Carcassonne Central

Found this at BoardGameGeek:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118617/carcassonne-goldmine (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118617/carcassonne-goldmine)

Could this one be Scott and Noveltys Goldmines ?

Found this one also on BoardGameGeek:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118618/carcassonne-magier-und-hexe (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118618/carcassonne-magier-und-hexe)

Could this be JPutts Wizards and witches ?

Carcassone - Die Räuber (The robbers)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118616/carcassonne-die-rauber (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118616/carcassonne-die-rauber)

Carcassone - Die depeschen des Königs (The cables of the king???) Maybe 'By the orders of the king' though I'm not sure
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118619/carcassonne-die-depeschen-des-konigs (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118619/carcassonne-die-depeschen-des-konigs)

Carcassone - Die Fähren (The ferries)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118614/carcassonne-die-fahren (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118614/carcassonne-die-fahren)

Carcassone - Die Fluggeräte (The aircrafts)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118615/carcassonne-die-fluggerate (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118615/carcassonne-die-fluggerate)

Ok, some new exps for Carcassonne, bo some more info would be great.

Well, title of two of them (The ferries and The aircrafts) will bring something really new to the game.

The 6 new expansions are actually all mini-expansions according to the available information. And that's about all there is about these expansions for the moment.

I sincerely hope they are not ripping us off now after turning our ideas down for so long.  That would be terrible.  I guess we shall see.

Yes, there is something very strange with this expansion set. Ferries doesn't make any sense since Rivers aren't a full-blown expansion with full integration. Aircrafts certainly don't make sense since this game takes place in the Middle Ages. The Robbers seem off because Carcassonne already has a robber baron. And the "telegraphs of the king" just seems strange, unless it is an implementation of By Order of the King. I am very concerned with the direction Carcassonne is going if these expansions are an image of the future. Stick to logic and the Middle Ages, Hans im Glück.

I fear that those exps will be a rip off exp from cc. By the order of king is a nice idea to implement into carcassonne, but not in way that would hurt jputtys idea.
Still, I am waiting for compilation with crop circles and tunels. Someone know when it will be released?
I tried to find some more info but there is nothing else than names. No short story behind that. If someone will know something, just report it here also.

The idea of aircrafts actually isn't that far off. Even Da Vinci invented some of them on paper.

Yes, this feels weird. Unsettling.

Wasn't it the intention to get some of the CC-expansions released by HiG or RGG and they were somehow put on hold a while back ?

I expect so.

@Scott. You know something more?

well that would then blur the lines of royalties owed to also bluring the line of who owns what.
On one hand you have us the Community who have released ALOT of expansions for a game we know and love to help broaden it and we have released them for free more or less

Wouldn't you feel rather peeved that suddenly your work is yes going to be "official" now but that any new fans are going to have to pay to get ahold of your work that you previously offered for free? This of course applies that it is the SAME EXACT expansion if its not and HiG is just taking our ideas splashing some new paint on them and calling them "original HiG ideas" which if they do that I still WOULD NOT BUY THEM because it would feel like a TOTAL sell out.

But the question is also the money, will the original authors get a share of the profit or are they just going to be given a lump sum to buy the rights or are they gonna just extort a legal loop hole and seize the idea? I mean if I am gonna pay for something someone made I really prefer to pay the ACTUAL creator of the work I mean A group I listen to called Assemblage 23 has a album called Addendum that when I last saw it was going for 60 bucks USED on amazon. so is Tom Shear getting a Profit from this person pretty much reselling his work?(in this case I contacted him directly and he made me a burned and SIGNED copy of the cd for 20 bucks)

But in a word Yes I don't feel right about this announcement at all.

And an announcement is actually all it is right now. There is no other information. Just the fact that HiG will release some new mini-expansions. So why don't we just wait till more info filters out.

Here's my perspective as one of the authors affected by this situation:

The expansions that I was involved in making, I did primarily for the love of the game, and because I saw something that was both missing from the game and IMHO better than some things we were seeing from HiG. I would venture to say that some of the other expansion authors had the same motivation.

Just in case it's not clear to everyone, we authors collectively decided to approach Jay from RGG about having one or more CarcCentral expansions published officially, and Jay contacted HiG. We wanted this to happen. I have not seen anything yet to indicate that we are not going to be credited for our ideas, so I think it is premature to say that HiG is taking credit.

On the next point I can only speak for myself. I was not specifically looking to make money from this, but to promote CarcCentral. It's why every expansion we publish has the CarcCentral logo at the end of the rules document. If anybody offers to send money my way, I would of course accept it. At the very least I would hope that the publisher would give me a copy of my expansion for free. A free copy of each CarcCentral expansion would be even nicer. By getting published, we'll be reaching a much wider audience. I would hope that far more people play Carcassonne than the number of people that show up here. I'd love to be able to point to a published expansion and say, "Yeah, I made that."

I don't think there has been any discussion yet about what would happen after a CarcCentral expansion got published. I have not heard anything from RGG or HiG that they would want us to stop offering our expansion for free. There are games that have gone from print-and-play to published and the print-and-play version is still available. The publisher may opt to have some/all of the artwork redone by Doris Matthaus for better consistency, which would make the published version slightly different and of higher quality. The fact that it would be professionally produced instead of labels stuck to tiles would also mean higher quality. The publisher would need to make money to justify publishing the expansion, and Doris would need to be paid as well. I expect Klaus-Jurgen Wrede will also make some money as the original author of the game. I expect each expansion will cost around the same as River II or the Count ($7.95 CDN at my FLGS).

If you still don't want to buy them, there will be no hard feelings from me. Some people are either not comfortable with print-and-play, or not satisfied with the difference in quality. Some people appear to stress about whether their print-and-play tiles will feel different from the official ones. What I can tell you is that I would be far more comfortable paying $8 for By Order of the King than the $20 that I spent on The Catapult. Part of me was miserable that I spent $20 on an expansion I disliked and would probably never play. The other part of me would have been miserable if I hadn't because I'm a completionist and need to have everything.

