As promised, here is my report of the event. It was on Sunday March 29th in Lille, France.
LocationFirst, a few words about the exceptional location of the tournament. Where would be the best place to play Carcassonne? Well, inside the fortifications of a French city of course! Tournament matches were played in a room of the Fort de Mons, a fort built between 1878 and 1880 (ok it's not medieval but that's a small detail
), sold by the French Army to the city in 1972, then renovated and open to the public in 1984. Now, inside the fort you can find the municipal library, an exhibition room, a music school, a multimedia centre, a restaurant, a pub and an open air theatre.
Some pictures I took:
The tournamentFormat of the tournament was the following: We were 20 participants divided in 4 tables of 5 players for the first round. 1st and 2nd of each game would then form 2 tables (4 players per table) for the semi-final (others are eliminated). Winners of the two semi-finals would battle in the final to be declared the champion whilst the two 2nd places would fight for the 3rd and 4th position. Only the base game was used for the competition.
I previously said that I won two 5-player games.. that's is because something happened in the first round that the organisers didn't really expect.
About the level of the participants. I think some where quite good but there were also lots of casual Carcassonne players and a few beginners too. But due to the format of the competition, I thought that it could be challenging even for good players to reach the final. So many things can happen in a 5-player game!
There was a special rule for this tournament that I had never tried before, and I really liked it! Players had to choose from 3 face-up tiles layed on the table instead of picking a random one. I believe that it reduces a bit the luck factor and increases the strategic aspect of the game. You can try to anticipate which of the remaining tiles your opponent will pick and choose that one just to screw your opponent's plan.
For obvious reasons, I don't really know what happened on the other tables. Though I heard that one table really screwed up the rules! If there was a tie for the majority of a feature, they divided the points by the number of players instead of allocating the full amount to all participating players. They were unsure and didn't ask any officials so it's their fault.
My matchesFirst RoundThe first game was the most difficult, surprisingly. I had the feeling everybody played carefully and in kind of a friendly manner because it was the first game and I guess nobody wanted to be labelled as the nasty player too early. I think I played well, even won the main field and the game finished as a draw for the first place!
63 Yellow (me)
63 Black
60 Blue
43 Green
34 Red
Organisers didn't expect this situation to happen and decided that both 1st places would move on to the semi-final as well as the 2nd position, so a total of 3 players instead of normally just 2.
Semi-finalNormally, 8 players would be divided in 2 tables of 4 players but because of the tie for 1st place at my table, we were 9 to move one to semi-final. I was assigned to the 5-player table and played with the Red meeples this time.
Among the players at my table, there was one that I identified as a potential menace as he was quite agressive claiming the fields at the beginning at the game. I was quite worried about that as the field he claimed with 2 followers was to become the main field but then I saw an opportunity to trap followers and, at the same time, seriously reduce the number of points he would get for that field. It was a difficult decision because the trapped followers included one of mine but it was in the part of the city worth the most points so I decided to do it. It turned out to be a very good decision because later I blocked another city and, at the end, that main field was worth... zero points. Mouahahahaha (evil laugh). I won the game relatively easily.
64 Red (me)
38 Black
35 Green
29 Yellow
25 Blue
FinalSigh of relief... the final is a duel, one-on-one, which I much prefer so I was super happy I went through the previous rounds.
The game started with a fight for a HUGE city, but I decided to withdraw my troops from the battle with a "city splitter" tile and try to trap her 3 meeples in there. I knew she would get a lot of points for that uncompleted city at the end of the game but I took the chance. Actually, I think that big unfinished city are quite valuable in a 2-player game with only the base game. However, 3 trapped meeples is a big handicap, plus an extra (bonus) meeple got trapped as well because she didn't manage to get a fccc tile to finish her cloister. I trapped another of her meeple by completely surrounding it with roads, yes that's right, a closed field with no cities at all. I was a bit astonished I managed to do that in a final, normally it's the kind of trick one can use against beginners... I think that indicates that it is not necessarily the best players that reach the final which such a format (multiplayer games). So, with 5 trapped meeples and whilst I was scoring smaller cities and placing farmers in the fields, my opponent has never been able to recover.
Final score:
126 Yellow (me)
68 Blue
Interview of the winner
Getting my prize. A boardgame called Colt Express. Looks fun.
(
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158899/colt-express)
What's next? (hum.. nothing)
By winning the tournament, I automatically qualified for the French National Championships that will be held in Paris in June. However, there is one little problem: I'm not French and I'm not a resident of France either so that means I can possibly participate (to be confirmed...) but for sure I cannot be declared the champion if I win. All things considered, better not go there to be the troublemaker