Game: Carcassonne - King & Scout

Thread: Re: Alternative rules

SledgeFist — 2007-11-08T14:24:12+00:00

What the King and Scout added is the incentive to finish cities and roads where you do not have followers, either to become a new king of town or king of road, or to prevent others from taking it from you. In our games at the office, everyone would try to make one absolutely huge city with an end result of three small cities, one gigantic city, and the farms are close to worthless since there's only 16 points to go around. With the king, players can effectively shut down another player's attempt at stealing the king by closing out the city before it reaches a new high, even if it means giving the player a certain amount of points. But then you are spending a turn not building on your own city and giving other players more time to connect their followers to it.

Once we added the King/Scout, the cutthroat level rose immediately, and the game has become WAY more enjoyable. Plus the scores have become much closer since one person is not dominating the only city on the board.

I think that randomly drawing the king/scout out of the bag is a terrible idea because 1) There's absolutely no control over them, therefore no strategy for them, and 2) You cannot steal them from others; once the player has drawn them, now everyone will just try to never close new cities/roads. I can't imagine how much this would ruin the game if the king and/or scout were drawn in the first 2-3 rounds of turns. Why not just have everyone roll d20 and whoever rolls highest gets the King and whoever rolls lowest gets the Scout? The only difference between that and drawing the tiles randomly would be that no single player can have both King and Scout (which would be more fair than entirely random pulls).

As for tracking who completed the longest city/road... that's quite simple. You give them the tile when they set a new high. Who completed the longest road, the one with the road king tile. Done. It's also quite simple to see WHICH is the longest city/road to see if a new completed city/road has outgrown the old. Find the largest city or road on the board. Is it the one that just finished? New king/scout. If not, then not. In our games, we've never had a problem, as all the players can pinpoint exactly which road or city it was in the middle of the game, and we play a larger board with all the expansions except for the Count.

The one King/Scout variant that I think is playable is instead of one point per city or road, a set score of 10 or 15 points if you have one and thats it. I would 10 points if you are not playing with Traders/Builders, 15 points if you are (so that the King and Scout are worth slightly more than any trade item).

One final note: most of the people I play with tend to want to change the rules of a game if they can't seem to win. When we first played Carcassonne, one player (after losing over and over) stated that everyone should be dealt a hand of tiles and you get to pick which tile to lay down. He soon grew out of that, but we all expected him to hate the King/Scout add-on. Instead, he loves it and loves the strategy it adds and he now adjusts his gameplay and strategy for it. That's what a true expansion should do. (BTW, he still has only one once or twice out of 15-20 games)

Thread: Re: Alternative rules

seasnake — 2007-10-30T16:39:14+00:00

It's a game of strategy but is also a game of luck, i.e. will I draw the tile I want or not?
The major problem with King and Scout is that it is OP, and most people simply ignore it. I mean, one point per road or city is awful, yet we have it, and would like to use it. Also, trying to track in a game with more than two people who completed the longest city/road can be a total nightmare.
For these reasons I think this expansion can be done better, and there needs to be an alternate way to use it to make play more streamlined. The count is the same way, it can be a beast waiting while people decide if they are shuffling their followers in and out of the city, this way the count simply raises the score of some features.
I don't know, maybe I just like fun more than board game purity.

Thread: Re: Alternative rules

GSReis — 2007-10-30T03:07:57+00:00

It's better because there is an added element of random chance

I believe most people will disagree.

Thread: Re: Alternative rules

Rygel — 2007-10-30T01:56:57+00:00

I am big Carcassonne fan and my wife play it often and usually with all, or most of, the expansions. With no offense meant, I think your way of play will ruin a great game. It takes most of the strategy out of the game and replaces it with pure luck. I would suggest that if you find certain expansions over powered, like the Count from the sounds of it, simply do not play with it. As for the river, we play with 2 or 3 rivers at once and when drawing a river tile you can add to any river you wish. And if you draw a lake you can end any river you wish.

Thread: Re: Alternative rules

seasnake — 2007-10-30T00:42:39+00:00

So you're removing the tactical play of completing someone else's road/city in order to gain (temporary?) hold of the bonus tile, for a random lucky draw of an instant 15-20 points with no meeple required. How is this better?

