Carcassonne Central

Dual Dragon

I don’t know whether this should be classified as a variant, expansion or variant/expansion ;)

I say this because to obtain the extra dragon used would probably require you to purchase another copy of P&D. In that case it becomes a variant! If you improvise with another token for the dragon (without resorting to an extra P&D set) it becomes an expansion!

Anyway Dual Dragon is a 1 piece expansion/variant that uses an extra dragon (bet you were surprised ;) ). It is simple. All it involves are 2 dragons operating. We have played P&D with A&M and found out on each occasion the dragon rarely gets near anyone. If you start to increase the expansions there is even less of a chance of the dragon eating anyone. Having 2 dragons operating increases the danger to those poor meeples! Basically, the player who lays the dragon tile decides which dragon will move on his turn, and the normal rules then continue for moving him. A player who lays a volcano tile can choose which dragon to move to the volcano.

These draft rules show a white dragon being used (however, I only have the one standard one at the moment… anyone got a spare?)

Dual Dragon v0.1 (http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/files/dual_dragon_v0_1.pdf)

Any of the meeple suppliers carry spare dragons?

Not as yet :(

Perhaps you could get another count and use it as the dragon :)  The count expansion is always cheap :)

That would work... but a nice white dragon would look much better :)

If you could get a white dragon, I bet that would spark ideas for some expansions/variants.

Just to point out that Dual Dragon does not require a white dragon... another standard dragon would work just as well... or any other colour dragon that you might like, even a lime green colour!

You could get a white sheep... would that be menacing enough?

Just finished a playtest of Black Tower (in a 2 player game). We also play tested Dual Dragon in this game. We used 4 expansions for this: Princess and the Dragon (obviously), The Tower, A&M and I&C along with the basic tiles. (The Black meeple was used lying down for a Black Tower piece)

We used Novelty's idea for the Count piece lying on his side as the second Dragon. This works.

This was a much better game with both Dragons in play. A Dragon was never far away from followers, and there was more fear that a Dragon tile might be drawn at any moment.

(http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/CC_forum_images/blacktowerplaytest1.jpg)

I like this better than with just playing one Dragon.

Whoever moves that dragon piece should count one... one tile... two... two tiles three... three tiles for the moves and cackles at the end of the move :)

This has now been finalised.

Rules: Dual Dragon v1 (http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/files/dual_dragon_v1)

Can I move this and Black Tower to Completed?

Yes, no problem :)

The undercoat applied to the Dragon:

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

This will be allowed to dry then sanded down and the top coats applied.

What colour will the top coat be?  White?

Yes. I want a White Dragon. Not that this is important for playing Dual Dragon.

Here is the finished Dragon:

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

I'm not too happy with the finish on the Dragon, but never mind.

One last picture:

(http://www.john-warren.co.uk/carcassonne/images/100_1487a.jpg)

I like that face off picture!  Good job with the dragon.  I wish I could buy one white one too.

I am curious

Is the idea for the Dual Dragon simply to increase the potential impact of the dragon on the game?

When you play Carcassonne/P&D with many expansions present, the Dragon's impact on a game is lessened. Often the Dragon will not reach certain parts of the board or can be controlled somewhat by a player drawing a volcano tile. With two Dragon's on the playing area there is more chance of a Dragon at least covering an area that would be difficult to reach with only one Dragon on the playing area.

The idea was born because we had played P&D with A&M and found out on each occasion the dragon rarely got close to anyone. If you start to increase the expansions there is even less of a chance of the dragon eating anyone. Having 2 dragons operating increases the danger to those poor meeples!

I can definitely see it being viable once you get around 200 tiles or more.  It's a lot of ground to cover with just one.

makes sense

the dragon is pretty limited at 6 tiles

sort of the same with the giant expansion, I can see them tromping around but rarely getting to a dragon to slay :)