New Expansion: Tactician (was Action!)

[Gwommy]

I just came up with a great idea, although I think it could use a better name, but for now, I'll call it the Action expansion Tactician.


This expansion will include 6 Action Tactician tokens.  The players do NOT start with an action Tactician token.  During play, a player may choose to not place a follower during his turn(or take any related actions), and instead may take an action Tactician token (as long as he doesn't already have one).

During any player's future turn (just before final scoring), a player may use his action Tactician token. He then may place a follower on the last tile that was placed. In doing so, there may be two meeples on the same tile, which is acceptable as long as they are on different features within that tile. Or he may perform any related action (move the fairy, place a follower on the Wheel of Fortune, etc.) instead of placing a follower.

Thoughts? Any name ideas?

[djdahmer]

During any player's future turn (just before final scoring), a player may use his action token. He then may place a follower on the last tile that was placed. In doing so, there may be two meeples on the same tile, which is acceptable as long as they are on different features within that tile. Or he may perform any related action (move the fairy, place a follower on the Wheel of Fortune, etc.) instead of placing a follower.

Would this be in addition to the normal placing of a follower, essentially making it a double placement? This could be very powerful if you played it on a feature with your builder. I presume in that case you would have to place the follower on the second tile drawn?

[Gwommy]

Would this be in addition to the normal placing of a follower, essentially making it a double placement? This could be very powerful if you played it on a feature with your builder. I presume in that case you would have to place the follower on the second tile drawn?

To get the action token, you'd have to give up placing a follower on your turn.  Then on your next turn, you'd be able to place a follower and then use your token to place a 2nd follower on the same tile.

I don't see how this is powerful if played with the builder?  Could you give me an example?

[djdahmer]

Would this be in addition to the normal placing of a follower, essentially making it a double placement? This could be very powerful if you played it on a feature with your builder. I presume in that case you would have to place the follower on the second tile drawn?

To get the action token, you'd have to give up placing a follower on your turn.  Then on your next turn, you'd be able to place a follower and then use your token to place a 2nd follower on the same tile.

I don't see how this is powerful if played with the builder?  Could you give me an example?

Say, for example, you extended (or completed) a road on which you had a thief & builder you would be able to place a follower on the new tile, draw a second tile and place a follower on it, and then play your action token and place a third follower on the second tile. In one turn you would have placed two tiles and three followers. Sounds like a potentially powerful turn to me, although it may have more of an impact when you are only playing with two players than, say, a mega-carc game with six players.

[Novelty]

I think the City of Carcassonne rules had limits for a reason.  This seems to work in a similar manner, but the limits are removed.  I'd be cautious of obviliating (is there such a word?) the need for CoC with a fan-made expansion.

[Gwommy]

@djdahmer:  Placing 3 guys could be a powerful turn, but the way I see it is that you're limited to where you can place a 2nd follower on the same tile.  You still have to worry about making sure that you still have followers in your supply for future turns.  It'll also get rid of some of the luck or randomness of having to play on the tile that you draw.  You could essentially play on any tile, but you get 2nd choice for placement on that tile, which may not leave you with much.

@Novelty: There's limits in this expansion.  The action token can only be played after a player takes an action and before scoring occurs. Everyone has an equal oppurtunity to do this. It's still nothing like CoC since you can't place a follower in a feature that is already occupied.

Of course, anything could be used for the action tokens, and I don't intend to make any tiles for it.  Therefore, it would be easy to put into my next game of Carcassonne to run a play test on it.

[Whaleyland]

Of course, anything could be used for the action tokens, and I don't intend to make any tiles for it.  Therefore, it would be easy to put into my next game of Carcassonne to run a play test on it.

I like the idea and may try it next time I play. I also think using Ark tiles (if you have the game) is nice because they already have an "A" for "Action" on them. Great idea! I approve.

[djdahmer]

@djdahmer:  Placing 3 guys could be a powerful turn, but the way I see it is that you're limited to where you can place a 2nd follower on the same tile.  You still have to worry about making sure that you still have followers in your supply for future turns.  It'll also get rid of some of the luck or randomness of having to play on the tile that you draw.  You could essentially play on any tile, but you get 2nd choice for placement on that tile, which may not leave you with much.

