Are there too many meeples with Abbey and Mayor

[SteveBme]

Are the too many meeples with the introduction of Abbey and Mayor?

This expansion gave each player three new followers: the mayor, the wagon and the barn.
Point 3 in the CAR (version 4.1) quotes [“A certain shortage of followers is entirely intentional. An important
element of the game is precisely learning to be economical with one's followers.”]
With the inclusion of these three extra meeples, are there now too many?

We are now playing with a set of 12 meeples each (6 small, 1 large, 1 builder, 1 pig, 1 mayor, 1 wagon and 1 barn) having removed one small meeple.
This reduction has helped to ensure that the usual shortage of meeples can occur.

What do others think about this?

[Gantry]

This is just my opinion, but I think of "shortage of followers" meaning the standard small meeples + 1 big meeple, as the others are more specialized. For a game with a few expansions, 7 seems reasonable to me.

[Scott]

I think increases in meeple population are warranted as the number of tiles in play increase.

[CKorfmann]

I think increases in meeple population are warranted as the number of tiles in play increase.

I agree.  The higher number of followers is especially useful if you are playing with a smaller number of players.  With two or three players, if you use all the expansions and the meeples to their potential, you still have to be careful how you use them or you can run out.  Just using the Count of Carcassonne expansion to it's potential can really use up followers fast.  Throw in a couple of fan-made expansions with new features (forest, lake, ocean, rivers) and you'll definitely still need to be conservative. 

[Joff]

I prefer using the Abbey and Mayor followers, they add so much more competition to the game and fighting over cities.

My fan made expansion Jousting Tournament was concieved to take advantage of the Abbey and Mayor followers. When you use Abbey and Mayor, you can play Jousting Tournament as I originally intended.

[Novelty]

I find the Abbey and Mayor followers and the barn (the barn is not a follower) shakes up the game quite a lot and adds a lot of value to the gameplay.  The last time an expansion did this as way back with Traders and Builders.

Like CKorfmann said, the number of tiles has been increasing, but not the number of pieces in hand.  That's why the A&M pieces are a welcome to me.  When one add in the three hundred or so fan-made tiles, the number of followers are actually rather few by comparison.

[SteveBme]

I find the Abbey and Mayor followers and the barn (the barn is not a follower) shakes up the game quite a lot and adds a lot of value to the gameplay.  The last time an expansion did this as way back with Traders and Builders.

Forgot to include at the start of this - that we are currently playing with the Basic game, River 1 & II, I&C, T&B, K&S, GQ11 and A&M as a regular playing set and have set the other expansions aside for now. With only those sets, then we are setting a regular meeple aside and playing with a set of 12. We are also playing games with five players.

I agree with Joff and Novelty that the Abbey and Mayor pieces have been a great addition to the game.

[CKorfmann]

I think that answers your question.  Playing with 5 players puts a whole lot of followers on the board.  Not that that's a bad thing, but I can see where you'd form that opinion about their being too many.  Afterall, the game is designed to be played with up to six, you just have to expect the scores to be lower as well.  Play a couple times with three or four players and see if you still think there are too many.

[Tobias]

Yeah, there are too many. I almost never run out of them.

[meepleater]

I use all 8 normal meeples, plus 2 trading posts... I don't think there are too many.. my mother still runs out a lot...