It's better because there is an added element of random chance in the game, you know, like pulling the tile you need to complete a feature. You can play a game down 20 points and know if you get the right tile you have a chance to get back in, so no need to give up (which a lot of people do in a 6-person game). Sort of like in Monopoly, if there's somebody with all the hotels the Street Repairs card can force them to tear a few down and allow someone else back into the game. It's a dash of luck.

The river works well with the count expansion, you just put a starting piece and build out from there like a normal river. We just don't automatically play every river tile, we sometimes have long, two branch rivers or short, three tile rivers. It makes the starting area different and lends itself to different strategy.

Thread: Re: Alternative rules

freduk — 2007-10-30T00:33:10+00:00

seasnake wrote:
King: All tiles go into the bag, if you draw the King you get one point for every city completed on the board. If you draw the Baron, one point for all completed roads. If you draw these later than earlier they are more helpful, and also allow for a comeback if someone is really down.

So you're removing the tactical play of completing someone else's road/city in order to gain (temporary?) hold of the bonus tile, for a random lucky draw of an instant 15-20 points with no meeple required. How is this better?

seasnake wrote:
River(2): Play one lake tile, then randomly draw from River pile. If you get an end, the river is done, rest of tiles returned to the box.
I'm not a big fan of the river, but I think you should play a minimum of one river tile per player. Do you play with both the river and the count at the same time? How does it work?

Thread: Alternative rules

seasnake — 2007-10-30T00:08:30+00:00

We have every Carcassonne expansion, and we use them. We're using some house rules for the following expansions:

Count of Carcassonne
King and Scout
The River and R2

We've already switched to version 3 farm scoring, but I think that trying to play ever expansion by the rules is way too tedious. Currently, we play the following way.

King: All tiles go into the bag, if you draw the King you get one point for every city completed on the board. If you draw the Baron, one point for all completed roads. If you draw these later than earlier they are more helpful, and also allow for a comeback if someone is really down.

Count: Start game with the twelve tiles, but the Count can be moved whenever you complete a feature that you score no points on. Whatever region the count is in, the corresponding feature is worth one extra point for all players.

River(2): Play one lake tile, then randomly draw from River pile. If you get an end, the river is done, rest of tiles returned to the box.

Well, what do you think? Could we improve this, or do you have better ideas, or are we better off trying to go with the original rules?

Thread: XBox Live Arcade

kevinb9n — 2007-10-04T08:58:08+00:00

This expansion was released on XBox Live Arcade today, for 300 points ($3.75).

Thread: Re: A Tale of Two Meeples

Pepsi4Me2 — 2007-07-25T14:13:37+00:00

The King & Scout expansion and the Traders & Builders expansion change the game in that there is incentive to complete OTHER player's castles and roads. Even if you don't get the points for the biggest castle or road, you still get the King, the Robber or the associated resources.

It is very hard to beat someone who is succesful in keeping both the King and the Robber. This usually counts for close to 40 points (when you play with many of the expansions - I play with all but the dragon and the count).

I am more willing to play with these expansions.

Thread: A Tale of Two Meeples

MerricB — 2007-07-25T01:51:56+00:00

The King & Scout expansion is quite unusual - it's an expansion for both the original Carcassonne game, and its first variant, Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers. It consists of a small pack of 12 tiles, seven of which are for the original Carcassonne game, the other five for H&G.

In effect, it is two expansions in one box, so we'll consider it in that way.

King
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The seven tiles for the Carcassonne side of the expansion are divided in to five regular terrain tiles, and two special tiles. The terrain tiles are pretty much what you'd expect: new ways of combining terrain elements. I personally really like the city with two roads leading in, as it breaks farms up more, and the two crossing city pieces. The latter really makes me wonder at the sanity possessed by the architects of Carcassonne...

All of these are good. The two other tiles are the King and the Robber Captain, and they work in similar ways: if you play the tile that completes the largest city (King) or road (Robber Captain) on the board, you take the bonus tile from whoever currently has it.

