Thursday, January 20, 2011

You tell me: Carcassone, a classic?

DC Gamer writes about his election of Carcassonne into the BGG Hall of Fame.  Funny, you know, I've tried to like Carc but every game just leaves me sour.  I find the tile draws WAY too luck-based (and that is coming from a guy who would marry Ticket To Ride if he could) and each game never seems all that balanced.  I also have found in the 3 or 4 games I've tried of it, that the scoring and majority rules are not half as simple for other players to grasp as people say. 

Obviously, I'm in the minority here but I just don't see the appeal.  What am I missing?

ASIDE:  I do agree with giving props to Carc for bringing us the Meeple.  Bravo to that!

4 comments:

  1. It all depends on how you teach it.. the basic premise of the game is wildly simple.. draw picture don't be a dumb ass. The Farmers are a whole other game in itself, so when I teach it I have people play with out farmers a few time then I bring in the farmers. I don't find it all that luckish in that you control where you put the piece and that there are a lot of options of what to do. That said I don't really like the multiplayer game (more than 2), because then you do seem to get really bitten in the ass with the luck of the tiles.

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  2. It's okay, I guess, but usually it just feels pretty much boring to me. And with 4 or 5 players (or in using any expansions), it gets way too long for what it is. Gwen (my wife) and I play it sometimes on our iPods, but I would rarely play it in person any more.

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  3. I think it depends on WHEN you learn it. If it is one of the first strategy games you learn (like it was for me)... it's awesome compared to Monopoly, and it becomes special. The simple gateway game to show games to others.

    If you learn it later, after you've played many adult strategy games... yeah, I could see it being too luck driven.

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  4. For my two cents, I think that it is a classic like Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico are classics. With that said, it's not a game that I've ever really found to be great fun. I think of classics as the games that every game store should stock so that new people will walk in and have something they recognize.

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