The Tower

[canada steve]

OK the only expansion I havent played and this evening my friend amy bring it along.    So does anyone have any tips on how to play with this expansion ?

Cheers

[Gantry]

Be aware of "safe" tiles to put your meeples on.  The player with the most meeples available for play can likely win, don't risk capture!

[mjharper]

Don't forget that you can protect your meeples by deploying one to the top of a tower before anyone else can build it up higher. Very useful if you've got a large farm.

And also remember that towers can capture meeples over gaps - that's easy to forget.

[canada steve]

Well having played it along with all other expansions and I can honestly say I didnt think much of it. Yes ok you can snatch othe rplayers meeples but when you start to build a tower, which you do insted of placing anything else, the next player if they feel so inclined can snatch the tower on their move,so you never get a chance to do damage if they are on the ball.

[Tobias]

Well having played it along with all other expansions and I can honestly say I didnt think much of it. Yes ok you can snatch othe rplayers meeples but when you start to build a tower, which you do insted of placing anything else, the next player if they feel so inclined can snatch the tower on their move,so you never get a chance to do damage if they are on the ball.

Oh - you can do a lot of damage

There's a lot of tactics in where to place the tower tiles themselves. It's quite easy to take over someone else's farms for example. Combined with the portal in P&D this will give you almost a new game.

[albie]

And also remember that towers can capture meeples over gaps - that's easy to forget.

You can? We have been playing that gaps block the reach of a tower. At least we voted 2-1 to play it that way. Of course, the guy would said you could jump over gaps was the same one who argued the dragon could eat meeples in a tower, but we overruled him on that one too (incorrectly again, as it turns out). Hmmm, maybe we should start listening to him more 

By the way, I assume this ruling is in the AR somewhere, right? I guess I need to look over that doc a bit more carefully.

Speaking of towers (I am too lazy to look this up in the AR, so I will just ask it here), can the towers reach into Carc if playing the Count? We ruled that they could not, but it would be nice sometimes to pluck a choice meeple out of there at a strategic time.

[Hypnotoad]

You can? We have been playing that gaps block the reach of a tower. At least we voted 2-1 to play it that way. Of course, the guy would said you could jump over gaps was the same one who argued the dragon could eat meeples in a tower, but we overruled him on that one too (incorrectly again, as it turns out). Hmmm, maybe we should start listening to him more 

By the way, I assume this ruling is in the AR somewhere, right? I guess I need to look over that doc a bit more carefully.

Yup sure is

Speaking of towers (I am too lazy to look this up in the AR, so I will just ask it here), can the towers reach into Carc if playing the Count? We ruled that they could not, but it would be nice sometimes to pluck a choice meeple out of there at a strategic time.

Neither the dragon nor the tower can enter any piece of Carcassonne, the city in the CoC expansion. It's a save haven used for storage only. Oh and the count of course!

[canada steve]

You can only do a lot of damage if you can actually build a tower to the desired height and get a meeple on it. My experience is that once you have strategically placed a tile then start building a tower your opponent sees what you are up to and nicks the tower from you. Yes he sacrifices a meeple but if it is to allow him to complete a large feature then it can be well worth it.

[Hypnotoad]

Yeh he can block your tower, but that means he has fewer meeples and thus fewer scoring chances, hopefully reducing his score at least.

Also it's quite common for us to get two towers intersecting, so if it's really important, ie. a big feature being completed, players will cooperate to steal that meeple from the strategic tower with another tower

[Tobias]

You can only do a lot of damage if you can actually build a tower to the desired height and get a meeple on it. My experience is that once you have strategically placed a tile then start building a tower your opponent sees what you are up to and nicks the tower from you. Yes he sacrifices a meeple but if it is to allow him to complete a large feature then it can be well worth it.

Or - by placing tower tiles so they are a real threat. Distractions are nice tactics

[canada steve]

Yes distractions are good if you are playing people who are gulable enough to fall for it. The guys I play against are evil and go for the juggular a lot so they are constantly on the lookout for deception.