Author Topic: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions  (Read 38316 times)

Offline Sinscerly

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #15 on: February 03, 2018, 05:05:20 AM »
I think I will next week make it into some statistics and we can see the number one :D.
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Offline ny1050220

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #16 on: February 03, 2018, 06:04:10 AM »
Shouldn't this be a poll?

But a poll does not rank.

Offline glh510

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #17 on: February 03, 2018, 06:12:24 AM »
1. Traders & Builders
2. Princess & Dragon
3. Inns & Cathedrals
4. Abbey & Mayor
5. Under the Big Top
6. Count, King & Cult
7. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
8. The Tower
9. Hills & Sheep
10. Catapult

Offline jungleboy

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #18 on: February 03, 2018, 06:22:19 AM »
Shouldn't this be a poll?

You can still vote in the original poll although UtBT is not in it.

Offline dirk2112

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #19 on: February 03, 2018, 08:52:21 AM »
Is it just the cult of the new that's getting Under the Big Top ranked so highly? I haven't played it or even really looked into it much, but I'm surprised to see it doing so well here. Mine would be:

It is a surprisingly good expansion if you like high scoring.  I was really surprised to see it so high on Whaleyland's list as he usually hates themes that don't work well for 12th - 13th century France.  The acrobats are pretty lame, but we like everything else. 

I think I will next week make it into some statistics and we can see the number one :D.

The previous poll shows that Traders and Builders are #1.  I can't imagine that changing too much.

I am sure you can make some really interesting stats, but I don't see how they will help.  So far, you can see that the Americans don't think too highly of Inns and Cathedrals.  Maybe if you are a typical American, maybe you should go with Princess and Dragon instead.  The British folks (not named Rosco  ???) tend to really love Abbey and Mayor.  Unfortunately women are greatly underrepresented on this site.  My wife votes Hills & Sheep #1 and Under the Big Top #2.  She hates the tower.  She thinks the others ones are just ok.  Her vote doesn't count because she isn't a member here though. 

I guess you could assign points to people's lists (#1 gives an expansion 5 points, #2 gives 4, #3 gives 3, #4 gives 2, #5 gives 1, #6 thru #9 give 0, and #10 gives -1) and then find an overall ranking.  It may convince some of the old art folks to acquire Under the Big Top and convince newbies to stay away from Count, King, and Robber/Cult.  Then again you put it in your top 4, so what do I know.   

« Last Edit: February 03, 2018, 09:35:27 AM by dirk2112 »

Offline JT Atomico

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #20 on: February 03, 2018, 11:36:32 AM »
1. Traders & Builders (builder is the best strategic addition, trade goods for completer rather than owner is really nice)
2. The Princess & the Dragon (fun expansion with great tiles, I love eating people with dragon)
3. Inns & Cathedrals (all very interesting strategic elements)
4. The Catapult (unpopular opinion - I think the flinging element is really fun)
5. Abbey & Mayor (abbey mechanic is good but the tile is really ugly on the landscape)
6. Under The Big Top (very creative expansion but a bit overpowered for scoring)
7. Hills & Sheep (nothing special but quite fun)
8. Count, King & Cult (the count is too overpowered but I quite like the king and robber baron)
9. The Tower (too easy to remove opponent followers with no defensive options)
10. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars (I hate bazaars - slow and prone to huge over analysis)

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #21 on: February 03, 2018, 02:17:30 PM »
\ I was really surprised to see it so high on Whaleyland's list as he usually hates themes that don't work well for 12th - 13th century France.  The acrobats are pretty lame, but we like everything else.
I agree they botched the theme terribly with this when they really didn't need to, but the gameplay mechanics are amazing. On my first playthrough, I didn't quite understand the power of the Ringmaster, but that has changed considerably after two more playthroughs and reading some other peoples' thoughts. And while the Acrobats are lame thematically, they work so perfectly with the Ringmaster to really boost the points. I played a 4-player game with the expansion and it went really well. We all used our Ringmasters well to maximise points and we also really liked the travelling circus with its random bonus points. It is the first wholistic expansion, really, since Princess & Dragon, which is also one of my all-time favourites. Although I like mixing up elements, there is something to be said with an expansion that actually uses everything.

