Extensions for the Carcassonne board game: taverns, merchants and dragons

The original version of the game Carcassonne was developed by German board game designer Klaus-Jürgen Wrede back in 2000. You can read about the history of the creation of this board game, its unusual name, as well as the rules and subtleties of the gameplay in the review of the main set of the game “Carcassonne”.

Over the course of its short history, the game acquired a lot of expansions, which was due to the enormous popularity of Carcassonne. In the first year of its existence, this board game received the title of “Game of the Year” in Germany (Spiel des Jahres), and to date the number of its copies sold in the world has exceeded six million.

All expansion cards fit perfectly with the tiles from the original 2000 set - the paper size and texture have not changed. So it is impossible to distinguish them tactilely. However, the color scheme of landscape images and tile backs of different expansions may vary slightly in tone. Therefore, to avoid “cheating”, it is recommended to use a card bag.

To be fair, it should be admitted that initially in the game itself a lot was left to chance - participants draw tiles at random. But a well-thought-out strategy often helps players prevail over the whims of Fortune. Almost all additions increase the percentage of randomness to one degree or another. So fans of chess and precise, measured planning may not like all the changes proposed by the developers that are introduced into the game along with new expansions. On the other hand, with the advent of vertical elements such as bridges and towers, as well as additional figures and tokens, the familiar “Carcassonne” acquired new possibilities, the gameplay became more fun and varied, and the “entourage” became more colorful.

"Taverns and Cathedrals" (Inns and Cathedrals / Wirtshäuser und Kathedralen)

This is one of the most successful expansions of Carcassonne, which was released in 2002 and brought many changes to the game. So, with it you get 18 tiles with new landscape elements, which should be laid out in the same way as in the main game: field to field, roads to roads, and city sections to cities. Among them are two new cards with the image of a cathedral in the city center - a completed fortress with such a structure will receive not two points for each element, but three. Six sections of the road are home to taverns with lakes. The completed routes marked by them are rated twice as high as ordinary trails. If objects with bonus cards remain unfinished at the end of the game, then points are not awarded for them.

All expansion tiles have small icons with subject figures on them, so they can be easily distinguished from the main set and other expansions. Also in the Taverns and Cathedrals set you will find a set of gray meeples for the sixth player and six large subject figures. One such giant counts as two meeple, which adds spice when fighting for the same city or road.

To facilitate the scoring process, double-sided cards with numbers 50 and 100 were invented. After completing one circle of the number field, the player simply takes a tile and places it in front of him with the number 50 on top. If his chip is lucky enough to cross the cherished line of 49 points again, then the card is turned over, signaling that the participant has already scored 100 points.

As you can see, with the advent of additional elements, the rules of the game and the scoring features have changed slightly, and the gameplay itself has become even more exciting.

"Merchants and Builders" (Traders and Builders / Händler und Baumeister)

"Taverns and Cathedrals" was greeted with great enthusiasm by the army of Carcassonne lovers. Therefore, the creators of this kind of entertainment did not have to wait long, and a year later another expansion called “Merchants and Builders” appeared on sale.

In the set you will find 24 tiles with terrain areas, 20 of which are marked with icons for wine, grain and cloth, as well as 20 tokens that duplicate the images of all these supplies. As you probably already guessed, all badges bring bonus points. If a player completes a fortress that contains a card with one or another good, then he takes a token with its image. Moreover, you can complete the construction of someone else’s city, skimming off all the “cream” from it. At the end of the game, when counting points, participants compare the sets they collected. The player who collects the most wine, grain or cloth tokens receives 10 points for each good. If the participants have the same number of tokens of the same type, for example grain, in their arsenal, then they all receive 10 points.

In addition, the echelons of subjects are replenished with 12 new multi-colored chips: six pigs and the same number of builders. Piggy grazes in the meadow and increases the points received for each completed city on the field owned by the player (5 instead of the usual 4 for each completed fortress). The Builder can be placed both in the city and on the road, and allows an extra turn when adding tiles to the object it is already standing on.

The Merchants and Builders expansion includes a nice addition - a small pouch for storing playing tiles. Unfortunately, as Carcassonne fans' appetites increase and new expansion cards are added to the core set, the game quickly becomes too large for this nice storage unit.

"Merchants and Builders" is undoubtedly a very interesting expansion that will not only liven up the game, but will do so without seriously complicating the rules. At the same time, the influence of randomness increases slightly, and additional chips open up new opportunities for players.

"The Princess and the Dragon" (Burgfräulein und Drache)

As always, new cards come to Carcassonne with the next expansion. This time there are 30 of them: six magical portals, six cards with the image of a princess languishing in a tower, the same number of volcanoes and twelve “dragon” tiles. Also in the set you will find wooden figures of a dragon and a fairy.

If a princess appears in a city, she will certainly break the heart of a subject already standing in it, and the meeple chip will be returned to the owner. So it’s not profitable to add cards with a princess to your buildings, but you’ll be able to fight your opponents with their help.