No, I'm just looking at the title of the expansion and can't imagine it would be anything else.

Very well said Scott.  I wasn't quite sure what my thoughts were on this whole development, but I think you've done a nice job of encompassing most of them. I think I would be disappointed at this point if some of these new expansions were NOT some of our work. Besides, like you mentioned, given some of the titles I'm not sure how they could be anything else. As one of the potentially impacted authors, I'm personally excited, and eagerly awaiting more news!

I found this:

Hans im Glück: Carcassonne: 7 Mini-Erweiterungen in 6 Schachteln   

24.01.12: Wenn Sie unsere tabellarische Messevorschau verfolgt haben, sind Ihnen bereits die 6 Mini-Erweiterungen für Carcassonne aufgefallen, die der Hans im Glück Verlag in Nürnberg präsentieren wird. Jede kleine Box enthält acht neue Karten und zusätzliches Spielmaterial aus Holz und kostet 3 EUR. Wer alle sechs Minis kauft, hat damit eine siebte Erweiterung "Die Kornkreise", denn in jeder Box steckt eine Karte dafür.

http://www.spielbox-online.de/

Google Translate


The picture is also very interesting:
(http://www.spielbox-online.de/aktimgsp/A1327413059.jpg)

This is a counter-top box similar to what they did for the Phantom expansion. Each of the six expansions has one crop circle tile included in the box. Not sure where the rules for Crop Circles will be printed though. Very easy for the store owners because they just need to open along the perforations and fold the top up.

I'm going to contact Jay and see what he can tell us.

Too bad that picture is so small, I'd love to see more detail  ;)
I'm very excited to get all of them  ;D
6x€3 = €18  ,that's about as much as 1,5 normal expansions cost around here.
48 tiles and some wood pieces in total. The price sounds right  8)

Consider me intrigued. I want a bigger picture now too!

Doris has definitely been at work here. Here's my guess and what we're looking at:

#1 - A person with wings strapped to their back (Aircraft)
#2 - A man on a horse (By Order of the King)
#3 - A man in a boat (Ferries)
#4 - A man of some sort; can't tell what he is doing (Gold Mines?)
#5 - Two people (Wizards and Witches)
#6 - A man with a backpack (The Robbers)

I sent a message to Jay through his BGG account, so we'll see what he knows.

I get the "By Order of the King" connection...but do the other three; The Robbers, The Ferries and The Aircrafts correlate to any of our CC fanspansions?

Any guesses?

It appears to me that the boxes are all the same size, and not the right size for a standard deck of cards - they are too small. The boxes seem to be the same size as the Count box, for example. If By Order of the King is one of the minis they may have re-sized the cards.

I hear what you're saying Scott and I can appreciate it, but here is my question.  Why would Jay not make us aware of this?  I've been writing to him at least once every two months for information.  The last real answer I got from him was that HiG was not interested in any of our work but gave him permission to pursue something on his own (like GQ11).  That was a long time ago and each time I've asked him since, he hasn't gotten around to looking yet.  Personally, though none of theses are mine, I'd be quite disappointed if they published some CC ideas without so much as a nod in our direction.  By all appearances, as of now, there is no mention of any outside influence.  I'm anxious to see what happens.

Wow, this is exciting. Can't wait to see what these are!  :D

I have to say I'm with CK. It would be disappointing...

Small descriptions from 999Games.....translated:

The Airplanes: the planes fly meeples to different tiles, but where they will land is still unknown!
Newsflash: Players get an extra meeple on the scoreboard, with which they can draw a news-message to gain extra points
Ferries: with the ferries you can connect roads to ferry-docks
Goldmines: collect goldpieces. The more you have, the more they are worth!
Wizards And Witches: The wizard makes you gain points, while the witch cuts them in half!!
Robber: With the robber you can score someone else's points.

◦In Carcassonne: De Vliegtuigen vliegen horigen over andere tegels, maar waar ze precies landen is ongewis.
◦In Carcassonne: Nieuwsberichten krijgen de spelers een extra horige op het scorespoor, waarmee ze soms een nieuwsbericht mogen trekken en extra punten scoren.
◦In Carcassonne: De Veerboten kunnen spelers wegen met veerponten verbinden.
◦In Carcassonne: De Goudmijnen verzamelen de spelers goudstukken. Hoe meer ze er verzamelen, des te meer zijn ze per stuk waard.
◦In Carcassonne: Tovenaar en Heks levert de tovenaar extra punten bij een telling op, terwijl de heks de punten juist halveert.
◦In Carcassonne: De Rovers kunnen spelers meeprofiteren van de eerstvolgende telling van een speler naar keuze.

Sounds interesting.

It's interesting that "By Order of the King", or whatever they are calling it is translated as "Newsflash."  Ferries makes the most sense to me.  Still, the names they chose are quite suspect.

This is definitely a nice surprise, I too am anxious to see these up close! I wonder if this was what RGG was eluding to when they said there will be compilations coming out this year, however, these all look like new expansions. I sure hope they don't turn out to be a rip off of the CC expansions though..

Here's the message I got back from Jay:

I guess I won't need to design more tuckboxes, since it looks like each will be a separate box for purchase. (At some level that makes me happy.  I've designed tuckboxes for several expansion now that I don't even own!

Larger picture.... well, 6 more expansions + known exp from previous spielbox + 2 unknown. Nice. That would mean some spend money in this year, and maybe another layer in my box :) I have a feeling that in this year there will be some move in Carcassonne. Well, good cause most of the CC expansions that I want I have printed.

