Favourite House Rules? (for the CAR)

[CKorfmann]

We played our first game of mega carc today and this came up.  One of the large cities went to the edge of the table and having thought I saw it somewhere on here, I said that it could not be finished.  This meant that my wife's city of 13+/- tiles went unfinished.  Perhaps I was a little hasty.  The last time we played, I insisted on moving all the tiles so that we could build in that direction.  I hope someone can find out if that is a rule soon.  I also forgot to tell her she could flee the besieged city (which had three cloisters adjacent) and only allowed her 1 point per tile on a city that was besieged twice (it had a cathedral).  I guess I made a lot of errors...  I won by almost 50 points, but I don't think I should tell her.   

[Skull One]

It was in one of the FAQ answers.

Was it an official HiG FAQ answer?  Is it in the CAR?  I can't seem to find it.

Yes, it is an official rule for "a" Carcassonne game.  The answer is: Carcassonne Hunter & Gathers.

From the RGG version of the rules that are currently online:

Drawing and placing land tiles
As his first action, the player must draw a land tile from one of the face-down land tile stacks. He shows the tile
to all the players (so they can offer their “advice” on placement) and then places the tile face-up on the table in
the playing area. When placing a land tile, a player must use the following rules:
• The player must place the new land tile (with red borders in the examples) with one or more of its sides
adjacent to a previously placed land tile. He may not place the land tile so it touches previously placed tiles
only corner to corner. The edge of the table limits the playing area. Thus, a player may not place a tile past the
edge of the table or move the playing area to place a tile that would have been past the edge of the table.

And yes, I use this rule across all versions of Carcassonne.  And for fun we sometimes start closer to one edge of the table to force growth in a particular direction.

[Novelty]

Ah, the rule is not valid for normal Carc then.  I think we shall play as we always have - moving the whole "map" so that there's space to play "beyond the edge" if there's a need to.

[Joff]

Are not the rules: "The starting tile is placed in the middle of the table."?

Therefore, the edge of the table would be the boundary line and you would not be able to play 'over the edge'. Should you move the layout once the game is started then the starting tile is no longer in the centre of the table, but then I suppose that one could argue that there must be a rule that says that the starting tile could not be moved from this starting position after it has been placed!

However, when we play The River/II we allow the finished river to be placed into a position that is roughly central. All players must agree on the rivers final position. Play then commences proper, the edge of the table becoming the boundary which must not (cannot) be crossed.

[jackdaddyt]

What if the game were being played on a mat that could be moved?  Obviously this would fall under the heading of a "house rule," but would you allow the mat to be moved to allow completion of an incomplete feature after play began?

[/quote]

Yes, it is an official rule for "a" Carcassonne game.  The answer is: Carcassonne Hunter & Gathers.

From the RGG version of the rules that are currently online:

Drawing and placing land tiles
As his first action, the player must draw a land tile from one of the face-down land tile stacks. He shows the tile
to all the players (so they can offer their “advice” on placement) and then places the tile face-up on the table in
the playing area. When placing a land tile, a player must use the following rules:
• The player must place the new land tile (with red borders in the examples) with one or more of its sides
adjacent to a previously placed land tile. He may not place the land tile so it touches previously placed tiles
only corner to corner. The edge of the table limits the playing area. Thus, a player may not place a tile past the
edge of the table or move the playing area to place a tile that would have been past the edge of the table.

And yes, I use this rule across all versions of Carcassonne.  And for fun we sometimes start closer to one edge of the table to force growth in a particular direction.
[/quote]

[Skull One]

For the rare occasions where I actually allow the game to be recentered during play (200+ stating tiles), I use a table cloth that has about 2 foot of over hang in every direction.  That way we simply slide the table cloth and keep playing.

Personally, I think the H&G rule should be apply to all the Carcassonne versions.  It has a tendency to keep the game dense with lots of farms to work with.  Makes for a very interesting end game in my opinion.

[SteveBme]

We are using the Basic game, River 1 & II, I&C, T&B, K&S, GQ11 and A&M as a regular playing set and have set the other expansions aside for now. Our regular house rules are:

Place the three way fork from River II as the starting tile. The lake/city tile (River II) and the Spring with a road (GQ11) are placed in the starting river mix. We also include the original starting tile (without a river) in this mix. The only tile kept aside is the lake (River I) which is played as the last tile of the river placement. The placed tiles are now centred on the table by mutual agreement. This has allowed for three separate river branches of variable lengths, with the first two random river endings breaking the farming circle of the river. This has created a good start for farmers.

The King and Robber tiles are given to the player who completes the first city or road. After scoring each turn, the holder of these tiles gets a point for every city or road that was completed in that turn, if they held the King or Robber tile for that entire turn. At the end of the game these tiles score 10 points each, in the same way that trade goods do. Saves a lot of counting at the end and now makes completing roads, as well as cities, of benefit if you do not score directly off the completed feature.

[CKorfmann]

I use a table cloth that has about 2 foot of over hang in every direction.  That way we simply slide the table cloth and keep playing.