Portals allow players to place their followers on any previously unfinished and unoccupied objects by other participants.

The dragon does not participate in the game and remains bored on the sidelines - exactly until one of the participants pulls out a card with a volcano, which will become his starting point. When a tile with a “portrait” of a dragon appears on the playing surface, our reptile begins to move along the cards, demolishing all the subjects in its path. Players move it one by one. Our fire-breather must take a total of six steps (unless he runs into a dead end), and moving backwards is not in his rules.

Only a fairy can protect you from this misfortune. The fairy figurine does not belong to any of the players, but everyone can use its magical power if necessary. By placing this chip next to his subject, the participant will not only provide him with a calm future without dragon raids, but will also receive bonus points after the completion of the construction of the object.

Meeting the expansion “The Princess and the Dragon” evokes mixed feelings. On the one hand, you get as many as 30 cards with whimsical landscapes and new elements, as well as cute wooden dragon and fairy figurines “in the spirit of the times.” On the other hand, the game includes a decent list of complex and not always clear-cut rules, and the dragon's jumps across the terrain often cause confusion.

"Abbey and Mayor" (Abbey and Mayor / Abtei und Bürgermeister)

This expansion will delight players with an abundance of new cards and figures. In addition to 12 tiles with sections of fortresses and roads, this set also contains completely new elements - cards with the image of the abbey. Each player gets one such abbey, which he can place on the playing field without drawing a landscape tile from the general bank. Six multi-colored figures of mayors, wagons and barns are added to the already considerable fraternity of wooden meeples.

Many fans of the game “Carcassonne” will agree with me that sometimes on a beautiful, evenly filled map there remains an area of ​​one element that cannot be closed. Often, players’ followers also find themselves imprisoned near such a gaping “black hole.” In this case, the abbey card comes to the rescue. It is bounded by fortress walls on all four sides, and therefore cities and roads that come into contact with this tile at the junctions are considered completed. If you install a subject on the abbey, then when counting points it will bring the player up to nine points, just like a regular cathedral.

When placing a mayor figure inside a fortress, its strength is equal to the number of shields (coats of arms) on the city cards. If there are five shields, then the mayor is equal to five ordinary subjects; if there are no coats of arms at all, then the mayor has no weight.

Vans serve as nomadic meeples. During the game, they should be placed on objects in the same way as regular chips. However, after completing the construction of a city, monastery or road, our cart can be left on the playing field and moved to another object connected to the one just completed. The main thing is that he is not busy with other participants.

Barns are placed at the junction of four meadow tiles and provide players with additional points from the boards both during the game and during the final scoring.

Our story does not end here. You can read about other, no less interesting extensions to Carcassonne in

Carcassonne is a simple board game that has won many well-deserved awards around the world. The number of copies sold exceeded 7 million, and the game mechanics became the ancestor of many other games. Let's try to figure out what is the secret of her success? The mechanics of “Carcassonne” are the joint construction of a common map from tiles and placing chips (meeples) on them. Players receive points for their actions and move along the VP track. Goal: rebuild and populate the lands in such a way as to get the maximum victory bonuses.

So what's special?

Looking ahead, I’ll share the main thing - “Carcassonne” has become “Opening” with a capital letter. It embodies a considerable list of all the “very best” from our small collection of games:

• the simplest mechanics;
• lowest entry threshold;
• most interesting;
• the most beautiful;
• the most beloved.

And if the last two points are subjective, then you can try to justify everything else.

Rules

A little about the rules - there really are very few of them!

1. Lay out the starting tile. Mix everything else.
2. We take turns taking one at a time and laying it out, adding to the existing ones and observing certain rules: the road must connect to the road, the castle to the castle, grass to grass.
3. We post the meeple.
4. We get points.

That's all you need to know to get started playing right away!

We lay out a tile, thereby building a map, then place a meeple, “making” it into a robber, peasant, city dweller, etc.

The rest of the rules can be explained during the process; they relate to methods of obtaining points and counting them.

• After placing a tile on it (and only on it), the player can place his meeple.
• A meeple placed in a city becomes a knight and will be worth two points for each city tile once it is built.
• A road meeple is a highwayman and is worth 1 point per road tile.
• Meeple in the monastery - a monk, will bring 1 point for each tile around the monastery.
• Meeple on the field - a peasant, like any "medieval peasant" - lies on the field and waits for the end of the game to receive victory points.
• If there are meeples of different players on a building - be it a field, a road or a castle, their number is taken into account - whoever has more gets all the points; if the number is the same, all the “hosts” get points.

The expansions introduce new tiles and meeples with modified mechanics to add variety to the game.

Setting

The medieval pastoral of the classic "Carcassonne" can theoretically easily turn into any other theme and recreate a different landscape - from futuristic cities to the conquest of the deserts of Mars. But, since Carl Jürgen Wrede, when creating the game, was inspired by the picturesque French town of the same name, the medieval theme in it looks almost unshakable.

