Ferries
The Ferries mini-expansion adds in 8 new tiles and 8 small wooden ferry tokens. These are some of my favourite expansion tiles as the small lakes perfectly fit the world map art style of the original. This isn’t to say the others stick out as odd but the lakes just look like a natural visual extension. The ferries add only a small bit of weight to the game but allow players new opportunities to screw over opponents. When playing a ferry tile or connective road to a ferry tile you can place or change which roads the ferry links up respectively. This can see long roads cut in half, though does score points.
The manual suggests that including Ferries can add up to 15 minutes extra. This is a colossal overestimate. If anything, the decimal point is missing as if it adds more than a few minutes I’d worry what’s gone wrong. Don’t let this oddity dissuade you from this mini-expansion. As it does little to the difficulty it can comfortably be utilized with any of the other expansions with ease.
Mage & Witch
This is one of the smaller of the mini-expansions adding in only 8 tiles and two new pieces, regardless of player count. A purple mage or a shorter orange witch meeple are added into the mix, as soon as one of the Mage & Witch tiles are put into play. When this happens before the player can place a meeple they must place the mage or witch on any incomplete road or city on the board. If both are in play the player must move one to a different structure, though they can never be on the same feature. Too much magic perhaps.
Each adapts the scoring of the feature they are placed on. The mage adds one point to the score per tile used, while the witch halves the points scored. These can be fought over as halving the score of a big city or doubling the score of a long road can cause real point shifts. Other than this adaption to point scoring the new tiles adds to the variation available from the draw pile slightly, naturally in keeping with the Carcassonne style.
Corn Circles
Adding new colour into the map of Carcassonne are 6 landscape tiles which feature golden crops. The normal turn order is place a tile, place a meeple then score a completed feature. Crop circles adds in a fourth and final crop based action. These 6 tiles make all players to do one of two crop actions, though the action is chosen by the active player. The choice is between adding a meeple to a feature they are already on or removing a meeple from a feature they are already on, the feature type is dictated by the Crop Circle tile.
There are three types: Rake Crop Circles, Club Crop Circles and Shield Crop Circles. These respectively effect farmers in fields, highwaymen on roads and knights in cities. This is a bit different as it forces all players to take the action regardless of if they were the active player or if they want to or not. This can add a new layer of engagement as players can get effected more often when it’s not their turn. Combine this with The Flying Machines and the amount of stealing, ninjaing and losing of points is immense!
The Messengers
This expansion adds in a new scoring mechanic for players to utilize. At the start of the game alongside a meeple a messenger is placed from each player onto the 0 mark of the score board. When scoring points from a feature either messenger or the meeple can be moved up the tracker. If either end on a multiple of 5 and are alone a messenger tile is taken. There are 8 messenger tiles which offer bonus points.
The first three allow you to score points for the smallest road, city or monastery respectively, that you have a meeple on. Tile 4 allows you to take another turn. Tiles 5-7 see you scoring 2 points for the number of Coats of Arms in cities where you have a knight, for the number of Knights you have or Farmers you have deployed. The final messenger tile allows you to score a meeple from an incomplete feature and return it to your pool. When using any of these players can choose to instead take 2 points, so this is naturally the minimum points you’ll gain.
At the conclusion of the game the points gained by the messenger and meeple are added together to get a grand total for each player. This can make it slightly hard to see whom is in the lead at a quick glance. I have also found that players are at the fate of the shuffling of whether they gain a lot or little amount of points. This can frustrate some players so often these tiles remain in the box. For new players this mini-expansion adds a few new rules in as each tile does something different so this is best to use with experienced players, though it doesn’t matter too much.
The Robbers
This expansion brings in 8 new tiles into the mix that once placed activate the robber mechanism. When one is drawn everyone in turn order, starting with the active player, gets to place their robber meeple on the score board alongside another players meeple. Whenever a player, with a robber beside them, next scores a feature, thus not from points earnt by a robber, they score full points but the player whose robber it is also gains half the points.
I must admit I was surprised how this feature keeps things family friendly around the table. As the robber score half the points in addition, rather than instead of, it manages to be much less an aggressive than it could have been. The robbed player doesn’t feel total victimised despite the fact that the robber gets a benefit. This is ideal for those looking to keep Carcassonne a “nice” game, rather than the backstabbing, city stealing, strategic game it can become. It also alters the dynamic of players always looking to complete their top scoring features. This is the perfect time to finish a two-point scoring road to limit the points earnt by dastardly robbers.
The Gold Mines
This expansion adds in 8 new landscape tiles featuring a gold bar symbol, a scoring tile to help players and 16 wooden gold (yellow) bars. These tiles are like most of the expansions shuffled into the draw pile with a pile of the gold bars placed within reach, off to one side. When one of these gold mine tiles is placed, place a gold bar on it and then one of the adjacent tiles. Whenever any feature on a tile with gold is completed the player in control gets to claim the gold. When control is split starting with the player finishing the feature each takes one bar, in turn order, until all are taken.
There is no limit to the amount of gold on a tile so you could score big in one go, though they often are evenly distributed around the map. Gold bars don’t impact the gameplay but do give end game point bonuses. The more you own the more each is worth. For 1 – 3 each is worth 1 point, 4 – 6 2 points, 7 – 9 3 points and 10+ 4 points. If you somehow gain all 16 bars this is a whopping 64 points. Though the rarity of this is extremely high, as players would go out of their way to stop this, it shows how much of a point swing could occur.
Overview
Does the content in the box justify the price? Yes, but with the caveat of it getting harder to justify if you own some of the content already. My issue with recommending the game to those whom already own the base game is that you’ll effectively be re-purchasing content. An issue only strengthened if players already have some of the other content in the box. For a new player to Carcassonne I’d advise trying the base game before jumping to purchase the Big Box. Though as a bundle it is good value to get all of the component parts.
There is a lot of content and variation included in the box. 188 tiles are ready to be played, though perhaps not all at once unless you are a Carcassonne veteran. Adding in the mini-expansions is a great way to spice things up a little bit without having to worry about a huge wave of new rules. At the same time the full expansions included both allow new strategies to be explored above and beyond what was possible with the base game.
For those who love the base game or at least regularly play it, the Carcassonne Big Box 2017 is aimed at you. Each aspect included in the box extends the same Carcassonne game in new and exciting ways without spoiling the core experience. As a huge fan of Carcassonne opening up the box was like being a child in a toy store. The only twist instead of only picking one thing from the shelf you have the lot to play with in whatever way you want.
Mixing and matching the expansions together can at times significantly increase the length of the game. Yet, the combinations of expansions are 100% left up to you to decide. Players will undoubtedly find one or two of the mini-expansions which they prefer that will more commonly hit the table. I utilize the river as the starting tiles in pretty much every game unless time has the potential to be an issue. The Carcassonne Big Box 2017 lets you explore the universe of Carcassonne past the base game and is an experience, for fans of the game, not to be missed!
[Editor’s Note: The Carcassonne Big Box 2017 was provided to us for the review by Z-Man Games.]
