Carcassonne Central

My review, reposted from BGG:

In the new wave of Carcassonne expansions that his the market in 2012, one of the biggest surprises was the seven Carcassonne Mini expansions, all of which were made available by Rio Grande Games in a surprising last minute move in December 2012, just before their contract with Hans im Glueck ran out.

The first expansion of the series, the Flier, is a simple enough concept that breaks the most basic rule of Carcassonne and then further breaks the status quo by including...A DICE! Let's check it out:

Forced Placements and Unintentional Feuds

Rolling Away My Life - Dice and Carcassonne have never gone well together (except, arguably, in Carcassonne Dice: The Game). Thus, the forced inclusion of a dice in this game not only adds an element of luck to a game already rife with luck-based tile drawing, but it also adds an object that is simply not necessary. The dice is a non-standard D6 with two 1s, 2s, and 3s opposite each other. It is used to determine how far away a player must place their meeple if they choose to do the Flier's primary mechanic. Which leads me to...

Do I Have'ta Place It There? - One of the strange requirements of this little eight-tile expansion is the forced placement of a follower on a tile if possible. This is an option, mind you; you can always choose to ignore the Flier symbol and just place the tile as usual. But who wants to do that? So the players decides to go with the symbol and rolls the dice. Now they have to place the follower on whichever tile is that many spaces away from the just-placed tile, following the line-of-sight of the Flier symbol's arrow. If forward planning is not your thing, then this will be a problem, as the symbol may:
a) Be an empty spot, which means you don't get to place a follower this turn;
b) Be a field (which you can't claim) or be a tile with only completed features on it (which you also can't claim); or
c) Contain only a field and your own non-contested feature, thereby forcing you to claim your own feature twice.
Overall, not the most fun predicament to be in.

I've Got Enough Roads. Have a City? - Together, these seven expansions have a wealth of roads, cities, and cloisters, but the Flier is all fields and roads. Boring! There is nothing less fun than a game of Carcassonne where all you draw are roads the entire game. This may be done to increase the areas that a follower can't be placed via the Flier, but if that's the case, it's terrible logic since when I played, I often found only roads to claim with the Flier and we only finished with seven completed cities.

Breaking The Rules, One Tile At A Time

Freedom from Followers - Although I enjoy the new followers available in some of the other Carcassonne Minis, I was very glad that they didn't include a new winged follower in this expansion. The expansions are gimmicky enough, and MeepleSource.com is constantly struggling to keep up with all the strange new meeples various game companies continue to release. Even though I dislike the inclusion of a dice on a fundamental level, it could be another meeple that will undoubtedly confuse my friends when trying to explain the rules.

I'll Take That Back! - For the first time since the portals in Princess & Dragon, Flier allows a player to reclaim abandoned or otherwise unclaimed incomplete features on the board. This is an excellent option and one that I constantly enjoy. Unclaimed features are a sad state on Carcassonne boards, especially when a valuable feature such as a cloister went unclaimed simply because a player was out of followers. These Fliers, while fiddly, rectify this problem.

And Take Yours As Well! - But even more dangerous is the introduction of an element from Count of Carcassonne: the ability to steal other people's features. The Count allowed this in a difficult-to-understand expansion that required long-term investment. Here, it is based on luck and also some skill. When placing the Flier tile, if a player aligns it just right and roll the correct pips on the die, it is possible for them to place a meeple on another player's feature. In a two-player game, this may not swing the balance (in my case, I tied features twice), but in multiplayer games, it can allow a single player to pull ahead. This breaks Carcassonne rules-conventions like no other, but gives this expansion all its value.

Inconclusion
In the end, I found myself liking the concept of this expansion, but not enjoying it as much as I had hoped. Many of the Flier tiles are field-connectors, which I don't generally prefer, and the rest are simple road tiles, which are boring. The use of a die, even one that just counts up to three, adds even more luck to a luck-driven game. In my play-through, I found that only about half the Flier tiles were used as Fliers, and only one of those successfully achieved the desired number (at my expense). In a larger game with multiple expansions, it may prove a better mechanic, but in a base+Flier game, this expansion just doesn't cut it.

Playability: B
Affordability: A
Compatibility (with other expansions): A
Aethetics: C+
Learning Curve: A-
FINAL GRADE: B+

Whaleyland - great post and review! Well done. Are you planning on reviewing the other Minis?

I hope you've saved this somewhere so you can repost it after the upgrade.

Carking, I always review every Carcassonne set, however mundane or repetative (or ridiculous. Lookin' at you, Catapult!). I post them primarily on BGG but also post them here and on my blog, musingsofthegreatkhan.blogspot.com (http://musingsofthegreatkhan.blogspot.com). They are quite safe from deletion, I hope. I will continue to review the expansions in order until I'm done, though it may be a while since I've got The Castles of Burgundy to try out as well as more plays with my other sorted games, and Gunship: First Strikes should be on the way soon! But fear not, I will get them all done.

Thanks Whaleyland, this is a terrific review and confirms for me that I'm not really interested in The Flier. Looking forward to your reviews of the other mini-expansions.

great review! look forward to reading some more of these =D