![]() Roads were the weakest, because they scored just 1 point/tile. The Original Game: One of the real problems with the original release of Carcassonne was tile balance. In general the four different types of terrain could be pretty easily ranked. This week I’m going to concentrate on the “good” evolution of Carcassonne: how the classic expansions helped to balance the game and the tile mix (though we’ll also get our first hints at how the later expansions begin to turn from early ideals). There’s a number of huge changes in design between King & Scout and The Count of Carcassonne, as we’ll see. Second are the “later expansions”, which center on the two large supplements, The Princess & The Dragon and The Tower as well as the mini-supplement, The Count of Carcassonne, and the micro-supplement The Cathars. I also tend to include the mini-expansion, King & Scout, in this category. If you bought the gold-box Carcassonne that was sold in stores a couple of years ago, this was it. First is “Classic Carcassonne”, which is the original game plus the first two major supplements, Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders. In my articles on Carcassonne‘s expansions I’m going to draw a distinction between two sets of supplements. The Tower. Introduces towers which can be used to capture nearby followers, or which can be “capped” by one of your meeples to protect your own. Fixes some of the field size problems of the original river, and also has a link to each of the major supplements to this point. The River II. Yet another alternative setup for the game: a 12-tile river, this time with a branch. Adds princess tiles which remove a meeple from a city. Adds magic gate tiles which let you place on any open, unoccupied region. ![]() Adds a fairy which protects from the same & gives points when a location it’s at is scored. ![]() The Princess & The Dragon. Adds a dragon which removes meeples. (An exclusive micro-expansion I mention it here for completeness, and I’ll include it in my various charts, but don’t think it has much relevence to the evolution of the game.) The Cathars. Adds Cathars besieging cities, who decrease the value of the city to knights, but increase its value to farmers. Adds a Count who can allow players to move meeples to regions just as they close & score. The Count of Carcassonne. Adds a new starting setup to the game: a 12-tile city. King & Scout. Gives VPs to players who close the biggest road and city. Adds builders, which allow faster building of one city or road. Adds pigs, which increase the value of one field. Traders & Builders. Adds cities with goods a player closing a city now collects goods, worth VPs at the end for majority control. ![]() (Originally published as “The Expansion”.) Adds a “big meeple” who is worth double the value of the other meeples in token conflict. ![]() Inns & Cathedrals. Adds inns, which made roads worth double or nothing, and cathedrals, which made cities worth triple or nothing. (Now available as part of the base game.) The River. Adds a new starting setup to the game: a 12-tile river. But first, a brief overview of all the supplements to date.Įach supplement adds new tiles to the game, but also provides some big new ideas: Over the next few articles in this series I’m going to examine those supplements, to show how they’ve evolved the SdJ winning Carcassonne‘s gameplay. Nine supplements of various sizes have slowly expanded that base game, moving it in various directions (and not always the ones suggested by the original game). However, Carcassonne is a lot more than than just the basic game. In my first article in this series, I talked about the design of the game Carcassonne, breaking it down by parts and seeing how they all work together. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |