Several new expansion on its way

[Carcking]

Oh, and the robber icon actually looks a lot like the Count mashed up with the King meeple included in Citadels.

I think it could be a coin bag or loot bag.

[Khonnor83]

I bought The Count separate, cult siege and creativity, cathars...also Graf Konig und Consorten....i double dipped a few times already.

I already own Plague, Tunnels and Circles from the spielbox magazines and I bought a base set of Carcassonne that also contained crop circles. I do want the RGG box coming this spring, and I'm also afraid it will be released in Germany or Holland later this year or sometime in the future.

I cant wait for these minis though.

I might put all my sealed spielbox magazines up on Ebay one of these days...I guess...

[CKorfmann]

The expansion rules are up on BGG in the item descriptions for each expansion.  So much for the dice prohabition...  The Carcassonne universe may never be the same.  Perhaps the Mayans are on to something.

[meepleater]

The expansion rules are up on BGG in the item descriptions for each expansion.  So much for the dice prohabition...  The Carcassonne universe may never be the same.  Perhaps the Mayans are on to something.

Yes, the flying machine rules sound awful (dice... really?)

I'm also not sure about the dispatches (seeing as I use a modified scoreboard from here at CC) but the others sound really interesting, particularly the ferries (if I understand the rules right, there are road intersections that can be modified during the game as to which roads are connected to which).

[Carcking]

Yes, the Flier seems pretty weak out of all six of the minis. Fitting that it includes a dice mechanic.

[joshgambit]

Taken directly from BGG....so they're all in one spot!

In Carcassonne: The Messages, a small expansion for Carcassonne, players place a second meeple (included in this expansion) on the score board at the start of the game. Whenever they score points during the game, they decide which scoring meeple to advance; if a meeple lands on one of the dark spaces on the score track (0, 5, 10, etc.) and the owner of that meeple is the active player, then that player draws the top message tile from the track and either scores two points for it or takes the action shown on the tile. The possibilities are:
•   Score that player's smallest road, city or cloister as if it were the end of the game, but leave the meeple in place.
•   Score two points for each banner in a city that player occupies or two points for each of that player's knights.
•   Score three points for each of that player's farmers.
•   Draw and play an additional tile.
•   Score one follower and return it to that player's supply.
Whichever option the player chooses, he then places that tile on the bottom of the message stack.
At the end of the game, players add the scores represented by their two scoring meeples, place one meeple on that sum, then figure out their final scoring, earning no more messages.

Carcassonne: The Ferries, a small expansion for Carcassonne, includes eight new land tiles that show three or four road segments leading to a lake in the center of the tile; these tiles are mixed with the other tiles in the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, she places it following the normal rules, decides whether to place a follower (and if on a road as a robber, on which segment), then places a ferry on the tile to connect two of the road segments. Any segments not connected by a ferry end in the lake. Whenever a player extends a road that contains one or more ferries – whether by placing a Ferries tile or a regular road tile – she may move the first ferry closest to that tile in each direction of the road to connect different road segments. If this movement leads to a road being closed at both ends, that road now scores.

In Carcassonne: The Flier, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles showing a pair of wings are mixed with the other tiles to be used in the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, he places it according to the normal rules. He then has the option of placing a follower on this tile as normal or of attempting to fly a new follower to a nearby tile. This meeple will travel in the direction determined by the wings' orientation; the distance (1-3 tiles) is determined by a die roll. If a tile exists in this location, he can place the meeple on any unfinished, non-field location, whether that feature is occupied or not; if no tile exists in this location or all the non-field features are complete, then the player places no meeple this turn. Crash!

In Carcassonne: The Goldmines, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles showing a gold bar are mixed with the other tiles being used in the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles during play, she places the tile according to the normal rules, then places one gold bar on this tile and one gold bar on any adjacent tile, whether orthogonally or diagonally adjacent. She may then place a follower as normal on the tile placed this turn.
Whenever any feature is completed – whether on the same turn or a later turn – and one or more tiles of the completed feature have gold bars on them, these bars are distributed among the players involved in the scoring. If one player has a majority of followers on the completed feature, she collects all of the gold bars available; if two or more players are tied in the number of followers present, then gold bars are distributed among those tied players, going clockwise from the active player.
At the end of the game, any unclaimed gold bars are removed from the board before final scoring. Each gold bar is worth 1-4 points depending on how many bars a player has collected.

