Carcassonne Central

(http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic303773.jpg)  Will anyone get this?

Hmm, I've not seen that box yet - but I have heard the rumours.

A search on the RGG site tonight results in this;

(http://members.shaw.ca/carcassonne/newworld.jpg)

Do you have more recent info?

I've only seen the stated date of realease to May/June. I'll get it though - obviously :)

From RGG (see this link (http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=262)):

Although, its name seems to be: New World: A Carcassonne Game; not the other way around.

Warning, pedant in the house :)  Edited first post to satisfy all those pedants out there.

Haha, no, what I meant was that unlike all (?) the other spin offs which are named C: blah blah, this isn't.

It's a Carcassonne game, and if I were to take a guess I'd say this is as much Carcassonne, as Elasund is Settlers .. well, or some such  ;)

Yep I will be getting it as soon as it comes out.

It looks like a card game! Perhaps the picture is nothing to go by though. It just looks like a card! :)

Looks to me from the description that it is Just-Another-Variation on the theme "lay a tile - place a meeple - complete something - score".

IMHO the original game with carefully selected expansions has pretty well exhausted that theme. It also has some nice variations.

I had hoped we might find someone being a bit more creative like: Lay a tile - place a meeple - optionally, move a meeple/complete/capture/trade - score"

Does anyone know of a game out there that lays tiles like Carc but allows deployed meeples to move later to score in different ways?
I'm thinking of something a bit more complex than a mega-wagon.

Hmm, well... El Caballero maybe, or Metro...

Now, since there are 400 spin offs, and I've played all of them without regret, I'd say that the theme is far from exahusted! Arc, City, Castle, H&G etc .. all are great games! (I've only played City once though).

Alhambra is another tile-laying game with a different formula.

...hmm?.... Well I have been trying to tell everyone in another thread  ;D

http://solsticewars.mysite.orange.co.uk/ (http://solsticewars.mysite.orange.co.uk/)

So... How much more DO we know about this one now? Is it coming out this month, next month... What about the rules?
And as for the very first question... YES, of course I'll get it, can't wait!!

http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=262 (http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=262)

That's everything right there. Rules aren't posted yet, but should be there eventually because RGG posts rules for all games on the corresponding game page.

This sounds more 'Settlers of Catan' to me!

Perhaps it will be 'Carcassonne' mixed with 'Settlers of Catan'?  :)  Hope so, they are my two favourite games.

What gives you that impression? I'm not seeing anything that suggests a Catan influence.

Upon reading the General Description:

"In this Carcassonne game, players begin as the early settlers of the United States did on the east coast of America. As they explore westward, they build towns, farms, paths, and compete to score more points than the others players. As exploration moves to the west, players who are slow to complete the features they have started will find themselves left behind - with no points!"

I was immediately put in mind of a pre-defined board and then building your paths, towns and farms upon that board. Obviously there is no hint that trading within the description (so it is probably not 'Settlers'). Perhaps it is just how I read the description. Will it be tile laying or pre-defined board?

nice observation, looks WAY MUCH interresting!

Building towns, farms, and paths suggests tile-laying to me. It's possible that play could begin on one end of the table and progress towards the other, or it may just be figurative speech.

Saw this image on Rio Grande's site...

If that's an accurate representation of a tile image, we're in for a visual treat. If not, why must they tease us?

That was my thought too.  I was even considering if I should steal those images for the "forest" tiles I'm making for (I think it was you,) Scott.  We shall see.  It has a July release date...

Well, let's hope so. Whatever the mechanics of the game, if that is a representation of the graphics it will look stunning.

Yeah, it was me.

The images are nice, but not in the same style as original Carc. The forest tiles you've made so far blend very nicely with the original Carc tiles.

This game is also badged up as Carcassonne: Mayflower.

BGG already has a review (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/336492) for this game as well as some images (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/game/34615).  There's a nice new look for the meeples of this game.  Perhaps they could be modified for mega-carc or some weird new expansion...

I have seen it for sale on eBay (in the UK), but am not tempted to even attempt to order it since I thought that it had not been released as yet!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carcassonne-The-New-World-Brand-New-by-Rio-Grande-Game_W0QQitemZ300253074324QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300253074324&_trkparms=72%3A1089%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carcassonne-The-New-World-Brand-New-by-Rio-Grande-Game_W0QQitemZ300253074324QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300253074324&_trkparms=72%3A1089%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14)

Well, looking at BGG, perhaps it has been released!