Fair point. It amounts to a deferred placement then, and is probably not as powerful as the wagon can be.
Since there are just 6 tokens does that mean that there is only one token per player, or could someone hog all of the tokens to use later on?

[Gwommy]

It amounts to a deferred placement then, and is probably not as powerful as the wagon can be.
Since there are just 6 tokens does that mean that there is only one token per player, or could someone hog all of the tokens to use later on?

Correct, one for each player.  A player is not allowed to have more than one token at a time. I figure the action can be used as more of a strategic move rather than having to rely on a random tile.

I was thinking about this expansion today and how it'd work with other expansions.  You could use it on the turn of the player before you to move the fairy and guaranttee 1 pt at the beginning of your turn.  I'm thinking I may make it so that you can't use the action token on your turn, otherwise you could use it to move the fairy to a feature you just completed and that would make you eligible for the 3 extra fairy points.  Or would that not be such a bad thing?  I'm not sure.

I'll also have to change the wording slightly, the action may be used after a player 'moves the wood' for his turn.  This way, you have to place your follower before the dragon moves. It may also add more strategy when playing the princess.  If a player uses the princess to remove the only knight in a city, then that would make the city available for the taking by anyone who has an action token.

Then there's the magic portal.  Which brings up a good question: How powerful do you think the magic is?  I suppose one could take his chances and save his action token for a magic portal to be played to be able to place a follower anywhere that he'd like.  I would think that would take out a player just getting the luck of the draw, as it would allow any player the chance to use it.

Finally, what if multiple players want to use their action tokens on the same turn?  I'd say priority should go to the player who has the least number of points.  If there is still somewhere to place a follower, then the person with the next highest points may use their action, and so on until there's nowhere left to go or everyone used their action token.

[Gwommy]

Alright, I've came up with a new name for this expansion that seems to fit.  I've also simplified the rules to only allow you to place a follower on an opponent's turn rather than 'moving the wood'.  I could change it back if people think it'd be better to leave more options open.  In the meantime, I've written up a first draft which is ready for editing, comments, suggestions, etc.

http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/Tactician.pdf

[Scott]

I like the new name better.

I would discourage the use of "then" after a comma. The word "then" is only appropriate when some amount of time is passing between what precedes and what follows. (e.g. This afternoon we went to the store, then we went to the movies.) If nothing is happening in between (as in this case), the word is unnecessary.

As you wrote it:

When deciding to place a follower or perform any equivalent action, then you may instead choose take the
Tactician token of your color and put it in your supply.

As I would write it:

When deciding to place a follower or perform any equivalent action, you may instead choose to take the
Tactician token of your color and put it in your supply.

Likewise with the second paragraph:

During an opponent’s turn, if you have a Tactician token in your supply, then you may turn it in and use it to
place a follower on the tile that your opponent just placed. This placement takes place after your opponent
places a follower (or similar action, or chooses to pass) and before his scoring phase. If more than one player
wishes to use his Tactician token, then priority goes to the player with the least amount of points. If there is a tie,
then it goes to the player closest to the current player’s left. This may result with multiple followers on a single tile.

[Gwommy]

Huh.  Thanks, Scott.  I guess I've never realized that's how you're supposed to use "then".  The first one definitely makes sense, but I've always associated "then" with the word "if" from computer programming.  So I also removed the if from the second example and he's final, which I believe should be ready to go up unless anyone else sees something I may be missing?

http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/Tactician.pdf

[Novelty]

OK, it's on public downloads.  Merit point for you.  And wow, the fan-made expansions are getting completed in record time now... must be a function of the forums being down!

[CKorfmann]

I just have one question.  Is that really the right "T" in that font.  Isn't it a backwards "C"?  I understand using it and I don't think it looks bad at all, but I thought Gantry identified that font, would you rather use the right "T"?

[Ailurus]

You're right Chris, it isn't the "Carcassonne Font" capital T. I think it does look nice with all the curvy lines, but you could use the right T. The font is called "LindsayEF" as far as I know. Some time ago I found it somewhere, this is what the T looks like: