Author Topic: Carcassonne + Snakes & Ladders! (Read 5315 times)

danisthirty · « **on:** September 04, 2014, 03:57:24 PM »

My wife and I have just finished one of the most hilarious games of Carcassonne we've ever played. We hadn't intended to, but for some reason I've misplaced my standard 50-point scoreboard so I went and borrowed my daughter's Snakes and Ladders board instead (10 x 10 and numbered 1 to 100). I hadn't really thought about it at the time, but I wondered what it would be like to play the game where we actually moved our scoreboard markers down the snakes and up the ladders as we went, so this is exactly what we did!

I got off to an excellent start with a small city, normally worth 4 points. However, on our "scoreboard" there was a ladder on the 4 which meant I was already on 23 after just a few turns. After another small city and a 3-point road I was up to 30 and another ladder took my score up to 52! As she then spotted the opportunity to do so, a very wide grin crept across my wife's face as she completed a 3-point road of mine with her next tile. I dutifully moved myself along 3 squares and then... down the snake to 45! And this is how the game continued.

Although it was just a silly idea for a bit of fun really, and to ensure that I didn't take our game too seriously, it was actually very interesting as we were constantly striving to score very specific numbers of points either for ourselves or each other to ensure we'd hit ladders or snakes respectively. It made me view the game in a completely different way and there was a lot of very devious play, especially when my wife went out of her way to ensure that I landed on the 96 square as often as possible!

If you have a Snakes and Ladders board at home (as I imagine most people probably do) I'd recommend giving this a go just for fun. You cannot take it seriously so the winning is irrelevant but I really enjoyed it all the same! Photos below:

Our scoreboard showing final scores. Post-game scores were calculated in one go and all added on at once before acting on any snakes or ladders where we landed accordingly. My final score of 266 worked out very nicely as I got an unexpected bonus of 11 points from the ladder! Becky finished on 188 making me wish she'd picked up an extra 8 points somewhere along the way.

This is how the game finished before we'd calculated final scores. We used the basic tiles + River 1, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders and The Phantom.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=1025.0

Carcatronn · « **Reply #1 on:** September 04, 2014, 04:03:13 PM »

Oh. My. Goodness. This is such an awesome idea Dan! It totally gave me ideas for an "expansion" scoreboard! This would make for some very strategic scoring!

kettlefish · « **Reply #2 on:** September 04, 2014, 09:52:57 PM »

Hi Dan,
this is a great idea for scoring!

Fritz_Spinne · « **Reply #3 on:** September 04, 2014, 10:39:09 PM »

Uasing the Snake and Ladders scoreboard you should win at the moment you have 100 points ...

Did you use the snakes and ladders in the final scoring, too?

MrNumbers · « **Reply #4 on:** September 05, 2014, 12:41:22 AM »

Wonderful idea, Dan!
In my childhood we had another analog of this game - Circus.

It has more actions in both directions. The most painful was 107 and 119

In theory you can go down from 119 to 1, if you very "lucky"! I still have this game somewhere at home.

BabyGamer · « **Reply #5 on:** September 05, 2014, 01:46:57 AM »

Never heard about "Snakes and Ladders" before!

This looks fun! I guess I have to go look for a copy of that game.

danisthirty · « **Reply #6 on:** September 08, 2014, 04:17:28 AM »

Quote from: Fritz_Spinne on September 04, 2014, 10:39:09 PM

Uasing the Snake and Ladders scoreboard you should win at the moment you have 100 points ...

Did you use the snakes and ladders in the final scoring, too?

We didn't play that you won if you reached 100 as we wanted to play an otherwise "normal" game. With the final scoring we just added everything together (incomplete features, farms, trade goods bonuses) and then moved to the appropriate space. If there was a snake or a ladder on it we acted accordingly (hence that I finished on 277 rather than 266).

@MrNumbers - that looks like a very exciting game. And well played too!

@BabyGamer - Snakes and Ladders is a classic children's game involving a lot of dice rolling. If you land on a space at the bottom of a ladder then you get to go up it to the top of the ladder. But if you land on a space at the top of a snake you have to slide down it to the bottom. I thought everyone in the world had played it already!