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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Add power and influence to Carcassonne, December 30, 2007
Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars
Abbey & Mayor is the 5th full expansion to Carcassonne. With this expansion, players add a power and influence aspect to their game in four different parts. I've listed them in order of enjoyment.
Mayor -- The mayor piece is focused on controlling cities. The mayor's power grows as the city gains more pennant tiles. This piece can play a major role in the struggle for control that frequently takes place in large, valuable cities. As someone who enjoys competing for cities, I like this aspect.
Wagon -- Played as a regular piece, the wagon can travel from a completed area to somewhere unclaimed. This creates continuity and requires some extra vision. So far, this piece has been fun to play.
Barns -- The barn allows players to set up a super farm that grows in size as the game progresses pushing other, usually smaller, farmers out. The barn makes farm strategy important from the beginning instead of its typical end game position. However, a common complaint about farms in general is that they tend to grow too big. Those who don't enjoy that aspect of the game may not like this piece.
Abbey -- Acting as a sort of super cloister, the Abbey can be used to fill in those hard to close map features. It's a great escape valve for those who get trapped and it is also a quick way to add points. However, I think this takes away from the tactical aspect of trying to trap an opponents valuable pieces. This piece is probably my least favorite part of the Abbey & Mayor expansion.
Overall, I think this is a good expansion to Carcassonne falling in behind Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders but ahead of Princess & Dragon and The Tower. I think it will add the most to games with intermediate to experienced players.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice expansion, but not "necessary" by any means., June 29, 2008
Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars
First, let me say that once you're playing with three major expansions and three minor ones, Carcassonne takes up a lot of space!
This expansion adds a few new tiles, three new meeples, and the "abbey" tile (each player gets one, to use at their discretion instead of a normal turn).
First, let me say that I agree with the previous reviewer - the abbey tile takes away some of the strategy of blocking a city or road from being completed, and is definitely my least favorite expansion.
Now, the three new meeples. There is a mayor meeple, whose value depends on how many pennants are in a city. Useful for stealing a city from another player, or keeping yours from getting stolen, but we usually forget to use him. There is a wagon meeple, which can travel along a road from a completed feature to an uncompleted one. This adds some serious strategy, and is a valuable addition to your set. And there's the barn. The barn is a way of stealing farms, or of scoring farms twice. This has the potential to be a very powerful piece, but, honestly, we often forget to use it as well!
The tiles are interesting and deserve some mention. There are two tiles which feature cities "bridging" cities (though in practical use they often become one big city instead of two cities). There is also a three-point-road that doesn't end a road. Instead, the road has three ends, not two. And there is a road that starts dead in the middle of a field.
Honestly, this expansion is worth buying for the twelve new tiles alone, forget about the meeples and new expansion rules!
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Addition!, August 6, 2008
Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
Anyone who enjoys Carcassonne will enjoy the flavor this expansion adds to the game. It is my third favorite expansion after Traders & Builders and Inns & Cathedrals.
New Tiles: The best thing about this expansion are the new tiles. Each one can be very helpfull if used well. For instance, there is a tile that terminates a road with farmland on three sides - great for increasing the size of a farm area. Another tile that has a similar effect has a road running through a city - however, it goes under ground so it does not split the farms. There is a three-way road which is great when added to an inn tile - of course its that much harder to finish if you pick it near the end of the game.
Abbey: I love the Abbey addition. The abbey works by allowing you to place it anywhere on the board where four sides (although not necessarily all four corners) surround an empty space. Sure it is fun to block other player's roads and citys. However, this can frusterate some of my friends who then give up. This tile gives them the ability to overcome this. They are much more willing to play! Even better finishing the abbey is the same as finishing a cloister - fun to get nine points for finishing someone else's city (or yours!) and claiming the city commodities as well!
Wagon: Have you ever added a cloister or city tile to the board and felt frusterated because you couldn't claim points on the now completed road leading to it? No problem now! Add the wagon to the road and move it onto the uncompleted item! The wagon is a very fun piece by helping a player stake out territory and claim points that would otherwise be lost.
Mayor: The mayor is a great piece for city struggles. The mayor has a meeple power equal to the number of shields in the city. (Two shields and a mayor is equal to having two meeples in the city) It really is fantastic when another player tries to bully in on your city with their X2 power meeple. You come back with the mayor and overwhelm them. It tends to scare off others from trying to capture one of your citys if your first piece has a shield and you place the mayor there.
Barn: The barn is a piece we don't use much. Since several of the players are a bit more casual the barn adds too much complexity for them. We just ignore it.
I highly recommend this addition for anyone who plays Carcassonne. It adds great new strategy to the game. Furthermore if a piece fails to please it is easy to set them aside and use the reast of the wonderful tiles and characters!
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