Carcassone And Munchkin

[JiffyPopTart]

I'm not really a fan of either.

Munchkin is....not even really as fun a Hearts or President played with a normal deck of cards.

Carcassonne is okay as a time waster but (to me) boils down to either tile counting (which I am not interested in) or crossing your fingers and hoping you get that one magic tile that gives you the big payoff. I never feel like I have many options in the way of strategy when playing it.

If I had to vote for one or the other I would pick Carcassonne because it's fun for two players, which Munchkin isn't.

DS

 

[abhorsen950]

Thanks Guys

 

[Zarthon]

I enjoy Carcassone more than Munchkin.

 

[Mort_Q]

Carcassone I like better because of the replayability and the lesser mentality of purposely trying to screw over the other players.

Oh... you can play Carcassonne totally cut throat... especially when playing head-to-head. This is not a requirement, and may make others angry.

That said, I also recommend it.

 

[Hammerhead]

I'm not a big fan of Carcassone; it's a decent "entry-level" game, but I prefer a lot of other, deeper, more complicated games. In a sense, it's like Risk: a low level of minimum skill to master, then it's all luck.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Carcassone is a game I've played a number of times and it's an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master game IMO. The mechanics are really simple, but the strategy involved in sorting out the scoring and how to get the most points can get really nasty and intricate.

I enjoy it a lot, and the various expansions make it into quite a different game.

For me, Munchkin is a game best played for the fun, the social aspect and the good-natured cut-throat back-stabbing that goes on. It's not a serious game, it doesn't reward being played seriously, and it's not for the competitive. Bring it out with a few friends and a few beers and play through a game in the right spirit, and it's good fun.

 

[Asmor]

Carcassone is a ... hard-to-master game IMO

lollerskates

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Carcasonne. It was my favorite game for a while and it's still my preferred gateway game for getting new people into boardgames... But it's very simple and not remotely deep or complicated.

 

[Crothian]

Once one starts adding in additional expansion it does become complex. I'm not sure it is ever deep as the pieces are pretty thin

 

[Xphile]

Carcassone - I'll first admit that I've only played this a few times. The times I played with friends in person was fun, but the score keeping part of it always annoyed me. For me, playing it online was actually more fun as it only left the game itself to enjoy. While I did enjoy it, it isn't a game that is near the top of my "to buy" list.

Munchkin - So I am definitely biased here. I have started a munchkin cult with every group of friends I have. Each group owns a different version of munchkin and I've played most of them. I'm not sure what people define as "gamers" and why they believe that "those people" won't like it. I've played munchkin with all kinds of people, from people who rarely game to those that play nothing but computer and board games in their spare time. If you are a person who wants to do nothing but win at all costs... then yes, this will probably not be a game for you. It is a very social game, as you make alliances and then stab those players in the back so that you can walk over their corpse and try to win.

There is plenty of luck involved, but anyone who looks at a card game and thinks that it is only luck hasn't played enough games like MTG. The worst part of the game can be how it ends. If everyone lets everyone else level up too much or if the cards at the end are all low level... it can create a very anti-climatic part of the game where three people all try to race for the win and no one has any cards to stop the fourth guy. To a degree it is why I like some of the munchkin expansions that focus more on higher level encounters. I've been tempted to modify my munchkin "deck" to be a bit more cut-throat and increase the chances that the big monsters come up.

Sorry for the rant, but as the guy that hosts the monthly Munchkin games (which I mention to point out the fact that it does have longevity with it, with the right people), I had to step up and defend the game a bit.

If anyone does get the game, I would recommend sticking with either the original game or munchkin cthulhu. I really dislike super munchkin and the other variants I've played are okay, but those two are by far my favorite.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Munchkin, once you know how to play, almost invariably ends up with everyone at level 9, and the winner being that guy who tried to kill a monster when everyone else had used all their "stop the guy from winning" cards.

Alternately, with certain expansions, it ends up being the game where everyone is at level 9 and someone has the "I win now" card and noone can do anything about it.

And it seems that the more expansions you add, the less "stop the guy from winning" cards there are, so most games end with you feeling like the outcome had nothing to do with you at all.

Carcassonne is a great game that doesn't get stale. It doesn't really work with only 2 players though: a third is really needed for any decent play. The expansions add some interesting new rules (which is good) and some seriously whacky map tiles (which is bad). I'd disagree with the assessment that the game has no depth: certainly it's possible to arrive at a mathematical best-play algorithm, but the fact that negotiations are possible with other players blows that out of the water.