Carcassonne Central

I found this post over on boardgamegeek.com.  Has anyone here heard of it?  Is this a new expansion? 

Heres the link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/298631




Heres the post:

Hello,

So I just got an e-mail from Spielbox saying that they're coming out with a Hans im Glück almanac for their 25th anniversary and that it will be including a "just revealed" expansion called "Die Kultstätten." My question is, is this another expansion, or does it have to do with the "Cult Places" expansion that we already know about? It's got "Kult" at the beginning which is what's making me wonder, and I'm no expert in German. They make it sound in the e-mail like there will also be other "gimmicks" (as they put it) so there may be other expansions as well. The magazine is available for pre-order now and will "probably be published July 2008." Any info would be appreciated.

The original e-mail follows (it starts in German, ends in English):

Hans-im-Glück Almanach zum Jubiläum

Zum 25jährigen Bestehen des Hans-im-Glück Verlages bringt die spielbox einen „Hans-im-Glück-Almanach“ heraus.

Abgesehen von den sehr interessanten Inhalten - wie z.B. einem Blick hinter die Redaktionskulissen u.v.a.m. - werden diesem Almanach natürlich auch besondere Gimmicks beiliegen. Eines davon können wir jetzt schon verraten: "Die Kultstätten", eine Erweiterung zum Megaseller Carcassonne.

Sichern Sie sich jetzt schon Ihr persönliches Exemplar und bestellen Sie hier: http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/sbalmhigd.php

Falls Sie besondere Bestellungen tätigen (Geschenke etc.) oder mehr als 20 Exemplare bestellen möchten, stehe ich Ihnen auch gerne persönlich unter barbara@nostheide.de zur Verfügung.

Ihre Barbara Nostheide
spielbox



Hans im Glück anniversary almanac

On the occasion of publisher Hans im Glück’s 25th anniversary, spielbox will offer a Hans im Glück almanac.

Next to interesting contents including a look behind the scenes of the game development, the almanac will also come with special gimmicks. We can already reveal one of them: “Die Kultstätten”, an add-on for the mega seller Carcassonne.

Secure your own copy right now and order here: http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/sbalmhige.php

If you would like to place special orders (gifts etc.) or need more than 20 copies, I will also be happy to answer your questions in person at barbara@nostheide.de.

Yours,
Barbara Nostheide
spielbox

c/o w. nostheide verlag gmbh
Bahnhofstraße 22
D-96117 Memmelsdorf
Tel. 0951-40666-25
Fax 0951-40666-49
barbara@nostheide.de
www.nostheide.de www.spielbox-magazin.de

Geschäftsführer: Jens Nostheide Registergericht Bamberg HRB 746 Ust.-Id.Nr.: DE 132271195

That oughta be the five new tiles in the 6th "expansion" from HiG. A good way to not have to buy it if one owns all the other earlier expansions.

Well, I'd agree that it 'ought' to be connected to Count, King and Consort, as 'Kultstätten' is indeed the German word we've translated as 'shrines'. But that doesn't mean that the expansion in the almanac will be the same five tiles as in CK&R. It could also be more tiles with shrines on them—Shrines and Heretics II, so to speak. After all, it wouldn't be much of a selling point for Spielbox to include an expansion that was released six months before.

That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

Is this the same kind of Almanach that the last one (with Kathars)?

But you have a point Matt, unless someone has actually listened to the customers who do not want to buy redundant expansions ...

Does this mean that the Cathar tiles aren't being re-released?  :'(
I'm hoping that when she says "Die Kultstätten" is one of the gimmicks, that means there are more which will be a surprise. Considering they were out of stock on Cathars for a long time now, I have a tough time imagining them not reprinting it.

Filled-out the form and sent her 10 euros via Paypal. It worked out to $15.60 CAD, and I had a $10 credit in my account already from an on-line survey I filled out ages ago. I also had some USD in my account that would have covered the rest, but for some reason I couldn't use that so I had to pay the remaining $5.60 with my credit card.

If "Die Kultstätten" turns out to be the five shrine tiles, some of us hardcore collectors may end up with three copies of them when all is said and done. Hopefully at least some of them are different. Perhaps they want to bring the number of shrine tiles more in line with the number of cloister tiles?

I have also pre-ordered a copy. Were you prompted for payment, Scott, or did you just send payment?

I was never prompted for payment, so I figured I should probably send it myself. It is possible for her to request payment, but who knows if she will? The form seems to indicate that we need to take the initiative to send payment.

Looks like I did everything right.

I went ahead and ordered 10.
we'll see if it gets shipped to the US.

If this expansion turns out like Cathers, I'll be able to capitalize on the extra copies in a couple of years.

If anyone on this board and in the US wants a copy, drop me a note. I'll offer up to 5 for the price of the mag and shipping to you.

