Jeremy Dietz
United States
New York
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It occurred to me that there is a simple couple of rule changes that would simplify this already wonderful game for play with younger children.
1. No farmers.
2. Play meeples as normal, on roads, cloisters, and cities at tile placement.
3. Features no longer score differently, score is now tracked by number of features completed. Thus when you complete the feature, the meeple you recover is added to a "score pile".
4. Win in one of 2 ways:
End up with all of your meeples in your score pile first
or
Have the most meeples in your score pile when there are no more tiles.
This would teach young children the basic mechanics of tile and meeple placement, and the concept of completing features. It will avoid some of the tricky strategy and slightly harder math of the full game.
What do you think?
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Jeff Shoot
United States
Southfield
Michigan
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Sounds interesting. I'll have to print these out and try it out with my 4 year old son...who, by the way, won BOTH games of "Incan Gold" that we played over the weekend!
My 11 year-old, however, will be loathe to give up the idea of "farming"...
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Playing the farms well is by far the most difficult thing for young kids to grasp. So I think you're right to leave them out. My experience from my sister, she's 14 years younger than me, is that she figured out how to play well really quickly, and she was able to beat my father very soon. I think that as soon as they are able to count and add numbers well, when they are 8 or 9, the normal rules for scoring can be introduced. But for younger children, I think you have a very good idea here.
Anyway, I would advice to play gently. Put the emphasis on expanding and completing your own projects instead of blocking the projects of your younger opponent. But, when you see that he has a tile that could be very unfortunate for yourself, point him/her to the option of blocking you. Your child would have a blast if he/she is able to beat you that way and few things are nicer than seeing them enjoying the game so much!
Good luck with raising your gamer buddies! How old are they?
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Jeff Shoot
United States
Southfield
Michigan
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Yes, yes, excellent advice from "Steerpike" on all accounts. My comment about my 11 year-old not wanting to give up farms notwithstanding, I totally agree that it seems the most difficult for even adults to grasp! (Well, people who seldom play games anyway...)
And on "playing gently"... until they you have the opportunity for them to actually see how THEY can block YOU!
Well written advice... thanks!
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house14 wrote: Yes, yes, my comment about my 11 year-old not wanting to give up farms notwithstanding, I totally agree that it seems the most difficult for even adults to grasp! (Well, people who seldom play games anyway...)
That's very true!
But on the other hand, while playing farms well is difficult, the rules to play them are not so difficult in the end.
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Adam 314
United States
Ohio
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I really like the idea of the score pile instead of scoring the feature by tiles within it. I like that it brings the end of the game closer, hopefully making it 15-20 minutes where you could play several games with your kids instead of one long game where only one person walks away feeling victorious.
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Alvin C
Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
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It's an interesting variant! I would suggest that you cannot place meeples on completed features like you can for normal Carcassonne, otherwise you may never see any meeples on the board at all!
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Daniel Johns
New Zealand
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Jerdicon wrote: 3. Features no longer score differently, score is now tracked by number of features completed. Thus when you complete the feature, the meeple you recover is added to a "score pile".
How would this rule be applied when one player has two or more meeples on the same feature?
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Jeremy Dietz
United States
New York
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Quote: How would this rule be applied when one player has two or more meeples on the same feature?
Good question! I've given it some thought and would like to suggest this:
If there are 2 or more of the same players meeples on a feature upon completion, only one is scored. If there are more than one player's meeples on a feature, they both get the score. Unless of course one of them has more, then they do not share the score.
I think this would once again simulate the full game, teaching the basics of Carcassonne strategy.
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Jeff Shoot
United States
Southfield
Michigan
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Jerdicon wrote: Quote: How would this rule be applied when one player has two or more meeples on the same feature? Good question! I've given it some thought and would like to suggest this: If there are 2 or more of the same players meeples on a feature upon completion, only one is scored. If there are more than one player's meeples on a feature, they both get the score. Unless of course one of them has more, then they do not share the score. I think this would once again simulate the full game, teaching the basics of Carcassonne strategy.
Ok, to part one where only one is scored... but do you "lose" both meeples? Seems like that's a disadvantage, or am I understanding it wrong?
How about, if there are 2 or more of the same players meeples on a feature upon completion, only one is scored..but he gets the other meeple back to use? Just a thought...
In a way, this also teaches that when you score something, you can get the use of a meeple back... which obviously is a huge thing in the original. In the simple game, this would be the ONLY time to get back a meeple, but would it be more confusing, or would it be a way for kids to see the importance of "getting back" the use of a meeple, if only rarely in the simple version? What do you all think??
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Jeremy Dietz
United States
New York
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Yup, I should have clarified that in the case of multiple meeples only one is used to score others are recovered.
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Jeff Shoot
United States
Southfield
Michigan
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Jerdicon wrote: Yup, I should have clarified that in the case of multiple meeples only one is used to score others are recovered.
Great minds think alike??
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Todd
United States
Warren
Michigan
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I like the idea, have you considered
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Jeff Shoot
United States
Southfield
Michigan
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bmwrider wrote: I like the idea, have you considered
Well, in a perfect world, it's a great idea! But let's see:
Choice #1= adapt game you already have to include your youngest children WHEN they want to play...
Or
Choice #2 = Buy new game, spend more money, and try to explain to spouse why you just bought another game.... 
For me, Choice #1 has definite advantages! 
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Bob Mueller
United States
Albuquerque
New Mexico
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Carcassonne IS a simple kids game....
My 5 year olds (both when they were 5) played it fine. I did save the Farmers until they were 7, and we played just the base game. However, when my daughter turned 6 and saw that there was a fairy, she had to add that.
FWIW, I played with them and did farming myself... I would add their scores and compare to mine without adding my farmer scores (and they often won that way). I would mentally add the farmer to see how far "off" we were, and we were all satisfied with the game.
Go ahead, play with your kids!
Heyswyndon.
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