The Gifts
 Image of The Gifts |
With this mini-expansion released for the 20th anniversary of Carcassonne, you can receive gifts if you help your fellow players.
General info and comments
The Gifts was released by Hans im Glück in 2021.
Note: The expansion does not include printed rules. They can be downloaded from the product here in German and in English:
https://cundco.de/en/mini-expansions/carcassonne/390/carcassonne-the-gifts?c=35
This expansion has been developed for the Carcassonne basic game. All the basic game rules still apply in addition to the expansion rules below. You can combine it with other expansions - but at your own risk – that is, there will be no official rules for these combinations.
Contents
- 25 cards featuring Gifts (5 x Synod, Road Sweeper, Change Position, [1] Cash Out, Take 2)
Rules
Preparation
Shuffle the 25 gift cards into one facedown deck.
Gameplay
This expansion only changes the course of action in step 1. Placing a tile. The following actions 2. Placing a meeple and 3. Scoring a feature are carried out as usual.
1. Placing a tile
Receiving a gift
If you place a tile in a way that it adds to a road or city of a fellow player, you receive a gift.
This means that:
- Roads or cities that have been expanded must belong to someone else (after the tile has been placed) according to the majority rule. [2]
- When your tile extends several roads and/or cities, you still only receive 1 gift.
Now draw the top card of the deck, take a look at it (without showing it to any other player) and place it face down in front of you.
Note: In case all gift cards have already been given out at this point, shuffle the discard pile into a new gift deck. If the rare case occurs that all gifts are lying "unopened" before the players, you do not receive a gift.
Opening a gift
After having drawn a tile, but before placing it, you may open exactly 1 gift. [3] [4]
To do so, turn over one of your gifts, resolve the action, then put it onto an open discard pile. [5]
There are 5 types of gifts:
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Synod Place a meeple from your supply onto any unfinished monastery (if possible). The monastery can already be occupied by one or more meeple – yours or someone else’s. The monastery may also be unoccupied.
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Road Sweeper Score any unfinished road right away. [6] It is not necessary for you to have a meeple on the road. After the road has been scored, all the meeples on it are returned to their owners. [7] [8]
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Cash Out Take your own meeple from a feature (city, road, monastery, or field), put it back to your supply and score points for doing so. You score 2 points for each meeple, placed on that feature – also for the one you are taking back.
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Change Position [1] Change the position of one of your meeple on a tile. If your meeple is standing on a road, a monastery or a city, place it lying down in a field on the same tile. If your meeple is lying down in a field, place it standing up on a road, city or monastery on the same tile. You may place your meeple standing up or lying down onto features that are already occupied. You may only change the position of the meeple from lying down to standing or standing to lying down. Moving the meeple between features such as a road, a city, or a monastery is not allowed. [9]
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Take 2 In addition to the tile you've just drawn, draw another one. [10] [11] Now pick one of them and place it according to the usual rules. The other tile is shuffled back into the facedown stack of tiles. |
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2. Placing a meeple
When you place a tile, you may place a meeple on it according to the usual rules.
Note: This expansion does not affect this action.
3. Scoring a feature
When you complete one or more features (e.g. a monastery, a road etc.), you score them according to the usual rules.
Note: This expansion does not affect this action.
Final Scoring
At the end of the game, you score 2 points for each unopened gift in front of you.
Other expansions
This section contains additional information about the interactions with other Carcassonne expansions.
This action may be used to place a meeple on any monastic buildings:
- Monastery
- Abbey (
Exp. 5 - Abbey & Mayor) - Shrine (
Exp. 6 - Count, King & Robber) - Special Monastery (
Monasteries in Germany, Monasteries in the Netherlands & Belgium, Japanese Buildings) - Darmstadt Church (
Darmstadt Promo)
You may not use this action to place a meeple on a garden (
The Abbot) or a German cathedral (
German Cathedrals).
Exp. 3 - The Princess & the Dragon
Adding a monk to a monastery with the fairy does not assign it automatically to the meeple, even if the fairy is alone.
Monasteries in Germany / Monasteries in the Netherlands & Belgium / Japanese Buildings
You may use this action to place a meeple as an abbot on a special monastery.
You can protect a meeple placed with this action if you pay 4 points.
This action allows to trigger the scoring of any uncompleted road and leave it unoccupied. The road should be scored as if at the end of the game. This should be taken into consideration if the road is affected by other expansions.