Whoever has the tile at the end of the game gains 1 point for each matching completed feature; so the possessor of the King tile will gain 1 point per completed City at game's end, the Robber Baron gains 1 point per completed Road.

The tension that this adds to the game is quite interesting. Whoever has these tiles wants to complete as many small cities and short roads as possible; not only to increase their own score, but also to prevent anyone else gaining the tile!

The problem with these tiles is that they become quite unbalanced as more expansions are added to the game. They're not bad with just the basic Carcassonne game and King, but with two or three of the large expansions? Uh oh. You might get 7 or 8 points in the basic game, but they can cause a 20+ point swing in the latter case.

You might think that making someone complete features for other players would keep the points somewhat equivalent; this might be true in two players, but, certainly with 5 players, the benefit goes entirely to the holder of the special tiles at game's end.

I don't really enjoy playing with these bonus tiles, even though I think the new terrain tiles are great.

Scout
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The five new tiles for Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers - the Scout expansion - are quite unusual. At the beginning of the game, each player gains one at random. At one point during the game, instead of drawing a tile, the player may place his special tile on the board. Each tile has a special ability, as follows:

Shaman - not actually a tile placed on the board; instead you may return a meeple from the board to your hand every turn. This is a powerful ability, especially so if you are losing a duel for meeples, and is available for the entire game.

Scout - when played, you place a meeple on this tile. For the rest of the game, you may discard the first tile you draw and draw another.

Hunter on Bridge - you place a meeple on the bridge, and the meeple counts as a hunter on both sides of the river.

Dug-out - whenever a river in the same river system is completed, the owner of the meeple on this tile gains points equal to the number of fish in the best lake on that river.

Agriculture - unusually, you place a hut in a meadow for this tile. At game's end, you score one point for every tile in that meadow.

This expansion really shakes up how the basic game is played. Unfortunately, the tiles can have wildly varying effects. I've never felt that the Hunter on Bridge is all that effective, but the Dug-out can give many points to its owner... or very few...

I prefer playing H&G without this expansion, which is something of a pity.

Conclusion
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King and Scout is probably the most flawed expansion in the Carcassonne line. Although most of the Carcassonne expansions tend to increase the skill needed to play the game, I do not feel that is the case here. The Robber and King in the King expansion are the worst offenders, as they become more unbalanced with the more sets and the more players you have in the game.

The Scout expansion isn't quite so bad, but ultimately I'm not really happy with it.

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

vandesc — 2007-06-19T04:31:55+00:00

I came looking for a solution to this same problem and I liked the Settlers of Catan idea. I want it to feel like the pieces had come with the expansion. I didn't have Settlers and am not interested enough in the game to buy it, so I decided to make my own Settlers city and road pieces. I've played Settlers a few times, but had no idea what the dimensions of the pieces were, so I just made them up, in metric of course.

Drew some plans to hand to my brother who is a bit handier than I am. He cut them out on the band saw and then we sanded them smooth. They aren't 100% perfect, but I'm happy with them. Painted them a medium brown using two coats of acrylic paint and one coat of clear. With the Scout tiles removed from the box, there is approx 1cm of space so the pieces fit perfectly, similar to the Count expansion.

Choose the color brown because I wanted something different enough from all the other pieces. I had first thought of white, but the fairy is close to white. Orange was a possibility, but I decided to save the color in case I ever want to add a seventh player.

Thread: Re: An unbalanced mini-expansion

photocurio — 2007-06-03T15:35:44+00:00

Nothing about the Carcassone series is all that balanced. But you are right, the scout is particularly wacked.

Thread: An unbalanced mini-expansion

Kerbster76 — 2007-06-03T10:26:30+00:00

I played Hunters and Gatherers with the Scout mini-expansion. I got the Shaman and the Scout tile, while my opponent got the hunter and the agriculture tile.

I played the scout fairly early (while the extra tiles are quite beneficial it did lock up one of my meeples for the rest of the game - and you only get 5 of them in H&G) it was quite handy such that if I ever didn't want the tile that I picked up it allowed me to choose another one.

Early on in the game I also managed to get the bonus piece that allowed me to have full control of a meadow. Therefore I spent the rest of the game trying to add to it safe in the knowledge that my opponent couldn't cut in on the action!

Partly because I was allowed to reject tiles because I had played the Scout tile I was well ahead for the entire game and basically lapped my opponent before we tallied the points at the end of the game. While I had a big meadow which scored me a lot of points his agriculture tile got him a bucket load of points and I just managed to win at the end. I don't think that the tiles for the mini-expansion are at all balanced (particularly in a 3, 4 or 5 player game) and potentially give one person an advantage of up to 30 or so points. The dug-out seems to be pathetic and at best will only get the recipient about 4 points! It presume other people have this problem?

I don't think I'll be using this expansion very often in the future as essentially someone is potentially getting a 30 point starting advantage over one of their other players! How unbalanced is that!

Thread: Re: Hut powerful too?

Kerbster76 — 2007-06-03T10:07:54+00:00

Yes I reckon that the hut it too powerful compared to the other tiles and it gives the person who gets it an unfair advantage. Of the five tiles the dug-out is pathetic and will only give the recipient a few points at best compared to 20-30 points for the person with the hut. How unbalanced is that!

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Urtur — 2007-05-06T20:55:57+00:00

Perhaps the smallest game box I've seen!

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Krisjohn — 2007-04-17T12:24:42+00:00

At the end of the game we tag completed cities (and then completed roads) with meeples to make it easier to count them.

Thread: Re: Dug Out Question from "Scout"

LurkingMeeple — 2007-03-22T21:06:33+00:00

SanguinousRex wrote:
Say I have the "Dug Out" and there is a lake with 3 fish in it somewhere in the river chain.

My interpretation is this:
The owner of the dugout canoe scores the highest-valued lake of any newly-completed river segment within the system patrolled by the canoe. In other words, there will be 0-2 lakes to consider, not everything within the entire chain.

Thread: Dug Out Question from "Scout"

SanguinousRex — 2007-03-17T04:18:13+00:00

Ok, so I need rule clarification...

Say I have the "Dug Out" and there is a lake with 3 fish in it somewhere in the river chain. Someone finishes one "river" that is three tiles long... I score 3 points. A few turns later, another part of the river is finished that is 5 "tiles" long. I score another 3 points. ect.

Is that about right?

Thread: Re: Before you buy it

Great Dane — 2007-02-13T14:59:51+00:00

While it is true that the expansion was given away to a few lucky people who attended Spiel '03 - and who managed to be around the Schmidt Spiele stand around the time is was handed out - the expansion was later sold through the normal retailer channels throughtout Germany.

Thread: Re: Before you buy it

Surya — 2007-02-13T08:31:33+00:00

If I'm not mistaken the German edition was a free giveaway, so I don't think they're trying to cross sell...

Thread: Before you buy it

StitzL — 2007-02-12T15:56:51+00:00

What is it?
Carcassonne - King & Scout is an expansion for two games: It contains seven new tiles for the original Carcassonne, and five tiles for the stand-alone spin-off Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. Thus, you can only use the complete expansion pack if you own both games (or at least know someone you can give the cards you do not need).

Extra tiles for Carcassonne
This expansion contains five special landscape tiles that connect cities to various other terrain types. In my eyes, this does not warrant buying the expansion at all. The only really new addition, however, is flawed: While it indeed is a good idea to award 10 points each for the longest road and the biggest city of the game, the fact that you still have to remember (or write down) which construction actually awarded the special cards King and Robber Captain to the player holding them makes this expansion look either half-hearted or short-sighted.
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Extra tiles for Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers
On the other side, the tiles for Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers are quite an addition to the game. Five new special character cards are introduced:
Shaman: Each turn, the player may remove one of his tribe members from an unfinished river, forest, or meadow and return it to his supply.
Scout: Once in play, each turn, the player may refuse the first tile he draws (incl. bonus tiles). He places the refused tile face down under the stack and draws a new tile, which he must use.
Hunter on bridge: When scoring, the hunter counts in the meadows on both sides of the bridge.
Dug-out: When a river in this river system is completed (by any player), the owner of the dug-out scores as many points as the largest lake on this river has fish.
Agriculture: At the end of the game, the player scores 1 point for each tile in the meadow, regardless of the hunter scoring.
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As may be evident from the description above, these character cards (which are drawn at the beginning of the game) can be very powerful. They have the potential to turn the game completely, which makes Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers much more luck-dependent.

