First Game of Mega-Carc

[Whaleyland]

Well that makes things rather restrictive, especially if you are playing with multiple sets of Shrines. I guess it will just have to be a house rule then that battle-completed shrines and cloisters can have other shrines and cloisters placed next to them. Still, it seems odd that that isn't in the rules...I thought it was...or was that just my imagination taking over again?

[CKorfmann]

Interesting.  I didn't know about that rule and don't recall reading about that.  I'll have to pay more attention.  I think the high score was somewhere around 250.  It's been a while, so I can't remember exactly.  It was a four player game, but for two players it was their first time playing anything other than the base set.  My wife and I played with the dragon and count a couple times.  I played I&C and T&B on AsoBrain a bunch, but it was my first time with A&M, Cult, Siege, and River 2. 

[JaffaMan11]

Just found this thread due to the recent posts and I thought I would talk about what we do when we play - I'm not sure if it qualifies as Mega-Carc - I had always presumed that this was the way most people played until I read the posts and realise its not.

I have the base set (72 tiles), River 1 & 2 (24), Count (12), King and Scout(5), Tower (18), I&C (18), T&B (24), P&D (30), GQ11 x 2 (24), Cult, Seige, Creativity (10). None except the Cult/Seige have watermarks, but that doesn't matter because we always play with all tiles (in fact I like them un-watermarked). We will often leave out the City of Carcassonne itself, preferring to start with rivers and no city. Because I am nearly always playing with people who are not regular board gamers, we don't play the count, princess, fairy or dragon rules (but we do play magic portal) and we generally don't play with towers. We do play everything else. We don't currently play with any fan-expansions, though I am keen to try the missionary out soon, and we have just stared including an extra turn for "beauty bonus" for filling in a hole. By the time we remove an excess spring and lake, and leave the city of carc out, we have about 225 tiles in play if my maths is right.

Generally we play until all tiles are gone - usually about 2 - 2.5 hours and usually we have 4 to 6 players, with most players scoring between 180 and 250 points, and the board is usually fairly complete with few holes. Sometimes we will set a time - i.e. play until agreed time, then play an agreed amount of tiles each after that (usually 3 each once the time is reached).

I have my own rules document to summarise everything, and one page rules and scoring summaries for 1. our usual inclusions, 2. a very base game if we have absolute first timers who we think need a basic version (drop from our normal portals, cathedrals, and seige if I recall correctly, and play shrines same as cloisters without challenges), and 3. all rules including tower, count, princess, fairy, dragon. For new comers the big meeple is the hardest to come to grips with, so sometimes we will drop it as well.

We draw a new piece (from the T&B bag which is now essentially full) as soon as we place the old - gives a whole round of turns to work out where to put it - this tends to keep the movement going alright. If a builder extra turn comes up they just draw another then and there - it doesn't bother us that others have drawn "out of sequence".

I can't ever think of an occasion where I would remove pieces from the bag and not play with them. Anyway - that is what we do. I intend adding a few more home rules over time based on postings from the forum, but we are quite happy with our standard all expansions in but not all rules in way of playing. As you can see, the punitive / aggressive bits are what we tend to leave out, which I can understand many gamers not liking, but for the after dinner game with non-gamer friends, this makes for a happy and pleasant night without anyone getting upset at someone else who ate them with a dragon or took them prisoner etc. I will add Abbey and Mayor soon, but don't think I'll bother with the Catapult (despite generally being one that collects "the lot") because I can't see us actually using the new rules. I am thinking about buying another base set for the extra tiles or perhaps another Traders & Builders so more cities have goods in them.

[CKorfmann]

Here is a recent session of Mega-Carc with my first attempt at the Tower (brutal!) and a play test for the Missionary.  It went pretty well.  You can see the missionary on the board in the lower left-hand corner sitting on an abbey.  It is currently blue and still needs to be painted.

There are a few other noteworthy features like the long road containing the four-way round about in the upper left.  Also, you'll note that an illegal u-turn was made with the river after the juction, but it was the last piece laid before placing the lake tiles so we allowed it because it looked nice.    Notice also only two holes.

It's hard to see from this photo, but can you find any mistakes?  I lost 395-285 on a critical farm/barn error.  Oh well...

[Novelty]

Did you play with a river rule variant?  I haven't played the River rules in a while, since I made the fishermen tiles... but I thought the branch/fork is supposed to be the tile next to the source as per the normal River rules?

[CKorfmann]

Honestly, I never read the rules for River 2 and didn't know that.  I think I vaguely remember reading that somewhere at some point, but I've never played that way.  Not sure what difference it makes, but maybe I should start playing that way.

[Whaleyland]

I always just shuffle the branch with the rest of the tiles. It just makes it more random. Forcing a branch at the beginning seems unnecessary.

[Tobias]

I always just shuffle the branch with the rest of the tiles. It just makes it more random. Forcing a branch at the beginning seems unnecessary.

I concur. Mixing the fork in with the rest of the tile (setting aside a lake) gives a more dynamic game. But, yeah, the rules says to place the fork next to the spring.

[meepleater]

I do it the way the rules say... it prevents farm domination at the beginning of the game... a bit... (but seeing as I have GQ11 that isn't an issue)... it means there's always a choice of which river branch you place your tile on (until one gets capped).

[CKorfmann]

I have always shuffled the river branch and I always use the spring with the road from GQ11 too.  I like not knowing where the branch is going to end up and it doesn't really affect the outcome.

[meepleater]

What did you think of the catapult?

[CKorfmann]

Honestly, I don't mind it at all.  I don't think it detracts from the game any.  It is seldom a game changer and when I play with children, they love it.  It always has the potential to help, and occasionally hurt.  The one thing I did learn from the Catapult... put a lid on your coffee...  : 

[meepleater]

The one thing I did learn from the Catapult... put a lid on your coffee...  : 

 

When I play, I refrain from using KO or seduction tokens... I find the risk is too big...

[Deatheux]

we always play COMPLETE CARC here, with OFFICIALS expansions(once) and a couple Novently tiles... this is really the real deal!

a note, use a "roll-a-puzzle" to lay the tiles, this will preserve the tiles ans the accessories.

[Novelty]

and a couple Novently tiles...

Which one of my tiles do you use?  I thought you didn't like custom tiles?