I think The Princess and the Dragon expansion is critical if you’re playing with gamers who enjoy fun, friendly competition and relish the thought of exacting vengeance when they’re wronged. However, if you really want to go all the way over the dark side of Carcassonne then you’ve got to play it with The Tower as well.

This includes a literal tower that you draw tiles from (thus replacing the bag or box lid) that are a pretty neat addition but it also includes tiles that feature foundations upon which a player can place tower blocks. Each block placed increases the orthogonal “range” of the tile and each block placed allows the builder of it to imprison an enemy meeple in range. So that guy sitting on a much, much too long road three tiles over? Place the third block on a tower and lock his ass up. As in, you literally take the meeple as a hostage that can only be freed when your opponent takes one of yours and arranges a POW swap. With the meeples representing a pretty tight resource management element, having one or two in lockdown for several turns can be pretty devastating. I’ve seen games completely dominated by players who know how to exploit the potential of the towers to limit player actions. Be prepared.

The three “major” expansions along with the basic game were collected in a monster package called the Carcassonne Big Box last year by publishers Hans Im Gluck and Rio Grande Games. It’s well worth seeking out if your local game shop still has a copy but rest assured that the expansions are still for sale individually as well. It’s a great value for the money and it has the additional benefit of containing a comprehensive rulebook covering all the interactions and added complexities of playing with all the expansions which is, frankly, the only way I’m interested in playing the game given the added level of conflict and competition. Basic Carcassonne just doesn’t cut it for me anymore.

It really is a pretty big box...

In addition to these “core” expansions there are a couple of small box expansions that are pretty much optional purchases. King and Scout is pretty much worthless and I don’t recommend it at all. It adds a King and Robber piece that provide bonus points to the player who has built the current largest castle or road. It adds an awkward administrative element whereby you have to keep track of who should have it every time something gets built.

There is also some wasted space in a five tile expansion for Hunters and Gatherers one of the pointless spin-off games that takes the Carcassonne game to the Stone Age for reasons unknown. What’s worse is that the expansion as a whole really has little effect on the game.

The Count in non-purple-meeple form.

The Count is an interesting diversion that calls for a small, pre-constructed town to be built at the beginning of the game populated by this spooky purple meeple that may very well be Dracula. When a player places a tile, he or she can stick a meeple into one of the quarters of the town that each correspond to the possible features that can be built in the game. When a feature is scored, the followers on the corresponding feature can drop into it like paratroopers and steal the points from whoever completes it. However, if The Count is on the feature, those guys are held prisoner by The Count and they miss out on the action. It’s an interesting expansion that adds a pretty neat strategic twist and an element of timing but I wouldn’t call it essential by any means. It’s definitely better in games with more than two players.

There’s also a travel edition of the basic game, a new expansion slated for 2007, and then there’s the slew of standalone games but I believe it’s unlikely that we’ll see any of those hit Xbox Live. So then, if you’ve picked up the board game, figure out how you’d like to play the game (casual and fluffy or nasty and vicious) and pick the expansions that suits your style. If you’re playing the Xbox version…well, casual and fluffy is pretty much your only option with just the river components. We’ll see if the powers that be let you guys catch up with us by releasing the better expansions down the road.

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .

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