(http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt322/rfid69/minis.jpg)

We've got a much better quality large photo of the box for the new expansions. Let's just say I am very much relieved. The expansions are numbered. Each have their own icons. Jay has stated that they will release in the United States in March or April. And best of all, they are properly themed! Judging from the photographs, these are my expectations for their names:

1. The Flying Machine
2. The Dispatches
3. The Ferry
4. The Goldmines
5. The Wizard & the Witch
6. The Robber
7. The Corn Circles

The "Aircrafts" clearly show a person wearing a wing of some sort. Nothing as advanced as da Vinci nor as modern as an airplane. Translating the name into English may take some work since it really isn't a "machine" but it also clearly isn't an "aircraft" other than it being capable of flight. The "Telegraphs of the King" seemed to have been over spoken and the picture and name, I believe, are more directly translated into simply "The Dispatches". No mention of the king is in the name on the box. The rest of the translations seem to be sound.

As I stated on BGG, I have a strong feeling that the bonus tiles will remain Corn Circles even though RGG is releasing Corn Circles, Plague & Tunnels around the same time. They already have the artwork done for that expansion and I can't see them changing direction now unless they surprise us with something else as the bonus tiles or drop the bonus entirely, which seems unlikely since it is obviously a marketing angle. Two sets of Corn Circles isn't the end of the world, right?

Now, I need to get to making a new cover for the CAR that includes The School and these new expansions, as well as the new RGG compilation. And Matt Harper needs to get working on adding these new expansions to his rule booklet! Pronto!

Woooohooooo .... I see Da Vinci's wings  ;D

http://tinyurl.com/78sy3qb (http://tinyurl.com/78sy3qb)

I tried uploading individual box images to BGG, but they were rejected for being too small. Here they are in case anybody wants them:

(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3711/aircraftx.jpg) (http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9714/despatches.jpg) (http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2652/fahren.jpg) (http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9127/goldmine.jpg) (http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6793/wizardsz.jpg) (http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/71/robber.jpg)

I'm a little more at ease seeing them up close, but I still need to see the rules before I can decide for sure whether or not I'm upset. 

I'd be pleased with the addition of the Corn Circles.  Besides the School, it's the only one I don't have.  If I can get it, I won't have to get the RGG compilation.  I'm a completionist, but not to the extent that I have to buy multiples.  I'll get the Festival tiles from Carcatronn and I'll be good to go.

I wonder how many tiles are in each?  I'm amused that the watermark for the robber looks like the robber from Catan... I think, doesn't it?

The boxes in the display container look a decent thickness too, so hopefully they will be around 12 piece expansions.

I think I saw somewhere that some contain wooden pieces too, but I expect that they are all either 6 or 12.

According to the original announcement, there's supposed to be 8 tiles plus any applicable wooden pieces.

I also having something of a personal dilemma with the upcoming release of Corn Circles, Plague, and Tunnel from RGG. I have all three of those already from Spielbox/Cundco. :-\

I'm happy with the mini-expansions, I miss your crop circles and the addition is acceptable, will be mine.

Do anybody knows if RGG compilation will be released in EU? Cause don't have any of them and I want to buy them. Tunnels, and plague most wanted.

neosatan: I doubt it will get a Europe release since its origins are in the United States. Carcassonne expansions seem to only go one way, to the US. If it originates in the US, it generally doesn't go back. Plus, all the included expansions have already been available domestically in Germany. In the US, they all had to be imported. I definitely recommend The Plague, though. Totally awesome.

Scott: I too read that announcement. Eight (8) tiles per expansion, plus the Corn Circle tile, bringing each box up to 9 tiles. Then there are also the wood pieces. I suspect, partially from the icons, that Ferries and Robber will have wood. Dispatches has already announced a wood piece for that. The other three seem to have simply enough rules that they probably don't have wood. Why they are the same size box, then, is beyond me, unless they throw in something anyway à la Catan Dutch Scenarios (those player-specific dice are so awesome).

CKorfmann: I also have the dilemma. I already have all three mini expansions in CCP&T yet the completionist in me wants it anyway. Especially if they all have unifying tile icons. The English rules will also be nice because I don't have English rules for Corn Circles and only have crappy English rules for the other two. If they include Corn Circles in the RGG release of the Carcassonne Minis, then I will have THREE COPIES of it if I also buy CCP&T.

Oh, and the robber icon actually looks a lot like the Count mashed up with the King meeple included in Citadels.

On a side note, doesn't CCP&T look a lot like CCCP, the abbreviation for the Soviet Union in Cyrillic?

Get the magazines from Spielbox. Plague came with issue 2010/6; your choice of German (http://www.nostheide.de/webshop/xtcommerce/product_info.php?info=p154_spielbox-2010-6---German-edition.html&XTCsid=37bcac668013e01b7815f3664c02e7b7) or English (http://www.nostheide.de/webshop/xtcommerce/product_info.php?info=p153_spielbox-2010-6---English-edition.html&XTCsid=37bcac668013e01b7815f3664c02e7b7). Tunnels came with issue 2009/6 (http://www.nostheide.de/webshop/xtcommerce/product_info.php?info=p126_spielbox-2009-6.html&XTCsid=37bcac668013e01b7815f3664c02e7b7). Shipping will be cheaper to you than it was to me.

I'm pretty sure Gold Mine will have wood pieces because the description talks about collecting gold.

I think it could be a coin bag or loot bag.

I bought The Count separate, cult siege and creativity, cathars...also Graf Konig und Consorten....i double dipped a few times already.

I already own Plague, Tunnels and Circles from the spielbox magazines and I bought a base set of Carcassonne that also contained crop circles. I do want the RGG box coming this spring, and I'm also afraid it will be released in Germany or Holland later this year or sometime in the future.

I cant wait for these minis though.

I might put all my sealed spielbox magazines up on Ebay one of these days...I guess...

The expansion rules are up on BGG in the item descriptions for each expansion.  So much for the dice prohabition...  The Carcassonne universe may never be the same.  Perhaps the Mayans are on to something.

Yes, the flying machine rules sound awful (dice... really?)

I'm also not sure about the dispatches (seeing as I use a modified scoreboard from here at CC) but the others sound really interesting, particularly the ferries (if I understand the rules right, there are road intersections that can be modified during the game as to which roads are connected to which).

Yes, the Flier seems pretty weak out of all six of the minis. Fitting that it includes a dice mechanic.

Taken directly from BGG....so they're all in one spot!

In Carcassonne: The Messages, a small expansion for Carcassonne, players place a second meeple (included in this expansion) on the score board at the start of the game. Whenever they score points during the game, they decide which scoring meeple to advance; if a meeple lands on one of the dark spaces on the score track (0, 5, 10, etc.) and the owner of that meeple is the active player, then that player draws the top message tile from the track and either scores two points for it or takes the action shown on the tile. The possibilities are:
•   Score that player's smallest road, city or cloister as if it were the end of the game, but leave the meeple in place.
•   Score two points for each banner in a city that player occupies or two points for each of that player's knights.
•   Score three points for each of that player's farmers.
•   Draw and play an additional tile.
•   Score one follower and return it to that player's supply.
Whichever option the player chooses, he then places that tile on the bottom of the message stack.
At the end of the game, players add the scores represented by their two scoring meeples, place one meeple on that sum, then figure out their final scoring, earning no more messages.

Carcassonne: The Ferries, a small expansion for Carcassonne, includes eight new land tiles that show three or four road segments leading to a lake in the center of the tile; these tiles are mixed with the other tiles in the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, she places it following the normal rules, decides whether to place a follower (and if on a road as a robber, on which segment), then places a ferry on the tile to connect two of the road segments. Any segments not connected by a ferry end in the lake. Whenever a player extends a road that contains one or more ferries – whether by placing a Ferries tile or a regular road tile – she may move the first ferry closest to that tile in each direction of the road to connect different road segments. If this movement leads to a road being closed at both ends, that road now scores.

In Carcassonne: The Flier, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles showing a pair of wings are mixed with the other tiles to be used in the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, he places it according to the normal rules. He then has the option of placing a follower on this tile as normal or of attempting to fly a new follower to a nearby tile. This meeple will travel in the direction determined by the wings' orientation; the distance (1-3 tiles) is determined by a die roll. If a tile exists in this location, he can place the meeple on any unfinished, non-field location, whether that feature is occupied or not; if no tile exists in this location or all the non-field features are complete, then the player places no meeple this turn. Crash!

In Carcassonne: The Goldmines, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles showing a gold bar are mixed with the other tiles being used in the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles during play, she places the tile according to the normal rules, then places one gold bar on this tile and one gold bar on any adjacent tile, whether orthogonally or diagonally adjacent. She may then place a follower as normal on the tile placed this turn.
Whenever any feature is completed – whether on the same turn or a later turn – and one or more tiles of the completed feature have gold bars on them, these bars are distributed among the players involved in the scoring. If one player has a majority of followers on the completed feature, she collects all of the gold bars available; if two or more players are tied in the number of followers present, then gold bars are distributed among those tied players, going clockwise from the active player.
At the end of the game, any unclaimed gold bars are removed from the board before final scoring. Each gold bar is worth 1-4 points depending on how many bars a player has collected.

In Carcassonne: Mage & Witch, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles bearing a mage symbol are mixed with the other tiles at the start of the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, she plays it as normal following the standard placement rules. She then either places or moves the mage or witch on the playing area; both figures can be placed only on incomplete roads and cities, and both cannot be on the same road or in the same city. The player must place or move one of these figures, if possible. She then optionally places a follower on the tile just played.
Whenever a feature bearing a mage or witch scores, whether during the game or at game's end, the mage/witch adjusts the points scored for this feature. The mage adds one point for each tile in the feature, while the witch cuts the number of points scored for this feature in half, rounded up. After such scoring, place the mage/witch next to the score track to await the drawing of the next mage tile.

In Carcassonne: The Robber, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles bearing a robber symbol are mixed with the other tiles at the start of the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, he places it as normal according to the standard rules, then he places his robber figure – a special meeple included in this expansion – on the score track next to the score marker of any other player. The next player in turn order who has a robber off the scoring track also places a robber adjacent to the score marker of any opponent.
Whenever a score marker accompanied by a robber moves on the score track, the owner of the robber moves his own score marker forward half that many spaces, rounded up, then removes his robber from the score track. (The one exception: If a player moves his score marker by robbing someone else, any robbers on that space move with that player's score marker and wait to rob that player following a normal scoring.) If two or more score markers are on the same space with a robber and both score, the robber's owner can choose who to rob.

Apart from The Ferries expansion, it seems like all the landscape tiles will be already existing tiles with added symbols on them.
I don't want to sound like a party pooper, but I would have loved to see some new tiles but with neutral artwork, not old tiles with hideous artwork splattered onto them. New tiles with existing mechanics (like building a lake or a forest with the same mechanics as building a castle, or 4 way wells without hideous artwork), not old tiles with yet new and crazy mechanics. I love Carcassone also for the aesthetics.

The 100-point CarcCentral scoreboard has shaded spaces on the multiples of five, so all should be well with regards to Messages. I fully expect players will now be deliberately scoring small numbers of points to land on as many dark spaces as possible.

The value of gold bars in Goldmines is interesting in that all players can score points for them, not just who collects the most. I wonder what effect this would have if applied to trade goods.

I'm surprised that with The Robber you're not actually stealing points from anybody, just gaining half as many for yourself. I'll make sure to score a 2-point road if a robber is standing next to me. ;D

I hope that for those expansions which include player-specific meeples, that they give us six colors and not just five.

Of these I think the Ferries sounds very intreguing. It sounds like the ferry works kind of like a rail switch. The player who extends the road gets to swing the ferry so that is connects the two segments of road on that tile that favor him. Two or more players can vie for the position of the ferry until someone completes his road thereby locking the ferry into place.

Is that what anyone else is getting from it?

There are two minis that involve the scoreboard. This will mess with Scott's Score Keeper application - and may be challenging to overcome. For the Messages we'll need to be able to track a second marker on the scoreboard and the player will have to choose which one to advance when he is scoring. A landing on a multiple of 5 for either one should flag that a message needs to be drawn. At end game the position of the two markers will need to be added together. Maybe that part can be done manually by manually adding one score into the other.

