Post by Gilvan Blight on May 9, 2006 7:42:33 GMT -5
Quickly: pretty good expansion but it really changes the feel of the game.
Summary: large set of new tiles and wooden meeple for your Caracassonne games. This expansion adds a fantasy feel to the game. The various new tiles include:
Volcanoes: which summon up the dragon, immediately moving him to the volcano tile.
Magic Portals: play a follower on this tile or any tile on the board following normal rule placement.
Princesses: Play on a city and remove a knight from that city.
Dragon Tiles: like normal tiles but cause the dragon to move.
There is also a new support character the Fairy. You can take the fairy when you play a tile but no follower. The Fairy does three things. You get 1 point a turn if you have her at the start of your turn. You get 3 extra points if you score a feature that has the fairy in it, and she protects you from the dragon.
The Dragon is the biggest change. He ends up in the game with the first Volcano played. Then whenever a Dragon tile is played he moves 6 tiles. Players move the dragon one tile in turn starting with the player who played the dragon tile. Any followers in a tile that the dragon moves into are eaten and returned to their player. Other then these new tiles and rules it plays the same as normal Carcassonne. This expansion combines with any and all previous expansions.
The Good: I really liked the point aspect of the Fairy. Choosing to not play a follower just to get it away from someone else was cool, and getting those extra points definitely helps out. The Magic Portal tile is a great addition. The ability to place a follower anywhere is pretty huge. It actually worked well with the dragon, as you could replace a follower who had been eaten by using the magic portal. Some of the new tiles are rather cool and funky. Like a Cloister in the middle of a city and a road that tunnels under a city. More tiles is always a good thing. The dragon, once we got used to it had a great 'scare' factor. Where he would be close to your followers and you were really hoping no one drew a dragon tile. The princess was alright, interesting new backstabbing tile from a game that usually isn't that cutthroat. The components were excellent in quality as usual and the dragon looked really cool as a deep red wooden silhouette.
The Bad: This of course adds time to the game. A bunch more tiles means a longer game. Not always a problem, but this used to be a quick game, with all the expansions that is no longer true. The dragon really changed the way you played and the way the game felt. Getting your well laid plans and near completed cities ruined due to the dragon is frustrating. It's hard to plan out some moves when you never know when your people may be gone. I can see some players thinking this improves the game though, and personally I didn't find it that bad by the end of the game, but when it first came up it was disruptive. The fairy wooden token I just didn't like. It just looks odd, like some kind of white spiky hat or something.
The Ugly: The dragon adds a lot more screw your neighbor to the game. This won't be liked by all players. One of our players had a real hard time playing a volcano because they didn't want to screw the other players. Things can get ugly.
Overall: another good expansion for Carcassonne, but beware, the addition of the Dragon and the princess adds a lot more backstabbing and screw your neighbor to what is normally more of a 'do your own thing and do it better then the others' kind of game. The Dragon adds a strong random factor that some people will love and some will hate. I was a big fan of the other new rules and tiles though, like the Portal and the fairy.
Summary: large set of new tiles and wooden meeple for your Caracassonne games. This expansion adds a fantasy feel to the game. The various new tiles include:
Volcanoes: which summon up the dragon, immediately moving him to the volcano tile.
Magic Portals: play a follower on this tile or any tile on the board following normal rule placement.
Princesses: Play on a city and remove a knight from that city.
Dragon Tiles: like normal tiles but cause the dragon to move.
There is also a new support character the Fairy. You can take the fairy when you play a tile but no follower. The Fairy does three things. You get 1 point a turn if you have her at the start of your turn. You get 3 extra points if you score a feature that has the fairy in it, and she protects you from the dragon.
The Dragon is the biggest change. He ends up in the game with the first Volcano played. Then whenever a Dragon tile is played he moves 6 tiles. Players move the dragon one tile in turn starting with the player who played the dragon tile. Any followers in a tile that the dragon moves into are eaten and returned to their player. Other then these new tiles and rules it plays the same as normal Carcassonne. This expansion combines with any and all previous expansions.
The Good: I really liked the point aspect of the Fairy. Choosing to not play a follower just to get it away from someone else was cool, and getting those extra points definitely helps out. The Magic Portal tile is a great addition. The ability to place a follower anywhere is pretty huge. It actually worked well with the dragon, as you could replace a follower who had been eaten by using the magic portal. Some of the new tiles are rather cool and funky. Like a Cloister in the middle of a city and a road that tunnels under a city. More tiles is always a good thing. The dragon, once we got used to it had a great 'scare' factor. Where he would be close to your followers and you were really hoping no one drew a dragon tile. The princess was alright, interesting new backstabbing tile from a game that usually isn't that cutthroat. The components were excellent in quality as usual and the dragon looked really cool as a deep red wooden silhouette.
The Bad: This of course adds time to the game. A bunch more tiles means a longer game. Not always a problem, but this used to be a quick game, with all the expansions that is no longer true. The dragon really changed the way you played and the way the game felt. Getting your well laid plans and near completed cities ruined due to the dragon is frustrating. It's hard to plan out some moves when you never know when your people may be gone. I can see some players thinking this improves the game though, and personally I didn't find it that bad by the end of the game, but when it first came up it was disruptive. The fairy wooden token I just didn't like. It just looks odd, like some kind of white spiky hat or something.
The Ugly: The dragon adds a lot more screw your neighbor to the game. This won't be liked by all players. One of our players had a real hard time playing a volcano because they didn't want to screw the other players. Things can get ugly.
Overall: another good expansion for Carcassonne, but beware, the addition of the Dragon and the princess adds a lot more backstabbing and screw your neighbor to what is normally more of a 'do your own thing and do it better then the others' kind of game. The Dragon adds a strong random factor that some people will love and some will hate. I was a big fan of the other new rules and tiles though, like the Portal and the fairy.