Alric

Thanks Scott. I have now sent my payment :)

Some more details;

I sent this email a couple days ago:

"Hi Barbara,

Can you tell me any more details about the special gimmicks this will offer?  Are these tiles completely new or are there some re-prints?  Will this include the Cathars mini expansion?  Will any of it be in English?  Thank you very much for your kind reply!"

This was the reply:

"I just can tell you that one of the tiles (Kultstätten) is appeared in a collection of expansions called "Graf, König und Konsorten" as the only formerly unpublished part of the box.  The other tiles will be completely new. The Cathars won't be included - they will not be reprinted. We will try to translate the complete Almanac into English for download at our website.
 
As soon as we know more about the other tiles we will publish this over our website www.spielbox.de.
 
Bye, Barbara"

So, it looks like there will be the cult tiles, plus some brand new stuff.  Sadly though, no Cathars.

Bollocks.

 :-\ The Cathars will not be reprinted? Does that mean ever?!? :'(

Either they need to reprint, or let RGG publish it over here.

Is there any chance that the "completely new" tiles  may be Jay's black tiles or the other stuff that is to be released by RGG in April. They would be "completely new" to Europe . . . ?

I ordered 3 copies and paid via paypal.  Do they send a confirmation email?

And I don't think the "completely new" tiles are Jay's tiles - at least I hope not!

I highly doubt that the other tiles will be Jay's. He developed them on his own, just like GQ11. Most likely they will be brand new tiles and Spielbox exclusive so Jay won't be able to distribute in North America. I don't know anything for sure, but this smells like Cathars all over again. I wasn't around for Cathars and the feeling of not having it in my collection bothers me regularly. Although people are ordering extra copies, not all of them will necessarily be reselling at reasonable prices.

When I sent her the money via Paypal, I got an email confirmation from Paypal that the money had been sent, and then I received an email from Barbara several hours later which I pasted above. The reason for the delay is of course that I am 9 hours behind her. She e-mailed me towards the beginning of her work day, when I was sleeping.

I did say would offer 5 copies to anyone on the boards and in the states that want them at cost plus shipping.

I doubt I'll be able to get too good a price for a couple of years on the remaining copies.

I was thinking more of the type of people that are selling Cathars on eBay these days for exorbitant amounts of money. I'm glad to hear that five of your copies will be available to forum members at a reasonable price.

I'm ordering extra copies as gifts to the people I play Carc with :)  That way, even when we aren't using my set, at least I'll know there's some of these tiles around (if they are any good).

Quick question... I have a paypal account. I shop on eBay and they send me a paypal form that I complete and hit the button or such like. On the Spielbox order there's a radio button tht says I'll pay be paypal but that's it. I've never known the answer to this - How exactly do I send the money via paypal.... and please tell me very slowly!!  ;D

It is quite easy. For the Almanac: Fill out the form at: http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/sbalmhige.php (http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/sbalmhige.php). To pay via PayPal check the radio button on the form. This does not pay for the goods via PayPal, but rather tells Barbara that she can expect to recieve a payment from you, so to look out for your payment.

Now you need the sellers paypal e-mail address. In this case it is barbara@nostheide.de (from the form you just filled out).

Go to the PayPal homepage: www.paypal.com (http://www.paypal.com). Sign in to your account. This is your personal e-mail address and password.

Once logged in, click on Send Money tab. In the To box type the e-mail address of the person you want to send money to (in this case barbara@nostheide.de). And then type the amount you want to send. For my copy I entered the total of 9.00 EUR. (7.00 EUR for the Almanac as i'm not a subscriber and a further 2.00 EUR for shipping within Europe (i'm in UK)). Remember to select the correct Currency from the drop-down box (in this case EUR - Euros).

Check the Goods radio button. Then click Send Money.

On the next page, check your address and price, etc. Enter a message in the box explaining what you are sending money for ;) (in this case, for instance: " payment for Spielbox® Hans im Glück Almanac. Thank you".

When happy about amount, etc, click Send Money to confirm. It's as easy as that :)

Hope this helps.

Joff beat me to it  ;D
I ordered my copy today, and I think that's all I did…

Joff, that is a perfect explanation! Exactly how it wanted it explained!! Cheers mate - I'm off t do a bot of ordering now!

Barbara should get her web admin to put a paypal button on their site, it's ridiculously easy

Ok, so not to beat a dead horse but reading that email from Barbara a few times it is unclear if the word tiles is used correctly. For instance she could mean that one ADDON is Kultstatten but there are addons for other HiG games. Perhaps MJ or another German speaker could ask about what the exact tiles are using the correct German words.

1) How many CC tiles are included?

2) Are any of the included tiles available anywhere else?

etc..