Middle Ages

Localization

Localization is performed at a high level.

pros

• The cutting is smooth. All roads on the tiles correspond to each other, no displacement was noticed.
• For a game of this level and quality, the price is affordable.
• The artwork is bright and beautiful.
• The cardboard is thick.

But besides the advantages, there are, unfortunately, also disadvantages.

Minuses

• Air in the box. Having added up all the game components (tiles, meeples, map, rules), we find that only half of it is occupied.
• The presence of tiles from an add-on that does not fit the base game. This is probably a marketing ploy to force the purchase of another base from another Carcassonne branch - Hunters and Gatherers.

Should you take only the base or add-ons?

I have “Carcassonne” - this is the base game with the addition “Carcassonne. Royal gift." Whether to buy just the basic box or pay extra and get it right away with the additions is something everyone decides for themselves, but I’ll still express a few thoughts that will help you decide.

Pros of the basic box without additional options:

• There is only one - there is no need to overpay for perhaps unnecessary additions, because not all of them are interesting, and some, in my opinion, even harm the basic mechanics. For example, barns - when playing with them, we almost completely abandon the peasants - laying them out is no longer profitable.

Pros in the database with the addition:

• When playing with 4-5 tiles, the basic “Carcassonne” is not enough – you want more. The supplement partially solves the shortage problem.
• Possibility to play on 6th. Some people will probably find this necessary.
• Some additions are very good and make the game even more interesting.
• Multivariability due to alternate mixing of certain additions.

Each game is a new and unique map

More information about special stages

In the Box “Carcassonne. Royal Gift" includes several additions: "Taverns and Cathedrals", "Abbot and Mayor", "Merchants and Builders", "King".

"Taverns and Cathedrals" is our favorite addition, it includes road tiles with lake taverns that, when completed, are worth two points per tile (instead of one in the base version). The Abbey tile is placed in a city, which, when built, begins to earn three points per city tile. However, it should be noted that an unfinished road with a tavern and a city with an abbey will not bring points at the end of the game!

The addition makes the roads more valuable and adds spice - after all, if you don’t complete your plan, you can be left without victory points.

Also included in the box is a set of meeples for a sixth player and a large meeple that counts for two players when determining ownership.

"The Abbot and the Mayor"— includes worker meeple, cart and barn tokens, as well as new tiles. Unfortunately, the meeples from this add-on have not caught on with us - their use is very specific (for example, a mayor is placed in a city and, when determining ownership rights, it is taken into account for as many meeples as there are shields in the city) and rather removes something good from the base game than brings something necessary to it. Instead, we simply mix the expansion tiles together with the base tiles for variety.

"Merchants and Builders"— includes new tiles with product icons, new types of meeples (pigs, builders). Any player who completes a city that has tiles with goods icons receives tokens for these goods. The more product chips you earn during the game, the more victory points you will receive. The addition is interesting, but it did not catch on with us - in fact, like the meeples from the addition - due to the fact that in our understanding they “break” the basic strategy of the game.

"King"- a mini addition that includes several tiles. This addition does not change the strategies in the game and simply allows you to get additional points for the largest city and the longest road.

Thus, there are enough additions in the game to create the perfect game based on your preferences. Our favorite is “Taverns and Cathedrals” - we use it all the time.

The starting tile has a darker back

A little about tactics

• Don't be afraid to use meeples - the more meeples you have running, the more points you can potentially get.
• The road brings fewer points and has the lowest priority when choosing. However, in the Taverns and Cathedrals expansion, a completed road with a tavern by the lake begins to earn two points per tile - here its value increases significantly.
• Cities are often the main source of income. Sometimes it is very profitable to try to attach your tile to your opponent’s city (road, field) and get points for building it together with him. Of course, this style of play increases the degree of conflict, but it also adds proportionally interest.
• Appreciate the peasants - a peasant placed at the right place and time can bring more points than several monks, robbers and knights combined. Of course, opponents will also use peasants, and the main thing here is not to get carried away, because peasants are placed on the field until the end of the game, and, in pursuit of influence, you can add up all the meeples, being left without prospects for cities, monasteries and roads.
• Use roads to isolate fields with enemy peasants from castles. Sometimes it is more profitable to prevent your opponent from getting points than to get them yourself.

Opinion

Carcassonne is an elegant and charming board game that combines accessibility and depth, a game that everyone should try! It can be either conflictual (interfer with the construction of your competitors, take away their points, join other people’s cities) or peaceful (you can help players in their construction and earning points). Children like it due to its dynamism, beautiful design and simplicity, and adults like it due to the variety of tactical possibilities. That is why it is so ideal as a family tabletop.

Grade: 9/10

		Simple
		Simple
		Average. The conflict nature of the game depends entirely on the players - you can play it calmly, almost meditatively, or you can play it very aggressively, taking away castles and lands.
		Good (the cutting of tiles is even, the design is beautiful).
		It is felt as the medieval pastoral on the table grows.
		High.1 Carcassonne leads us in the number of games played.
	Impression	An amazing game with interesting interaction between players, simple rules and low downtime.
	Game time, min	From 30 to 60 minutes.
	Company, persons	2-5 people in the database. With extras for up to 6 people. Better than 3-5, after all.
	How much space	A medium-sized table is required, but with additions a large one.