I like the artwork, not sure about gameplay as yet!

Interesting look. Nice graphics from those BGG photos. That scoreboard looks a bit big and is it attached to what would appear to be a fixed line to start from... hence the original descriptions of players move East to West.

OK guys - start looking for it!!

For my money, this one has more interest to it than the other 6th and 7th expansions as it's a complete new game rathe than another tweak of the old one... and it's starting to get out of control.

Just had a quick look around and found this page, which gives some info on the contents - 95 land tiles! 2 surveyors?

http://www.fwtwr.com/store/new-world-carcassonne.asp?xCat=Latest&xRef=new-world-carcassonne (http://www.fwtwr.com/store/new-world-carcassonne.asp?xCat=Latest&xRef=new-world-carcassonne)

Someone on BGG posted the link to the rules:

http://www.riograndegames.com/uploads/Game/Game_262_gameRules.pdf

Have fun reading!

Just bought it, the rules look the same as Carc with the addition of a surveyor meeple ! Will be playing it tonight so will let you know what its like.

Did you get the RGG version (New World) or the HiG version (Mayflower)?

Got Mayflower.

A very good game, really makes you think. Scoring is achieved by quick placements rather than long term strategies, withthe exception of the Trapper, who acts rather like the farmer in Carc. Will post up a proper review later.

Bwahaha! I totally called it. The scoring track is in the ocean with shoreline and you build off it. Interesting that only meeples for five players are included. Is there a six-player expansion lurking the shadows?

OK gents you get five meeple which keeps you scoring quickly and long term planning is not so much of an option. Shopkeepers go in the towns, trappers are now the farmers, farmers are now the cloisters and you have a robber on the road. Still have to create roads and towns to score points. Some roads havea trading post which gives 2 extra points, a bit like inn on a lake. Town tiles come with and without a Union Jack flag, which is the same as a shield. TRappers score at end game by how many animals symbols they have in there area.

It does make you think differently to tile placement and how to use your small pile of meeple. Also the fact that the board is only 10 tiles wide makes it interesting as you are restricted to where you can place.

The final item is the sureving pieces. These start in the first row, on the beach, and are individually moved along a row each time a player scores. Any meeple that are not trappers that are to the East of the surveyors after they have moved are removed and returned to the players so you need to be wuick when building, no mega cities here !

Its good but I cant see too many expansions for it really.

Any of the mechanics from original Carc expansions is a potential for a New World expansion. As you mentioned, the trading post is already like inn on a lake from I&C. The other new feature from I&C was the Cathedral which gave extra city points. A "new world" equivalent could be a "town hall" tile. A T&B-style expansion could be done with almost zero modification necessary. King and Robber Baron tiles would feature Abe Lincoln and Billy the Kid respectively. P&D and Tower don't convert well to the New World, but something with regards to mining is almost a must. A railroad expansion also has potential here, but the mechanics of it would be tricky. An expansion with Native Americans also seems inevitable. With regards to Abbey & Mayor, the mayor and wagon work right away, the abbey becomes a fort, and the barn I have no idea.

Scoot Mayflower/New World is based on America as a developing Colony in the 1600's so railroads and wild west outlaws wouldnt really fit.

I would suggest you play the game first as the width of the playing surface will make expansions quite difficult and the movement and purpose of the surveyors makes large town building rather difficult so expansions for T&B etc would be very hard to integrate. The game is slotted for a 45 minute play time.

As I said to fully appreciate how the game plays and what it could accomodate at a later time you really must play it. Its like Carc but a lot more restrictive to make you think about quick point scoring before your peices are returned to you by the surveyors.

Just had a game (in which Sara lost - of course *whistles* ).

The game itself is pretty okay I guess - I need to get a few more games under my belt before the final verdict though.

But ... while the artwork is really slick - the aligment of the roads suck, and so does the different green shades of the "plains". The combined artwork during and after a game is left wanting for sure. Also: The tiles do not fit in the therefore alloted space in the box, so you need to either place them in the bigger area (which is quite frankly too big; the tiles will be all over the bottom of that place) or place the left over tiles in a plastic bag or something.

Pity that these little details left a bad taste, but they really did.