If this is like Cathars where the tiles are unique and unavailable elsewhere I want to get my hands on a few copies. However I also don't want to waste money on something I could easily get from Jay in the States.

-crasher

Help needed from someone who also reads German - could you translate the info on http://www.spielbox.de/php/aktuell.php4?anz_id=1640 to English?  Thanks!

You may have already tried this but here goes... I stuck it through Babal-Fish and got this back:

"06.03.08: In July this yearly appears a new play box yearbook. Topic of the booklet is the Hans in the luck publishing house and its "sow-good" plays. As extra among other things an extension for Carcassonne is attached to the yearbook: "the cult places". Which further extra is attached, yet one does not betray. The yearbook costs 7 EUR, play box subscribers pays only half. For the order we prepared a form."

Not perfect by a long shot but you get the drift!! So if I'm reading that right, you end up with Cult Places and something else that they are keeping a secret at the moment...

online translators always crack me up.  Matt needs to get on the ball and recruit some Carcassonne-playing German student English-majors.

It would be great if HiG has issued some bunch of cards that are completely empty on the front so that we can make our own custom card-variants, and not 3 but say a page of them (12 at least)!

 ::)  :)b

this just in from board game news...

The Spielbox Hans im Glück Almanach, due out in mid-July, will contain five new Kultstätten, or cult site tiles – tiles that will be included in the Rio Grande release of Carcassonne: Cult, War and Creativity – along with six new hut tiles for the Spiel des Jahres-nominated Stone Age. The HiG Almanach costs €7 if you’re not a Spielbox subscriber and half that if you are; postage is extra, and ordering details are on the Spielbox website.

raberjr

Hmm... a small part of me was hoping that all the tiles would be for Carc, but deep down I had a sneaky suspicion that some stuff would be for different games.

do you have a direct link to the order page? I got on the website but I dont read german!

so these new tiles are not for Carcassonne but for CWC?

Erm... I think that is old news... skipboris posted about that in march.

See this thread: http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=270.0

Edit: djwurm, there is a direct link to the English order page in the thread above.

thanks novelty, I went ahead and ordered 2 so I can offer 1 up for sale on this site for cost plus shipping or if no one wants it on this site then I will just stick it up on ebay.

Not to beat a dead horse but according to Board Game News this morning the 5 Cult tiles in the Almanac will be the same ones Rio Grande is putting out.

http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/cults_huts_in_spielbox_almanach/ (http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/cults_huts_in_spielbox_almanach/)

humm so I shouldnt have ordered the almanac from spielbox? im so confused...

So, am I right in thinking, that from a Carcassonne point of view the almanac is not worth getting if you intend buying the Rio Grande release of 'Carcassonne: Cult, War and Creativity'? Cos there's other tiles in that not available elsewher, but nothing else in the almanac for us - Have got that right?

I can think of only 1 really good reason to get the Almanac, resale value ;-)
Though if Rio Grande is going to include the tiles it might be limited.

I have ordered 5 for offer here and 5 for later on e-bay if it seems worth while, some may go to friends.
And one for myself of course.

I would take that with a grain of salt, and you all better hope that I am not wrong  :??

From http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/smspecials.php

The image from that page is reproduced below.

Funagain Games has a larger image at http://images.funagain.com/cover/large/19371.jpg

so this only the shrines the extra tiles... if i have aleready buy the King, Count & Consort(6th expansion... IN FRENCH daaaaah) i'm ok i do NOT need this magazin?

those "extra tiles" WOULD NOT BE AS RARE as the CATHARS??

Deatheux: Nobody knows at the moment what will be in the expansion.  We need more infomation and we haven't got any.

Also, the KCC expansion is German (not French).  I have no idea if there is a French version.

we'll wait ? see!

for KCC i've got it in french, really!!!

Do you will sell it out via ebay or i can paypal you one copy as soon as you got one???

ill have a copy when it comes in (we have no idea when it will ship)

anyone gotten this yet in the mail? its almost august and no word!

not me... but the payment has been taken from my C.C.!

I mailed them this morning. Here is the (quite fast) reply:

Hi Brian,

it was a little bit more difficult searching some details for articles.
So I'm sorry to tell you we need a little bit more time because we want to have a really good almanac :-)) Thats why we have to remit the publishing day til middle/end of August.

Thanks a lot for your patience!

Regards from Barbara

So August it is now....  :-\

nothing else on this side???

I must say it seems a bit dodgy to me

today is the last day of august.....*_*

still 7 hours and 38 minutes to go!  ;D

Good news #1: It arrived in the post this morning! Yippee!

Good news #2: There are 11 tiles on the card!

