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Carcassonne: the TowerEnglish language edition of Carcassonne: Der TurmList Price: $17.50
  
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Each Carcassonne expansion adds more unique mechanics to the game, and Carcassonne: the Tower is no exception. Certain tiles now allow players to erect towers that then allow them to "capture" the followers of an opponent. This increases the danger of many places on the board and causes folks to think twice before placing their pawns. The expansion also comes with a tower that holds all Carcassonne tiles, including expansions, allowing players to easily draw the tiles out and play them. Increasing player interaction and allowing players to have more direct competition, Carcassonne: the Tower is yet another exciting addition to this series!
Carcassonne: The Tower
Carcassonne is a fun and gorgeous tile-laying game by Klaus Jurgen Wrede (Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, Mesopotamia and many more). After the huge success of the original game Carcassonne Wrede has followed up with a veritable mountain expansions, there is Inns and Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, Princess and Dragon, King and Scout, The River II, as well as these there are a bunch of variant games including The Castle (a clever two player designed with Reiner Knizia), Ark of the Covenant, The City, The Discovery, & Hunters and Gatherers.
The key question for people who own Carcassonne is, do I need Carcassonne: The Tower? If you enjoy Carcassonne, or like the game, but would appreciate it more if it were more tactical, then The Tower is for you. This is one of the best expansions for Carcassonne that money can buy.
The Tower adds a new flavour to a well-used game and just as importantly, it is great fun. The Tower increases the choices that a player can make on their turn; a player may now place a tile and perform one of four actions. These four actions are: place a meeple as usual, place a tower segment, add a tower segment to an already extant tower, and place a meeple on top of a tower to prevent it from getting any higher.
When a player places a tower segment, either beginning or extending a tower, they may also take any meeple prisoner that is within range of the tower. For example: if the player adds the second tower piece they may take a meeple from any tile within two tiles (orthogonally), if the third piece the captured meeple could be from any tile within three tiles.
The fun, and amusing, aspect to the capturing of other player’s meeples are the two ways the meeple can be returned to it’s fellows. A meeple can be repatriated by paying a bounty to the capturing player, the player attempting to get their meeple back must pay three points, reducing their score by three and increasing that of the capturer by three. The second way to have a meeple returned to the fold is by capturing a meeple belonging to the player who took yours, if this is the case the two players neatly arrange a prisoner exchange and both get their meeples back.
The Tower adds in a ton of tactical thought when it comes to placing tiles and meeples, running out of meeples is now a very serious problem, and placing tower tiles, normal tiles, and the meeples you do have is often the subject of much thought and some anxiety.
In addition to the tower pieces and rules Carcassonne: The Tower also comes with a neat and very strong cardboard tower, in which all the game tiles can be placed and drawn from. The tower adds nothing to the way the game plays, but does look nice, and in combination with the rules and tower pieces makes The Tower even better value.
The Tower is a great addition to the Carcassonne set. The Tower adds a whole set of thought processes the game really benefits from, for those who love Carcassonne, for those who would like to add more tactic and thought to the game, for those who like the idea of taking meeples prisoner, Carcassonne: The Tower is an expansion well worth the cost.
Towers are much destructive than the evil dragon, making the game very cut throat!
The tile tower is pretty, also brings convenience to the game.
The idea of capturing opponents' meeple is a great, create much tenseness and fun, but we experienced some problem while playing as the rulebook is too simple!
The main problem is about the geeple (giant followers), the rule book haven't mention the arrangement for prisoner's exchage or ransome of geeple...
Well this IS NOT a stand alone game, so please don't buy this unless you have at least the basic game. This is one of the "major" expansions to the parent game of Carcassonne. Now the new landscape tiles are only compatible with the parent game, the actual tower accessory is compatible with ALL Carcassonne variations. Meaning you could use the tower to hold all your New World tiles, or your Hunters And Gatherers set, either way the tower box works for all Carcassonne Tiles.
With that said, I'm not sure you'll want to buy this just for the tower itself. If you already have it, and you have other variations on the Carcassonne theme then you're set. My friends and I no longer observe the "Tower" rules, although it's cool to capture your opponent's meeples, it is no better than The Princess And The Dragon expansion which came out prior to this one. Both allow you to "bump" your opponent's meeples out of a feature, yours too if you're not careful, however playing both Dragon and Tower rules together is just too much for the game. So, do you need this expansion? Probably not unless you just want it for the new land tiles, otherwise, if you have The Princess And The Dragon expansion, you won't need this, if you don't, then this expansion will work great in your game. I like the fact that now they are publishing the expansion tiles with and identifying "watermark" this way you can custom mold the game to meet your requirements. You can add and remove tiles more easily this way, but then again if you want a huge map, throw all the tiles together, mix 'em up, stack 'em in the tower, decide what rules are in play, and have at it. I currently have at least 1 of every expansion in my Carcassonne Big Box and there are about 12 tiles that don't make it into the tower, simple solution... throw them in the blue bag from the Traders And Builders expansion, or toss 'em on top of the tower itself, they fit nicely there.
All in all a neat expansion, a very kewl accessory, but it can overpower the game, 3 stars.
And remember you can't climb the TOWER if you're not in the game!!!!