LOL Tobias Im glad that Im not the only one who thinks the box storage sucks. I thought the arework was ok though. It doesnt fit in with Carc, but it is suppossed to be based some 300 years later so the colonial feel is good I think. Not sure what you mean about the tile alignment, I think they line up fine, and if you add all the tiles into Carc they fit in quite well, apart from the color, although adding that many tiles with all the expansions does make the game lenght a bit long...

Have played this lots now and whilst it is a good game, I feel it is like The City, a nice seperate game that will not go any further.

How bloody hard is it make an inlay with room for the tiles? It is like all these game makers who don not allow that their cards will be laminated (if that's a word). I always do that with my cards - but in same cases I have to not do it because there is not anough space. Bollocks!

The roads do not align well. If you draw two tiles with roads at random chanses are big that they will not match up.

They must have been drunk when they die-cut your set as I checked mine last night and the roads are all good, they even match up with true Carc tiles nicely ! 8)

Has anyone compared the 2 (NW: a Carc game / Carcassonne: Mayflower) to confirm if indeed they are identical?

Well, they aren't because one's in English and the other is in German... but otherwise, they are supposed to be the same.

I was thinking in terms of the difference between HiG/RGG base Carcassonne, farmer rule difference. Is scoring laid out the same?  I don't want to add either of these to the profile info until this can be confirmed one way or the other.

English rules:
http://www.riograndegames.com/uploads/Game/Game_262_gameRules.pdf (http://www.riograndegames.com/uploads/Game/Game_262_gameRules.pdf)

German rules:
http://www.carcassonne.de/fileadmin/data_archive/Regeln/CarMayflowerRegelnRZlow_02.pdf (http://www.carcassonne.de/fileadmin/data_archive/Regeln/CarMayflowerRegelnRZlow_02.pdf)

From what I can see, the scoring is the same.  However, the names are slightly different, and the german rules has got a lot more detail (pictures) of the explorers (landvermesser).

I'm pondering why the difference should matter... we don't list Carcassonne (HiG) and Carcassonne with the River (RGG) in the profiles eventhough the rules are different between those two...

Went into a little comic and game store here in Plymouth (UK) today. He carries loads of comics and just a few games. Only went in to kill 10 minutes and there was a sealed copy of New World sitting there! Well, would have been rude to leave without it...  ;D

So I have a copy. Had a look in the box and read of the rules this evening. As already reported, the rules are prety much the same as the main game with a few exceptions - If you have equal meeples (settlers) in towns or on roads you both get full points for example. Not a lot different really. The two surveyors make for a different play though. I'm guessing it makes for a far aggressive style of play with a quichk scorer stealing a real march on other players.

The tile art is somewhat different, but that's been the case with most stand alones... and indeed should be. The scoreboard/Starting board is a nice fold out affair - I was expecting a jigsaw fit as in the Castle. Once again the quality is of a high standard. The box art is completely different to all previous games (and expansions), a very good historical style painted picture instaed of the 'cartoon' style of the others.

Looking forward to playing it soon... but not tomorrow. That's reserved for another tile laying game written by a friend of mine! Perhaps the weekend.

Hmmm... is the back of the New World tile the same as the usual Carc tile back?  I do believe there's a blank tile somewhere there... but if the backs aren't the same then, it's not as useful as the 2 blank tiles in CS&C.

No, they are different.

Thanks Tobias... so the blank tile in New World is slightly less useful than the two in C,S&C as we would need to either print the back or hide it somehow...

Well, you have a blank tile. We use it as a "lose one turn"-tile. To add to the already high level of frustration with time in this game :D

I have played new world eight times and have noticed a trend of a super farm forming during play. I really wish the forest tiles separated farms That would make much more competitive farming. From what I can tell the rules examples only show roads a a feature that seperates the farms. Otherwise I really love this new carc game.

From all these entries, I concluded tht it's just too much equal to vanilla Carc except for the surveyors.
So is it woth spending the money?
Will there it be some expansions to increase gameplay?
At this point I think not...

The only expansion for a spin-off has been the Scout part of King and Scout, which added 5 tiles to Hunters and Gatherers.  I don't think there are plans to have expansions for spin-offs by either HiG or RGG.

So, just forget it right?... If you know someone with it, give it a try or else...

It's up to you.  If you want a fast pace game, then this is the one to get.