The board game "Carcassonne" (Carcassonne in the original, in Russia also published under the name "Middle Ages") is renowned as one of the best board games in the world. What is the superiority of Carcassonne? In simple rules, in the variety of games, in their short duration, in the absence of open confrontation between players - this is a classic example of a game “in the German style”.

We are settling in little by little

The theme of the game is the development of the territories around Carcassonne, one of the largest castles, and later cities in France. Several players play the roles of feudal lords who explore the surrounding lands, take control of roads, seize arable land, and build cities and monasteries.

Modus operandi, or What to do?

In Carcassonne, the players' actions are extremely simple. On his turn, the player must take a cardboard square with a section of the medieval landscape and place it on the table along with the already laid out squares according to the domino principle. The new square should continue the existing picture of the world - the road connects with the road, the pasture with the pasture, the city wall with another section of it. When a new object appears on the table due to the placement of a square (for example, a road moves away from an intersection), the player who placed this square can stake this object for himself. To do this, he must take one wooden figurine from his reserve and place it on the square. Now it is in his interests to develop and complete this object (i.e., in our example, to close the road with the next intersection). Objects should be developed with some caution: if the player does not complete this object before the end of the game, he will not receive anything for it. Upon completion, the player removes his little man from the object and receives a certain number of points.

Moment of truth

The key strategic moment of the game is the time when the player decides “where to place” a new square of land. The player chooses what is more profitable for him, because one square can give several placement options with different consequences. Continue your objective or prevent the enemy from completing his monastery/city/road? Anger one opponent with a treacherous move or provoke everyone with your successes? Not only victory or defeat in the game, but also the emotional mood of the entire company depends on a simple choice. And such a choice is made on every new move! In addition, the significance of the choice increases as the game approaches the end. There are fewer and fewer free squares left in the reserve, and the number of options for placing a square only increases with each move. At the same time, players have less and less chance of completing the objects they have started or correcting the consequences of “enemy sabotage.” The tension, as it should be in a good game, increases, the players' resistance to each other increases, the strength of emotions reaches peak values. It’s best to play it yourself: reading about other people’s experiences cannot be compared to your own feelings.

Carcassonne. Nobles and towers

Board game “Carcassonne. Nobles and Towers" is a set of 2 large and 4 small additions.

Addition "Tower"!

The Tower is the fourth major expansion for the Carcassonne game. Tower segments have been added to the game, as well as several new features. Instead of placing a Follower on the board on their turn, players can now place a tower segment on a special tile, with a space allocated for it; add a segment to an existing tower, or place your Follower on top of the tower (who “completes” it).

Building and capturing towers allows you to capture your opponents' Followers if they are in turn within sight of the tower. A tower one segment high will allow you to capture a Follower at a distance of 1 tile; a tower 2 segments high - 2 tiles away, and so on. Players not only lose points they could have gained with their Followers, but they will also have to pay 3 Victory Points if they want to free them.

Mini-expansion "River"

Another addition is “The River,” a mini-expansion for Carcassonne. It adds 12 river tiles, but with a landscape you're already familiar with. You first have to place the river tiles, then play continues as normal. You cannot place your Followers on river tiles, so scoring follows the rules of the original game.

The Crop Circles expansion is a mini expansion that contains 6 corn crop tiles. Such a tile gives the player the right to place a second Follower on an already occupied space or return a previously used Follower to his hands.

Magnificent addition "The Princess and the Dragon"

And so, before you is the magnificent addition “The Princess and the Dragon” for the world famous game “Carcassonne”. This time you have a unique opportunity to go into the world of fairy tales!

A real dragon visited the vast region near Carcassonne, and life certainly didn’t get any easier... Brave heroes set out to meet danger, but without the support of fairies, they have practically no chance... In the city, the princess turns to the help of knights, and farmers in This is the time when secret passages are built so that you can move without being seen by the dragon...

6 new tiles or the Cult addition

The Cult add-on contains 6 tiles, each with an image of a Cult (which are similar in mechanics to Monasteries). When the Monastery and the Cult collide nearby, the battle begins! The first player to surround his tile receives 9 Victory Points, while the opponent receives nothing!

And finally, the addition “Count”

The Count add-on is another expansion for the Carcassonne game. It contains 12 additional tiles, as well as a Count (a miniature made of wood). The tiles themselves depict the city of Carcassonne, which the Count is visiting. When a player places a tile that scores points for an opponent, the player can place a Follower in one of the four districts of the city. He also gains the ability to move the Earl, imprisoning all the Followers in the area. Each district is associated with a specific way to score points, and when the corresponding points are earned, the player can take part of them for himself or even prevent other players from earning points!

