Princess & Dragon impressions

[Scott]

Exactly one year after my previous Carc session where we tackled the Count for the first time (and screwed it up nicely), I got the group back together to play Princess & Dragon for the first time.

We fumbled the magic portal a little at the beginning; got confused with the Count and thought that meeples could be deployed to occupied features. We caught it early on, fixed it, and proceeded per the rules.

The princess tiles didn't get much usage. Players were very upset at the idea of being booted from a city. We only used it once when one city had three players inside (four players playing, don't really want to share the points that much), and the player who got booted waged a personal vendetta the rest of the game.

The dragon was not popular either. All the volcanos ended up getting stuck together at the edge of the playing field and the dragon spent most of his time trapped there. A few meeples were lost, which didn't sit well with anybody. My brother booted me out of a cloister twice before I managed to get the dragon trapped.

FYI: we played with no other expansions, not even the River; I was hoping to get a second session in afterwards with Tower, but P&D was such a downer that everybody abandoned the table after final scoring. Tower will have to wait until next year I guess.

Conclusion: The balance between the new features was good, but I don't see this getting much replay. There aren't any unique landscape tiles; every tile includes a feature specific to the expansion (princess, dragon, volcano, magic portal).

[Deatheux]

i do not get the point that some people still not play with all expansions, sonce i play carcassonne... i never filters out tiles to play only base set + this one or the other... i play the wole kit, i mix out all ruling, that way i use the 100% potential of the game, i do not waste time to learn the rules step by step... i mix all the stuff and enjoy way much more that the other way...

i will never go back to play a game without  A&M or P&D, the more sets are combined the more the game is specific and interesting..........

am i a sick MTFKR???

[Jambo]

Having played with these sets and the others, I firmly believe that both The Tower and Princess & Dragon are two sets that really need to be played alongside other sets; ideally in MegaCarc. Playing either of these alone with just the base game means the proportion of aggressive "follower-removing" tiles to normal building tiles gets imbalanced. It then becomes an exercise in futility trying to build anything, which will lead to frustration, less meaningful and rewarding gameplay, and people developing personal vendettas (not surprisingly). However, played with lots of sets, these aggressive tiles are diluted and don't impact on the game as much.

[Deatheux]

bafore the dragon set and tower set, the games was pretty always the same.... the first to place a farmer at the right place wins FOR SURE... with the offensive part of play that brings the dragon and towers helps to sabotate the lazy early farmers.

i still thinking that we need all sets to enjoy the game at 100%, those who go sets by sets wasting their time and miss the mainstream of the whole game goal.

[Jambo]

In terms of the larger Carc expansions we tend to do one of the following depending on the mood of the players:

Mega-Carc-it using all sets for the ultimate Carc experience.

OR

Play using I&C, T&B and A&M for a lighter, less confrontational experience.

We always vary how the game starts, i.e. River, Count, or standard starting tile.