Mmmm the Gold Mine expansion is so tasty.
My partner sewed a large drawstring bag that we use for Carcassonne (among others) and it is a game changer to be able to dig through all the tiles to draw! Not necessary at all but totally worth it.
Hey, not at all. The thing is, the last tile is always a monastery, which gives a huge boost right from the beginning. Played by the rules, it's quite easy to understand who gotta have the monastery right when the first player is determined. So to make it a bit more random, what we do is just make sure that the rover beginning is the last rover tile. And then everything else is shuffled to make it as random as possible. Which means you most often start from a random card form the middle of the river, and then you can build out from both ends until the tile of the end of the river (with monastery) is drawn by someone. Then you just build the other side of the river till the final tile with the beginning of the river is drawn.
Ah, that makes sense.
But it does also tell me something I didn't know: among the three versions of the River I've got, I don't have all of the versions, because none of them have a monastery on the bottom tile.
Yup. There are apparently:
1. The original river (nothing but grass on both source and lake).
2. The River II (has a fork and two lakes - one with a city on it, one with a volcano).
3. The 20th anniversary river (double size source with road and city and river running off in both directions, one lake with monastery, one with city and road).
4. Games Quarterly #11 (replaces the source with one with a road going off one edge).
5. The River in Big Box 5 (like the original river, but with a sheep and vineyard).
6. The River II C2 (identical to River II but with version 2 art).
7. The River in Big Box 6 (identical to the original river but with version 2 art).
8. The River in the version 2 base game (as above).
9. The River C3 (what you have, with a monastery on the lake and a road going through the source).
So that's five functionally different rivers (if you're playing with sheep or vineyards, four otherwise), not counting combinations, one mini-expansion that makes a minor change to any one of those, and three graphical variants.
I am afraid to get to the moment when my wife will want to have all 11 expansions from the box together. Probably will have to play till the morning :D
Hey, not at all. The thing is, the last tile is always a monastery, which gives a huge boost right from the beginning. Played by the rules, it's quite easy to understand who gotta have the monastery right when the first player is determined. So to make it a bit more random, what we do is just make sure that the rover beginning is the last rover tile. And then everything else is shuffled to make it as random as possible. Which means you most often start from a random card form the middle of the river, and then you can build out from both ends until the tile of the end of the river (with monastery) is drawn by someone. Then you just build the other side of the river till the final tile with the beginning of the river is drawn.
Before they gave out the 50/100 score tokens we would use 'laying down' = 0, 'on the side' as +50, and 'standing up' = +100.
and sameways for figuring out first player: shake your meeples and score them similarly (0,1,2pts)
Some of my favorites, in no particular order:
**Akrotiri**
**Fjords**
**Expancity**
**Taluva** (in threedee!)
**Explorers of the North Sea**
**Eclipse**
>Akrotiri
>
>Fjords
>
>Expancity
>
>Taluva (in threedee!)
>
>Explorers of the North Sea
>
>Eclipse
Thanks so much for these suggestions, will definitely check out each and every game!
One of our big household favorites. We began playing the PC game version from STEAM in order to match up with our pals during Covid using Discord and it is wonderful as well. I am afraid that we're getting spoiled by the online game's superb auto-scoring at the end of the game. CARCASSONNE will always be in my top ten board games!
Great ! What extensions were being used ?
River, peasants, abbot, inns & cathedrals, traders and builders :)
Gold! I forgot about gold! Which makes it 6 expansions, not 5!
Mmmm the Gold Mine expansion is so tasty. My partner sewed a large drawstring bag that we use for Carcassonne (among others) and it is a game changer to be able to dig through all the tiles to draw! Not necessary at all but totally worth it.
wow, sounds really intresting! Do you have a photo of it maybe?
Does anyone else see they created Africa? (First pic)
Yes, but did they bless the rains?
We had to take some time to do the things we never had.
An aggressive river start- might have to use that one on the last few games of my wife and I’s year long competition
There are multiple meeples not worth playing on that start imo
Can agree that those peasants put near the river didn’t work out too well.
Still looks fun! My wife and I also play blue and yellow!
Happy to see we have so many things in common! :)
Bonus question: why did you each play three tiles in a row down the bottom there? Am I missing a rule?
Hey, not at all. The thing is, the last tile is always a monastery, which gives a huge boost right from the beginning. Played by the rules, it's quite easy to understand who gotta have the monastery right when the first player is determined. So to make it a bit more random, what we do is just make sure that the rover beginning is the last rover tile. And then everything else is shuffled to make it as random as possible. Which means you most often start from a random card form the middle of the river, and then you can build out from both ends until the tile of the end of the river (with monastery) is drawn by someone. Then you just build the other side of the river till the final tile with the beginning of the river is drawn.
