That Pesky Dragon

[canada steve]

Well I played the D&P expansion today and what a difference it made to the game, I got several pieces wiped out a couple of times due to that dragon, and that cost me the game in the end. Also scoring on the fairy each turn keep syou on your toes.

So we have The Cathars and the GQ13 expansion coming then its just The Tower and we have em all, then its a huge game..........

What I would like to do sometime is have a predefined river running from one table edge to another, flowing past Carcassonne, taht would be really interesting to divide the playing area up.

[Tobias]

P&D and even more so The Tower changes Carcassonne's gameplay quit a lot. When the dragon goes munching it's best to have planned in advance what to do (it's easier to do this in a 2-player game). Scoring the fairy we always keep forgetting, so we pretty much ignore that feature.

It's my understanding however that GQ13 will be The Cathars.

[canada steve]

Sorry mis-type there I meant the 12 tile expansion that game with the previous issue. we have bought the Cathars via ebay also.

Yes that dragon if you dont plan for it can be a real pain. Still was an intersting game.

[Hypnotoad]

In large games, the dragon rarely did any damage for us. It was often in an unused area of the game, or the one useful follower it could target was protected by the fairy. In my opnion this expansion adds more tiles than it's worth. We've more or less stopped playing with it.

Fairy scoring was annoying at first, when we awarded 1 point every time *any* player got a turn. Once we re-read the rules and changed the scoring to our current interpretation, and only scored when the player with the follower next to the fairy got his turn, the scoring became much easier.

[Gantry]

In large games, the dragon rarely did any damage for us. It was often in an unused area of the game, or the one useful follower it could target was protected by the fairy.

Interesting, for us in a typical game, the dragon could reach the entire board in 2 to 3 dragon-turns. Vicious dragon.

[Hypnotoad]

Well in theory he could, but since you take turns in moving the dragon, leading him astray or locking him in completely was what most often happened. Even worse in two player games. There he was completely useless and never captured a single meeple for us.

I've had a single game where he scared off more than one meeple, I think a grand total of 3. Our boards are usually so large that he's more of a novelty.

I'd rather not add the 30 some tiles, even if the magic gates add some intreresting strategy. However much the same effect can be had with CoC, but with a much bigger strategic rather than random element added, which makes me prefer it over P&D.

[Tobias]

That's why the tactics used while placing volcano tiles are so important You've got to plan ahead. I always try to make sure I can place one volcano next to one of Sara's meeples when we play a two-player game. Preferebly even so she has to make the dragon eat one of her own.

[mjharper]

We also find that the dragon ends up in a corner in mega-Carc, but then that's probably just a style of play. We know that moving the dragon towards, say, my piece will most likely mean it's easier to attack your piece to, and so we end up limiting each-other's potential damage. And in mega-Carc that's easy, because there's usually a corner of the board which isn't being built. Volcanoes, though, really ruin things - careful placement is, as Tobias said, essential.

[canada steve]

Tobias, just out of interest why do you try to place a volcano next to one of Sara's meeple ?

[Tobias]

Since the dragon flies there after the tile is deployed. Obviously the best is to place it so the dragon only have one tile it can move to - and keep it that way for every turn I'm not the one moving it - however this is an unlikley scenario. If I can force Sara (poor thing) to eat her own meeple - well, then I can move it someplace else, like for example, onto the next tile where she has a meeple

Four of Sara's in one go is my record, and let me tell you that she wasn't too happy about that!

This is of course not an anti-Sara tactic per se, but since our most common set up is a head to head game I tend to think of the dragon as the most important tool to remove her meeples.

It's trickier with the towers, but it can be done.

[canada steve]

Got it, I had the rules for the dragon movement explained to me incorrectly. Now makes perfect sense.

Thanks

[mjharper]

We always do the same thing too - the volcano placement is actually more important than dragon movement, if you think about it.

[Wishmaster]

I played my first game of Princess and Dragon at lunchtime today - A four player game. So first impressions :

• It takes nearly twice as long to play this expansion compared to I&C or T&B.
• There is motre in this expansion than in I&C and T&B put together! - Possibly two much for one expansion
• I think the Dragon and it's number of moves need some refining - With four players and the map fairly well expanded it became fairly easy to miss every Meeple. Not sure of the complete answer, but I think if it only moved say 3 or 4 squares in games with more people not everyone gets to move it, hence a bigger chance of their Meeples being attacked
• It makes the game a far more vindictive one - Possibly meaning less strategy
• The points system with the fairy is pretty insignificant - One point is hardly worth the fight, and the chances of scoring the three bonus points are almost non-existent
• The Princess symbol and idea is good, but given the Dragon attacks may have been better if held back for an additional expansion
• Teleporting is a bit like the idea used in The Count, it's sort of good that players then make use of otherwise possibly redundant areas but not quite in the spirit of the original game idea

So, to sum up, it has good and bad points. The other expansions were mostly all good points... but then the bigger you make an expansion the more good and bad it will attract.

I will play it again, that's for sure!

[Gantry]

I'm still undecided about the "vindictive" dragon (good description!).  Yes, I agree that when the board starts to get really big, it becomes less effective.  It would be difficult to overcome this, as there is only 1 dragon but the number of tiles steadily increases.  I've said it before, this isn't one of my favourites but it's good for the occasional game. It appears to be the 2nd-least favourite expansion (although there haven't been that many votes) in the POLL.

[Tobias]

The Fairy is mostly considered to be a safe spot from the Dragon for us, we generally forget about that single point. But as Anti-Dragon measure it's nifty