In conclusion

The board game "Carcassonne" and its many sequels are already in millions of board game collections around the world. You can get acquainted with this simple, smart and exciting game from a young age to an advanced age. And after getting acquainted, you will certainly want this game to be in your collection of entertainment, wherever it is - at the family hearth, in a student dormitory, at work or in the office.

Great news for fans of the Carcassonne series is the release of two great additions. The first is Carcassonne. Royal Gift”, which includes the base game and four expansions to it. And for those who already have a box of “Carcassonne”, a set of four add-ons - “Carcassonne. Suburbs and inhabitants"

You can buy the board game "Carcassonne" in our retail stores or by ordering from us on our website.

Suburbs and Inhabitants

In the new series “Carcassonne. Suburbs and Inhabitants" includes additional chips, tiles and addons. Among them: “Merchants and Builders”, “Taverns and Cathedrals”, “Abbey & Mayor”, “Scout” and, of course, “King” (King). The Scout set can only be used in the Hunters and Gatherers section. The rest of the sets can be used as you wish - with them the game will become even richer and more interesting!

Taverns and Cathedrals

Six players? Please - each of them will be able to have fun to the fullest! It is this kind of joint play that makes the choice in favor of the addon obvious - where, if not here, can you get such pleasure from the game?
With the help of taverns you can double the points for completed roads. Cathedrals influence cities in the same way. Among other things, the tiles of the cities, cathedrals and taverns themselves have been updated, and their design has become even more pleasant. Special cards will make it easier to count your points.

Carcassonne. Merchants and builders. (Carcassonne: Traders & Builders)

Chips that double the construction speed are no longer a dream, and they will allow the one who receives them to win much faster!
In this add-on, new builder chips have appeared that double the construction speed. New tiles with the designation of various goods have also appeared here, and chips with pets have been added. They are needed for a reason - they give extra points!

Carcassonne. Abbot and mayor. (Carcassonne: Abbey & Mayor)

The mayor, barn and cart, as well as tiles already known to all carcassson players, are included in this addon.

Carcassonne. King. (Carcassonne: King & Scout)

The King expansion received 7 new tiles. The player who has the largest city at the end of the game becomes king. And the one who has the largest road becomes the atamans of the robbers. These titles, of course, also provide tangible benefits. In addition to the Scout expansion, 5 new tiles have been added for the Hunter and Gatherer game.

To play you need a basic Carcassonne

"Carcassonne. Suburbs and Inhabitants" is a game both for those who have already fallen in love with this series of games and have become its true fans, and for those who are just getting acquainted with it. Good game!

Bag-Counter Carcassonne

A convenient fabric bag for transporting numerous tiles and meeples from your Carcassonne games. Equipped with a printed score counter. Now Carcassonne is much more convenient to take with you on trips and visits!

The set also includes exclusive Izbushka and Bogatyr tiles.

This year I was very overwhelmed by tabletop “classics”. All winter and spring I played with great pleasure And . I personally like it better of these two games. Carcassonne . It has fast games and fairly simple gameplay. Of course, after the 30th or 40th game, you begin to think about what can make your favorite game even more interesting. Are there any cool additions to it that make the game better? This summer I looked towards additional Carcassonne and started with a collection of mini-add-ons Suburbs and inhabitants .

Compound

Suburbs and inhabitants can easily be confused with the base game, because the boxes have the same format, and they are also about the same in weight. You probably already know that Carcassonne there are many alternative basic versions that play on their own. Suburbs and inhabitants - This is the purest addition that cannot be played if you do not have the basic blue box.

Opening the box, you will see the same tray that is present in the base game, which houses bags of wooden chips, as well as many cardboard sheets with tiles.

IN Suburbs and inhabitants there are four extensions for the basic Carcassonne and one for the game Carcassonne. Hunters and gatherers . Also in the box you will find meeples for the sixth player (they are gray), so with this add-on you can play your favorite game with a larger team.

Each expansion consists of a small number of new tiles and wooden tokens (expansion only King no chips). You can add extensions to the game as you wish - either selectively or all at once. I will talk about each of the extensions in more detail below.

Taverns and cathedrals

The expansion includes 18 terrain tiles, 6 large meeple tiles, gray meeples for the sixth player, and double-sided scoring tiles.

I already told you about the sixth player at the beginning. The scoring tiles have numbers 50 and 100 on both sides. These are needed so that the player does not forget that he has more than 50 or more than 100 points when his marker goes to the next round of the score track. It's really convenient!

Among the new terrain tiles, it is worth noting the appearance of taverns and cathedrals (logical, right? =)). These tiles work the same way, only taverns are found near roads, and cathedrals are found in cities. If there is a tavern next to the completed road, and there is a cathedral in the completed city, then the player receives 2 and 3 points, respectively, for each area of ​​the terrain (instead of 1 and 2). This, of course, is great, but there is a catch in this - if the road or city with a tavern or cathedral is not completed, then the player will not receive points for these areas during the final count.

At the beginning of the game, a large meeple is added to the meeple pools of all players and can be used according to the usual rules for placing meeple. If several players claim a road, city or field, then the large meeple counts as two meeples.