Conclusion
Even though I usually play Carcassonne with this expansion, I think it is a blatant attempt to cross-sell the spin-off Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. I would not have bought this expansion for the sake of the Carcassonne tiles alone -- and neither would I have done so for the five tiles for Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. The added value is too low for that.

However, if you have both games, or happen to know somebody that you can give the remaining tiles to, feel free to spend your five bucks for this. It will not revolutionize the gameplay in a way that for instance Carcassonne - The Count of Carcassonne has done, but will add a few more funny tiles.

Thread: Re: Quick Comments

conky — 2007-02-04T16:37:42+00:00

In last night's game, my opponent tended to close out all roads and cities after he acquired both the King and Baron. We usually play with I&C, T&B and The Tower but last night was our first shot with K&S (we only used the King portion). I had a 130-114 lead after counting all incomplete roads/cities, cloisters, farmers & T&B chits. After he took his points for the King and Baron, I ended up losing by over 20. It is such a game changer, that's for sure. The frustrating part was that I thought I played a good game...obviously I mis-valued that impact of the K&B. As I mentioned, I did attempt to string out longer roads and cities but he played well defensively to thwart that...next time I will have to try a different approach.

Thread: Re: Quick Comments

conky — 2007-02-04T14:40:19+00:00

I also find the King and Baron has too much of a dramatic effect toward the outcome of the game. I am tinkering with a couple of tweaks to its scoring:
1) Only counting cities and roads of 3 or more tiles. It would take a bit of a sting out of the drama at the end.
2) Offer a +10 bonus to each the King and Baron similar to what is done with the chits associated with Traders and Builders.

I'm curious what others think?

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Quarashi — 2007-01-26T18:59:46+00:00

Homemade King and Scout giant meeple markers

Thread: Carcassonne: King & Scout - A Light Review

Neil Thomson — 2007-01-02T08:36:21+00:00

All of my reviews aim to offer a brief overview that allows people to get a good feel for what the game may offer them. I feel that other reviews can be sought if detailed game mechanics is what you are after.

This is the first of the smaller expansions and is unusual in that it offers expansion tiles to 2 different games. The King part of the title refers to the 7 tiles included as expansions for the original Carcassonne. I will explain these first.

Five of these tiles are simply offered as unusual tiles that are not found in the original game. These include a 4-sided city tile in the form of an under and overpass and a city tile with a road that leads under the city via a tunnel, to name but a few. But the 2 major tiles that alter the game play are the King and Robber Baron. Unlike any other tiles in Carcassonne, these 2 do not add to the board and do not get drawn. Instead they are earned. The first player to place a tile that completes a city will take the King. The King can then only be stolen from the controlling player if another player places a tile to complete a larger city than the last. A dice is usually a good way to track the current size of the largest completed city. So in a similar fashion to earning resource tokens in the Traders & Builders expansion, the players must weigh up the cost of completing a rival’s city, giving them points, for the benefit of gaining the King token. The real kicker is that the King tile will only benefit the player that controls it at the end of the game. The player that does so will earn 1 bonus point for every completed city on the board. This is obviously highly desirable and the controlling player will often complete as many small cities as possible to raise the value of this bonus at the end of the game.

The Robber Baron works in exactly the same way except that it works when a tile is placed to complete a road. All of the above comments regarding the King apply here for the Robber Baron.

The remaining 5 tiles offer an expansion for the stand alone game Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers. Before play begins each player randomly draws 1 of these tiles and places it in front of them. Each tile will bestow a power to that player. The Shaman is always in effect but the other 4 tiles must be placed on the board (instead of a normal tile draw) before their powers become active. Each of the tiles breaks a traditional rule in some small way but the overall play of the game is not altered greatly. I will leave the exact effect of these tiles as a mystery for you to discover.