Quote
So far, you can see that the Americans don't think too highly of Inns and Cathedrals.  Maybe if you are a typical American, maybe you should go with Princess and Dragon instead.
The main reason I don't like Inns & Cathedrals is it's kind of lame. I mean, it is basically a tile expansion that just makes players double-or-nothing features. The Cathedrals are SUPER lame when you pull them because they are so hard to complete and so easy to sabotage. I rarely place them in my own cities. Inns are okay and probably a necessary boost to roads, but they just aren't that interesting. And adding a sixth player is nice, but 6-player games are very slow and I generally don't recommend them (although I have actually played a 10-player game before using my own components, so I'm a terrible example). I like Hills & Sheep the most because all three elements are fun and useful. Vineyards makes Cloisters a bit more fun. Hills kills the tile-prediction factor of the game and also often the predicability of knowing who's going to get the last tile. And the Sheep is a fun push-your-luck mechanic that, when done right and with some luck, can really bring you some bonus points. I do like Princess & Dragon a lot, largely because of its wholistic feel. But I actually like the Princess mechanic, the Magic Portals, and the Dragon all separately, too. The only thing I don't care for is the Fairy bonus thing, which seems unnecessary (we usually ignore that rule).

Offline dirk2112

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #22 on: February 03, 2018, 05:52:49 PM »
The main reason I don't like Inns & Cathedrals is it's kind of lame. I mean, it is basically a tile expansion that just makes players double-or-nothing features. The Cathedrals are SUPER lame when you pull them because they are so hard to complete and so easy to sabotage. I rarely place them in my own cities. Inns are okay and probably a necessary boost to roads, but they just aren't that interesting. And adding a sixth player is nice, but 6-player games are very slow and I generally don't recommend them (although I have actually played a 10-player game before using my own components, so I'm a terrible example).

I completely agree, but you still ranked it third!   

The main thing I hate about the Cathedrals is that there are only 2 of them.  In a 3 player game, that means someone isn't going pull one.  It really stinks when the same player pulls both in the second half of the game.  I can't recall the last time someone completed a city with the Cathedral in our house. 

The only thing we use from that expansion are the 50/100 points tiles and that is really sad.  My wife hates the big meeple because in Mega-Carc it blends in too well with the regular sized meeple.  Much sadness has occurred over farms where she thought she had a majority only to find out it was a tie. 

« Last Edit: February 03, 2018, 05:56:01 PM by dirk2112 »

Offline Whaleyland

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #23 on: February 03, 2018, 06:37:24 PM »
I completely agree, but you still ranked it third!   

The main thing I hate about the Cathedrals is that there are only 2 of them.  In a 3 player game, that means someone isn't going pull one.  It really stinks when the same player pulls both in the second half of the game.  I can't recall the last time someone completed a city with the Cathedral in our house. 

The only thing we use from that expansion are the 50/100 points tiles and that is really sad.  My wife hates the big meeple because in Mega-Carc it blends in too well with the regular sized meeple.  Much sadness has occurred over farms where she thought she had a majority only to find out it was a tie.
There, I corrected my ranking—it's now in fourth place. In hindsight, it always should have been there. I just don't like CCCC tiles, regular or Cathedral ones, so I think 2 is too many. But that may just be me. I forgot about the Big Follower, but I also don't like that. It doesn't stand out well and generally causes confusion when scoring. The 50/100 tiles are great, but they really should have been included in the base game and you can buy them separately online so they barely even count. Same with the blue tile bag.

