With the addition of The Princess and the Dragon, the third "big" expansion to the Carcassonne line, we begin to move away from expanding the concepts in the original game, to a game where player conflict becomes even more important.

This set contains the following:
* 30 terrain tiles
* 1 wooden dragon
* 1 wooden fairy
* 1 rulebook

Let us look at the new features that this expansion adds:

The Princess

Six city tiles display the image of a princess. This princess is apparently not a good, virtuous princess, instead seducing away the knights that control cities. Or sending them on quests, that sort of thing.

When a Princess tile is added to a city that already contains one or more knightly meeples, the player of the tile must return one of those knights to its owner's supply; if this is done, no new meeple may be placed on the princess tile. The tile acts as normal if added to a city with no meeples.

The effectiveness of the Princess varies depending on the situation. Without doubt, the best way to use one of these tiles is in adding to a city where both you and another player already have meeples, thus gaining control of the city. Adding the Princess to a city which has only one meeple in it is less effective. In a 2-player game, your opponent will have first chance to reclaim the city, making the Princess a more dubious tactic.

Magic Portals

Six tiles display a magic portal. This tile is quite interesting: it allows you to place your meeple either on it or any other tile, following the normal restrictions (so, you can't just place your meeple in a city already claimed by another player). In addition, you can't place a meeple on an already-completed terrain feature.

This is my favourite addition of the expansion. It's also needed, due to the disruption the Princess and the Dragon (see below) are causing.

The Fairy

If there's one addition that causes the most problems to the game of Carcassonne, it's the Fairy piece. This is simply because people forget about it. In theory, it's simple. If you don't place a follower on your turn, you can place the fairy on any tile on the board where you have a follower. The fairy does three things:
* She makes the tile she's on immune to the Dragon
* Whenever the tile she's on is scored, she gives 3 points to whoever has a follower on her tile.
* At the beginning of a player's turn, if he still has the fairy, he scores 1 point.

It's that last that gives the most problems. Protecting tiles from the Dragon: no problem! Scoring points at the beginning of each turn... problem. I've seen several games where everyone forgot about the fairy. Even in games on brettspielwelt.de, where the fairy is scored automatically, I've gone through games forgetting about her and then wondering why I've lost by so much!

However, I do think the fairy adds a very interesting tension to the game, as well as helping players who find a "useless" tile that they can't place another meeple on. She also helps people who overcommit their meeples.

The Dragon

The Dragon, like the Princess, adds a new level of disruption to the game. Whilst the original game and expansions did not allow you to do anything to your opponent's meeples, this expansion changes that dramatically. The Dragon is represented by an impressively large wooden piece.


The Dragon doesn't enter the game until one of the six Volcano tiles is placed. When that happens, the Dragon is moved from wherever it is (on the board, or still not in play) and placed on the Volcano. The person playing the Volcano tile doesn't get to play a follower, but could move the fairy.


When one of the twelve dragon movement tiles is drawn, assuming that the dragon is in play, the dragon moves six spaces. Any meeples on tiles it lands on are returned to their owners' supplies. To determine where the dragon moves, each player in turn, starting with whoever placed the movement tile, moves the dragon one space (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally). The dragon can't return to a tile that it's already visited during this movement, nor can it enter the square with the fairy. As a result, you'll occasionally find that the dragon must stop moving before it's travelled six tiles.

The dragon can have a catastrophic effect on your meeples, and is particularly nasty on farmer meeples. Of course, it is possible to make use of the dragon to return "useless" farmer meeples to hand, but it's a risky strategy.

I've found through play that, especially in 2-player games, the dragon can be much less devastating than it originally seems. Good use of the fairy helps, as well as tile placement that finds the dragon travelling up a dead-end.

The more players, the harder the dragon is to control, of course. I believe that the dragon adds a number of tactical considerations to the play of Carcassonne for 2 or 3 player games, but is more a random force of destruction in 4-6 player games.

I rather like the Dragon myself, but I know people who really dislike what it brings to the game.

Conclusion

Carcassonne was originally a game about placing terrain tiles, completing terrain features, and manuevering your meeples into positions where they'd score more points than your opponents. The Princess and the Dragon changes that. For the first time, you can actually cause your opponent's meeples to be removed from the board.

Is this is a good change to the game? Well, it certainly makes it different. I tend to enjoy seeing this expansion in play, and I'll happily play a game with it included. You and your friends may feel differently.

I'd urge anyone considering getting The Princess and the Dragon to be cautious about the changes it brings to the game. A good expansion? I think so, but not one for everyone.