Opinion . WITH Taverns and cathedrals I met before Suburbs and inhabitants got into my collection. What kind of magic? - you ask. And I will answer - this is not magic, this is Board Game Arena. Not long ago, in this online service, in addition to the basic Carcassonne introduced the opportunity to play with additional Taverns and cathedrals . This extension immediately noticeably improves the base with new tiles. There is a monastery with two roads, pieces of the city with sharp ends that can be used to block the field for a peasant, but most of all I like the tile with four pieces of the field, which you can always use to your advantage.

Taverns and cathedrals are cool things, but dangerous. And often there is no escape from it, because... If you come across such a tile, then you can’t escape it. The good thing about these constructions is that they bring more points than regular sections. But they must be completed to the end, which does not always work out. Especially in this regard, the cathedral stands out, which is one large cell of the city (after all, it will then have to be closed on all sides by other parts of the city in order to complete the construction). A tile with a cathedral can always be thrown to an opponent to prevent him from having time to build a city, which is why he will not receive points for unfinished work. In general, of the new expansion tiles, I'm most excited about the ones that don't have taverns and cathedrals.

Large meeple is good for fields. Most often, all the players keep it for this purpose, so that at the end of the game they can beautifully break away. To be honest, I myself am not a big fan of “battles on the fields”, because... I prefer to build rather than lie on the field. Therefore, most often a large meeple for me is an ordinary meeple, which is never superfluous.

A good expansion that welcomes a sixth player and new tiles.

Merchants and builders

The expansion includes 24 terrain tiles, 20 cardboard goods tokens, 6 pig meeples (eek!), 6 builder meeples.

The main feature of this expansion is the goods that can be obtained by building cities. Some tiles of this add-on are marked with a product symbol. If a player completes a city, he takes goods tokens for each corresponding symbol in the city. It doesn’t matter whether he had a meeple in the city or not. You just need to lay out the last city tile. There are 3 types of goods - wine, grain. textile. At the end of the game, the player who has the most tokens for a particular product receives 10 VP. Those. if you have leadership in all three products, then this is immediately +30 points. Agree, extra dozens of points never hurt.

The pig meeples pleased me with their appearance. I was born in the year of the pig, so I love seeing this animal in board games (always makes me smile). The pig helps the peasant lie on the field =) When you place a tile with a field on the table, you can place a pig meeple on it (each player has one such meeple). At the same time, at least one of your peasants should already be lying on the field. When at the end of the game a player receives points for fields, then if there is his pig on the field, then the cities in this field give him not 3 points, but 4.

Well, the last feature of the expansion is the builders (they even have helmets). The builder is a wildly cunning bug. If you place it in a city or on a road where your meeple is, then every time you continue or finish this road or city, you can make another move. One more move, Karl! When the site is completed, the builder returns it back to its owner for use again.

Opinion . Merchants and builders - quite a lively extension. I really liked the products, although I understand. what a random thing this is. The beauty of goods is that sometimes it's useful for you to help another player complete a city. Yes, let him get his 4-10 points, but then you will collect a bunch of goods, which will then help you score, for example, 20 points. It's not that it's always useful to help other players complete cities, but sometimes it works as a plus. I like the idea of ​​competition for goods. This doesn't change the game in any way, but it does give it a new flavor.

Pigs are cool. I would always use them in any batches in Carcassonne . But sometimes pigs look like wild cheats. Sometimes it turns out that peasants in the fields bring a lot of points. And if you also have a pig, then winning the game becomes too easy. I mean those cases when the game has one large field with a bunch of built cities nearby. Add a pig and it's autovin. But I also like the pig because sometimes you run out of meeples, but you still need to lay out tiles, so the opportunity to add a pig to the field becomes a pleasant event. I think pigs are cool.

But the builder seemed too cheaty to me, so I didn’t really like him. Play 2 times in a row in a game like Carcassonne , it's quite unbalanced. Here, it seems, everything depends on luck - if you draw the right tile, you are happy, if you draw the unnecessary one, you are sad. So, some players can move the necessary tiles, and they will often go 2 times in a row. And let’s say you put a builder on the road, and then these same roads stop coming across you. And that’s it, your builder doesn’t work. For me, being a builder is purely about having fun. If you want more fun, you can play with him. If you want a serious game, no builders!

As always, there are some cool new terrain tiles in the expansion. What I liked most were the bridges that allow you to continue your journey and prevent other players from joining your area.

In terms of coolness, I would rate this extension as slightly above average. Cool tiles, goods and pigs. But the builder is a cheat.

Abbot and mayor

The expansion includes 12 terrain tiles, 6 abbey tiles, 6 mayor meeples, 6 barn meeples, 6 carts.

In this expansion we will again find many different new features. It seems that there are even more of them here than in other mini-additions.

Localities in Abbot and mayor chic. Who would have thought that roads could tunnel into a city, as if impaling it on a sword. But the coolest tiles are the cities that are located on top of each other. Great topic!

