Humanity is an interesting direction to go with Carcassonne, and I am not entirely onboard. As a historian in my professional life, I find every deviation away from historical Carcassonne to be a problem in that it pulls me out of the weak theme the original game established. I also am a little worried that additional Wonders, as announced when this released, will require even more rules-checking, turning a simple and enjoyable game into more of a chore. All that being said, I find the tiles visually beautiful, the overall quality very good, and the tile shapes to be unique in a good way. I probably would not buy this straight from Cundco.de unless it was part of a larger order and I don’t think it is worth seeking out otherwise. It is a somewhat gimmicky and fiddly expansion that looks good but could use some refinement.

Playability: B
Affordability: B
Compatibility (with other expansions): B
Aethetics: A
Learning Curve: B-
FINAL GRADE: B

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6649.0

[Paloi Sciurala]

Similarly, players with Stonehenge score 3 points whenever they complete a Road. No meeple required!

It is not true that no meeple is required. That road has to be occupied in order to receive the 3 points.

https://wikicarpedia.com/car/The_Wonders_of_Humanity#3._Scoring_a_wonder – "If you complete one or more occupied roads".

[Whaleyland]

Similarly, players with Stonehenge score 3 points whenever they complete a Road. No meeple required!

It is not true that no meeple is required. That road has to be occupied in order to receive the 3 points.

https://wikicarpedia.com/car/The_Wonders_of_Humanity#3._Scoring_a_wonder – "If you complete one or more occupied roads".

Okay, I suppose I should say "You don't even need to be on the Road!" But you also are making my point that the rules are confusing and difficult to untangle.

[Meepledrone]

Great post, @Whaleyland !!!

+1 merit from me.

Let's see what the future will bring with the second set of wonders. Will they repeat the bonuses but with different shapes?

At least the current limit of 4 players will go away.