In Carcassonne: Mage & Witch, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles bearing a mage symbol are mixed with the other tiles at the start of the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, she plays it as normal following the standard placement rules. She then either places or moves the mage or witch on the playing area; both figures can be placed only on incomplete roads and cities, and both cannot be on the same road or in the same city. The player must place or move one of these figures, if possible. She then optionally places a follower on the tile just played.
Whenever a feature bearing a mage or witch scores, whether during the game or at game's end, the mage/witch adjusts the points scored for this feature. The mage adds one point for each tile in the feature, while the witch cuts the number of points scored for this feature in half, rounded up. After such scoring, place the mage/witch next to the score track to await the drawing of the next mage tile.

In Carcassonne: The Robber, a small expansion for Carcassonne, eight landscape tiles bearing a robber symbol are mixed with the other tiles at the start of the game.
Whenever a player draws one of these tiles, he places it as normal according to the standard rules, then he places his robber figure – a special meeple included in this expansion – on the score track next to the score marker of any other player. The next player in turn order who has a robber off the scoring track also places a robber adjacent to the score marker of any opponent.
Whenever a score marker accompanied by a robber moves on the score track, the owner of the robber moves his own score marker forward half that many spaces, rounded up, then removes his robber from the score track. (The one exception: If a player moves his score marker by robbing someone else, any robbers on that space move with that player's score marker and wait to rob that player following a normal scoring.) If two or more score markers are on the same space with a robber and both score, the robber's owner can choose who to rob.

[JaceyRacey]

Apart from The Ferries expansion, it seems like all the landscape tiles will be already existing tiles with added symbols on them.
I don't want to sound like a party pooper, but I would have loved to see some new tiles but with neutral artwork, not old tiles with hideous artwork splattered onto them. New tiles with existing mechanics (like building a lake or a forest with the same mechanics as building a castle, or 4 way wells without hideous artwork), not old tiles with yet new and crazy mechanics. I love Carcassone also for the aesthetics.

[Scott]

The 100-point CarcCentral scoreboard has shaded spaces on the multiples of five, so all should be well with regards to Messages. I fully expect players will now be deliberately scoring small numbers of points to land on as many dark spaces as possible.

The value of gold bars in Goldmines is interesting in that all players can score points for them, not just who collects the most. I wonder what effect this would have if applied to trade goods.

I'm surprised that with The Robber you're not actually stealing points from anybody, just gaining half as many for yourself. I'll make sure to score a 2-point road if a robber is standing next to me.

I hope that for those expansions which include player-specific meeples, that they give us six colors and not just five.

[Carcking]

Of these I think the Ferries sounds very intreguing. It sounds like the ferry works kind of like a rail switch. The player who extends the road gets to swing the ferry so that is connects the two segments of road on that tile that favor him. Two or more players can vie for the position of the ferry until someone completes his road thereby locking the ferry into place.

Is that what anyone else is getting from it?

[Carcking]

There are two minis that involve the scoreboard. This will mess with Scott's Score Keeper application - and may be challenging to overcome. For the Messages we'll need to be able to track a second marker on the scoreboard and the player will have to choose which one to advance when he is scoring. A landing on a multiple of 5 for either one should flag that a message needs to be drawn. At end game the position of the two markers will need to be added together. Maybe that part can be done manually by manually adding one score into the other.

The Robber is another challenge which could also be handled manually - the difficult part then I would think would be remembering who you robbed and remembering to take half the score when the opportunity comes up. Maybe there would be a way to flag each marker that is being robbed and by what color.

[Carcking]

I just had a thought...what if you play Robber with Messages? Your one marker gets robbed so you decide to only ever move the other. The robbing player's robber marker will become trapped until you finally decide to score with that particular marker. ...hmmmm..

[Carcking]

The additional scoring marker mechanic from Messages gives me an idea about tracking the value of farms during the game...each players' farms can be tracked so the players know the relative value of each - so it's not as much of an unknown at game end. I think I'll give this a try in the next session and see if I like it. You could just pick a point about midway through the game and tally up the current position of the farmers - then add the marker to the scoreboard. No need to track it right from the beginning.

Thoughts?

[neosatan]

Some interesting mechanics... That gives me an idea...
I wonder how will graphics look and when it will be out. Also prices are interesting thing. In my country micro exps are prices for a 2/3 (or 3/4 with some resellers) of a exp price, and I wonder if with them it will be the same case...

