New Expansion at Spiele?

[EcoGuy]

good find mikee ... let me give this a shot 

In essence it appears there are 12 new wood pieces  and 18 new tiles.  The rest indicates that either the placement of the pieces allow the scoring of fields before the end of the game and the abbey (maybe a special tile) allows you to "lock" and "appraise" the adjacent tiles.  My german is not much better but I thought I would take a crack at it.  Sounds interesting but the mechanics seem odd with assessing farms early and "locking" areas .... I guess we all have to just wait and see ...

[mjharper]

I don't really have much to add to what mikee and EcoGuy said, but here's my translation anyway.

12 new wooden figures and 18 new tiles bring interesting new possibilities.
For example, the farmyard enables scoring of farms during play.
The abbey offers the possibility of closing off all adjacent areas and scoring them.

Here's hoping that the farmyard tile doesn't end up complicating farmer scoring too much… I don't really fancy having to keep an eye out for which farms shouldn't be scored at the end because they have a farmyard. Would be quite a (rude gesture) to RGG though, as that sort of thing would make 1st edition scoring insanely difficult.

As you say, we'll have to wait and see…

[mikee]

Would be quite a (rude gesture) to RGG though, as that sort of thing would make 1st edition scoring insanely difficult.

Yikes, indeed it would!  if you're going to score farms during play, then you'd have to use 3rd edition rules (need a border for the early farm being scored).  RGG would not be pleased...

As for me, I'm hoping this expansion doesn't change the game mechanics too much.  I thought the last two expansions (P&D and Tower) went a little too far.

[Hypnotoad]

Hmm.

Some form of farm scoring during play would actually perfect Carcassonne in my opinion. That is if it's done right, otherwise it could slow it down, complicate it and take it in a whole other direction of course.

I've thought quite a bit about this, even if I'm trying not to since I want to be pleasantly surprised by what they've done.

Here's hoping it's another significant piece of the Carc puzzle

[mjharper]

*Status Update*

Well, the expansion was due to be released yesterday but there seems to have been a delay. None of the stores in own have it in, and the online stores have no indication either. Amazon.de has adjusted the delivery time to "4-6 weeks" but in an email they sent me (I have the expansion pre-ordered) they reckon it will be delivered between 22 and 24 October. We'll see about that.

Oh, and I think I figured out the whole 'adult' business. It comes from the abbreviation 'Erw.', which some sites have been using. 'Erw.' normally stands for 'Erweiterung' (expansion), but obviously some idiot thought it meant 'Erwachsenen' (adult).

I'll keep you posted as soon as I find out anything more, and post the rules as soon as I have them ;-)

[mjharper]

I have it now! Found it in town, finally. It's late here now, so I'll get to translating the rules and posting images tomorrow. First impressions are that it's more like Princess and Dragon rather than The Tower, in that it includes four distinct gameplay components; that the components should favour more tactical/cutthroat players; and that the Abbey of the title is probably the weakest of the four. As far as worries about the anticipated new rules for farmers are concerned, I think that the 'barn' feature will actually simplify farmer scoring - but probably only if you're using HiG rules. Basically, placing the barn on a farm means all farmers currently on it are scored immediately, and no further farmers can be placed on the farm. The barn trumps farmers, and I don't see how RGG can square that with 1st edition rules.

****
I've just found a link to the RGG rules translation here (thanks to the BGG thread). The RGG solution to the 'barn' problem is: to use 3rd edition rules with the barn. I don't see any indication to say that all farming rules are now 3rd edition; which would indicate that either you stop using 1st edition rules altogether, or that you use both sets, 1st edition for normal farms, and 3rd edition for barn-occupied farms.

So, I'll go through the original and RGG's translation in more detail tomorrow, and see what I come up with.