AotC: Traders & Builders (completed)

[Scott]

I don't see need to change very much about T&B to work with AotC, except the pig meeples since pigs are considered unclean. The stereotypical Israelite farm animal is the sheep:

http://www.rpgshop.com/accessories/boardgame-parts/sheep-token-set-10.html

I think the existing trade goods are probably sufficient (barrels, cloth, wheat). New tile artwork will of course be needed; there's a small chance I might be able to pull this off myself, but no promises.

[CKorfmann]

I think it will work.  Sheep will work just fine and there are plenty of them.  However, just because pigs were unclean, doesn't mean they weren't around.  My only contention with sheep might be that the Shepherds expansion would go quite will with AotC and I wouldn't want the sheep being confused with each other. I'm not sure what a good alternative would be except maybe a cow (bull) or a goat, but that may be difficult to find.

[meepleater]

I'm not sure if sheep would work well (in either T&B or Shepherds) as there are already sheep printed on the tiles and it is from them, not from cities, that farms are scored. I'm not sure if it makes sense to have wooden sheep that make the printed sheep worth more points.

But, after saying all that, I can't think of a much better alternative. What is an object that would increase the worth of sheep?

The other stuff would work very well though.

[CKorfmann]

I'm not sure if sheep would work well (in either T&B or Shepherds) as there are already sheep printed on the tiles and it is from them, not from cities, that farms are scored. I'm not sure if it makes sense to have wooden sheep that make the printed sheep worth more points.

But, after saying all that, I can't think of a much better alternative. What is an object that would increase the worth of sheep?

The other stuff would work very well though.

Actually, sheep sound kinda perfect in that case.  Or, maybe just a shepherd instead of a sheep (pig).

[Scott]

Yeah, I realized last night that there are already sheep on the tiles. I was thinking the wooden sheep would add +1 to the sheep count, but in consideration of those who would like Shepherds with AotC, I have a better idea for an alternative. In regular Carc there is the pigherd tile; in AotC we can have a sheep pen tile. Back in ancient times, shepherds would build stone walls around waist-height in a circular formation. There would be a single gap for the sheep to be herded in and out of. The shepherd would sleep in the gap so that the sheep would not run away and wolves would not get in.

Shouldn't be too difficult to draw a sheep pen. It could either give a fixed bonus amount (+1 or +2), or it could negate the effect of wolves so that they don't eat the sheep.

[Scott]

Contents
• 24 new land tiles (9 with wine, 6 with grain, 5 with cloth, and 4 with sheep pens)
• 20 trade good tokens (9 wine, 6 grain, 5 cloth (placed next to the scoring track)
• 6 builders in 6 colors (1 builder for each player)

Traders & Builders is not a complete game, but must be played with Ark of the Covenant. This expansion includes the pieces
for a 6th player, so it is completely compatible with Ark of the Covenant: The Sixth Player Expansion. The rules are the same as for Ark of the Covenant, but with the following additional rules for using the new components.

A city with trade goods is complete
When a city is completed that has 1 or more trade good symbols, the city is scored in the normal way. The player, who placed the tile to complete the city, takes a trade good (from next to the scoring track) for each trade good symbol in the city (he is the trader for the city) and places them in his play area (the area before him on the table). It does not matter whether he had followers in the city, or, in fact, if there were any followers in the city at all.

The trade good tokens (earn players extra points)
The player who has the most wine tokens at the end of the game scores 10 points. This is the same for the player with the most grain tokens and the player with the most cloth tokens. If players tie for the most of a kind of trade good token, each tying player scores the full 10 points.

Sheep pens
When a sheep pen tile is added to a field, the sheep in that field are protected from wolves if there is at least one shepherd in that field. The shepherd does not need to be placed on the sheep pen tile itself. When scoring a field with a sheep pen, do not subtract any points for wolves.

The builders are treated similarly to the normal followers. They must be placed on a just-placed tile. No other follower may be placed on that tile. A player places his builder on a road or city where he has followers to allow him a double turn. How do the players place builders and how do they get double turns?
1. The player places a follower on a road.
2. In a later turn, he places a tile that extends that road and places his builder on the road.
3. In a yet later turn, he places a tile that extends or completes the road with his builder on it. After completing his turn (placing a follower and scoring), he draws and places a 2nd tile as normal, including a follower if he wants (this is the double turn).

Further details:
• Further extra turns are not allowed. Thus, if a player extends the road with his builder with his 2nd tile (double turn), he does not get another turn.
• As long as a road is not completed, the builder remains there and the player may get double turns for extending the road. When the road is completed and scored, the player returns the normal follower and builder to his supply.
• The player may place followers on either or both tiles. If the road is completed with the placement of the first tile (the player gets the builder and normal follower back), the player may place the builder on the 2nd tile.
• Builders of several players may stand on a road.
• The 2nd tile need not be placed adjacent to the first tile.
• There may be any number of road sections between the normal follower and the builder.
• All details, which mention road, work in the same way for cities. The players need only substitute “city” for “road”.
• A builder may be placed first on a road and later on a city, or in any combination, but never on a field.

[CKorfmann]

Looks good.  My only question is whether or not it would be appropriate to refer to the builders as "6 new followers" since the builder isn't considered a follower in regular Carc.

[Scott]

Good point. Since AotC is supposed to be the more progressive, younger brother of Carcassonne, I've changed the wording.

[meepleater]

Sounds good. I really like the rules for the sheep pen. Have you started designing tiles?

[Scott]

Not yet, but I know what I want it to look like. I'm "on vacation" right now, but there are so many things I wanted to do that it's hard to get around to all of them.

[Scott]

Here's what my limited abilities came up with:

[Scott]

I put an outline around the sheep pen to make it stand out a little more. I also ended up changing the mix of trade good quantities, partly by accident. There are now 7 of each type of trade good (the number of fullness) and 3 sheep pen tiles. I also reorganized the rules text to follow the turn sequence, making it more consistent with the other expansions.

Availability of extra builders and trade good tokens is a bit of an issue. Currently nobody sells builders by themselves that I'm aware of, nor the trade good tokens. (Maybe Carcatronn can make something happen?)

Here is the link to download the revised rules and tiles:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tsfrho1olloxvgs

As usual, a one-week period of time is provided for feedback/improvement before this will be considered completed.

[CKorfmann]

I'm kinda surprised that Meeple Source doesn't have them.  I'd kinda still be surprised if they wouldn't still sell them to you.

[Scott]

The only product I could find with a builder in it is the complete set of meeples.

[Carcatronn]

Availability of extra builders and trade good tokens is a bit of an issue. Currently nobody sells builders by themselves that I'm aware of, nor the trade good tokens. (Maybe Carcatronn can make something happen?)

I will be selling sheets of trade tokens and the extra builders very soon, hopefully within the next couple weeks. I really like all of the expansions ideas for AotC! Good job Scott.