The Robber is another challenge which could also be handled manually - the difficult part then I would think would be remembering who you robbed and remembering to take half the score when the opportunity comes up. Maybe there would be a way to flag each marker that is being robbed and by what color.

I just had a thought...what if you play Robber with Messages? Your one marker gets robbed so you decide to only ever move the other. The robbing player's robber marker will become trapped until you finally decide to score with that particular marker. ...hmmmm..

The additional scoring marker mechanic from Messages gives me an idea about tracking the value of farms during the game...each players' farms can be tracked so the players know the relative value of each - so it's not as much of an unknown at game end. I think I'll give this a try in the next session and see if I like it. You could just pick a point about midway through the game and tally up the current position of the farmers - then add the marker to the scoreboard. No need to track it right from the beginning.

Thoughts?

Some interesting mechanics... That gives me an idea...
I wonder how will graphics look and when it will be out. Also prices are interesting thing. In my country micro exps are prices for a 2/3 (or 3/4 with some resellers) of a exp price, and I wonder if with them it will be the same case...

Yes, that's how I understand Ferries to work.

Hmm.... I really don't want to completely change my scoring application for two mini-expansions. Robber might be possible, but complicated. Messages would require a complete redesign from the ground up.

I'm not keen on trying to track farm value during the game because farm ownership is volatile. Farms can become connected and worthless to one of the players involved. Or maybe a player uses a barn. I think you'd just be making extra work for yourself because you'd have to start over on calculating farm value.

I just edited the descriptions on the BGG Wiki for the six new expansions and thought I would share my re-writes. Wherever the original rules came from, they are poorly written. I suspect Rio Grande did the translations, as they are often awful at translating things (see Stone Age: Style rules). In any case, here are my complete rewrites of them. They are lacking some info such as the messages bonus tiles, but they are also somewhat clearer than the original descriptions:

Carcassonne - Die Fluggeräte (The Flier) (2012)
8 tiles, 1 die showing 1-3 pips twice
Place the tiles as per normal. The player then has the option of placing a follower on the new tile or attempting to fly the follower to a nearby tile. The follower flies in the direction indicated by the flier icon on the tile. The distance is determined by a die roll. After rolling the die, if a tile exists at the specified location, the player may place a follower on any unfinished, non-field location, even if it is already occupied. If no tile exists at that location, if all the features are completed on that tile, or if it is an all-field tile, a follower cannot be placed this turn.

Carcassonne - Die Depeschen des Königs (The Messages) (2012)
8 message tiles, 6 followers (one in each color)
At the beginning of the game, players place a second follower on the scoreboard. Whenever a player scores points, they can choose which follower to move on the scoreboard. If a player lands on one of the dark spaces on the score track (0, 5, 10...) and it is their turn, that player may draw the top message tile from the track and either score two points for it or take the action shown on the tile. The message is then placed at the bottom of the message stack. At the end of the game, the total scores for the two followers on the scoreboard are added together. No further messages can be earned when the game has ended.

Carcassonne - Die Fähren (The Ferries) (2012)
8 tiles, 8 fairies
Place the tiles as per normal. The player then decides whether to place a follower. If the player choose to place the follower on a road segment, the player then places a ferry between two of the road segments, thereby connecting them. Any segments not connected by the ferry end in the lake. Whenever a player places a tile that is connected to a ferry, that player may move the closest ferry to connect to a different road segment. Any roads closed by this action are scored and the followers removed.

Carcassonne - Die Goldminen (The Goldmines) (2012)
8 tiles, 16 gold bars
Place the tiles as per normal, then place a gold bar on this tile and on any one adjacent tile (orthogonal or diagonal). Place a follower as per normal. Whenever a feature is scored and has gold bars on it, those gold bars are distributed to the players scoring. If there is a tie between players, the gold bars are distributed in a clockwise rotation until none are left. Otherwise, the winner receives all the gold bars. At game end, each gold bar is worth the number of gold bars owned with a value of up to 4 points each.

Carcassonne - Magier und Hexe (Mage & Witch) (2012)
8 tiles, 1 violet mage figure, 1 orange witch figure
Place the tiles as per normal. The player then decides whether to place or move the mage or the witch. The figures can be placed on incomplete roads and cities, and they cannot be on the same feature. The player can only move one figure, if possible. The player may then place a follower as per normal. Whenever a feature with a mage scores, an additional point per tile is added to the final score of the feature. Whenever a feature with the witch scores, a point per tile is subtracted from the final score of the feature. Both numbers are rounded up. Whenever a feature with the mage or witch are scored, the figure is removed from the board until the next mage tile is drawn.

Carcassonne - Die Räuber (The Robber) (2012)
8 tiles, 6 robber followers (one in each color)
Place the tiles as per normal, then the player places their robber figure on the score track next to the score marker of any other player. The next player who has not yet placed their robber also placer a robber on the scoring track beside another player's score marker. Whenever a player moves their score marker and there is a robber beside it, the player with the robber earns half the points of the score marker and then removes their robber. The player who earned the original points retains all their points. Robbers do not earn points from another player's robbery. If a robber earns points, any robbers attached to that player's score marker move with it and do not score for the robbery. If there are two score markers on the same space as a robber and both score, the robber's owner can choose whom to rob.

Also, I think the Messages expansion includes 6 standard followers. Nothing special about them. I could be wrong, but the rules suggest no unique traits about them. Kind of strange...

You have stated that the Witch takes one point per tile away from scoring.  The "original" rules on BGG state that the Witch cuts the score in half.  Do you know which is more accurate?

Hmm. Were the original a translation or did I just screw them up? Half seems harsh either way. Especially for cities. Ugh. I'll check. Is that the only error you saw?

Yes, besides a typo in the Robber.