If you play with abbeys, then at the beginning of the game each player receives one abbey tile. This is a kind of joker tile that is laid out at the player's request instead of drawing a new tile from the pile. The Abbey is laid out strictly in an empty space, surrounded horizontally and vertically by tiles. After which you can put your meeple on the abbey, and in this case the abbey will work like a monastery. The wonders of the tile don't end there. The Abbey serves as the boundary of all objects located on the adjacent four sides of adjacent tiles. If some objects were eventually completed (for example, a road was built), then players immediately receive points for them and then take their meeples back. If suddenly a player was unable to place his abbey tile during the entire game, then he can do this at the very end after the last area tile has been played.

The mayor, as you might guess, only works in the city. The mayor can only be placed in an empty city that does not yet have meeples. If, after the construction of a city, several players claim it, then one mayor counts for as many meeples as there are shields in the city. But if there are no shields in the city, then the mayor’s power is zero. In general, the mayor’s task is to effectively squeeze out the cities.

Barns are pretty powerful, but not easy to cast. The barn is placed at the junction of four tiles, one of which must have just been played by you. The four tiles must be strictly adjacent to the field on which the barn is placed. As soon as the barn has been laid out, all peasants lying on the field with the barn immediately bring points to their owners (as in the final scoring) and are removed from the field. You can no longer place your meeples on a field with a barn. At the end of the game, the owner of the barn receives 4 points for each completed city adjacent to the field on which the barn is located. Just imba!

The last thing we have left in this expansion is the cart. A cart can be played instead of a meeple on a road, monastery or city that has no other meeples. If you complete the object on which the cart is located, then you can not return it to your hand, but move it to a road, monastery or city adjacent to the newly built object. One important caveat is that the cart cannot cross fields. Therefore, you can move the cart only to the area that is actually adjacent to the constructed object (for example, the road enters a city or monastery).

Opinion . This extension provides a lot of different new features, so I immediately liked it. According to the good old tradition, the new tiles delighted me. They are all cool, I will definitely add them to the basic Carcassonne .

The mayor is good at scaring off rivals so that they do not interfere with your cities. If there are a lot of shields in the city, then the chances of owning this building are very small. The only unpleasant nuance is that the mayor himself (if there is no dispute over the city) brings 0 points. Therefore, I cannot say that the mayor is very useful. It's rather optional.

The abbey gave me a wild ride. These are very cool tiles. In almost every game I come across “holes” on the map that can be made into abbeys. The Abbey tile can be a great help in those moments when players are blocking your construction site so that you cannot complete it. As a result, the object is not completed, and the meeple that stands on it is lost. Now the abbey can fix everything. The coolest thing is that this tile can be used at the very end of the game and thereby influence the outcome. In my opinion, the Abbey is a must-have for any parties in Carcassonne .

I liked the cart and barn much less. Let's start with the barn. The thing is that it is quite difficult to post it. You either need to wait for a freebie, so that everything coincides by chance so that the required field is found (in which there are many built cities) and 4 tiles have field elements at the ends, or you yourself try to prepare the site for the barn. Often, when you draw a tile, you want to immediately use it to score points. It takes a long time to tinker with the barn. In my first game with this expansion, not a single player was able to lay out a barn, although the benefits from it, of course, are colossal. You can make a lot of money from a barn, and several times if you place it on the field where your peasant was lying and it was he who owned the field (that is, you get points for the peasant, and then also for the barn). I just felt like the barn (and some of the other new stuff from other expansions) made the game too busy, making it a lot to think about when making decisions.

The cart is interesting in that it can be immediately repositioned. You’ve finished the object - oops - and you’re already building a new one. But it is not always possible to do this, because... The cart cannot cross the field. Let's just say that the cart is such an advanced meeple that still brings points, and it can return to the hand, or it can immediately move to a new object. This is not bad, but I don’t see anything “awful” about it.

As a result, I can call the expansion average. One half is great, the other half is so-so.

King

The expansion includes 5 terrain tiles, 1 king tile and 1 chieftain tile.

In terms of composition, this is the smallest addition, which does not greatly refresh the game.

I call this extension " with greetings from the Colonizers", because The ataman and the king seemed to have been spied on precisely in this game. At the beginning of the game, the king and ataman are neutral. But as soon as players start building roads and cities, these tiles will start passing around. When any player builds his first city, he takes the king tile for himself. In the case of the first road, this will be the chieftain tile. If another player later builds a city or road that is larger than the size of the city or road of the player who has the king or chieftain, then that player takes these tiles for himself. At the end of the game, the king/chieftain brings its owners one point for each city/road built in the game.

The new terrain tiles are great as usual. There are not many of them, but they are cool. I will highlight a tile with a monastery near the city.

Opinion . Extension King Purely not for everyone.

The king and ataman tiles did not surprise me at all. We have already seen leadership for knights and roads in Katana , so be surprised by the same feature in Carcassone somehow it doesn't work out. You can have some fun, but I can’t say that I want to play with the king and chieftain all the time.

Extras purely for fun.