Offline thodekey

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #24 on: February 04, 2018, 04:50:49 AM »
1. Traders & Builders (builder speeds up the game and makes completion of a city with cathedral/large cities more possible, contains lots of useful, unique tiles, trade goods for completer rather than owner is really nice, the pig is a nice addition but not that crucial)
2. Inns & Cathedrals (the upgrade of the roads puts more balance in the game, I like the mechanic of the "higher risk/higher reward" of the cathedrals if the don't show up in the end of the game)
3. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars (I like how the bridges change the game to 3 dimensions and their ability to open the farms - I like the castles mechanic although I often forget to use them - the bazaars, hmmm, that depends on the people you play with wether it becomes a time-robbing thing or a fun strategic extra but I like the fact you can obtain that one tile you really need even if you didn't draw it yourself)
4. The Princess & the Dragon (aggressive but fun expansion, gotta love that big wood chunk of a dragon - 1 disadvantage: we all tend to forget the extra 1-point scoring for the fairy)
5. Abbey & Mayor (I like the mayor although its shape should differ more with the big meeple - the barn gives the farming aspect a bit too much priority but I like how it makes the gameplay completely different - the abbey is a nice addition but it should blend more in the landscape then it does now)
6. Hills & Sheep (after the upgrades of cities and roads, I like the vineyards as an upgrade of the cloisters - the shepherd and sheep is also a quite nice addition with the push of luck - the hills, well, I don't like them that much: I do see the extra in it to win a "tied" project but I don't like the idea of turning around tiles, although I don't count them)
7. Count, King & Cult (I like the King and Robber Baron as a simple but important addition to the game - the Cult Places seem a bit redundant for the already hard-fought 9 points for a completed cloister but I like it's competitive mechanic - the Count, well, I just get to know that mechanic; at first sight it seems quite powerful, maybe too powerful and the reason I have hardly played it, is because I just don't find it a natural/logic addition to the game - and hooray for adding a River to the landscape - I do like to unique extra tiles in this expansion)
8. The Catapult (I have the expansion but never played it - I think it might be a nice thing to add if you play it with children or if you wan't to keep the game light and add some dexterity for people who are put off too much by the strategic aspect of the game - I play with the idea of using the expansion as an offensive way to attack meeples on the tiles that surround a catapult tile...if you use the dice from the Flyers mini, you could attack tiles within a range from 1 tot 3 tiles, according to the number you roll - with exception of the roundabout, it's a pity the tiles in this expansion are hardly unique)
9. The Tower (to me, this expansion is apart from aggressive also somehow out of balance - apart from that, I just miss some extra game mechanics - the other expansions, usually add 3 different game mechanics/themes while this one only adds the towers and a redundant tile holder)
x. Under The Big Top (due to esthetics-authistic-compulsive-old-artwork-behouviour, I never bought/tried out this expansion - some people seem to like it a lot but apart from the new artwork, I just think the theme anachronism is just a bridge too far for me)

If you could count 3 mini-expansions as one big expansion (3 game mechanics, approximately 24 tiles in total), here's where I would rank them in the above:
5b. Minis 1-3 (The Flyers is probably my most favorite mini-expansion, easy to comprehend and nice addition of a game mechanic - I find The messages a bit redundant and they make the scoring track a bit too busy - The Ferries is a nice upgrade of the roads - all in all, the tiles aren't that unique in these 3 expansions)
5c. Minis 4-6 (I like how The Goldmines make people play in a very different, sometimes aggressive, sometimes cooperative way - The Mage & Witch is a tough one for me, I like the game mechanic but it sometimes might get a bit too personal - I don't like The Robbers that much, it makes the scoring track a bit too busy and I find the game mechanic redundant - these 3 expansions, add quite many unique tiles to the game)

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #25 on: February 06, 2018, 05:22:18 AM »
My ranking:

place 1: 1st, 2nd and 3rd expansion

place 2: 4th, 9th and perhaps the 10th expansion (I've done the correction reading, but I played the 10th expansion only two or three times.)

place 3: 5th expansion

place 4: 6th and 8th expansion - mostly I like to use only some parts of these expansions.

last place: 7th expansion

Offline ny1050220

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #26 on: February 06, 2018, 07:27:37 AM »
It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #27 on: February 06, 2018, 10:03:41 AM »
It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[
I thought that most of us CarcC members are Carcassonne experts. Please look into the profile of the members, there you can see what number is which expansion of Carcassonne.

Offline Sinscerly

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #28 on: February 06, 2018, 10:56:04 AM »
It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[
I thought that most of us CarcC members are Carcassonne experts. Please look into the profile of the members, there you can see what number is which expansion of Carcassonne.
Haha I love this. Maybe we can make / add smileys for each expansion ;D
    Pls make this posible, it is posible to do  >:D follow this link

Offline jungleboy

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Re: Rank the 10 Carcassonne main expansions
« Reply #29 on: February 06, 2018, 11:53:24 AM »
It takes a Carcassonne expert to read kettlefish's ranking :-[
I thought that most of us CarcC members are Carcassonne experts. Please look into the profile of the members, there you can see what number is which expansion of Carcassonne.

There are always members who are new to the forum and to Carcassonne, and this thread is a good one for these 'non-experts' to see which expansions they might be interested in. You are the only person here who refers to expansions by their numbers. So: please refer to the name of the expansion and not the number, and then no one else has to click anything.

Welcome back, by the way :)


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