Bad news #1: Only 5 of them are for Carcassonne (the other 6 are for a new game called Stone Age)

Bad news #2: All five are Shrines…

Bad news #3: They are identical to the 5 shrine tiles released in Count, King and Consorts…

Bad news #4—Good news #3 (depending on how you look at it): They all come with a pentagon marking, meaning they do, strictly speaking, count as a new expansion.

Conclusion: Meh.

Ouch... are the rules for the shrines the same as GK&K?  And no wonder they were delaying the expansion.  They should have just printed some of the custom tiles from this site :p

Yep, the rules are identical apart from minor differences—a comma here and there, words previously written as two words (genau so) written as one (genauso), and vice-versa. The biggest difference it that the last sentence (about being able to place the follower on the farm, road or city instead of the shrine) has be moved to the end of the placement rules, rather than after the 'challenge' rules.

I think what we got caught out by was the mention of other completely new tiles. They are indeed there—they just aren't for Carcassonne.

I agree about your "caught out" statement.  They never said those new tiles were for Carcassonne.  We only assumed that they were and we were wrong.  Nevertheless, I still can't wait to get my copies since I haven't bought GK&K yet.  I guess I don't need to buy GK&K anymore since I'll be getting the new tiles from Spielbox AND RGG's next expansion.

Edit: Actually, some of the Stone Age players knew the contents of the tiles as early as June:  See this post (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2379288#2379288) on BGG.

There's not much point really. Frankly, it's a shame that the Shrine tiles weren't released as a freely available mini-expansion like the Count was. Would have made a lot more sense.

On a related dumb note, the shops in town recently restocked their supplies of the Count—which, given the availability of the 6th expansion, seems pretty pointless.

Just added an option for the this expansion in the member profiles. You'll have to click on Forum Profile Information to edit the preference.

Can we at a look what tiles will we get???

Oh, if you insist  ;D

Hang on a mo…

(http://mjharper.macbay.de/Scan1.jpg)

Here's a larger copy: http://mjharper.macbay.de/Scan1b.jpg (http://mjharper.macbay.de/Scan1b.jpg). About 1MB, 300dpi.

OO...I pay  2Eur/ one Carcassonne's tiles =0=...
BUT IT IS GOOD FOR KEEP ALL TO EXPANSION IN MY ROOM XD

Thanks for posting the tiles, Matt.  Those 5 tiles are exactly the same as the 5 in GK&K, with the only difference being the pentagon watermark instead of the crown watermark.

Yeah, they could have at least given us some new configurations… Extremely poor.

I have Stone Age - hmm - I wonder how those new huts work!?  :)

In fact, does anyone have a translation of the new rules for these tiles (Carc and Stone Age)?

Well, there's supposed to be a translation of the magazine here (http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/pdf/higalme.pdf), but it isn't finished yet.

Each card has different instructions, though…

hang on... Are you saying the magazine does not come complete with an English translation section (ie - Like carcassonne Almanac did?), and we have to wait to get a version off the web (free) after we've paid out cash for a set of tiles available elsewere and a mag in a language we don't understand? Is that correct?

due ti the thing that the shrines tiles are the same, can we add those tiles to have a few more "cukt places" and possibility of challenge??? up to 10 shrines, would be nice to just add those, they are many more cloister... just to know how it will be compilised in the playable tiles|

hmm.... Stone Age looks quite good... might have to investigate further...

Er… yes. That's correct. I don't think the English translation will be 'free' as such, as you will be expected to have bought the magazine—the link is printed on the first page. Maybe they'll password-protect it or something… But otherwise, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Definitely they can be combined. There has to be a silver lining to this release somewhere.

WHT IS THE "silver lining" ?

(You know the phrase, 'Every cloud has a silver lining'? It means that there's always something positive to see, even when everything looks dark.)

This release is without doubt the single worst release for Carcassonne to date (previously that position was held by the GQ11 expansion). It adds absolutely nothing new to the game apart from five tiles we already had. But the only good thing about it—and this is the silver lining—is that it is still a new official expansion.

In a game of mega-Carc you should use ONE copy of every expansion. There isn't a written rule for this, it just makes sense. Every new expansion that's released gets mixed in with the other tiles and makes the game bigger, more complex, and less predictable. But you shouldn't mix in two copies of the same set—that would just be adding more tiles for the sake of it, and when you talked about 'mega-Carc' you would mean something different to everybody else. Now, if the new expansion came with the same 'crown' logo that Count, King and Consorts did, then I think most people would agree that it was just a reprint of the Shrines and Heretics part of that collection. As such it would be nothing but a duplicate, just like buying two copies of The Count of Carcassonne or The River II would be. Like this—with the 'pentagon' log—even though all of the tiles are identical to old ones, at least it can legitimately be used in mega-Carc.

