I enjoy mashups in music, pop culture, and games, so I was very excited to hear about a game that has 30 expansions (small and large), which is almost enough to make CMON say “whoa, calm down,” crossing over with one of my favorite ’80s movies: Labyrinth.
I can’t wait to see how Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie are portrayed…
*opens box* Hmmm…. *checks bgg*
I’m super excited for this crossover between Carcassonne and Labyrinth, with its 60 versions. *CMON enters the review* “Whoa, calm down with the multiple versions of the same game…” The game is for one to four players, ages 8 and up, and plays in about 15 minutes per player.
Gameplay Overview:
Each player starts with the tiles matching their color with one face up, sitting on their crown pawn and a starting dark-backed tile. The dark tile is the start of your own kingdom. The central board is filled with tiles, and a stack of 10 extra tiles per player will be the timer for the game.
The goal of the game is to collect treasures, which are shown on your colored tiles, as they show up. You’ll do that by moving pawns from the center of the board to the corresponding one of eight fixed locations on that board using the roads on the tiles on the board.
On your turn, you’ll draw a tile and slide it into the central board, which will push a tile off that board.
After inserting the new tile, you’ll move your pawn as far as you can, ideally getting to the treasure you wanted. Once that move is complete, you’ll add the tile that was pushed off and the treasure tile, if you got to it, to your own personal landscape. This follows normal Carcassonne rules where roads and meadows must match on all sides.
Place shield and treasure tokens for completed cities based on the number of symbols in that city, as well as completed roads between cities and/or forests. This means treasures don’t help your score unless you complete their features too.
The game continues until there are no more tiles remaining. There are several crown quests to choose from, with the starting one being who has the most shields. Each player stacks their tiles and tokens with the winner of the crown quest topping their stack with their crown, while the other players use their meeple. Whoever has the tallest stack is the winner.
Game Experience:
First off, this is a short and light version of Carcassonne without a ton of expansions, so if you wanted something meatier than the base game, this isn’t it. It’s very much a family game based on the game weight and the art.
But I like it because it sets up and plays so quickly, especially solo, where it’s just a cozy little puzzle to solve. At higher player counts, while you may declare that “you have no power over me!” those other players can absolutely wreck your travel plans as they try to accomplish their own goals. In that regard, the game can feel a little mean at times, especially if one of the player figures out what you’re trying to accomplish and makes it their life goal to block you. I’m not sure how viable hate placing would be.
But even when you can’t advance your meeple to your target, there are still options to pick the best tile available for your personal landscape. While it’s possible to complete all 8 treasures, I think that’s doubtful in multiplayer games, with the odds seemingly going down with each additional player. In a solo game, I was able to play all eight treasure tiles, but only six of the tokens, as I ran out of time to close up cities and roads.
Two players doesn’t feel as take-that as three (and likely four, although I haven’t played at that player count). With two players, someone could negatively shift a path away from you, and there’s a chance you could slide it right back. But with each additional player, there’s a chance that they’ll also move the same tile, making it impossible for you to accomplish your goal in your next move. Tile draw luck and what your opponents are interested in at any given moment will also have an effect on the outcome of your game.
Meanwhile, I don’t think the intent of this game is to screw your opponents, but it happens frequently enough as everyone is trying to do what’s best for them. I guess you could call the game “Sorry!” because people said that a lot during games I played. And we’re not even Canadian. I do think if you preload everyone with how people’s moves may negatively impact each other, it might go over better. For what it’s worth, my son prefers base Carcassonne because he could just do his own thing (never mind our frequent meeple arms races to capture cities and roads).
Objective and quest cards add some variety to the game with four scenarios and a free mode, which is randomly selected crown and quest cards. This also works in solo using the solo side of several quest cards. They are different, because let’s face it, not having the most cities in a single-player game is just kind of sad.
Where I think this game excels is at lower player counts because it’s just a fun little puzzle across both the common board and your own landscape. I enjoy placing tiles on the main board, moving my meeple around, and then building up my landscape and accomplishing multiple personal goals in a round (like collecting a treasure and closing a city) feels very satisfying.
Final Thoughts:
I like Carcassonne Labyrinth for its cozy and satisfying special puzzle as you work in two areas. Overall, I do think I like base Carcassonne a little better too due to the additional depth, but I love how fast Carcassonne Labyrinth plays. The downside is this is a game that can feel mean, without meaning to. This is something worth making sure people, especially children, expect.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – Carcassonne Labyrinth is a fantastic and light mashup of the two classic games
Hits:
• Integrates aspects of both games in a fantastic manner
• Cozy puzzle at lower player counts
• Good variety with the various crown and quest cards
Misses:
• Can feel a bit meaner, especially at higher player counts
• Light gameplay may not hold seasoned gamers’ attention for long
• No David Bowie or Jennifer Connelly
