Carcassonne Central

First off this is my first post on this forum although I have visited a few times to read up on Carcassonne and learn about the expansions and such,,

I bought the original game about 1 month ago at barnes and nobles as it looked interesting. The wife and I love to play board games and this one was different and I was about ready to try something new as the other games we own were getting boring and repetitive.

After a few times playing, the wife and I were hooked! Last week I decided to start looking and buying the expansions, and as of late this week I finally have these expansions:

- Inns & Cathedrals
- Traders & Builders
- River 2
- the Count
- Kings and Scouts

last night was the first time we have tried any of the expansions and we played with the I&C, River 1 and 2 all in one game before going to bed. We are going to try the T&B and maybe one of the others today.

My questions are as follows

- after play has stopped for the night do you sort out all the expansions from the main set and put them back in their respective boxes?
- Can you just use the expansion tiles from T&B, I&C, etc as normal tiles and not use the rules of those sets for scoring and just play the scoring rules of the main game? (i.e.  if a carcassonne virgin wants to play with you and learn the game do you take the time to separate the sets or just leave them and not play by the expansion scoring rules?)

Thanks for answering my questions and I hope to be a good contributing member of the forum!

umm 7 views and no answers from the community?

I wouldn't worry about the slow pick-up here, it's not uncommon, but they usually get there in the end!  ;D

Can't speak for everyone, but we always separate the tiles back into their respective sets. If you don't, I think you would have problems next time you want to play a different combo of games.

As for your second question, well, as you've no doubt read here, people have different ways of playing so whatever floats your boat. However, I can't see much point in doing that. When you start, play the oringinal game with the River. Then as you obtain each expansion, introduce it along with the new rules. Don't try to play them all in one go straight off. By introducing the rules  and sets slowly, each one added is not difficult to pick up..... So... When you play with some new players, go back to the mai game for starters and then introduce the expansions to them (slowly!)

Help that helps.

I'm sure others will chip in soon enough.... it's the weekend and that tends to be a quieter time. Too busy playing the game!!

when separating the pieces back into the respective sets how do you know exactly which pieces go to which easily? Do you mark the back of the cards from the expansion packs? or do you have a print out of the pieces that fit in each expansion box?

BTW the wife and I just played with the river 1 and 2 expansions, I&C, T&B and man that was fun! I think we are going to try the count one next.

You can sure use the I&C and T&B tiles in the normal game without using the rest of the rules.  That's what we do sometimes.  Just agree which set of rules you are using beforehand so that everyone agrees.

I also separate the tiles again afterwards. Some people who don't, have a second set which is permanently mixed.

You can use some expansion tiles without playing the corresponding expansion, but I never have.

When I started to play Carcassonne, I was taught just the basic game without the river. My second game, the river was added. When I bought the game myself and the expansions, I added one at a time so as to not overwhelm myself and the people I was playing with. Whenever we introduce the game to new players, we go back to the basic game and slowly work our way up. It's easier for people to learn in chunks rather than all at once. Fewer tiles also means faster games initially, which means you can introduce those expansions sooner than later.

hi djwurm, welcome to the Carc Central community, glad u found us!  :)

What my wife and I did was write a small 2-letter code for the expansion on the back of the tile in a hard pencil (soft pencils like "HB" tend to rub off). So for instance I wrote "IC" or "TB" in small letters inside the C on the back.  Here's the advantage: if you use the tile tower from The Tower expansion, the light colour can't be seen unless up close, whereas if you use ink it can definitely be seen.

There are other things you can do too if you just draw tiles from the bag, write in ink on the back or use coloured stickers.

I would never write or mark the tiles myself. Total heresy in my opinion!!  ;D What i did (and believe other have too) was to obtain a sheet howing all the tiles from aech set and place it in it's respective box, then just match the tiles to each set. I can't recall where I got my tile sheets from but they were available as .pdf's... may have even been an earlier incarnation of Carc Central?? :-\ And they may be included in the Anotated Rule sets available here.... ?