I think there will be a lot of disappointed people out there when this expansion arrives in the post. It feels like a cynical rip-off, capitalising on the demand for The Cathars (oh, how awesome five new Cathar tiles would have been!) and providing us with rubbish instead. I personally would not advise anyone to buy it.

But at least with the 'pentagon' logos to distinguish the tiles, it isn't completely useless. Just nearly.

Well, I'm just imagining into the future when we get 5 more shrine tiles from Cult, siege and Creativity.  Then we'll have 15 shrine tiles, three of each of the designs, but with different expansion symbols on them.  Could still be fun I guess.

I have no qualms about Spielbox reprinting the shrine tiles, if that allows HiG to republish the Cathar tiles in a box set (like perhaps Das Katapult) in future...

Come back Jay, all is forgiven! Please please please put new configurations into Cult please please please.

We should be so lucky. Did I say 'cynical'? I did, didn't I?

Well, it might happen... when the pig meeple grow wings...

I supposed that they already nicked my idea about projectile pigs for the Catapult, so maybe someone reads us and listens…

But I guess not  :'(

I do notice however that on each tile of the Cathars there appears... a catapault!!! :) :)

I'm ordering this for the new Stone Age huts. The Shrines tiles are a welcome add-on however.

I'm sorry, but you can not say this is a NEW expansion just because hey printed a different shadow shape on the tiles. All the tiles are exactly the same as ones previously available with no new rules added. If I bought a CD by my favourite band that had exactly the same version of all songs as another CD by them but had a different logo on the part of the label it would still be the same songs... This is the same!

The only decision to be made recgards Carcassonne here is which version of the same cards to go for. In my case as I have not purchased any version I might go for this one, because I'm likely to buy Stone Age at some point.

Maybe I should have put 'new' in inverted commas. Like I just did :)

I think it just about qualifies as a 'new' expansion, although it stretches credibility. The tiles are distinguishable, and someone who mixes expansions and then separates them after play can easily do so here. The fact that the tiles duplicate already existing one is, from a gaming perspective, actually irrelevant. I mean, how many straight road tiles were there the basic game? And unlike The River II, there seems to be on logical reason to exclude a second set.

Do I think it sucks? Yes. Do I think it's okay to mix them into a game of mega-Carc? Yes.

Well, I would not consider this a new expansion, just a re-issue of an 'old' one. Am I disappointed? Yes, I feel a little ripped off, but that's the risk I took when I ordered the magazine and no, the pentagon watermark on the shrine tiles is better than the crown logo, so I will replace the shrine tiles marked with the crown with the nice ones marked with the pentagon... so all is not lost! :)

I also don't think this should be considered as a new expansion. Very disapointed. This should of been released before it was grouped with the River 2, Count and King. Now, most Carc fans have 2 versions of those four mini expansions. Oh Well! I guess all can still be used in Mega Mega Carc ;)

i will eventually update the mega-file of tuckboxes, but for now I offer this link to the heretic tuckbox w/ pentagon symbols.

http://www.tomalphin.com/TheHeretic-spielbox.ppt (http://www.tomalphin.com/TheHeretic-spielbox.ppt)

Great job on the tuckbox.  However, I think the picture of all 5 tiles are a bit too small.  Wouldn't it be better to just show the picture of just one of the 5 tiles?  Just a suggestion...

they are all there so you can use it as a sorting guide.  more relevant for the expansions w/out symbols i suppose.

I got mine in the mail today and I have two of these so if anyone wants one let me know...

Enlighten me... where's this mega file?

the whole set is up on boardgamegeek.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/31131 (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/31131)


---tom

For your information, my copy was delivered this morning (i'm in UK).

Thanks for the info, I am still waiting for my copy (Live in Denmark, just next to germany).

I was wondering one think, could theese titles be different from the ones in Cult, Siege & Creativity? According to http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=280 there will be 6 (not 5) cult titles included. Just a thouth (or desperate hope).

Yes, desperate hope.  I hope there'll be an extra 6th tile as well, but somehow I don't forsee it.  I think it's just a typo... someone should email Jay to see what he says...

and the 50/100 score tiles'  ;D

Well...

I got this from Jay today:So there will probably be 5 tiles that are the same and 1 new one...

I receive it!!! yay!!!!!

damaged in the mailing process d'oh............. due to the fact that the label DO NOT BEND was not on the package, i have any chance to get refund by the canadian post...


do i have a issue, or some whatever advise from you guys?

thx

deatheux

I am waiting now...
And very worry about it......
Most of the letter in my mail box is bent= [

got mine yesterday (I'm on the west coast of USA).  The package was opened, but thankfully all the tiles were still inside and undamaged.

I must say that I did not think that the outer bag was well sealed at all. It was that easy peel adhesive strip that can be opened and resealed with absolute ease! Fortunately, mine arrived intact.

