AotC: Jordan River (completed)

[Scott]

The Jordan River runs from the Sea of Galilee/Tiberius to the Dead Sea, so to me the Dead Sea is the ending tile for the Jordan River expansion. For me, Jordan River is the most important expansion because it matches with the River expansion for original Carc, and it was where exploration of the land of Canaan began, which makes it historically appropriate for the game.

I agree.  It is the obvious first choice.

The AotC artwork is slightly different from Carc, so one has to draw afresh a new river to match the style.  I'm not surprised that it's not easy.  Well, there's no harm starting a whole new thread for it (and anything else that anyone is serious about) to get suggestions and submissions (pretty much what's happening with vineyards at the moment).  I'll leave it up to someone else to "drive" this.

I can drive the idea process, but somebody else will have to do the graphics. The good news is that there are some excellent tile scans from AotC on BGG, so we just need somebody who can draw a river in somewhat of the same style. The objective is 12 river tiles with the same configurations as regular Carcassonne. The only difference will be two lakes instead of a spring and a lake. Actually, we might want the Dead Sea to be two tiles for proper scaling. Considering the size of the temple graphics, it might not be feasible to fit one alongside a river without making the river look bizarre, so perhaps the cloister/river tile could be ditched for a two-tile Dead Sea.

Rules are going to be same as River for original Carc, so I won't bother typing them out.

Hmm... thinking about accuracy makes me wonder if all the curved river tiles should be changed to straight. This would make it more boring, but the real river is pretty much straight north to south.

[CKorfmann]

Hmm... thinking about accuracy makes me wonder if all the curved river tiles should be changed to straight. This would make it more boring, but the real river is pretty much straight north to south.

True, but I think under the circumstances, it might be appropriate to overlook that fact.  Unless... dare I say, we call it something else. 

[Scott]

I would prefer to keep the curved river tiles over changing the name. The Jordan River is too much of a landmark.

[Joff]

I do not see a major problem with a meandering Jordan river, although it runs north to south, it does meander quite a bit in places. However, calling it by another name is not the way to go... keep to the Jordan river!

You could always invoke some slightly different rules to discourage 'long U' turns.

[CKorfmann]

I do not see a major problem with a meandering Jordan river, although it runs north to south, it does meander quite a bit in places. However, calling it by another name is not the way to go... keep to the Jordan river!

You could always invoke some slightly different rules to discourage 'long U' turns.

I agree, the name would be much better kept.  I think if there were an even number of tiles with curved river secions, either 2 or 4, than it could end up straight.  If there were three, it would eventually take a 90 turn.

[Scott]

In the interest of moving this further ahead, I've done up the rules:
http://www.mediafire.com/?twhtzdojmoh

I made another attempt at the tiles, but I still suck at graphics.

[meepleater]

This is my quick attempt at the river tile:

[CKorfmann]

That looks pretty good to me.  I think you're hired! 

[meepleater]

w/ extra embellishment:



I'm happy to do the rest (after LotR3 and aquaducts) if you want me to.

[Whaleyland]

Oooh, nice river. My only recommendation is to blur the river just a bit because the banks look a little sharp. I love AotC and would totally play with this expansion, although getting spare tiles is pretty much impossible now.

[meepleater]

Ok I smoothed out the edges a bit:

[Whaleyland]

Yup, I like that better. Thank you!

[meepleater]

btw, it doesn't matter if finding spare tiles is impossible- as the river, it would have a different back anyway. Just use blank carcassonne tiles (if you have any).

[CKorfmann]

...although getting spare tiles is pretty much impossible now.

If someone scans the tile backs, you could make those too.

[meepleater]

This one jumped the queue, and so here are the 12 tiles (tile distribution isn't exactly the same as the original river): 1 lake starting tile, 9 middle river tiles, 2 ending-lake tiles.