Personally, these expsanions are a bit of a disappointment.  In truth many of the ideas from members of this are far better thought out and add more to the game than most of the HiG expansions offered recently.  As someone already pointed out Dice .... But these exspansion also come from the same people that thought the catapult was a good idea so what is to be expected.  All that said, sadly the completionist in me will compel me to get them all the same even if the only time they are removed from the package will be simply to look at the tiles.   "sigh"
Does anyone think this is becoming more and more like Stephen Kings books.  Write anything knowing people will buy it to read regardless based on name recognition?

You are the exact reason they are making expansions of this low quality.  Because they know people like you exist and against all common sense will still buy something not worth playing.

I didn't buy Catapult or several of the most recent small expansions.  I did this in the hopes that this current trend of poor design would end quickly.  I guess there are more people like you than myself.

Exactly my opinion.

But sadly, I will probably buy them...or else they will be bought for me as gifts.

Kudos to you  ;)

But there are a lot of self confessed and I suspect other closet completionist's on these forums other than myself.  Anyway at least I am past denial and admitting to a problem is the first step to recovery.  Also in my defense the catapult was a gift from a friend from overseas and therefore impossible to return.  :P

I just wish they wouldn't be too proud to pony up some $$$ for the good ideas found on CC.

Here here!

As much as I'd have loved to have seen one of our ideas get published over these, we at least are getting 6 new expansions. And unless I missed something, nobody has yet to try them out. Maybe I'm alone on this, but I actually thought most of these seem pretty enjoyable. I don't understand how anyone is already willing and able to condemn them when they have yet to even be seen in their entirety. But that's just my two cents!

I have to say that I'm disappointed that they sound so much like CC expansions especially after they turned ours down.  I'd be shocked if they are not adaptations of "ours".  That said, for what they are, I have to agree that for the most part they do sound intersting and I will likely add them to my collection.  They all seem fairly simple to impliment and easy to integrate.  The only mechanic I'm not fond of is the addition of the die, but that is more a matter principle.  Plus, it let's me add Corn Circles without having to buy anything bigger.

How will the robber work if you're playing with the tower? If the robber is next to your meeple and you "pay" 3 points to get a captured meeple back, will the robber get negative points as well? I doubt it but I really hope it does work this way. Could make for some very interesting, evil game play

hmm... Don't be so harsh on them yet. When the exps will be released we can all brag about evil company stealing money. But serious. I look forward cause when rules will be stupid I will just change them by house rules. Mechanic is interesting and maybe it will need some tweaks.
on the other side you complain about catapult but seriously exp isn't so bad. I don't have it but already played couple of times and idea of launching tokens is somethig nice. I had much fun with it since with thouse games me and two friends got couple of beers an shoting to meeples was something relaxing than usual brainstorm to get most points and go with agressive tactic toward opponents. I like carcassonne cause every game can be diffrent and that is caused by variety of expansions. Both fan and officials.
I want to buy catapult for my own, but for the moment i am occupied by fanedps i am doing and testing. Another thing is that i will also buy wheel of fortune and jubille edition even if have base game already.
I like playing mega card games but not always have time to go with game of 400 tiles or more so sone exps i play wo

Neo, you are right on with this. That is the way to enjoy the Catapult - you have to take it very lightly and for fun. Taken in that direction it can be quite enjoyable.  :D

Maybe that is the way some of these minis must be taken. Maybe we're expecting too much. But I think the frustration is coming from the fact that they had our ideas sitting on their desks as they were developing these seemingly lesser ideas.

Still we have to give them a chance. I can't speak for my whole group on matters of taste.

Credits to milan-spiele.de for these images  ;D

(http://www.milan-spiele.de/spielemesse/2012_01/IMG_0350.jpg)
(http://www.milan-spiele.de/spielemesse/2012_01/IMG_0351.jpg)
(http://www.milan-spiele.de/spielemesse/2012_01/IMG_0352.jpg)
(http://www.milan-spiele.de/spielemesse/2012_01/IMG_0353.jpg)
(http://www.milan-spiele.de/spielemesse/2012_01/IMG_0354.jpg)
(http://www.milan-spiele.de/spielemesse/2012_01/IMG_0355.jpg)

Yay, I'm proven wrong! New pictures of the actual tiles and figures are up! http://boardgamegeek.com/article/8409037#8409037 Best of all, the Messenger meeples are slightly different. You can see them from two different angles and they definitely have a little hat or something on to make them appear different. These new expansions look pretty swell, I have to say for myself. I think I like the ferries the most since the routes may open and close multiple times in one game.

Not just on BGG  ;D

And what's even cooler ..... those are new crop circle tiles  ;D
Looks like those people who don't have the first 6 tiles yet, still need to find those somewhere.

AWESOME!!!

I noticed that.  And here I thought I didn't have to buy the old ones.   Oh well...

I find it quite interesting that they included four new cloisters in the Gold Mine expansion.  All of them appear to be new configurations as well.  I wonder why they chose to add so many.  Aside from those, the ferries, and the new Crop Circles, it looks like the only unique, single tile configuration is the CCCR tile (seperate cities) in the center of the Wizard & Witch expansion.  I don't recall seeing that one in an official expansion.

I'm very much liking the looks of these. I especially like the fact that they chose to create 6 all-new crop circle tiles. For those that don't have the originals, I would assume those will be ones included in the upcoming Corn Circles, Plague, and Tunnels expansion. I want these now!   ;D

Sign me up.  All six and the Crop Circles, Tunnels and Plague.  It'll be a good set of additions.  I'm very excited.

These look sweet - and cudos to HiG for 6 new crop circles tiles - they look awesome. I like the different meeple too. I'm inclined to even give the Flier a try now.

I agree that the Ferries is the most attractive, to me anyway - it looks like it has the most playability.

I did notice that there are no new dead-end tiles. This is obviously something they feel the need to regulate.

I'm looking forward to getting them all now!  :D

Looks like those new crop circles don't have a watermark. Maybe HiG decided to leave it away 'cause they are actually 6 separate tiles.

