The Trap
Let's start this conversation by looking at the first paragraph of Chapter 8 of The Book of Carcassonne!
The Book of Carcassonne
Chapter 8: Advanced Strategy
The Art of the Trap
Up to a certain point, Carcassonne can be a friendly, peaceful game where all players simply get on and do their own thing. Beyond this point, the opposite is true. While it can feel somewhat heavy-handed against unsuspecting opponents who don't yet know what they've let themselves in for, setting out to trap your opponent's meeples and rendering their features impossible to complete (`killing them off') is a big part of what the advanced game is all about.
I'm not sure that everyone in our group is ready to make this move, so I started a thread on the Carcassonne Central Forum:
Legal ways to un-trap.
One of the responses was literally:
...and sometimes, really, players just don't "fit" together....
If you have 3 players who like to play nice and one who wants to play aggressive, then maybe that person should look for another group.
My response was:
That is exactly the situation that our neighborhood group of 4 is trying to avoid! We do not want to force the aggressive player out of our group!
One of the suggestions made by kothmann in another post was the use of Gates and Walls from one of his personal expansions. Something that our aggressive player is against, “personal expansions?”!
What we are looking for is a way to play every other game with, then without, a set of expansions and features that counteract the aggressive players moves. Closing a four sided hole with a two sided Halfling or an Abbey in every other game is a good way to play the games from both angles!
All we are asking the group is for suggestions on other “legal” ways to defend against the aggressive moves!
So, lets start the discussion between the four of us with a good example of how to create a trap, and then talk about how we want to handle the situation!
The Art of the Trap
Memorizing the entire Counting Tiles table is for the total addicts,
what else can we do?
The first step in defining the ART of Trap was to re-order the Counting Tiles
table. The original page was ordered alphabetically by the 4 tile sides. The new
page is ordered by the number of tiles that are available to fill a four sided trap.
| Tiles | CRF | Basic
Game |
Inns
Cathedrals | Traders
Builders |
Princess
Dragon | Abbey
Mayor |
Bridges
Bazaars | Mage
Witch |
|---|
| 1 | CFFR |  | 112 | |
| | | 1 | | |
|---|
| 1 | CRFF |  | 112 | |
| 1 | | | | |
|---|
| 2 | CCRF |  | 211 | |
1 | 1 | | | | |
|---|
| 2 | CFCR |  | 211 | |
| 2 | | | | |
|---|
| 3 | CFRF |  | 112 | |
1 | | | | 2 | |
|---|
| 4 | CCFR |  | 211 | |
1 | 3 | | | | |
|---|
We also added a new column, CRF, where
we count the number of
each of the tile's sides that exist in the 4 sided tile name.
Note that in the first
6 rows, the 6 tile designs that are the hardest to find,
the one common feature in
each tile is that there is only 1 Road side on each tile!
Do you want to TRAP your opponent's Meeple?
Do you want the huge Cathedral city to score ZERO?
Create a four sided hole with only ONE road! |
| 4 | CRFR |  | 121 | 4 |
| | | | | |
|---|
| 5 | FFFR |  | 013 | 2 |
| | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
|---|
| 5 | RRRR |  | 040 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | |
|---|
| 6 | CRCR |  | 220 | |
2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | 1 |
|---|
| 6 | CRRF |  | 121 | 3 |
| | 2 | 1 | | |
|---|
| 6 | FFFF |  | 004 | 4 |
| | 1 | | 1 | |
|---|
| 7 | CRRR |  | 130 | 3 |
| | 2 | | | 2 |
|---|
| 8 | CFRR |  | 121 | 3 |
1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | | |
|---|
| 9 | CFFF |  | 103 | 5 |
1 | | 2 | 1 | | |
|---|
| 9 | CCCR |  | 310 | 3 |
| 3 | | | 1 | 2 |
|---|
| 10 | CCCC |  | 400 | 1 |
3 | 2 | | 2 | 2 | |
|---|
| 10 | FRRR |  | 031 | 4 |
1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | | |
|---|
| 11 | CFCF |  | 202 | 6 |
| 1 | 1 | | 2 | 1 |
|---|
| 12 | CCFF |  | 202 | 7 |
| 2 | 3 | | | |
|---|
| 13 | CCRR |  | 220 | 5 |
1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | | 2 |
|---|
| 13 | FFRR |  | 022 | 9 |
1 | | 3 | | | |
|---|
| 14 | CCCF |  | 301 | 4 |
2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | | |
|---|
| 15 | FRFR |  | 022 | 8 |
2 | | 2 | | 3 | |
|---|
| Total Tiles | | 72 |
18 | 24 | 30 | 12 | 12 | 8 |
|---|
|