Here is a cut and paste job of the rules provided for the Speilbox expansion:

The Temple:
Add-on for Carcassonne
The 5 „Kultstätte” (Temple) land tiles are shuffled with the remaining land tiles.
The temple site is used and scored just like a cloister. When a player puts a follower on the temple, this follower is called a „heretic“.

Using the temple
A temple must not be placed directly next to one or more cloisters. A cloister must not be placed directly next to
one or more temples.
When a player puts a temple directly (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) next to another player’s cloister and
places a heretic on it, the heretic challenges the monk. The same applies when a monk is placed directly next to
another player’s temple. Challenging one’s own monk or heretic is also allowed.
Players placing a tile with a temple are also allowed to put a follower on the field, street or city instead of the temple.
The challenge
A challenge is about completing one’s own building first. The player completing his/her building first receives 9
points, the other receives nothing. Both followers return to their owners immediately even though the loser’s
building is not complete.
If a challenge is not resolved at the end of the game, both players receive the usual points as in the case of a cloister.

Doesn't the first sentence contradict the one following, or am I missing something here?


Or, does this mean that a 'temple' can only be placed next to an occupied cloister (and vice-versa) but not next to an unoccupied cloister (and vice-versa)?

Call them, 1-866-607-6301 and ask about damage. Not sure if there is some kind of built-in insurance or anything.

oh thx for the hint!

i will let go, it's only the stone age that are damaged.

Probably a bad translation. As I recall from when Matt translated the German rules, the rule is that you can't have three or more cloisters/shrines/etc. all challenging each other.

Yes, it's as Scott says. You can't place a temple next to more than one cloister and vice versa.

Received my copy today. It was slightly bent, but only one Stone Age tile was slightly damaged. Most of the bending happened between the tiles.

Some of the articles look interesting, but I can't read German. :( There are two articles about Carcassonne: one about the original game and another about I&C. The only thing available in English is the rules page for the two expansions, which is not included with the almanac but online at the following address: http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/pdf/higalme.pdf (http://www.spielbox-magazin.de/pdf/higalme.pdf) If one of the moderators thinks the link should be kept secret, they can remove it. IMHO it's not behind any authentication mechanism so it's freely available. Will be interesting to compare with RGG's translation.

For those who have GK&K, how do the rules compare? Is it word for word? If the rules are even slightly different, do we have to consider this a separate expansion?

I took a quick peek through the consolidated tile reference to see how many tiles have cloisters. Including all expansions, 12 plus 2 cathedrals and possibly 6 abbeys. I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to have more than five shrine/temple tiles because two sets might be more balanced.

Well if it is word for word, then as I mentioned above, there is a contatridiction when a word for word translation is done from German into English. So I am left wondering, what exactly are the HiG rules for this expansion?

You're right Joff. Strictly speaking the English translation contradicts itself...!  Using these would mean you'd never be able to play a temple beside a cloister or vice versa. lol.

It's quite amusing really! Using those rules, is this a useless expansion or what???!!! ;) ;D

Yay, I finally got my 3 copies of this.  Has anyone played Stone Age with the new tiles from this yet?  Should I get a copy of Stone Age?

With translations you really can not go word by word. The german rules states that you can not place "eine kulstätte" next to "Klöstern". The same goes for "eine Kloster" which can not be placed next to "Kulstätten". From this we can gather the plural forms. The rest is pure logic - even if one does not speak any german!

I have Novelty, but only once in a 2-player game so far, so it's difficult to assess impact of the new huts.  They certainly added a nice twist in my opinion. I'd definitely recommend Stone Age as a game.  It's a low to medium weight strategy game which scales really well from 2 to 4 players.  Most importantly, its fun!

:)

my 6 tiles from stone age are to give away... but i will not pay freight

Well, this is not Carcassonne related but it is Spielbox related.

After reading this thread and so to not let the other interesting expansion go to waste, I have purchased myself a copy of Stone Age. BGG has this at a respectable 42 at present. I first read some reviews of the game, then downloaded the RGG rules and had a read through of them.

I doubt that it will get a play until next weekend though, but i'll let you know how we get on with it.

Jambo, how about a quick review of Stone Age as a game in this thread?

I also just purchased it, it looks preety cool  :). Just got it yesterday, so I haven't tried it yet.

I'd be most interested in any comments about Stone Age. It certainly looks very pretty, and reviews elsewhere sound promising... So go for it chaps!