I just found it. It's just very small  ;D

So what will we call the #2 guy, the Dispatcher?  Of course, now that there are two new meeples for the supply, one of the first things I thought about is when/if Meeple Source will get these in their new colors.  :-\  I suppose I can ask.

I cannot wait to get my hands on these!! I am interested most in the ferries and the wizard/witch, but they all look fantastic!

Looks like you are the winner.  The meeples look pretty much just like the icon.  My guess is that they are intended to be coin bags.

Now that I can see these expansions I only want to get them more (particularly ferries). The new crop circle tiles look awesome, so getting them all (even if I am pessimistic about the flyer) is practically a given...

hmmm...I missed it the first time but I have to correct myself...there is a new dead-end tile. It's the crop circle tile in the Ferries set. So that's one amongst 41 new tiles.

Anyone have an idea what the grassy knoll image is supposed to be on the Flier? A couple of those tiles are just ffff with this grassy knoll.

I don't think it's intended for foul play.  ;)  I believe it is meant aesthetically as a launching point for the bird man.

As for including the Crop Circles, someone in their marketing department is using their noodle!

Those things are indeed small hills for the 'birdman' to jump off.
Even without playing the flier rules, it's nice to have some FFFF tiles in play when playing regular Carc with these tiles thrown in.

Hello Carcking,

I think the grassy knoll is a small hill where the flyer starts.

My guess it would be just something to give the little flyer something to jump off of to get airbourne.

Edit: opps, didn't notice there was a next page!

I'm definitely looking forward to these. My initial reaction to seeing the ferries was disappointment ("A rectangle? That's it?!?"), but actually it sort of makes sense since the road pieces in Catan look just like that. Also very happy that the Corn Circle tiles are completely different from the first set which I bought from Cundco.

Hi guys,

New to posting in this forum but have been checking it regulary for months. Thought i would pass on a message, earlier today i got an newsletter email from cunco.de.

It had news of the mini expansions and that they will be on show at the nürnberg toy fair. Hopefully meaning the release will be soon after.

Also had info about the website store which now has two new spare part sections, although my german is not great so struggling to find out about it but looks like you should be able to order single and sets of meeple plus spare tiles from all hig carc sets. The website shows the options to add them to the basket but cant see a full list of the parts availbe but from the images looks like quite a few.

Last point it mentions is that they are designing two new storage boxes for your carcassonne collections, the designs will be annouced soon but should be one cheap and one expensive.

If anyone wants i can try and post the email here, altho its in german.

Looking forward to what looks like a good few carc expansions.

Welcome to the forums Shimmydave.  That's interesting news.  You can also check out www.carcassonneshoppe.com.  It's run by one of our members and has much of what you describe.  I'm looking forward to that storage box info.

I believe the Jay from RGG said that these would be available in March or April, so it looks like we won't have to wait too long for sure.

Consider me very interested. Hopefully they hold everything; the last company that offered a box had a bit of room to grow but the Catapult screwed everything up.

Thanks for looking out CK  :D ... I am excited to see these boxes too, but I sure hope HiG doesn't squash what I have been trying to accomplish in the Shoppe with dealing spare parts :-\

I dont think you have to worry too much about cundco, you offer alot more on your site. The cundco site is also in german and i think they only ship within the EU.

On the box front i think the cheaper option will be aimed at being portable allowing you to easily take your carc with you. Hopefully it will contain space for the whole collection, base game and expansions.

Let's continue the Box discussion HERE (http://carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=2178.0).

I use Google Chrome and so when I go to the cundo site it automatically translates it to english. Well an approximation of english as word for word translations don't always work out too well.

So yesterday a pacjage i ordered 3 weeks ago arrived in New Zealand with The School, the stickers, and 5 sheets of blank tiles. Now to print of some fan-spansions

The german rules for the mini-Expansions are now online on the the Hans-im-Glück Website:

http://www.hans-im-glueck.de/carcassonne/mini-erweiterungen/minis-1-6/ (http://www.hans-im-glueck.de/carcassonne/mini-erweiterungen/minis-1-6/)

Oh, new meeples from Die Depechen are women! 

Does anyone know if these will be sold on-line anywhere? And if they send internationally?

I'm really excited about these minis....

the things i don't like though is that all the tiles have a small black watermark and most have ALSO have a huge colored drawing on them.
It's like they have two watermarks! Only minis 2 and 3 (and the 2nd kornkreise) don't suffer from this.

I do have a feeling, at least in Germany they will combine these in one (48 tiles) or two (24/24 tiles) bigger expansions later this year.
And also issue the tunnels, pest and both corn circles in one expansion.

Maybe some offtopic, but You know anything about compilation with pest, tunels, 1st corn circles? Some dates or some info?

All I know is, the RGG version should be released around April/May.

HiG has stated that since all 3 expansions (crop circles, Pest and Tunnels) have been available in Germany for quite some time now, they will not be re-released in Germany as a combined set in the future. So I highly doubt that these minis will be re-released in Germany as some sort of compilations.

They will be sold on-line in all the usual places where other Carcassonne expansions are already being sold on-line. Any FLGS that sells on-line will be selling these on-line. I would expect our very own Carcatronn will be selling these in his on-line Carcassonne Shoppe. Cundco will probably have them too for those in Europe.


As was already mentioned by Khonnor83, that compilation will be released by RGG this spring. Like Sekim, I wouldn't expect HiG or others to release anything similar. Plague and Tunnels are easily available through Spielbox, and Corn Circles is easily available through Cundco.

It seems to me that they would want to put the 12 Corn Circles tiles together at some point.  They do strange things sometimes though.

Thanks Scott! Yeah, we will have a few cases on hand, as well as pre-orders coming soon :)

The cundo shop does ship outside of the EU. I got my package with the School and blank tiles this week.

When the box is released I really hope it has space for future expansions.

Anyone heard anything new on these?

RGG has not confirmed a date yet.  There were production delays in Germany earlier this year which could be affecting this and other expansions. I am hoping for at least a late April release...

