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Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede

CARCASSONE: HUNTERS & GATHERERS by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede art Johann Ruttinger publish Hans im Gluck/Rio Grande Players: 2-5 Duration: 30 mins. PACE: Quick. COMPLEXITY: Medium. But not fluffy. Interesting decisions, but no real long-term planning. Quite easy to learn. Less stealing than in the original which means players have to be very good at developing their own projects. LUCK: Medium. Good tiles can easily win this game, but clever placement can make many points. TENSION: Low. You are playing a tile for the turn and hope you get the tiles you need later. VICIOUS: Low. There is a lot less sharing and way less stealing than in the original version of Caracassonne. But more strategy. SOCIAL: Medium. Opportunities to talk around this game, but thoughtful play is required somewhat. Opportunities to mess with other players. VISUALS: Excellent. Illustrated cardboard tiles, and wooden markers. I really like the hut pieces. Good colors. THEME: Good. Nice to watch the wildlands expand and develop different each game. Feels pastoral. GAMER APPEAL: High. For gamers, this is much better than the original. NON-GAMER APPEAL: High. Addictive. Again, because of a bit less luck and more tactics, this is a better game, and less mean than the original. 2 PLAYERS: Excellent. Perhaps the best game that plays 2+ players. REPLAY: Very Good. The countryside takes shape differently each game, and the gameplay is fast and fun with lots of opportunities to for clever play. I've played 30+ times. Good with 2-5 players. Best with 2-5 players.

Other  games by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede Carca. expansion

Quick summary | A sequel to the best-selling game Carcassonne, this game of Hunters & Gatherers is not an expansion. It is a stand alone game with rule changes and many improvements. Families should love it (especially because the complicated 'farmer scoring' from the original game is gone replaced with an easier, and more interesting 'hunter scoring'; and there is less stealing which makes for a friendlier game.)  Gamers should like this version better than the original too because stealing is a harder to accomplish and less profitable, which removes a lot of luck that was in the original game. Like the original, on a player's turn he places one tile on the board by connecting it to on of the tiles already on the board. So a tile with a river going thru it, a field on one side and a forest on the other side can be placed so that the river extends a previous river, or a forest expands a previous forest, or a field expands a previous field. If, for example, he plays the river to a previous river, then the forest on his tile starts a new forest. Players have 5 'meeple' or pawns, and 2 'huts' that they will use to score points. When a player places a tile, he may play one of his meeple on that tile either on the grass, the forest, or the river, with each elelment scoring under different conditions. Gone are the monasteries from the original game, replaced with hut scoring (very cool) and lake pieces with fish that increase the river scoring. The meeple can score various ways, and that constitutes the tactics in this game as players try and manipulate the 'board' by expanding projects they started and want to increase the value of. A player who has a meeple in a forest wants the forest to get a little bigger for more points before he finishes the city to claim the points and get his meeple back. Better than the basic version of Carcassonne, and you don't have to pay any money for expansions!

original Carcassonne with expansions: Blue: original game Blue: Inns & Cathedrals Red: Traders & Builders

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