Carcassonne Central

The Catapult Catch
The traveling carnival has come to town and provides enthralling entertainment for the citizens of
Carcassonne young and old. The onlookers are lured, and lulled to enchantment by the mystical voice of the Barker. But beware the Acrobat when the Catapult Catch is sprung. You’ll find more than just fun and games are in store.


Here is the folder:
http://www.mediafire.com/?rfsh5y45i2eii

File links not working but the concept sounds fun.

Thanks for letting me know Whaley.
I uploaded it again. Try now.

Can someone tell me if the link is working now?

It works fine for me.

Great, thanks!

Let me know what you think.

It's perhaps a little lengthy but I tried to carry the theme through the document. I realized it needed some detail to describe how to resolve the collection of tokens. Also, I wanted to honor the original intent behind the tokens as closely as possible.
I hope it reads well.

After play testing last night we felt it necessary to simplify the rules for the Catch token. It was cumbersome but plays much better as modified. Also, we changed the final scoring rules to eliminate points for majority of certain shapes.

I uploaded the Revision 0_6.

This one will take a couple of read-throughs and a few plays to master, but it will be worth it!

CARC_Zoner

Just wondering if anyone's had a chance to try this out yet. ?

Anyone had a chance to try this out yet?

I would love to hear some feedback on it.

This Version 0.7 is the result of several play tests by our group. There was need for simplification in the mechanic and in the outline. I believe this version reads much smoother and spells out a somewhat simplified mechanic much more clearly.

Please take a look and let me know what you think.

Has anyone been able to play test the 0.6 version? I'd love to get a perspective outside of our own group.

Look for the Catapult Catch folder:
http://www.mediafire.com/?rfsh5y45i2eii

I really enjoy playing with this expansion variant and I'm glad I don't have to keep the tokens in the box with the catapult.

I think it's pretty complete. However some questions:

@ #3 Collecting tokens

1)
There is no mention of what happens when scoring multiple features in a single turn and within the (same) 9tile grid of a fair catapult tile. E.g. when using phantom scoring two features in one tile placement. Does this allow a player to take away two tokens from the stack when possible and score the acrobat, all in one go?

2) When my acrobat is topping the tokens but another player scores a feature within the 9tile grid, does that allow the scoring player to take away 1 token from under my acrobat?

Trebuchet - thank you for your questions and your interest!

For question 1) The fourth paragraph of section 3 addresses the scoring of multiple features within the vicinity of the catapult tile. The collection of the tokens are resolved in turn order starting with the current player. If he scores two features on the tile play he shall collect two tokens if they are available. Here is the quote: "In the case that multiple scored features are in the vicinity of multiple catapult tiles the current player shall have first choice from which tile to collect a token, then the option passes to the left." So in such a case he would collect two tokens before any remaining option passes to the left. The sentence as I've written it does seem to indicate only the case for multiple catapult tiles so this may need a re-write so it's clear that the rule applies whether the condition is for one catapult tile or multiple. I will get to work on that.

For question 2) The fifth sentence of the first paragraph of section 3 states "If there is an acrobat in place on the stack the token is removed from beneath him."

Thank you for the feedback! I'll post when I've completed the re-write.  :D

I thought as much, for the rest pretty straight forward. I don't think i like to toss the territory board around, might throw in a Barker meeple, basically like the teacher in school expansion.

So i have received my catapult expansion (last in a long row ;)) all i need now is an opponent. First (small) game played from now will be with the catapult catch, see how we go next week somewhere. Will let you know.

I've completed the re-write and called it revision 0_8. It's up on mediafire at the link below.

Thank you for the input Trebuchet - I included you in the credits!

I consider this complete and ready to be uploaded to the public download section.

My Carcassonne folder:
http://www.mediafire.com/?rfsh5y45i2eii

The catapult catch

play tested.

Session with:

Basic game
Inns & Cathedrals
Traders & Builders
Abbey & Mayor
catapult
festival
The catapult catch

We used a blue meeple to be the barker (instead of territory board).

After drawing a first catapult tile
1) the tokens were placed as described and the barker went to black
2) an acrobat was placed on top
3) a city was scored
4) therefore the barker received 2 points
5) a token was taken from underneath the acrobat and placed aside

In photos:

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/cpc01.JPG)

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/cpc02.JPG)

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/cpc03.JPG)

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/cpc04.JPG)


We wondered if this was the right sequence to do so in one turn, we thought it was. Question: Would the same apply if that city wasn't already meepled but would have had the phantom placed on it when this tile was played?