Here comes the first listings on Ebay for these.

http://www.ebay.it/itm/Carcassonne-Mini-Erweiterung-3-Die-Fahren-Spiel-Zubehor-/330690827001?pt=DE_Allesf%C3%BCrsKind_Spielzeug_Gesellschaftsspiele&hash=item4cfeb592f9
http://www.ebay.it/itm/CARCASSONNE-Mini-Erweiterung-Nr-2-DIE-DEPESCHEN-NEU-/150769264829?pt=DE_Allesf%C3%BCrsKind_Spielzeug_Gesellschaftsspiele&hash=item231a8c68bd

Mod: Topics Merged.

I've got my six minis this week. (But this was easy here in Germany)

Wow, we'd love to hear a review when you play with them.

Did you get them online or from a store?

What was the cost each?

You can look at milan-spiele.de

I've just placed an order for Minis there. Will see)

i got my yesterday from milan-spiele.de for 2,90€ each.
thex sell also the tunnel expansion for 5,70€.

Did they come with English instructions? or just German?

the instructions are in german, but i think i have seen them in englisch some where on bgg...

Buy today at the Italian convention "Modena Play", unfortunately I only found a booth that sold them, they only had one blister and had finished the "Mini 3". Luckily I have the other 5 :).
I paid them 4 euros, for a total of 20.

Anyone have any updates on the release of the new minis in the US?

I also found the 3, finally I have all, I hope to try them as soon as possible

Apologies if this is not the right topic for this question, but I haven't found a better one.

Now that many of you have had the new mini-expansions for a while, what are your thoughts on them? I haven't played any of them yet, and I am debating whether to get the whole set or not. I'm not a completionist, and my initial thoughts are that I'm not too keen on pieces like gold bars, ferries etc cluttering up the board, or on changes to the scoretrack, or on rolling a die in Carcassonne - that basically knocks them all out except Mage & Witch. So I'm thinking of just getting that one, though that would leave me with one random crop circle tile.

Does anyone have anything to say about the other mini expansions that might change my mind?

Cheers,
Nick

Hello jungleboy! Welcome to the CC Forum. I saw your introductory post and welcome you to Carcassonne.

I own all the Mini's and I can give you my personal preference if I had to choose in order:
1. Ferries
2. Gold Mines
3. The Flier
4. Mage & Witch
5. Messages
6. The Robber

Like you, I don't care for messing with the scoreboard so Messages and Robber go to the bottom.

I actually enjoy the game-play of the Ferries the most. It adds a very interesting twist on road building - and re-building. The mechanic allows that a road may be completed and scored - then re-opened and later completed and scored again. It's challenging to maintain majority control of the various roads involved.

Gold Mines next. It's a simple but challenging mechanic that doesn't add a lot of time to the game.

The Flier next only because I like it better than the Mage & Witch. The Flier offers a simple way to join into a feature owned by an opponent. The Mage & Witch can be unbalancing if not checked.

if you own or get "crop circles 1" then you could still use this single tile together with the other six (or not?) or use it as base for the 'la porxada' expansion :-)

I haven't played with the minis yet (and possibly never will considering nobody will play with me...), but I think it's safe to say that they're all far better than Catapult. ;D

Having all the Crop Circle tiles is also something to consider. You could play with an incomplete set; although it would be slightly unbalanced, it's not unbalanced in such a way as to give an unfair advantage.

The Ferries is the only one worth getting; the rest is either utter crap (Messengers, The Robber, Gold Mines) or largly uninteresting concepts (the rest). Crop Circles is a bit interesting, but you can get hold (I believe) of the stand alone version.

Thanks to everyone for their replies; they certainly give me some more things to think about.

Regarding crop circles, I don't have them and haven't decided on them yet (there are a lot of expansions to get your head around when you're a newbie!), but I think the plague is pretty intriguing so if I decide to go with crop circles I'd probably get it as part of CCP&T.

The plague is strangely dynamic. It does, however, plays best with just the base set.

I like the Messeges or Dispatches. That mini has many tactics. It has a joker. You can play it with the Winter-Edition (and it's perfect for the Dwarves in the Mine).
You can earn points during the play though the features are not finished.

I finally picked all the Minis up as well as the Little Houses. Going through them one-by-one but have only actually played the Flier. Mechanics worked just fine but we never really got to use them the way they are meant to be used (stealing other players' features). We'll have to give it another go but I'm eager to try Ferries, which looks simple yet fun.

Fliers and Ferries were my favourite 2 minis, we played them both together which was fun. Please let me know what you think of Little Houses... I haven't seen it and know relatively little about it

I don't really like the Little Buildings (Die Haeuser).
I have nothing against the rules (only that we all never would become official clarifications from HiG - It is a Spielbox expansion - and it is only for the basic game created.)
But please look at the link. I have scanned the original landscape tile 45x45 mm and a mat 100x100 mm ("Tischuntersetzer" from the CundCo Shop).

Here is the link (http://maik63.bplaced.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=402)

I'd really love to look, but anything uploaded on that server is unavailable in Thailand (I have no idea why!)

i think the size is really ok, keep in mind that they have to be out of scale, else they would be so small that they get lost or that kids shouldnt play with this expansion. in the end its a "family/fun game" and not meant to be realistic. else you should also complain that each side of each tile has another direction or that the wooden barn is too small compared to the regular meeple ;-)

but that doesnt mean that i won't replace them by wooden parts in the end... same for the castles...

concerning: "(only that we all never would become official clarifications from HiG - It is a Spielbox expansion - and it is only for the basic game created.)" -> well that also goes for the tunnel, the plague, the cathars and so on... these are all spielbox expansions as well.

perhaps that works for you:

www.carcassonne-forum.de

Please look at "Bilder"  -  "Die Haeuser-Vergleich Groe�enverhaeltnis"

thanks for trying... but I get force redirected to an ad (same as before), it doesn't matter what computer or network I try it from. I don't know how its possible but it must be getting redirected at a national level (Thailand)