Personally, I think the H&G rule should be apply to all the Carcassonne versions.  It has a tendency to keep the game dense with lots of farms to work with.  Makes for a very interesting end game in my opinion.

I know it's a bit contradictory, but I agree with you on both counts.  I thought of using a table cloth too.  I really like that idea.  It always hurts my feelings to disrupt the flow of the board because you run out of space.  (You don't have that problem when playing on the computer.)  However, I also agree that the same rule should apply to all versions, even if it means that you can't move the tiles. 

[JaffaMan11]

We are using the Basic game, River 1 & II, I&C, T&B, K&S, GQ11 and A&M as a regular playing set and have set the other expansions aside for now. Our regular house rules are:

Place the three way fork from River II as the starting tile. The lake/city tile (River II) and the Spring with a road (GQ11) are placed in the starting river mix. We also include the original starting tile (without a river) in this mix. The only tile kept aside is the lake (River I) which is played as the last tile of the river placement. The placed tiles are now centred on the table by mutual agreement. This has allowed for three separate river branches of variable lengths, with the first two random river endings breaking the farming circle of the river. This has created a good start for farmers.

The King and Robber tiles are given to the player who completes the first city or road. After scoring each turn, the holder of these tiles gets a point for every city or road that was completed in that turn, if they held the King or Robber tile for that entire turn. At the end of the game these tiles score 10 points each, in the same way that trade goods do. Saves a lot of counting at the end and now makes completing roads, as well as cities, of benefit if you do not score directly off the completed feature.

I like both of these rules - particularly the River one - would make a much more balanced start in general.

[Johngee]

Place the three way fork from River II as the starting tile. The lake/city tile (River II) and the Spring with a road (GQ11) are placed in the starting river mix. We also include the original starting tile (without a river) in this mix. The only tile kept aside is the lake (River I) which is played as the last tile of the river placement. The placed tiles are now centred on the table by mutual agreement. This has allowed for three separate river branches of variable lengths, with the first two random river endings breaking the farming circle of the river. This has created a good start for farmers.

The King and Robber tiles are given to the player who completes the first city or road. After scoring each turn, the holder of these tiles gets a point for every city or road that was completed in that turn, if they held the King or Robber tile for that entire turn. At the end of the game these tiles score 10 points each, in the same way that trade goods do. Saves a lot of counting at the end and now makes completing roads, as well as cities, of benefit if you do not score directly off the completed feature.

I like both of these rules - particularly the King and Robber Baron one. 

We are using the Basic game, River I & II, I&C, T&B, K&S, P&D, TT, GQ11, A&M, TC, and now recently added: CS&C ...as our regular playing set.  The only other expansion that my group of family and friends has set aside (or more like: banished) is the Count of Carc.  One of my friends used the Big-Guy Meeple in The City as her advisor to the Count and thoroughly gave everyone else a lesson in assertive behavior.

We always begin our games with a Spring River Tile and then the first person to go (not always the youngest - sometimes we each put a meeple in a cup and randomly pick one, or we draw from a standard 52-card deck, or we roll a twenty sided die) ...has to play the river fork - naturally they always place a farmer on it, since there are no other features to choose from. We use the River (I+II) as a sort of warm up time to get ready to seriously play.  It also serves as an introductory period to explain the basic rules to any New-bees at the table. 

But I would like to try something different once in a while and starting with the Lake Tile makes sense as a neat idea, which I will be suggesting the next time we play.  Also, I always try to gage the mood of my opponents during this phase to prepare myself mentally for the Meta-Game that lies ahead.  &obtw: adjusting the completed River Tiles or the table cloth to re-center the game to the table is just a given, every time.

We still score the King and Robber Baron tiles according to the RGG rules that came with them, and what a PITA it is when you're using all of the expansions (minus one).  Since I do most of the score keeping, I am most thankful for the Tower expansion because in the End Game Final Scoring Phase -- each of those neutral colored blocks goes onto a city as we add up the Farmer Points; the blocks stay on the board as the Farmer meeples come off. 

Then it is easy to count the total number of cities for the King's Bonus (usually between 20 and 30 points).  The last thing we do is count the total number of roads for the Baron's Bonus by sliding the Tower block onto the finished roads and adding a few (any color) meeples since there are now none others remaining on the board.  The Baron's points usually run between 25 and 35 (always a little more than the King's points).  Frequently during our games the scores are very close, running neck and neck, with everyone fighting - not to build, but to FINISH - the largest city and/or longest road, because ultimate victory hinges on possession of at least one of these. 

Once a city or road exceeds 10-12 tiles, it is extremely difficult to get the King or Baron away from the person who currently has it.  Therefore I would like to de-emphasize their importance (since my wife is better than I am at eye-balling or mentally visualizing the largest / longest features and holding onto the K&B). So I will suggest this alternate method to my group and see what happens.