Remark: We changed the rule of a wagon being able to be an acrobat, that seemed rather silly. Instead we said that a mayor could be one which is more obvious, as a lot of mayors are jokers anyway.. ;D


photo halfway through the game:

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/halfway.JPG)

(!)
With two players we experienced a couple of times that eg pickpocket couldn't score due to the fact that the player who's acrobat became the pickpocket had the most tokens. Stealing a token was NA. You might want to add the rule that in these cases a 10 point reward is given to the acrobat, just like in the event no tokens are available to take from a player. Same goes for charlatan scoring as seen under.

1) situation
2) grey places a city tile + meeples it -> scores 4 points
3) barkers scores 2 points
4) token taken from underneath the acrobat, acrobat becomes charlatan. No scoring could be made (?) a) grey is closest by, but is the charlatan, we could have opted to only move forward grey the number of followers on the board, but we didn't, nothing said in the rules. Obviously the subsequental action of taking over the followers position on the board is NA. We left it there (with no score) Follower returned to stock.

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/cpc05.JPG)

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/cpc06.JPG)

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/cpc07.JPG)

then we just in time descovered another tokenstack was in the 9tile grid (see above). So barker gets another 2 points and the token is taken off and put in grey supply.

As we moved along we could estimate the outcome of acrobating a tokenstack. That added to the play, we took it the above mentioned sequence was the right sequence, so first place tokenstack and then decide whether to meeple it or not. Correct me if i'm wrong.

There is a lot of actions to make, counting to do and things to remember once a feature is scored within the 9tile grid. I wonder how this would be when playing with a bigger group or inexperienced players. It's very time consuming, that might become a problem. You need to be/stay quite concentrated also to have it all done correctly. It rather complicates the game (which i like)

It seemed that the end scores of token possession was a bit over the top with all the bonus scores.

Over all, we found it a great alternative for catapult expansion!

ow btw scores:
gray (forgot the metal  ::)) 412
black 264

end of game:

(http://www.thesaurus.co.nl/images/car/endgame.JPG)

The sequence should be as follows:
1. Place the tokens.
2. Move wood, Deploy the acrobat.
3. The acrobat becomes the barker. Remember the player only becomes the barker if he deploys the acrobat.
4. Score the features - in this case the city.
5. Collect a token per scored feature - in this case one token is released.
6. The barker is awarded 2 points if the token is collected. Remember that a scoring player may elect to not collect the token - in such a case the option for collecting the token passes to the acrobat. The acrobat may also decline to collect the token in which case the barker will not score 2 points. There may be strategy in not collecting a token - you may not want to be a mark for the pickpocket by having too many tokens. The acrobat may not want to score at that time - he may perhaps try to delay scoring in order to be able to victimize a certain follower that would be worth more points than the one he would be stuck with at the time.


You are to determine the opponent with the most tokens. In a two player game that would be the other player. If the other player has none then the pickpocket simply scores 10 points.


Again, here your #4 should come before your #3. The token is collected then the barker scores.

Also, you are to determine the closest opponent to resolve the charlatan. In your game it looks like either of the two black followers on the east side of the board would be within a six-tile count of the catapult tile. The acrobat/charlatan would have his choice of these two. If however there are no opponents on the board at the time then the charlatan misses the opportunity to score but comes back to his supply anyway. I think this is not directly addressed in the rules so I will add it.


Yes, the scoring of the first catapult tile triggered the release of a token from the remaining catapult tile because the catapult tiles are located in the same nine-tile grid. The scoring of any feature can release only one token - no matter how many catapult tiles are in the vicinity. So in this case the scoring of the city released one token - it could have been collected from either catapult tile. Since it was collected from the tile with only one token left it caused the acrobat to score - which released a token on the second catapult tile.


Yes, that is the correct sequence - place tokens then move wood. Remember the token on the bottom of the stack is chosen by lot - although it will be one of the two tokens that the player to the right of the current player selects.


There are the matters of determining the closest player and then counting followers. It becomes easier as you get familiar with the mechanic. Mostly, the acrobat will already have it determined knowing what token he has on the bottom stack. He'll have a good idea what his reward will be.


Do you think the 2 points per token is too much or is it the bonus points? I think the bonus points are necessary - but perhaps not the 2 points per token.


This is awesome - thank you so much for the feedback. It's great to see the mechanic in play and to get another perspective.  :D

Carcking, thanks for clearing up some issues! It appears we slightly misunderstood/missread some rules, possibly due to the 'translation' of the rules to a 2 persons game, as most examples in your rules sheet handle 4 persons gameplay. Most likely due to the fact we wanted to start the game soonest without a whole reread, but with rules at hand and see how we would go.

About end scoring, I suppose you could leave rules unchanged, in a more persons game lesser sets would be collected anyway i reckon, and the possenssion of tokens would be more scattered, balancing the score most likely.

Merit given with pleasure!

This has been added to the Forum Download section on the website.