Carcassonne Central

Hello Carcassonne Fans:

This is a variant that my wife and I used back in the days when we played Hunters and Gatherers. We never owned Carcassonne with all of the variants then, but this could be applied.

Keep in mind this is a costly variant, (at least for some), so take it for what it is.

We got Hunters and Gathers very cheap, so in the end we bought a second copy. We mixed all of the tiles together and randomly pulled out half to play a game. That had the wonderful effect of preventing a concious or subconcious memorization of the tiles. Human nature is to memorize certain tiles after a number of game plays. Having a second copy of the tiles and mixing it up with randomizing the tiles has a nice effect of keeping players on their toes with regards to what tiles are left to be drawn.

These days, we play Mega-Carcassonne and like to use all of the tiles. optimally, we would have a second copy of the tiles, (at least some of the expansions), so we could do the same thing. Alas, that would be quite pricey. It works well with H&G though.

We actually do something similar. Rather than using the bad that comes with (whichever expansion it is) we user the tower dispenser from, er, The Tower. Stack it to the limits (mega-Carc more than fills it), and then only draw tiles from one side. That way, even if you use all expansions and can plan for a certain type of tile coming up, you can never quite be sure than it will come up. And it also keeps the length of the game down somewhat—a full game of mega-Carc takes us about 3 hours, which is just too much really.

The main problem with both suggestions is that many Carc players think that memorising the tile distribution is precisely the strategic element of the game—the aspect which separates the novice from the experienced expert. Personally, I think that Carc has the element of chance built in for a reason, and think that it's good enough to stand a little more.

I must admit, that's a really neat idea.

We're slowly working through Carc, with each game we play adding a new expansion to the mix.  We started with Carc, then moved on to Carc and I&C, then Carc I&C T&B, and most recently adding the King and Robber Baron. However, we're conscious that each set adds to the game time, and with two kids under 3, time's the thing we always have least of!  Using Carc, I&C, T&B and the King/Robber takes us around 90 min which is really our limit, so to add the other expansions that we're dying to try out means that something has to give....

Your idea of randomly filling the tower with tiles from all sets and then only using half for any one game really appeals to me! No game will ever be the same, and of course the more unusual tiles are not guaranteed to be drawn. In particular, tiles from the P&D and the Tower can be quite game changing, but using your method means these sets will always have varying degrees of impact each time you play. I like that!

We start many games with that in mind, but we are both having fun and there is still wine left, so, well, we polay the other side too. :D

Good ideas, all.  We've only played a few mega-carc games, and then only when we had 4 or 5 of the expansions.  I can't imagine playing with them all!  Will have to try it sometime though.  For regular games we usually pick one or two expansions and just use those.

That is a mind set I like :D

Yeah, we play with all tiles as well. Memorising them? Pfff - not with my brain.  {zb