Poll

Which starting tile do prefer to play with?

Standard Start tile
16 (22.9%)
The Spring (from River I, II, III, or GQ11)
31 (44.3%)
Carcassonne Town - The Count  (Starttableau or 12 tiles)
4 (5.7%)
Die Windrosen start tile
1 (1.4%)
Die Schule
5 (7.1%)
The Wheel of Fortune
3 (4.3%)
We play with a random start tile
4 (5.7%)
Other (please explain)
6 (8.6%)

Total Members Voted: 70

Author Topic: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile  (Read 19237 times)

Offline dirk2112

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Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« on: April 14, 2016, 08:31:48 PM »
Decar thought this question was good enough to temporarily bump the others he has planned for you.   The question we have is:

What start tile do you prefer to play with?

At first I was going to ask which start tile was your favorite, but that leaves too much room for interpretation.  You might think Carcassonne town looks the best or maybe you might pick the school for the cause it supports.  Let's not worry about any of that.  For game play purposes only, what is your preference?

When we first got the game, we played with the standard start tile and the spring.  Back and forth we went.  More recently, we obtained all but one of the start tiles (as you can tell from the photos below).  As my family and I were trying different tiles, I asked them which they preferred and all of us had different answers.  I am curious to see if there is an even split between 2 or 3 of the options or one big runaway winner.   

Thanks to Decar for letting me be the guest pollster.  He said to wait until tomorrow and it is tomorrow his time, so hopefully I don't get sacked.  :yellow-meeple:

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2622.0

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2016, 08:55:45 PM »
I prefer the look of the City of Carcassonne (the single-tile version were the colour correct) but when it comes to actually playing the game, we pretty much always play with just the original start tile. We generally don't play with The River because it does not add much to the game but takes more time, and I don't like including other elements if we are not playing with that expansion. Sadly, when it comes down to it, I don't really like The Count, Wheel of Fortune, The Windroses, or The School very much, so we just play with the regular start tile or, in some games, one of The Rivers.

That being said, I am very much in support of creating better start tiles – maybe even a start-tile pack – so there is some variety at the beginning of the game. I created some start tiles for the major fan expansions (forests, mountains, and lakes, I believe) but I haven't done anything since then. It would be rather fun to have a start tile that uses the Labyrinth artwork but merges it with a City and Field segment (the Labyrinth art would have to be shrunk a little to allow players to claim the remaining two Roads better). I also think a start tile with a few of the features could work well, such as an Inn or a Sheep or a Volcano (like River II has). Obviously the only features that would work are those that do not need to be immediately claimed.

Offline SRBO

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2016, 10:12:52 PM »
The regular one is still my favourite, nothing takes away the indescribable feeling of starting the game with the most simple single tile in the game.


Offline Rosco

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2016, 11:24:00 PM »
I am a big fan of the school. I like the art and I think it adds something quite interesting to the start of the game.  I find it a challenge to keep it in mind and make sure that if I have to score something it is a small road outer similar to reduce the teacher bonus.

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Just lay the damn tile!

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2016, 11:44:28 PM »
I am a big fan of the school. I like the art and I think it adds something quite interesting to the start of the game.  I find it a challenge to keep it in mind and make sure that if I have to score something it is a small road outer similar to reduce the teacher bonus.

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I've always had two problems with the School: 1) I hate the palm trees – there should not be palm trees in medieval France, and 2) if you draw a tile without a road at the beginning of the game, you have to draw again, which is annoying.

Offline asparagus

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2016, 11:53:49 PM »
We  like starting with the T-junction river tile. The spring with road and two river termini are in the draw stack. So I'm the one who voted for "Other".

Offline Karcalijn

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2016, 12:01:08 AM »
We learned the game with wheel of fortune. So now, carcasonne isnt carcasonne for me without it. Plus, i like that you have different options in the beginning and your field is a bit bigger.
This is the game, those are the rules and that is how it should be played!

Offline Paul

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2016, 12:22:29 AM »
The Starter Tile.

Although expansions can be fun (in my opinion) my group rarely wants to participate in a game larger than the base set and Inns and Cathedrals, with the exception of adding Traders and Builders now and then. And I don't mind really. The large games are best played on rare basis anyway.
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Offline Decar

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2016, 12:48:34 AM »
I think palm trees growing in the south of France is more believable/likely than: German Cathedrals in anywhere but Germany, Dragons anywhere or Darmstadt....