There are some tile separation sheets available on BGG. They show just the tile images and quantities. I used to carry them in a portfolio-style file folder and hand them out at the end of the game so that each player would be cleaning up a particular expansion. Any remaining tiles were from the base game.

The Complete Annotated Rules can also be used for tile separation guidance. The section for each expansion shows the tiles and quantities. Since I'll be carrying the CAR with me to games anyway, the older tile separation sheets are slightly redundant. However, loose sheets are more convenient to hand out than taking pages out of a binder.

I went to the download section and printed off the page that shows the tiles for the different sets but the river 1 and 2 dont match up for me.. I must be missing tiles.... thats weird though cause I have only played it at my house and they always go back into the boxes right after.

Do what we did - we ran several strips of colored paper through our Xyron machine to add an adhesive backing, then using a paper punch ($2.00 from JoAnns - slightly larger than a 3 hole punch size) we punched out colored "dots" - one for each expansion.

We put one dot in the upper-right corner of each box, then one dot on the lower right corner of each "C" side of the tiles. They look nice and do not detract from the tiles.

We are able to sort the tiles back into their proper boxes in no time at all. We didn't dot any non-C backed tiles, no need since they are fairly easy to know which goes with what expansion.

I also just ordered another base set so I can play some mega-base games - to separate those tiles, we reserved black for those dots. Since we use a tile bag, we never know what we're drawing.

Never heard of Xyron machines before you mentioned them previously. The machines appear to be reasonably priced, though I've never seen them in stores around here. It might be easier for some to find sheets of colored dots at a local office supply store. I'm contemplating doing this myself, since we also use a tile bag rather than the tower. The bag that comes with T&B is getting a little small, but it should be fairly simple to make a new, larger tile bag. The tricky part will be the logo.

Funny, how everybody always wants to seperate their tiles.
We just use all the tiles (except the river tiles of course).

At the start of the game we decide which expansions/rules are active.
This might mean that some elements of a tile lose their meaning, but I do not see the problem of that.

If the game might take to long, we decide, after a certain pre-agreed set of time (e.g. 1 hour) that we enter the end-game phase. After this we still use something like 20 tiles to finish the game.

:)

M.

to me that is the most simple solution is to not introduce the game rules but keep the tiles together from I&C and T#B and just let the new people playing that you are trying to introduce to the game that you will be playing with the basic set rules then introduce the other rules after they play a few times

It just seems to be a beating after the wife and I play to break out all the tiles and put them back in their respective boxes.

BTW we really like the T&B expansion. It seems to add more scoring to the fold and with the builder (my favorite meeple) our towns get pretty big and take some very interesting shapes! I am not sure the pig really adds that much to the scoring to make any kind of difference unless the game is really close. We still have yet to play with the king and scout and the count..

I ordered Hunters and Gathers last week and it should be here today. I wont be able to play it until tommorrow since I wont be home until 10:30 tonight due to work and then I have to go teach tennis lessons at the country club until 9:30.

So how do you guys like Hunters and Gathers compared to the main game?

We separate out the river tiles, and then everything else just goes back into the box for the next time we play.  If we are teaching someone new, we just use all the tiles and only introduce the basic pieces and rules.  After a few times, we add in the other rules and pieces such as the barn, pig, etc.  My husband and I agree upon whatever rules we are playing by at the beginning of the game; sometimes I don't like playing with the river or with the goods.  It depends on my mood.  As long as it takes to play a game, I certainly would not want to then separate everything back out into the expansions. 

Marie

My wife is the same way! she always decides which rules we play by depending on her mood.. thats too funny.. She also thinks it is a beating to separate them (expansions) except for the river since that is pretty easy.

I haven't timed it, but I think it always takes us less than five minutes to separate the tiles again. To each their own I suppose.

We always separate the tiles and place them in their boxes.