The Final Word

This expansion does not aim to deceive - it contains 12 tiles and therefore is a small expansion. It will obviously appeal most to those people that own the original game and Hunters & Gatherers. But keep in mind that this small box also comes with a small price tag (as far as expansions go) and when viewed in these terms it still offers good value for money whether you own 1 or both games. The Carcassonne purists are likely to buy it anyway to fill out their collections. Other people may decide otherwise. The choice is yours.

Thread: Re: Farmer & Monk: expansion for King & Scout

eldrbarry — 2006-11-28T02:11:19+00:00

An alternative way of scoring the farmer (I call him the Landlord) could be to give 1 (or 2 points) for every farmer and pig on the board at the end of the game, before final scoring. What do geeks think?

- eldrbarry

Thread: Re: Suggested (but untested) Variation

eldrbarry — 2006-11-28T02:02:58+00:00

Why not do both!

Give 1 point to the current holder of the King Card as each city is completed, and 1 point to current Robber Baron as each road is completed. Then give 10 points to each at the end of the game, similar to the trade goods.

There would be an incentive to obtain the card during play - and those points would be spread out somewhat among the players. The 10 points would be further incentive to try and take control of the card by building bigger cities or longer roads.

There would be no need to count the number of finished cities or roads at the end.

- eldrbarry

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

imgame — 2006-10-09T22:17:47+00:00

Drew1365 wrote:
One of the things we noticed when playing with this expansion is that we have no way of noting the length of "longest road" or the size of "largest city." We have to keep reminding ourselves "Oh, yeah . . . this was for the 11-tile city. Gotta make 12 to beat it." Or "This was for the 8-tile road. Takes 9 to beat it." Have any of you devised a method for keeping track of the number of "tiles to beat"? Like, little chits or markers to place on the King or Robber Baron cards?

I bought a set of the colored cubes from an old Risk game. Whenever we complete a road we place a yellow cube on it. Whenever we complete a city we place a red cube on it. If the road or the city is the longest we use the oblong shapes of the same colors that comes with the same Risk game. This way we can always easily see which road or city is longest and at the end we just take the markers and count them for scoring as we take them off. This way we never count a road or city twice and we can easily make sure that we get them all counted. Since the cubes are colored the same as some of the meeples it really looks quite nice.

We then can place the markers back on the cities as we count them for the farmers. This way we make sure all get counted.

GameGuy

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caradoc — 2006-10-02T14:46:40+00:00

Thread: Shaman & agriculture questions (Scout expansion)

VorpalBunny — 2006-09-06T19:22:21+00:00

Few questions, the little leaflet containing rules seems to bypass few things.

1. Shaman: Is the shaman tile active from the beginning or has the player use one turn to activate it (like with other tiles)?

EDIT: latter questions were figured out

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ColtsFan76 — 2006-07-29T22:06:15+00:00

King & Scout - Both Sides of Box

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Jormi_Boced — 2006-06-29T12:49:25+00:00

The Green and the Grey

Thread: Re: Farmer & Monk: expansion for King & Scout

Great Dane — 2006-06-19T10:21:01+00:00

-xXx- wrote:

1. What happens if your farmers are removed by for ex the Cathars, the dragon or the tower, and you don't have the most deployed farmers anymore: Do you lose the labourer tile?

The variant was designed before you could remove meeples from the board. We have always played thet the Farmer tile changes hand as soon as someone has more farmers then the current holder.

2. Do the very small houses next to roads also count as farmhouses, or only the bigger ones at crossroads? Do taverns from the 1st expansions count as farmhouses?
They all count. The last sentence is merely a clarification.

3. I don't think the monk tiles are necessary. You don't keep track of which roads or cities have been occupied, so why would you bother for the monk.

Because only the Cloisters that have actually been occupied are counted. Tiles that were laid without placing a meeple on the Cloister are not NOT counted.

Thread: Re: The King for King & Scout - A Quick Review

Goldenturkey — 2006-06-18T14:19:48+00:00

I considered King and Scout when I went on an insance Carcassone buying spree acquiring almost all the expansions. Since then tower has come out and I don't have Princess and Dragon either.

