The “Kings and Barons” expansion pack for this appeared during the week, but since I’d spent the last points I had on Tetris Splash and my credit card had been stolen by the postman so I couldn’t buy any more. Today, however, I had my new card and it was put into immediate service, buying some points.
Played (in single player) a few games with the new expansion (and all the previous ones active too), and it really does change the way you have to think about playing. First of all, there’s a few extra tiles available, so some previously unusable configurations are now possible. Secondly, you now have a King and a Baron (who can be the same person): The player who completes the biggest castle (even if they don’t ultimately own it) is King, and gets an end-of-game bonus of an extra point for each completed castle (regardless of who owns it). Similarly, the Baron is the person who completes the longest road and gets a point per completed road at the end of game.
It seems to add a bit of Catan-ness to the game, and will effect how I play as I usually don’t bother with trying for big castles and roads, instead being content with small castles (but lots of them) and maximum farmage.
