Carcassonne Traders & Builders

Customer Reviews

Another great expansion Review by KR

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The Traders & Builders expansion is my second favorite expansion for Carcassonne (only after the Inns & Cathedrals expansion). This expansion adds even more game mechanics that I really enjoy. The expansion comes with a bunch more tiles that have trade goods on them (Wine, grain or clothe) and a bunch of trade good tokens. If you complete a city that has a tile with a trade good on it (you don't even need to occupy the city) than you collect a trade good token that matches what's on the tiles. For example, if you complete a city that has a wine tile and a grain tile than you collect 1 grain token and 1 wine token. The player with the most of each token gets bonus points.

In addition to the traders aspect there are also the builders. The expansion comes with an additional follower piece for each colour called the builder. If you place your builder on your occupied road in progress, than every time you place a tile onto that road you get to play another tile right away. The builder can also be used on your cities and it really helps you build up cities and roads faster.

One of my favorite additions that comes with this expansion is the clothe bag to put the tiles in. In some expansions the backs of the tiles look different so it can be easy to spot the expansion tiles. With the clothe bag this is no longer the case. You simply place all the tiles in the bag and when its your turn, you pull your tile blindly from the bag.

This is one of my favorite expansions and it truly does add a lot more mechanics to the game. (Posted on 12/15/11)

Some of the best expansion rules Review by Jacques

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I highly recommend this expansion. It is one of my favorites, probably especially because of the builder.

If you can use the builder well you can really gain an advantage. Use it poorly and it will be stuck in a place where it is not useful to you. This is one of my favorite new pieces from the expansions I've played.

The pig gives you the chance to make an extra point on every city touching your farm. On a small farm that doesn't help much, but it can be the deciding factor if you have one on a large farm with lots of cities. This adds some options when choosing a strategy.

The resources are an interesting addition. The little pieces are a little clumsy to pile up or store, but they do the trick. Since the person to complete a city (not necessarily the person who owns it) gets the resources for that city, this adds some possibilities. You can finish someone else's city and snatch up the resources to ensure you have the most of one or more types, which will get you points at the end. (Posted on 6/22/11)

Building faster? Sounds great! Review by Brian

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There is a pig meeple that is added to the mix to help your farmer score extra points. There is also the builder that helps the players draw extra tiles so that he can finish a feature faster or at least make it bigger quicker. There are also icons to collect when finishing cities with symbols on them. This increases the points for players at the end of the game.

By far the builder is the most enjoyable part of this expansion, although if you misplace the builder you might not get to use his benefit. Another good expansion in Carcassonne for anyone that enjoys the basic game due to the fact you will be able to use this expansion over and over. (Posted on 9/28/10)

Another solid expansion Review by Lane

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So the 30 points that you can get with the new expansion rules my not seem like much, but I have seen them sway games plenty of times.

The resource gathering aspect is unique to this expansion and is a welcome addition to the game. The pig is... well... a part of the game I suppose, nothing very game breaking.

The builder however, is a potentially game-breaking addition. If you can effectively use this piece (and block your opponent's use of his/her builder) you will have a huge advantage and can have some extremely long roads and huge cities.

Either way, a great expansion. The core game, Inns and Cathedrals, and Traders and Builders is a well-balanced trio to play with (Posted on 9/21/10)

Highly recommended for Carcassonne lovers Review by Murray

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This is one of the expansions that I highly recommend to anyone who has enjoyed their set of Carcassonne at any time. Carcassonne by itself is like an introduction to the game and this expansion, along with Inns & Cathedrals make a complete game that can be played at intermediate and advanced levels. Without the extra rules and tiles from these expansions, Carcassonne can get a bit plain. However, with these expansions, Carcassonne will no doubt register a lot of play hours.

With Traders & Builders come two new tokens, the builder and the pig. You can only add the builder to roads or cities that you already have a claim on through a meeple. After placing the builder on a road or city, every time you add another tile that extends that road or city, you get an extra turn for a maximum of two turns in total. This can really boost your game play and it will become crucial to block your opponent's builder claim zone in a way that makes it difficult for him to complete the road or city. The pig can only be added to farms that you have a claim on already and gives an extra point boost to your score at the end, which gives a bit more incentive to farm players and creates more hard decisions.

As with many Carcassonne expansions, there are new tiles added and this is great, as it will make each game just a bit longer and more enjoyable. The new tiles this time include city tiles with commodities on them. Completing cities with commodities on them will score players those commodities. For having the most of each of the three kinds of commodities at the end of the game, players will score more points, which can make the difference in games between equals.

The quality of the components, like with all Carcassonne products, is excellent. All components are durable and will last through many games. I love the strategical and tactical boost this expansion gives the game. For anyone who has enjoyed Carcassonne, I highly recommend this expansion. (Posted on 12/20/08)