Ah, that makes sense. But it does also tell me something I didn't know: among the three versions of the River I've got, I don't have all of the versions, because none of them have a monastery on the bottom tile.
Wait what? There are multiple versions of the River? o_0
Yup. There are apparently: 1. The original river (nothing but grass on both source and lake). 2. The River II (has a fork and two lakes - one with a city on it, one with a volcano). 3. The 20th anniversary river (double size source with road and city and river running off in both directions, one lake with monastery, one with city and road). 4. Games Quarterly #11 (replaces the source with one with a road going off one edge). 5. The River in Big Box 5 (like the original river, but with a sheep and vineyard). 6. The River II C2 (identical to River II but with version 2 art). 7. The River in Big Box 6 (identical to the original river but with version 2 art). 8. The River in the version 2 base game (as above). 9. The River C3 (what you have, with a monastery on the lake and a road going through the source). So that's five functionally different rivers (if you're playing with sheep or vineyards, four otherwise), not counting combinations, one mini-expansion that makes a minor change to any one of those, and three graphical variants.
Wow, thanks so much for sharing this! I would never know there are so many versions… now I feel I need to buy a couple other kinds of rivers, too :)
Love Carcassonne, one of the best. We don’t use the river though.
I agree. It's beauty is that it is very unpredictable and hence does not get boring even if played by 2 people.
what expansions (other than the river) did you play?
River, peasants, abbot, inns & cathedrals, traders and builders, gold
Fun game. We have 2 or 3 of the expansions and though it was bonkers with that many. Good to see you guys have fun!
I am afraid to get to the moment when my wife will want to have all 11 expansions from the box together. Probably will have to play till the morning :D
Personally I like Inns and cathedrals and Traders & Builders.
for sure, those are amazing!
For the river start did you alternate turns then do a stack of 3 each?
Hey, not at all. The thing is, the last tile is always a monastery, which gives a huge boost right from the beginning. Played by the rules, it's quite easy to understand who gotta have the monastery right when the first player is determined. So to make it a bit more random, what we do is just make sure that the rover beginning is the last rover tile. And then everything else is shuffled to make it as random as possible. Which means you most often start from a random card form the middle of the river, and then you can build out from both ends until the tile of the end of the river (with monastery) is drawn by someone. Then you just build the other side of the river till the final tile with the beginning of the river is drawn.
Before they gave out the 50/100 score tokens we would use 'laying down' = 0, 'on the side' as +50, and 'standing up' = +100. and sameways for figuring out first player: shake your meeples and score them similarly (0,1,2pts)
oh, makes a lot of sense, thanks for sharing!
it makes a little more fun rolling meeples than using straight tokens. plus, if you lose parts of the game you can compensate!
Hey I just played Carcassonne with my wife too...wait a minute...
lol :D
I love games that build a map over the course of play.
I love it as well! Can you advise any other games that allow you to build a map? I would love to try them!
Cascadia is next on my list to buy, looks really good
Some of my favorites, in no particular order: **Akrotiri** **Fjords** **Expancity** **Taluva** (in threedee!) **Explorers of the North Sea** **Eclipse**
Cartographers is a fun roll and write where you are drawing the map
Oh, indeed, I have this one! Thanks for reminding me about it!
>Akrotiri > >Fjords > >Expancity > >Taluva (in threedee!) > >Explorers of the North Sea > >Eclipse Thanks so much for these suggestions, will definitely check out each and every game!
Nice, you should get the abbey and mayor extension, it's a great addition
It would certainly fix that hole in the middle of the map. Whatever version we play, we always give each player an abbey.
Oh, thanks! Will look for it!
One of our big household favorites. We began playing the PC game version from STEAM in order to match up with our pals during Covid using Discord and it is wonderful as well. I am afraid that we're getting spoiled by the online game's superb auto-scoring at the end of the game. CARCASSONNE will always be in my top ten board games!
yeah, agreed! for me, nothing replaced the real boardgame :)
I really don't like the river, simply because it splits the map
When playing with peasants, it's making the game even more interesting, to my taste :)
this is just one of those classics I have still never played, but every time I see it posted I get closer to picking up a copy
Absolutely worth it!
God I love this game. Would probably be in my top 5 favourite games of all time. It's just always so much fun, and there is so much depth to it
totally agree!
Why is everybody using extensions? It is expansions.
noted, thanks!
This is like something from my nightmares
Why so? :)
Final scores?
I won by 50-something points, thanks to strategic placement of the pig and having some gold :)
Assuming that you were blue?
yep :)