We often don't play with the builder as it does affect the game balance from the simple tennant of one tile one go.

I stopped because I was concerned that it was one expansion too far that would alter the game balance beyond what I was happy to play.

I like 'basic' carcassone, I think its a good, solid, fun game that doesn't need any major 'fixing'.

Its sometimes like movie sequels (would Godzilla 2 be any good?) when hollywood goes one film too far!

CHRIS

I do recommend carcassonne highly and would like the extra tiles in K&S, but I wouldn't play the additional rules. My head hurts playing the Count of Carcassone!

Thread: Re: The King for King & Scout - A Quick Review

MBarratt — 2006-06-17T11:55:24+00:00

However in the opinion of me and my freinds Scout detracts from H & G since the powers of the tiles are unbalanced.

Thread: Re: The King for King & Scout - A Quick Review

Jormi_Boced — 2006-06-16T15:02:23+00:00

Another option is to buy it, and then buy Hunters and Gatherers as well. That is what I did.

Thread: The King for King & Scout - A Quick Review

caradoc — 2006-06-16T03:08:17+00:00

The King from King & Scout:

Of all the Carcassonne variants regular old fashion Carcassonne (the one in the blue box) is the sort I have played most and like most of those I’ve played. King and Scout is a dual expansion which adds rules and pieces to both games: Carcassonne and Carcassone: Hunters & Gatherers. This review deals solely with the King component of the King & Scout.

The King expansion is a fun little addition to the Carcassonne base set that comes at a very cheap cost. Most people who would be considering buying this may be wondering (if they don’t own both versions of Carcassonne): is this expansion worth it? The answer of course varies from one player to the next but I have certainly enjoyed the addition of the King to my base set as the extra King and Robber Baron rule adds some fun and interest into the game for a very cheap cost.

The main part of the King expansion operates in the following way, the player who manages to complete the largest city receives the King tile (giving them extra points at the end of the game), while the player who manages to complete the longest road gets points in the same way.

My personal feeling is that the amount of points a player receives is a touch unbalancing, my own preference is to reward the player who possesses the King or the Robber Baron tile at the end of the game a set amount of points; say around 10 points.

Despite this personal preference I still enjoy using the King, not only do you get some very fun additions in the form of the King and Robber Baron tiles, but you also get some very cool city tiles that you can mix in with your original set and that can be just the right tile at just the right time!

Of course the best way to buy it, if you only own one or the other of Carcassonne and Carcassonne: Hunters and Gathers, is to find a person who owns the other game and split the cost between you. However, even if you only own the original Carcassonne the King is a fun and cheap expansion that adds some spice and a few pretty cool tiles.

Thread: Re: Farmer & Monk: expansion for King & Scout

-xXx- — 2006-05-09T17:25:08+00:00

1. What happens if your farmers are removed by for ex the Cathars, the dragon or the tower, and you don't have the most deployed farmers anymore: Do you lose the labourer tile?

2. Do the very small houses next to roads also count as farmhouses, or only the bigger ones at crossroads? Do taverns from the 1st expansions count as farmhouses?

3. I don't think the monk tiles are necessary. You don't keep track of which roads or cities have been occupied, so why would you bother for the monk.

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

jashobeam — 2006-05-05T00:23:53+00:00

I would take a city piece and a road piece from Settler's of Catan and place them on the scoring chart

Jashobeam

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

Blackberry — 2006-04-25T19:26:22+00:00

Jormi_Boced wrote:
Oh, I see. So you might want to complete an opponent's feature. Hmmmm.

Same with the trade goods. Whomever completes the city gets the trade goods, which may or may not be the person who scores for the city.

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

Jormi_Boced — 2006-04-25T18:53:04+00:00

Oh, I see. So you might want to complete an opponent's feature. Hmmmm.

