Combining Spin-offs with the Base Game?

[nicholas813]

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried combining any of the more recent spin-off games (Around the World Series, Over Hill and Dale, etc.) with the main game. I am new to this forum and couldn't find much on the topic. I have some of my first thoughts on how to do it below, but would love some other ideas or input!

One of the biggest issues I think you’ll see below is creating scenarios where tiles cannot be placed due to needing features from both the base game and one of the expansions. Perhaps this means it would be best to predefine zones with start tiles early in the game? (i.e. just place the start tile for each expansion spread out along the base game River/other start tiles) I also never considered scoring imbalances and just assumed you’d score each feature specific to the game it's from and track it all on one scoreboard.

Over Hill and Dale

The field coloration here doesn’t exactly match, but if you’re already combining C1 with C2/C3 it isn’t too bad. I figure you can match the field of these tiles to the field of the base game. Roads could match too, but it would transition from paved road to dirt road. So maybe it could work best initially pairing the start tile of the base game next to the start tile of OH&D and having a kind of zone thing? Alternatively, just integrating it directly into the base game wherever they match roads/fields but treating farms as their own feature (ie not matching farm with city) is an option, but I think it would lead to some tiles being unable to be placed.

The thought of requiring farms to be near cities did pop into my head at one point (or vice versa), but I have no idea how to take that idea further.

Gold Rush

While it ruins the French countryside aesthetic, the colors here match fairly well. Pairing field with field and treating railroads and mountains as their own features could be best. This would likely lead to one part of the board expanding into a Gold Rush area while the base game grows elsewhere.

Safari

Absolutely no clue here. Only thought is to put the Safari starting tile adjacent to the City of Carcassonne in the base game and growing it out from there as a sort of safari zone, but I don’t think it would look pretty.

South Seas

I really wanted this to be a simple addition by having it at the end of the River instead of the lake, but it does not look pretty. I’m stuck on this one, unless you could start it from Amazonas? Maybe having the base river feed into the 2x1 tiles from Amazonas, then start south seas at the end of that? I don’t own Amazonas so I can’t speak to how it would look but that’s all I’ve got in terms of ideas.

This is all very rough, but I’d appreciate any advice!


Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6511.0

[BBG]

Only experience I had involved a base game and a copy of the winter edition. When playing like this, we put the "normal" source river tile against the winter source river tile and build the two rivers going different directions. Then we mix base game tiles and winter tiles in a bag and play: every drawn tile must touch at least one side of the same kind already on the map. Such games usually make for a map that's quite divided (white on a side, green on the other) but a couple of time the two bioms integrated quite well creating interesting landscapes.

[nicholas813]

Oh that’s a good idea! Kind of points towards the zoning idea at the start of the game being a good way to do it. Needing a drawn tile to touch at least one of the same kind is also something that could be good.

[Ker42]

Hi, nicholas813 and welcome to the forum!  As you've discovered, mixing Carcassonne with spin-offs can be problematic to say the least.  I prefer to use Cosmic Portal tiles to go from the main game to multiple side games using spin-offs.  It's all explained here: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=5352.msg78287#msg78287.  Best of luck!

[wolnic]

There were a number of "interface" cards created (Universal Connecting Bars on the German Carcassonne Forum), which had a section of water along one side and some game tile sections on the other. You could then place any game on one side, and a different one on the other, but they are always separated by the strip of water. It included strips for Amazonas, Ark of the Covenant, Carcassonne I, Gold Rush, H&G v1, Mayflower, Over Hill and Dale, South Seas. Of course, you could also use these as start blocks, similar to the way the one in Mayflower/New World is used.

[nicholas813]

Thanks for the ideas! The portals do look interesting, I’ll definitely look more into that. As for the Connecting Bars, also a great idea and sounds like it would work great too. I’ll have to register on that forum and look for the file.

[wolnic]

There were a number of "interface" cards created (Universal Connecting Bars on the German Carcassonne Forum), which had a section of water along one side and some game tile sections on the other. You could then place any game on one side, and a different one on the other, but they are always separated by the strip of water. It included strips for Amazonas, Ark of the Covenant, Carcassonne I, Gold Rush, H&G v1, Mayflower, Over Hill and Dale, South Seas. Of course, you could also use these as start blocks, similar to the way the one in Mayflower/New World is used.

I've checked the original thread on CarcForum and the image files are no longer available from the links on that thread. This expansion was never finalised, so there's no available download on the site, or a formal set of rules. As far as I can understand from the discussion, rather than long strips, say of five tiles with a universal river style (it uses C1 river sections) along one side, these had been reduced to, mostly, 2x1 sections, but there were about ten designs for each spin-off included. Safari, H&G v2 and C2/C3 are not available as they post-date the work done on the connector cards. There was also some discussion on the original thread about whether there would be a way to adapt The City. Discovery is not included.

[nicholas813]

Okay, thank you for looking so far into this! I’ll put it on the back burner to try it myself one rainy day…

[wolnic]

Since the originals are not (currently) available to download, here are examples of each as a flavour of what I've been mentioning ...

The Amazonas ones are based on 4x single tiles, while the double-tile blocks appear to be a mix of the same width as standard tiles, or half width.

[nicholas813]

Okay I see what they’re going for. Do you know if any play takes place at either end of the river? Obviously the river banks provide room to grow out the respective games, but I’m curious if the river is meant to grow longer with base river tiles, or if the entire connecting bar is simply meant to bridge between one game and the next. If it is meant to grow, I’d imagine that would cause issues with both matching it to the connecting bar itself, as well as the tiles being off center relative to the game being played based on the position of the river on the connecting bar.

[wolnic]

No, I don't believe the central river was intended to be extended during the game. It only provided a way to play two different games at the same time, playing away from the central river in the same way that you play away from the coastal start strip in New World/Mayflower.

[Meepledrone]

Since the originals are not (currently) available to download, here are examples of each as a flavour of what I've been mentioning ...

The Amazonas ones are based on 4x single tiles, while the double-tile blocks appear to be a mix of the same width as standard tiles, or half width.

Simply WOW!!!