[Scott]

Yes, that's how I understand Ferries to work.

Hmm.... I really don't want to completely change my scoring application for two mini-expansions. Robber might be possible, but complicated. Messages would require a complete redesign from the ground up.

I'm not keen on trying to track farm value during the game because farm ownership is volatile. Farms can become connected and worthless to one of the players involved. Or maybe a player uses a barn. I think you'd just be making extra work for yourself because you'd have to start over on calculating farm value.

[Whaleyland]

I just edited the descriptions on the BGG Wiki for the six new expansions and thought I would share my re-writes. Wherever the original rules came from, they are poorly written. I suspect Rio Grande did the translations, as they are often awful at translating things (see Stone Age: Style rules). In any case, here are my complete rewrites of them. They are lacking some info such as the messages bonus tiles, but they are also somewhat clearer than the original descriptions:

Carcassonne - Die Fluggeräte (The Flier) (2012)
8 tiles, 1 die showing 1-3 pips twice
Place the tiles as per normal. The player then has the option of placing a follower on the new tile or attempting to fly the follower to a nearby tile. The follower flies in the direction indicated by the flier icon on the tile. The distance is determined by a die roll. After rolling the die, if a tile exists at the specified location, the player may place a follower on any unfinished, non-field location, even if it is already occupied. If no tile exists at that location, if all the features are completed on that tile, or if it is an all-field tile, a follower cannot be placed this turn.

Carcassonne - Die Depeschen des Königs (The Messages) (2012)
8 message tiles, 6 followers (one in each color)
At the beginning of the game, players place a second follower on the scoreboard. Whenever a player scores points, they can choose which follower to move on the scoreboard. If a player lands on one of the dark spaces on the score track (0, 5, 10...) and it is their turn, that player may draw the top message tile from the track and either score two points for it or take the action shown on the tile. The message is then placed at the bottom of the message stack. At the end of the game, the total scores for the two followers on the scoreboard are added together. No further messages can be earned when the game has ended.

Carcassonne - Die Fähren (The Ferries) (2012)
8 tiles, 8 fairies
Place the tiles as per normal. The player then decides whether to place a follower. If the player choose to place the follower on a road segment, the player then places a ferry between two of the road segments, thereby connecting them. Any segments not connected by the ferry end in the lake. Whenever a player places a tile that is connected to a ferry, that player may move the closest ferry to connect to a different road segment. Any roads closed by this action are scored and the followers removed.

Carcassonne - Die Goldminen (The Goldmines) (2012)
8 tiles, 16 gold bars
Place the tiles as per normal, then place a gold bar on this tile and on any one adjacent tile (orthogonal or diagonal). Place a follower as per normal. Whenever a feature is scored and has gold bars on it, those gold bars are distributed to the players scoring. If there is a tie between players, the gold bars are distributed in a clockwise rotation until none are left. Otherwise, the winner receives all the gold bars. At game end, each gold bar is worth the number of gold bars owned with a value of up to 4 points each.

Carcassonne - Magier und Hexe (Mage & Witch) (2012)
8 tiles, 1 violet mage figure, 1 orange witch figure
Place the tiles as per normal. The player then decides whether to place or move the mage or the witch. The figures can be placed on incomplete roads and cities, and they cannot be on the same feature. The player can only move one figure, if possible. The player may then place a follower as per normal. Whenever a feature with a mage scores, an additional point per tile is added to the final score of the feature. Whenever a feature with the witch scores, a point per tile is subtracted from the final score of the feature. Both numbers are rounded up. Whenever a feature with the mage or witch are scored, the figure is removed from the board until the next mage tile is drawn.

Carcassonne - Die Räuber (The Robber) (2012)
8 tiles, 6 robber followers (one in each color)
Place the tiles as per normal, then the player places their robber figure on the score track next to the score marker of any other player. The next player who has not yet placed their robber also placer a robber on the scoring track beside another player's score marker. Whenever a player moves their score marker and there is a robber beside it, the player with the robber earns half the points of the score marker and then removes their robber. The player who earned the original points retains all their points. Robbers do not earn points from another player's robbery. If a robber earns points, any robbers attached to that player's score marker move with it and do not score for the robbery. If there are two score markers on the same space as a robber and both score, the robber's owner can choose whom to rob.