Stone Age is a very neat game. It manages to blend strategy with simplicity and all without sacrificing the fun factor.  Here's a review for those interested:

Summary:

This is a simple worker placement game where each turn players strive to balance improving their subsistence 'caveman' lifestyle with acquiring resources to build huts or purchase civilization cards. The former takes the form of building farms to relieve end-of-turn feeding problems, breeding to acquire more cavemeeples, and building tools to make foraging for resources more rewarding and less luck-dependent. The latter is the means by which resources are converted into points. At the same time, one must always keep a vigilant eye over one's food supply as there are penalties for going hungry*. Any given turn consists of a number of phases, with players taking turns to complete each phase before moving onto the next:

1. Cavemeeple placement
2. Carrying out the actions
3. Feeding cavemeeples with stockpilled food.

This process continues until one of two eventualities: the number of civilization cards remaining is insufficient to completely refill the 4 designated spaces on the board, or one of the hut piles is empty. When this happens the game ends at the end of the current turn and points are tallied. 

* disclaimer: there is actually a very viable 'starvation' strategy. ;)
 
Components:

Stone Age boasts lovely components. The resources and meeples are well designed wooden pieces and very aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  The main game board and the player boards are solid, functional and very colourful.  The 7 dice are even accompanied by a nice leather cup! The game also comes with plenty of plastic bags for all the loose pieces.  Sadly, the quality of the game's components are let down by the crazy box insert, which when assembled, won't let the box lid close in entirety. Result = discard insert.... It's rumored the second print run fixes this problem, but despite this minor fault, I'd give Stone Age's components a very respectable 9/10! 

Setup:

Setup is quick! Pour out the wooden resources and food tokens onto their respective places on the game board, shuffle the civilisation cards and cardboard huts, placing them in their respective positions, deal out 5 meeples to each player on their player board, and you're good to go. 8/10

Gameplay:

Gameplay is very much of the standard worker placement genre.  Players take turns to place cavemeeples on one of the available actions on the main gameboard.  In 2- and 3-player games there are some imposed limitations on where and how many cavemeeples can be placed. The options available for each player are as follows:

* Economy spaces.
Build a farm - use a cavemeeple to build a farm. Each farm equals one free food each turn.
Breed - place two cavemeeples in the 'lovehut' to create a third. Makes sense! ;)
Build a tool - use a cavemeeple to build a tool. Tools can be used to modify dice rolls.

* Collect food.
Roll one die per cavemeeple placed here. For every increment of two, collect one food.  There's no limit to the number of meeples that can be placed here.

* Collect resources - wood, clay, stone or gold.
Similar as for food but there are only 7 available spaces for each resource.
Wood - receive one for every increment of three.
Clay - every increment of four.
Stone - every increment of five.
Gold - every increment of six.

As can be seen, acquiring stone or gold can be tricky without lots of meeples or lots of tools.

* Huts
The number of players determines how many piles of 7 huts there are in the game. Building huts is the how players generate points during the game. Each hut comes with a varying cost in resources and placing a meeple on a hut means you can purchase this during the appropriate phase. The value of the points received is directly related to the cost of the resources as above. For example, a hut costing 1 wood, 1 stone and 1 gold will give you 15 points. As players build farms, breed meeples and make tools, it becomes easier to acquire resources and feed your cavemeeples and the result is a natural shift from economy helpers to hut building around the mid-late game.  Competition for the huts can be fierce at the end. This is because unused resources are only worth 1 point each at the end of the game and so generally speaking, it's considered a criminal offence to have gold and stone remaining in your pile at the end of the game. ;)

Since one of the ways to end the game is one of the hut piles becoming empty, it's entirely possible to place a meeple on a pile with only one hut and decide not purchase the hut. Watching everyone else panic into relieving themselves of their resources on expensive cards only for you to prolong the game another turn, can be rather amusing and advantageous, as can burning through one of the hut piles to end a game prematurely. 

* Civilization cards.
There are four spaces available for civ cards; the first requires only one resource to purchase the civ card, the second two, third three and the last four. As you can see, if the civ card you need is on the third or fourth space it will require you to pay more heavily for it. From my experience, the first, and more often than not the second, are nearly always worth the resource investment. Only if the fourth card is really important to my overall strategy, or I have an abundance of wood, would I consider spending the 4 resources (typically wood).  Each civ card imparts an immediate one-off bonus plus it will give a boost to a player's scoring during the end-game. One-off bonuses include free resources, farms or tools, or a set number of victory points. Boosts to the end-game scoring come in the form of score multipliers relating to the number of tools, farms, cavemeeples or huts that you've managed to collect. There is also a specialized civilization set of cards to collect. What this does is it creates an incentive for players to think about specializing sometime around the mid-game. If you've collected a lot of farm multipliers then clearly it makes sense to match this with building farms: 5 farms and 5 farm multipliers will give you 25 points during the end game. Since everyone starts with 5 meeples, the meeple score multipliers have always tended to be hot property! Once collected, the civ cards remain hidden from the other players and so the end-game scoring is typically a tense and exciting affair. My experience is it's not uncommon to double one's score with an astute collection of civ cards... ignore them at your peril.

