Game 79: Carcassonne - Hunters and Gatherers

 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers is one of a whole family of Carcassonne games.  I posted previously about the original Carcassonne game.  The idea here is similar to the original, but it's also different enough to have quite a different feel to it.  This version is set in the same area as Carcassonne but during the stone age rather than during medieval times.  Instead of dealing with cities, abbeys, and roads, in Hunters and Gatherers you are dealing with forests, streams and wild game.  In the next two pictures I've photographed tiles from each of these games (one orderly, one random), just to give an idea of the different landscape.

 The tiles start out upside-down, of course, and players take turns choosing a tile and connecting it to the ever-expanding board and earning points for completing forests, completing rivers, and hunting game.
 Game elements are claimed by placing meeples or huts on tiles.  Huts are only used for claiming river systems.


 When a player completes a forest that has a gold nugget in it, that player gets to take another turn by taking a special tile off of a stack that is kept separate from the other tiles.  The picture below is simply to show the different backs.  The tiles marked with "C" are the standard tiles, and the tiles marked with a gold-nugget-topped hill are the special tiles - the faces of which contain such things as lakes with additional fish or fiery meadows to chase tigers away from your game and so on.
Given how many versions and expansions there are to Carcassonne, and given how into gaming we are, we don't actually have that many - just the original with two expansions and then the Hunters and Gatherers version.  Maybe once I get through counting all the games currently on our shelves we may have to pick up some more Carcassonne expansions and versions!  These are modern classics for a reason!
I just have to say - it is really pathetic that this is the only game I've posted in the entire month of March.  That's just how the academic year goes sometimes.  We did do some play of games I've previously posted on, though, such as "No Thanks" and "Splendor."  Hopefully now that mid-term is past we can get things moving again!

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