Carcassonne

[Jubal]

I've been playing quite a bit of Carcassonne recently.

For those who don't know, Carcassonne (named for the French town) is a game where you take it in turn to place tiles and try to claim the various towns, monasteries, and farms that you create in the process. It's a relatively well known boardgame not least because it's very tactical despite the mechanics being nice and simple.

Anyone else play? I found a site that lets you do online play if anyone wants a go sometime

[Fish Priest]

Does the site have any of the expansions?

[Jubal]

Yes - not sure how many as I've only joined games rather than setting any up, but the river expansion and the trade expansion have both turned up in games I've played.

[Cuddly Khan]

I haven't played that version, but I've played one called Hunters and Gatherers before. I like it. So where's this site you speak of? LINK LINK LINK!!

[Jubal]

Oops, meant to include the links!

So playing Carcassonne online:

http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Spiele/Carcassonne/?nation=en
This is the site that has the proper game, plus expansions, playable with other people.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/badim/carcassonne
There's also this, which has an AI. It has a couple of bugs with it (doesn't react well to trying to share points for a feature), the AI is a bit dim (though I don't always beat it admittedly), and the scoring is a bit different. If you've never played this can introduce you to the concepts pretty well nonetheless.

[Fish Priest]

OK, so it seems to have Princess and Dragon, Traders and Builders, and Inns and Cathedrals- I imagine the river is an expansion that's basically become part of the base game, even though my family's set doesn't have it. Of the others:

I don't recommend Princess and Dragon, as it introduces what's basically an attack mechanic or two- a dragon that eats meeples, and princess tiles that let you kick opponents out of cities. It also fundamentally changes the game by sometimes letting you place meeples on already-placed tiles. I feel like Carcassonne with this expansion is a different and less good game.

Traders and Builders (which you've played apparently) is complicated but still good. It adds to the game- by having cities that produce trade goods as a new way of scoring points, for instance- but doesn't change the core of it like Princess and Dragon does. It also has meeple-pigs which are extremely cute (and meeples with hats).

Inns and Cathedrals is excellent. It's the only expansion (other than the river) that I straight-up prefer playing with to without. It adds a small amount of complexity, and that's all. It also makes finishing your roads actually worth something!

Also, this website seems to have 7 Wonders, Power Grid and Kingsburg!

[Jubal]

Princess and dragon I think is tempting to people simply for having a meeple dragon