Forest And River Expansion -- Any Fun?

[Valk]

Hi,

I am looking to print out one of the major fan expansions and trying to choose which is a good one to start with. The forest and the river expansions both appeal to me, but my first impression is that the scoring system will bring nothing new to the game. A forest seems to just be a city that scores like a road and a river seems to be a road that scores like a city. I was expecting these expansions to have something new and interesting in their scoring rules.

So I would like to hear from anyone who has played these expansions if they're worth making. Alternatively, since the tiles and the idea are quite nice and appealing, maybe they need a rules update introducing some interesting new scoring, such as having the forest score a number of points per tile proportional to the number of meeples you have on that forest element.

I would also like to hear what people have to say about the mountains set, as it seemed that it ignores the whole resource manipulation aspect of the game since you don't need meeples on the mountain element to score any points.

Looking forward to hear from the community.

[Carcatronn]

this is why I haven't printed the major expansions as not really adding too much. I am sure they are fun though, great jobs on graphics and creativity. I simply prefer the small mini expansions as they seem to add more without overloading your stockpile. Checkout the Seasons, The Kings Gate, and Stained Glass expansions.

[CKorfmann]

If you have not already seen it, check out the (nearly) full list of expansions HERE.  That list is pretty expansive, but hasn't been able to be updated in over a year.  As a result, there are several new ones that aren't there yet, but you can find them in the forums.

I'd recommend anything by JPutt927.  His expansions always add new elements to the game and are very well done.  Seasons and By Order of the King (a card expansion) are probably the best.  You might also be interested in the Ocean expansions.  Those are completely unique to anything done before.  I also like to use the Family Feud expansion and Joff's Medieval expansions.

If you're looking for new mechanics, I'd also recommend looking at the extra meeples expansions.  I have one called The Missionary and I worked on another called Shepherds.  If you can aquire the pieces, they are a lot of fun too.

[Valk]

Hey guys thanks for the suggestions, I will check out the sets that you have recommended.

I want to point out though that I am not necessarily looking for anything super complicated to be added to the game (many of the mini expansions on this site do offer that). I appreciate the rive/mountains/forests expansions for their relative simplicity - adding a new element to the game which is at once both new and familiar. I just think that a small change to the scoring scheme might help differentiate the expansion a little more, even something like "Forest score 3 points per tile" would do it for me (btw, I know that that would be way too powerful).

I am planning to print out either forests or rivers and hopefully get a chance to play it this weekend so that I can give them a go.

[CKorfmann]

Hey guys thanks for the suggestions, I will check out the sets that you have recommended.

I want to point out though that I am not necessarily looking for anything super complicated to be added to the game (many of the mini expansions on this site do offer that). I appreciate the rive/mountains/forests expansions for their relative simplicity - adding a new element to the game which is at once both new and familiar. I just think that a small change to the scoring scheme might help differentiate the expansion a little more, even something like "Forest score 3 points per tile" would do it for me (btw, I know that that would be way too powerful).

I am planning to print out either forests or rivers and hopefully get a chance to play it this weekend so that I can give them a go.

If that's the case, look at some of the deeper expansions for Forests, Rivers, and Mountains.  They add new elements in each of the subsequent expansions.

[Scott]

The two primary purposes of the forest expansion(s) were to add a missing landscape feature and to attempt to keep farms from becoming very large. We weren't looking to add a new scoring mechanic. With mountains, we introduced a new scoring mechanic because we didn't want it to be the same as forest.

If you want to tweak the point values or change the scoring mechanic at your house, that's your perogative. If you're looking for something more fulfilling, I suggest taking a look at other expansions. Everybody has different tastes and preferences, and therefore different ideas of fun. Some people like aggressive expansions, some don't.

[Trebuchet]

hi,

we play the river (Fishermen basic) expansion always (incl. the official river I & II) even though it doesn't add a lot new rules, indeed it's like roadbuilding, but 2 pts per tile. We tend to use the river tiles for creating impossible to fill gaps stopping large cities to be completed, and obviously divide fields like roads do.
I think it's a nice expansion to prolong the game, we tend to add smaller (fan) expansions s.a. breweries, stained glass, porxada, wells + tunnels, plaque etc etc. to have the game more variant.

The next expansion to be added will be the Medieval expansion, I have the tiles design printed out and ready to stick. This should be great fun to play!

[skipboris]

If you want a bigger change read the Ocean rules.  It's almost like adding a second game to play.