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

Aldaron — 2006-04-25T17:10:44+00:00

Drew1365 wrote:
The Robber Baron and King go to the player who completes that feature, not necessarily the player who scores it.
Correct, see Step 1 in my rules summary*:

Aldaron's Rules Summary wrote:
If the [just-placed] tile completes [...] a road that covers more tiles than any other completed road, [the placing player] takes the robber baron token.
* http://www.aldaron.com/sciencegames/carcassonne/ (PDF)

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

Drew1365 — 2006-04-25T14:39:18+00:00

Jormi_Boced wrote:
What about if you one person currently has completed a four length road as the longest and both players have a 5 length uncompleted road that gets completed with an end piece that ends both of them at the same time?

Whoever played the tile that completed the roads gets it. The Robber Baron and King go to the player who completes that feature, not necessarily the player who scores it.

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

Jormi_Boced — 2006-04-25T14:36:15+00:00

What about if you one person currently has completed a four length road as the longest and both players have a 5 length uncompleted road that gets completed with an end piece that ends both of them at the same time?

Thread: Hut powerful too?

thrasymachus — 2006-03-15T19:17:02+00:00

Maybe it is just bad luck, but I swear every carc variant game I play someone manages to connect all the fields into one big superfield. Carcassonne has the Cloister's that end a road and help connect the two fields, Ark of the Covenant is probably harder to connect all the fields, and Hunters & Gatherers has rivers that end in lakes, and the tiles with two seperate rivers on them. Anyway, the end result of all this is that both games that I have used the Scout expansion in have resulted in the player with the construction hut scoring 50+ points. It seems pretty overpowered that way...anyone else had this problem?

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

zefquaavius — 2006-03-07T13:21:09+00:00

Don't sweat it! We all have those moments.

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

diabolix — 2006-03-07T11:38:58+00:00

Yes I thought about that too, quite logical now that i think about it Thanks!

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

Regai — 2006-03-06T13:15:19+00:00

Correct. When a road is constructed that is longer than a previous road then the baron changes hands. If you get a road that is the same length, the baron remains where he was.

Thread: Re: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

zefquaavius — 2006-03-06T12:54:37+00:00

Just like with the king, if someone builds a road longer than any existing road, then she takes the robber baron. I believe they merely stated the rule for the robber baron more briefly for simplicity.

So, in your example, the second player who completed a 10-road gets nothing for his efforts, unfortunately, other than 10 points (or 0 or 20, if he had an inn on the road).

Thread: Equal length road, who gets Baron?

diabolix — 2006-03-06T11:43:21+00:00

It says the player who completes the longest road keeps the baron token. What happens when someone already has a road say 10 tiles long, and another player completes a road of the same length? who gets the baron? is it shared? or is it void?

Image

Aldaron — 2006-02-10T20:49:50+00:00

Tile Distribution

Image

EndersGame — 2006-01-13T06:56:50+00:00

The other four new tiles

Image

EndersGame — 2006-01-13T06:54:42+00:00

The King tile and Robber Baron tile

Image

EndersGame — 2006-01-13T06:52:20+00:00

The new tile with two separate city segments

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

Drew1365 — 2005-12-08T18:14:22+00:00

Thanks for the thoughts on this. We did the "pile meeples of an unused color" on the tiles method, but I think I'm going to make some numbered chits to use. Just as soon as I replace the ink cartridge on my printer . . .

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

esswedl — 2005-12-07T17:08:18+00:00

I also used to pile an unused color of meeples on the tiles to keep count, but that was unwieldy. There are some little chits (with pictures from the tiles) in the file section of this game's entry that you can print out and move on the scoring track.

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

Gamemaster — 2005-12-06T03:23:29+00:00

I use two small colored markers, blue for largest city and orange for longest road, and place them on the score track.

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

GreatWolf — 2005-12-06T03:23:09+00:00

I keep two d20s in the box and use those.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

shannona — 2005-12-05T23:42:47+00:00

I pile meeples from one unused color on each of the tiles, with the count showing how big the landscape is.

Thread: Re: Keeping track of longest road/largest city

kristopherjwolff — 2005-12-05T23:34:59+00:00

We just use a pig from one of the unused colors to mark the largest city, and the builder to mark the longest road. Then we just put them on the corresponding space on the scoring track. The first few turns, it's a little awkward having them on the scoring track, but then you just get used to it.