Carcassone

[Craptacular]

Seeing the latest Settlers of Catan thread reminded me of something. I was in Minneapolis / St. Paul over the weekend, and during my few hours at the Mall of America, I looked at a bunch of games in the Wizards of the Coast store. I remember seeing some general comments on this board (and perhaps the old one) about the game Carcassone, but I don't remember anything too detailed.

Some friends and I love the Catan games, although I can't convince my wife to play. She usually prefers the more traditional pure luck games (for example, Life) or card games like Phase 10 and SkipBo. I also think that one of the reasons she doesn't want to play Catan is becuase it usually takes a couple of hours. I seem to remember that the box for Carcassone lists a typical playing time of 30-45 minutes, compared to 1 to 1.5 hours for Settlers.

The game looked intriguing to me, and I'm thinking about buying it. Would anyone who's played it care to share some thoughts on the game, including the basic premise. Does the game really take an hour or less?? What do you feel is the ideal number of players for a game? The box says it's a great two-player game, which would be nice, but I'm also hoping that four players works well. Thanks in advance.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Carcassone is a medieval city in the south of France.

(that was my useless bit of trivia for the day...)

[MIJB#19]

The game really trakes an hour or less (more like half an hour if you ask me.)

Personally, I'm not so big into this game, though it might be build on winning the first 10 or so games of Carcassone.

QuikSand posted he likes Carcassone so much, thus maybe his advice is much better.

Each player acts as follows:
1. pick a tile
2. (try to) put the tile next to other tile(s)
3. (optional) put a pie on te placed tile
4. calculate points if this new tile finishes a group of tiles, which are roads, cities or religious buildings (Sadly I have no idea how to translate 'klooster')
5. remove pies that were given points for

In the end, it comes down to placing your 7 pies at tiles to score points in short term, but especially in long.

[cuervo72]

I have to dig Settlers of Catan out of one of my boxes...most of my games have been in storage since moving two years ago (except for my mushrooming Monopoly collection ). I used to work with a guy who had hundreds of games (avalon hill, etc) and would bring them into work to play at lunch. Ahh, those were the days. We played Settlers pretty often. I don't get to play much of anything these days - my wife doesn't like playing with me because I'm too competitive, and the kids aren't old enough and won't be for a while

If you're looking for some good, quick games (and cheap), check out Cheap Ass Games (http://www.cheapass.com/). Ahh, Kill Dr. Lucky

[QuikSand]

I am a huge fan of Carcassonne... if you are a fan of abstract strategy games, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The general idea is that as the game progresses, a series of tiles are placed so that connecting sides continue the part of the landscape they repsent (cities, farmland, roadways, etc). As the game progresses, you score points for placing tiles and markers to claim and develop the areas that emerge in the cityscape. The game involves a subtle combination of luck and skill - it appears to be largely luck, but when the same players win over and over, it starts to beg the question.

If you have the option, I would recommend that you buy the newer release, called Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. It's largely the same game, but with some modest restatement of the rules and a few more twists and turns added. The setting is nominally different (uses rivers rather than roads, forests rather than cities, etc) but it's recognizable as the same game concept.

I was a pretty big fan of Settlers of Catan, including its several extended iterations, and a few other good games (El Grande comes to mind) but once I got Carcassonne, all the others became back-benchers with my group - it's all anyone wants to play now.

Plus, add in the fact that it costs abot half as much as any of the other games mentioned here... and that adds in nicely.


And, for what it's worth, I heartily recommend Funagain Games for all your gaming needs. Generally, their discount is enough to cover any shipping costs - and these guys do a great job. If you're willing to buy over the net, they are the best there is.


p.s. - Funagain also sells the whole series of Cheapass Games and James Ernst products, which are a great bang for the buck as well. Kill Doctor Lucky is the classic (a sort of reverse clue) with surprisingly high replay value - considering the game costs something like $4. I'd also check out The Big Cheese for about $2-3 - it's a really nice little time-filler if you're into the "gaming night" idea. Takes about 15 minuites to play, just right for a spot between epic battles of Settlers or whatever else you're up to.

[Craptacular]

Thanks for the comments. I think they were selling both versions of Carcassonne for $20 at the MoA, but I'll have to check out the local gaming store and compare it to the online prices.

I've actually played Kill Dr. Lucky once when a friend who had a few Cheap Ass games came to town. I should check with him to see what other C.A. games he has and get his opinion on them. However, I think I'll buy one of the Carcassonne versions first and see how it goes with my wife and our friends.

I'm still very interested to know if it is a good 2-player game, or if it's much better with 3-5 players.

[TredWel]

Originally posted by Craptacular
I'm still very interested to know if it is a good 2-player game, or if it's much better with 3-5 players.

Carcassonne is a very good two player game, although the possibilities for interactivity is somewhat lessened. I play a city-thief strategy when playing with more than three people (horn in on opponents cities), a strategy which doesn't work in two-player. Still, the game is very good.

On a side note, I've tried Hunters and Gatherers, and I still can't decide if it's an improvement over the original Carcassonne. It's a good game, but I think I prefer the original, and would suggest you purchase that first.

And in regards to Cheap Ass games, my gaming group has played Witch Trial more times than any of the other CA games I own combined, and I recommend it, as well as the oft-hilarious Kill Doctor Lucky.

[ratpfink]

Ok, I just played my first game of Carcassonne at Brettspielwelt. It's a German board gaming java site and seems like it could be a huge time-waster. The site is mostly in German but there's enough English information on the site and elsewhere(like the Quick & Dirty Guide to BSW) that it won't take too long to get used to the interface. I think after an hour of poking around I was comfortable enough with it to play Carcassonne. (Actually, it's not the playing that's hard, it's trying to figure out where to go to get into a game)

Cool stuff. You can play all of the popular German-style board games: Carcassonne, Clans, Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, Ra, TransAmerica and probably others that don't have the English title I'd recognize. Yeah, I'm definitely going to see the time get sucked into this.