I'm going to vote for the vanilla starter tile.  Most games I play are 2 player and things like the River and the Wheel give too many options for players to start the game with.
School is a close second.

I said before I really like the windrose. Buy felt the blue tose should have started it.

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2016, 01:17:19 AM »
I think palm trees growing in the south of France is more believable/likely than: German Cathedrals in anywhere but Germany, Dragons anywhere or Darmstadt....
True, but we are discussing start tiles and none of those are that. That being said, I have only ever played with Darmstadt once and I generally don't play with German anything except in special test games. Yes I own all those tiles, but I don't play with them much. Theme is a major thing for me in games so expansions that deviate from them I do not enjoy as much. Dragons, well those are another story. At least it is a medieval theme that can work geographically anywhere, even if it is fantasy.

Offline meepleater

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2016, 01:27:39 AM »
2) if you draw a tile without a road at the beginning of the game, you have to draw again, which is annoying.

I'm fairly sure the school tiles are used in addition to the regular starting tile (placed on one side)- so there should be a space for city and field tiles.

Offline Christopher

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2016, 01:46:04 AM »
The Windroses! My favourite is the Wind Rose tile, because I'm a huge fan of this expansion. We house rule it, and play a variant, but I like this tile for several reasons. The first being, I love the addition of cardinal points. Of a compass. The developing landscape always felt like a map to me, and so adding a compass is delightful. I love the artwork, too, although I realise that wasn't the question being asked. But also, I like single tile starters. If I hadn't chosen the Wind Rose, it would have been the standard start tile. I find that large starting areas, such as the Wheel of Fortune, the City of Carcassonne and the River encourage different play styles. When everything is built from a single tile, players start off right on top of one another. Everyone is making plays for the same features, and it sets the tone of the game. Not aggressive, necessarily, but... of that vein. With a large starting area, everyone expands in their own area. There's no need to build into other player's features because there's plenty of space. It changes the game. So, the Wind Rose is a single tile with a bit more going on than the normal tile. That being said, we don't always play Wind Roses, so I actually use standard tile more often.

I like the River II when playing with the dragon because the early volcano brings him in quickly. The only problem is that if an attack comes too quickly he's like water down a gully, hitting everything in his path.

The School is odd. I've never understood why it was a start tile. Using a school road right at the beginning of the game is pointless because there's nothing worth getting. When playing with this expansion, we either use another additional start tile, or don't use the School as a start tile at all. We mix one of the school tiles in with the rest of the tiles and set the other to the side. When it is drawn, it gets placed as normal and the other tile is added to it. This requires use of a bag, and some fiddly rules about placing the school tile, but it means the School appears at a more interesting time in the game.

The City of Carcassonne is lovely. Beautiful tile. Fun to start with as it doesn't change the initial tile deployment of the game, unlike the River. With the City, you play as normal from the start, instead of having your play dictated for the first twelve tiles. The City does suffer the aforementioned problem though, of spreading players out a bit more. Not necessarily a problem though.

For my money then, I like the Wind Roses, but probably use the standard tile more often.
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Offline Decar

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2016, 01:48:21 AM »
I'm fairly sure the school tiles are used in addition to the regular starting tile (placed on one side)- so there should be a space for city and field tiles.

Indeed  :(y)

Offline Rosco

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #13 on: April 15, 2016, 02:12:51 AM »
In regards to using a standard start tile along side the school, it is true that this would improve things in some ways but I dont like more than necessary on the table at the start unless it is going to be a huge game.    So to start with the full start tile set up of: vanilla start, wind rose, school, city, windrose, river 1, river 2, river 3 and anything else i have missed would just be ridiculous unless it was mega carcassonne.

Offline Decar

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Re: Favouritism Poll #5 : Start Tile
« Reply #14 on: April 15, 2016, 02:20:30 AM »
For the school another start tile is necessary.  Otherwise 27 of the base game tiles can't be played at the start of the game because they don't have roads.

Take a look at the HiG Die Schule Rules PDF.

I think CKorfman and Paul both created some mega-starting setups on another thread a few months ago.


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