Eventually

I played each of these expansions separately. Those. took the base, took one expansion, mixed them and tried to enjoy the game. As you can see, I can’t call any of the extensions a 100% hit. I liked some things more, some less. At the same time, when I finished playing the game in Abbot and mayor , then I realized that I didn’t want to play a mega-epic game in which I would mix absolutely all the expansions from this set. Do you know why? Because in this case the party will be very slow-witted, because each player will have a huge selection of new meeples that he can place instead of regular meeples. Mayor or carriage? Large meeple or barn? Pig or builder? And every moment needs to be calculated in your head in order to understand what will ultimately bring more points.

For example, I had only one of the expansions in my party, and I had problems with the fact that I couldn’t choose which meeple I should take. For example, an ordinary meeple or mayor. Those. when choice is not always good.

But if you put together a prefabricated expansion, then I can say for sure that I really liked it - these are goods, pigs, abbeys and mayors. They didn’t bother me at all during the game, and in my opinion these elements do not break the game in any way. The rest of the new items suited me a little less.

I suddenly realized why all the experienced players Carcassonne they said that there is nothing better than the usual classic Carcassonne . Why is that? Doesn’t any of the extras fit perfectly into the basic gameplay? And only when I played Suburbs and inhabitants , I realized that with all the add-ons, the game turns into something more complex and chaotic. Base Carcassonne simple but elegant. It is easy to play and the games do not take much time. IMHO, this is the most beautiful filler. With expansions, the game becomes more dense, in some moments more random than we would like. I can't say that this is definitely bad. This is more of an acquired taste. If classic Carcassonne is too simple for you, then you definitely need to mix a few extras into it. They will definitely be able to “load” you.

But you know, with all these ambiguous moments, I highly recommend that you get acquainted with Suburbs and inhabitants because there is one thing in this box that you 100% need if you like basic Carcassonne . These are new terrain tiles. They are simply great in extensions. The new tiles do not repeat the old ones at all, they wind with roads, have bridges, twist in different directions of the city, and block fields. Definitely feel free to throw all the new tiles into the pile with the old ones - they make the game even more interesting! Only after tiles from Suburbs and inhabitants I realized how dry the base was in terms of possibilities. I am confident that I will now play Carcassonne only with all the terrain tiles that are in the database and extras.

All other goodies that are included in the add-on depend on your taste. If you're tired of the base, then expansions can refresh the game, make it more varied and unexpected. But I agree that the base itself looks better (if you don't take into account the new terrain tiles). For me Suburbs and inhabitants - this is a cool construction set from which I can assemble something that will bring me pleasure. That is why I recommend it for purchase to those board gamers who like Carcassonne .

If you liked the idea of ​​add-ons and still don’t have a base, then you can buy a large set at once Carcassonne , which contains both the base and this set of mini-add-ons. It's called Carcassonne. Royal gift . And it will cost you less than if you buy the base and extras separately. Therefore, I recommend taking it right away Royal gift . But if you are afraid that you may not like the game, then it is better to start with the regular base box.

By the way, remember that in Suburbs and inhabitants there is another extension for an alternative version Carcassonne which is called Hunters and gatherers ? I have this version, but I haven't looked into it yet, but I promise I will do so soon and write a detailed review. There I will also talk about the expansion from Suburbs and inhabitants . Agreed?

In the end I can say that Suburbs and inhabitants is a cool addition to a cool game, in which you are sure to find something interesting for yourself. The game is definitely worth the money spent!

I think many people already know about the game Carcassonne. There is plenty of information about it in various sources, so I won’t describe the rules. And this is more of a photo note than a review. I just wanted to show WHAT kind of Carcassonne we play with friends) Exactly show!

So, my girlfriend Nastasya gave me the game for my birthday in 2009. Of course, I really liked the gift, especially since it was given to my beloved). The manufacturing technology is simple: we print non-colored tiles (pre-processed so that only the outline of the design remains) and color them with felt-tip pens (so the title of the post should rather be “Painted Carcassonne”). The work is very labor-intensive and painstaking. Then we cut out the tiles, glue them with another layer of paper and cover them with transparent tape on both sides.

The figures were taken from a purchased Carcassonne. Hunters and gatherers. I made the rest of the figures myself from wood and painted them. For example, the triangles below are builders.

And this is the princess:

And the dragon:

Pig:

Tiles drawn from the main set and from the add-ons (Princess and Dragon, Cathars, River and River 2, Hotels and Cathedrals, King and Thief Baron, Count of Carcassonne, Abbey and Mayor, Merchants and Builders, Tower and one quarterly update) But for two add-ons (Abbey and Mayor, Tower) I haven’t made the figures yet.. But I’m going to fix that in the near future)

It is very pleasing to the eye that the tiles are so bright and saturated)) The purchased game looks dull in comparison with this one.

By the way, no one in our company likes the Count of Carcassonne add-on, so we play without it (although I personally hate it!). We use all the other drawn additions (except for the unfinished two), so the gameplay lasts at least three hours.