Other house rules that we always use, which I did not see previously mentioned are these: 

1. DISCARD THAT AWFUL RACETRACK SCORING DEVICE.  I still don't know why every Euro Game I've ever played has one, usually around the border of the board.  We used it in the beginning, but it got jostled one too many times, so I threw it out the window in favor of good old fashioned paper and pencil method AND then realized that, "WOW... we now each had an extra follower meeple!"  It was an epiphany and we've played with eight normal followers (plus Big-Guy, plus Builder, plus Piggy, plus Mayor, plus Wagon, plus Barn = 14) ever since. 

2. DISCARD THE CATAPULT AND ALL OF THOSE CARDBOARD MISSILES.  We tried it and laughed out loud, but I feel it's the stupidest thing ever added to a board game since Crossbows and Catapults. Maybe I'm biased because I seem to be the clumbsiest one in the group and could never get the chit to land where I wanted it to, BUT the easiest solution I thought of is to simply award five (5) points imediately to any player who draws a Circus Tent Tile out of the bag and plays a meeple on it instead of utilizing one of the other features...with the understanding that it must be one of the normal followers -- it can NOT be a Big-Guy Meeple, Mayor Meeple, or Wagon Meeple.

3. DISCARD THE TOWER STACKING DEVICE.  I never liked this either and I doubt that HiG is going to come out with a taller one to hold ALL the tiles from ALL of the expansions.  Besides, it can get knocked over or the tiles will fall out when you try to pass it around the table. Some people claim that they can see the one edge of the tiles that are facing outward giving them an advantage. Other people don't want to be limited to choosing only from the top two tiles (left stack or right stack). It's just better (imho) to use a cloth bag. And if your Carcassonne bag gets stretched toward bursting its seams, like our's did... then the perfect solution is the purple velvet pouch that comes with a liter bottle of Royal Crown Canadian Whisky. In addition to an attractive, sturdy, plush bag for the tiles, you've also got an adult beverage to make your stratagems seem more profound.

Happy Trails and Happy Gaming... John G.

[Johngee]

... we lay the Mayor flat (same as farmers). This way we can tell at a glance which cities contain Mayors as we found that we had to double-take when using the big meeple and Mayor.

Very clever. We had the same problem and I was going to make up stickers (showing a pennant) to afix to the Mayors but this is a much better idea. Thanks.

There's a plethora of STICKERS on the market in every Department, Toy, Hobby, or Craft store.  For about one dollar (USD $1) you can find something that's suitable to your taste.  For example: I finally found sheets of very small shapes, so now all of our Big-Guy Meeples have a "Smiley Face" on both sides of them (it makes them some how less threatening) ...and all of our Mayor Meeples have a "Star" across their belly on both sides from and back.  It's not fancy, but it is functional to distinguish between them.

[Johngee]

One would think that this is a limitation imposed by the law of gravity...

I would think it would be too, and yet my husband insists on trying to hold up the tiles with his hand throughout the rest of the game.   :

L.O.L. ~ I thought you were talking about my wife when I read this; - )  We normally use a felt pad to play on which leaves a few inches around the sides for our Reserve Meeple Pools /Piles, drinks, snacks, etc.  But invaribly someone and usually my lovely, delightful, charming wife INSISTS on wedging tiles into each other or proping them up with a napkin, because HER feature has run off the edge and onto the table and she will keep going with two or three more additions... *Aaaaargh!*

So I guess that's another Rouse rule that we ALLOW, but don't encourage or condone.

[Johngee]

We played our first game of mega carc today ...<~snip~>...
I guess I made a lot of errors...  I won by almost 50 points, but I don't think I should tell her.   

And let's hope for your sake that she doesn't eventually become a CC member and read here your true confession... hehehehe; - D

[ecmcn]

A couple of plague variants we like:

1. Draw a skull and crossbones on a city tile w/a road going into it (preferably a double-city tile). This tile kills the city it's placed on (followers returned to owners, 0 points scored), plus the plague travels down the road and kills any followers on roads, cities, etc. that are connected. Farmers don't get any points for dead cities, but the farmers don't die and can still get points for other cities. The plague stays in effect throughout the game, so it can continue to devastate as roads join things up. It's kind of a "nuclear" rule like the dragon can be, but because it travels along roads it can be equal opportunity.

2. When a city with 5 or more tiles is completed, randomly determine (roll a die, meeples, etc - 1 in 6 odds works pretty well) if it gets hit by plague and dies, scoring 0 points, or if you prefer score it as if it were under siege. This plague doesn't travel down roads or affect farmers.

This variant is also fun in conjunction with a large city bonus of +1 per tile/pennant, so that if you complete a large city there's a chance you'll get more points but a chance you'll get fewer. Up the odds of plague in this case to 1 in 3 or so, and treat it as a -1 per tile/pennant instead of wiping out the city, or use a combo: a roll of 1 wipes it out, 2 or 3 counts as a siege and 4-6 gets the bonus. To me finishing large cities is the most satisfying part of the game, and having the extra uncertainty thrown in can make things interesting.

Eric

[CKorfmann]

let's hope for your sake that she doesn't eventually become a CC member and read here your true confession... hehehehe; - D

Too late...  :