Gameplay 8.5/10

Time and scalability:

Stone Age plays quickly. A 2-player game should last no longer than 60 min and a 4-player game 90 min.  I'm a family man and time's definitely of the essence, so Stone Age scores well here. I've played it numerous times on BSW, experiencing both 3- and 4-player games, and Stone Age scales incredibly well scaling for number of players. The restrictions imposed on placing workers in 2 and 3-player games don't feel unnatural or unfair and help make your choices all the more important. 9/10.

Conclusion:

As you see from all this there's quite a lot of depth contained within a relatively simple game concept.  Do you go for cards even if they are expensive, or do you try to snag the cheaper cards that you know someone else needs?  Do you concentrate on farms, tools or more meeples, do you go for huts and putting score on the board early, or do you try the come from behind strategy, revealing awesome combinations of civs cards at the end. There are many paths to victory and each of these appear extremely well-balanced. This means that Stone Age is innately replayable.  The fact it's just had a mini-expansion released means its replayability level just got even better too.

Resource collection is dependent on dice rolling and therefore there's inevitably some degree of luck involved. However, the sheer number of dice you will roll in any one game of Stone Age should mean the good and bad rolls even out... bell-shaped curve and all that. Nevertheless, a really bad roll of 1s will always hurt, as does a perceived bad draw on how huts or civ cards are revealed on the turn you're last to play. Still, the upshot of this means Stone Age is appealing to newcomers and plays well in a mixed group of gamers and non-gamers. The best thing about Stone Age in my opinion though, is it really doesn't take itself too seriously, which really means it's a lot of fun!

Overall rating, a whopping 9/10.

I can confirm that this is fixed, my box (german version) closes perfectly there is even some additional space left over.

Thanks for that Jambo. Excellent review.


I'm still awaiting my RGG copy. Will let you know when it arrives :)

This morning I was greeted by a knock on my front door. There was the postman with the parcel containing 'Stone Age' :)

Ok, first things first. The box was shrinkwrapped, but I was surprised to see that the lid did not fully close!

(http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/stone_age1.jpg)  (http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/stone_age2.jpg)


Also, my box was slightly crushed at the bottom, probably due to the box not fully closing and doubling up.

(http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/stone_age4.jpg)

Upon opening the box, this greets you:

(http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/stone_age3.jpg)

No wonder the lid does not close!! :)

All that's contained in the box:

(http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/stone_age5.jpg)

Mind you, my Carcassonne Big Box suffers the same way ;)

(http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/Carcassonne_BB_1.jpg)  (http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/Carcassonne_BB_2.jpg)

:)  ;D

Looking forward to playing it now... time to seperate the pieces!


Edit: Now the pieces have been punched out, if it wasn't for the 4 player boards the box would close perfectly!

Thanks Jambo and Joff. What an excellent review. Certainly good enough to consider making a purchase. As to the box, well.... it's just a box.

Heh Joff, looks like you have the same edition as me. :) 

Bunging the insert was the best option. It's totally superfluous anyhow. If you feel like a game, I'm on BSW regularly - user name DrJambo.

I've PM'd you regarding this, Jambo.

Great review and an unboxing in one post! Well done!

Just out of interest, I played my first game of Stone Age on Sunday afternoon, another game Sunday evening and another Monday night. I have a session at my house on Friday where we are expecting to introduce Stone Age again.

The first game, as expected, was slower. We like to introduce a new games rules slowly over a few rounds, rather than giving a list of rules that players are expected to remember before play begins. After a brief explanation of the rules we played a couple of rounds just gathering resources (seeing how the dice affected the gathering of food, wood, gold etc.), then went on to introduce the three 'huts' (Love, Tool and Farm), followed by obtaining the Huts (spending resources), leaving the explaination of the Civ cards until a few rounds in (which was about as difficult as it gets in terms of rules, which isn't too difficult at all :)). Once everyone had the hang of it the game flowed like a dream :)

The Sunday evening game was better, as players began to get accustomed to the way the game plays, and Mondays game was excellent.

This is a great game. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It will take a bit of practice regarding strategy (as games do), but what a wonderful way to relax.

I agree with Jambo, this is a very neat game :)

Edited for spellings.

OK, I guess I'm sold!  I'll buy the game the next time I visit my local boardgame store.

Hey Joff, glad you're liking it!  One of the pleasures of Stone Age is exactly this:


You just never feel too stressed playing it, yet, there's still a good deal of strategy and decision making involved to please all comers.  If someone steals the card you've been wanting there's usually another good move to make. Rarely are you left completely without options.

I've added your BSW username to my BSW watchlist, so fingers crossed I'll be able to find you if you're ever online at the same time as me. "Ugga!"