08 May, 2009
Princess and the Dragon: The Nasty Side of Carcassonne
In line with Mark and Olivia’s reviews of their favorite expansions to Carcassonne, I figured I’d put my two cents in for my favorite. I love The Princess and the Dragon. Besides using The River, it’s the expansion that I am most likely to add to the base game. I guess it’s the competitive nature in me, or just the fact that the Trogdor theme song from Homestar Runner goes through my head whenever it’s on. Here’s why I like this addition to the game.
First of all, The pieces. I mean, Come on, there’s a fricking dragon right there on the board. He’s walking around and he’s EATING MEEPLES!! That’s so cool. It’s hardcore cool. It’s bad ass cool. It’s Fireball marbles squashing your adventurer cool (also one of my favorite old-school games). So I should probably explain what happens for the uninitiated. There’s a large (bigger than “senor Pantalones”) wooden dragon that gets activated any time a player lies down a tile that has his picture on it. The dragon then moves six (6) times and removes (devours) any follower that is on the same tile as his. What makes it nicely balanced is that all players going clockwise take turns moving him one space at a time. He also cannot visit a space he has already burninated. This gives hope for people to “trap” or “dead-end” the dragon to protect their precious points. I especially like the dragon for removing any uber-high-scoring farmers that are lying around
Fear not intrepid carcasonners…carconites…carcass-holes…people playing Carcassonne. The fairy is there to save you. A fairy? Really? How the Hell does a fairy protect me from a dragon! It’s a dragon for Pete’s sake (Anyone else but me remember Pete’s Dragon? I had to use the reference). Well, anyways. The fairy is placed on the same tile as a follower if the player decides not to place any other meeple during his turn. The dragon cannot (presumably due to mystic fairy fire-extinguishers) enter any tile where the fairy is. Also, a player gets a point if he starts his turn with the fairy on the same space as one of his followers, thereby making it tempting to move the fairy to new habitats.
But wait! There’s more! and it’s not in the feel-good Mushy fairy variety. There are princesses, as the Title suggests. The princess is a symbol on certain city tiles that allow you to make a choice when adding to a city. You can EITHER add your meeple as normal, OR remove a meeple that currently resides in the aforementioned city. This allows you to evacuate a jerk that stole into your huge metropolis, or to simply empty a city making it ripe for the picking later on.
I’m not sure which aspect pisses people off more; being eaten by a dragon or being evicted by the little tart of a princess.
The last tile is a magic portal that allows you to place your follower on ANY legal space on the board, not just the most recent one played. It’s a nice one to get when there’s a bunch of abandoned roads and cities due to the pillaging and inferno of the dragon earlier.
Great expansion, but don’t bust it out with very sensitive people playing. They’ll be crying and ticked off. Stick to the more friendly offerings and all will be well.
Hope this was both informative and entertaining.
Happy gaming!!
Post-note: the term Meeple and Follower are used interchangeably in this review. Meeple is a nickname in the gaming community, but Follower is the tecnically correct term for any player piece on the board. Thanks.