This action only applies to features that can be completed and scored:
- Road
- City
- Monastic buildings (see Synod section above)
- Field
- Garden ( The Abbot)
- Castle (
Exp. 8 - Bridges, Castles & Bazaars) - German Castle (
Castles in Germany) - German Cathedral ( German Cathedrals)
- Baba Yaga’s Hut (
Russian Promos) - Acrobat Space (
Exp. 10 - Under the Big Top), no matter if the pyramid is uncompleted or completed
This action does not apply to features that cannot be completed and scored:
- Special areas:
- Towers (
Exp. 4 - The Tower) - Areas with trapped meeples:
This action applies to meeples on normal features placed on a particular tile that can be completed and scored:
- Road
- City
- Monastic buildings (see Synod section above)
- Field
- German Castle ( Castles in Germany)
- German Cathedral ( German Cathedrals)
- Baba Yaga’s Hut ( Russian Promos)
- Acrobat Space ( Exp. 10 - Under the Big Top):
- You can turn an acrobat into a farmer no matter if the pyramid is uncompleted or completed
- You can turn an farmer into an acrobat if the pyramid is uncompleted only
This action may not involve features not located on a particular tile or that cannot be completed or scored:
- Special areas:
- Towers ( Exp. 4 - The Tower)
- Areas triggering a meeple placement elsewhere:
- Areas with trapped meeples:
- Castle ( Exp. 8 - Bridges, Castles & Bazaars), since they are not placed on a particular tile
This action may only apply to meeples that can be farmers:
- Normal meeple (
Base Game) - Large meeple (
Exp. 1 - Inns & Cathedrals) - Ringmaster ( Exp. 10 - Under the Big Top)
- Guard meeple (
Exp. 11 - Ghosts, Castles & Cemeteries) - Phantom (
The Phantom)
This action may not be applied to meeples that cannot be farmers:
- Abbot (Base Game - The Abbot)
- Mayor ( Exp. 5 - Abbey & Mayor)
- Wagon ( Exp. 5 - Abbey & Mayor)
This action does not apply to special figures:
The builder is removed when its last supporting meeple on the feature (road or city) is moved to an adjacent field.
The pig is removed when its last supporting farmer in the field is moved to a feature.
If you use this action to place a farmer in a field, you may place afterwords your pig in that field in 2. Placing a meeple.
Exp. 3 - The Princess & the Dragon
Moving a meeple to a feature with the fairy does not assign it automatically to the meeple, even if the fairy is alone.
If you use this action to place a farmer in a field with a barn, the scoring of the farmer will take place in 3. Scoring a feature.
Monasteries in Germany / Monasteries in the Netherlands & Belgium / Japanese Buildings
This action may be used to place a meeple as an abbot on a special monastery.
You may protect a meeple placed with this action if you pay 4 points.
This action will not have effect if you decide to place an abbey.
This action will not have effect if you decide to place a Halfling from your supply.
This action will not have effect if you decide to place a German castle from your supply.
This action will not have effect if you decide to use your fortune teller(s).
This action may add an extra tile to choose from if you decide to use your fortune teller(s).
Tile distribution
Footnotes
For Icons explanation and licensing please visit Icons page.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2
The original name for this card in the English rules is "Change on the lie." We used this name instead to make it closer to the German wording.
- ↑
You have to consider the majority rule once you placed the tile, that is, at the end of 1. Placing a tile. Therefore, you may be just extending the road or city, or even connecting it to another feature, so the initial majority balance may be altered at this point.
This means that you receive a gift when:- You extend a feature where you are not present but at least another player is after placing the tile.
- You extend a feature that you may share or not with other players but you don't have the majority after placing the tile.
- You extend a feature where you are not present but you obtain (or share) the majority after placing the tile.
- You extend a feature that you may share or not with other players but you have (or share) the majority after placing the tile.
- ↑
This action is optional. This means you open a gift when interested in the outcome.
If you open a gift that has no effect at a given point in the game, the gift will be just wasted. - ↑
If you draw an unplaceable tile, you will discard it and draw a new one as many times as necessary until you draw a valid tile. At this point, you will be able to open a gift before placing the valid tile. As a consequence, if the last tile of the game is unplaceable, you will not be allowed to open a gift.
Question: What happens after drawing an unplaceable tile if you want to open a gift?
Answer: You are only allowed to open a gift once you draw a placeable tile. (4/2022)
- ↑
Discarded gift cards are placed face up on top of the discard pile.
- ↑
The road should be scored as an incomplete feature at the end of the game, taking into consideration the majority in the chosen feature.
- ↑
When using a Road Sweeper gift card on a road, you trigger its scoring and remove all the meeples on it afterwards. Since the road is left unoccupied before placing a tile, you may occupy it again during your turn, if possible.
Question: Whose meeples are removed when you use a Road Sweeper gift card on a road?
Answer: Like in other scorings, all the meeples on the road are removed afterwards, even those in minority or tied during the scoring. Afterwards, you may add a meeple to this road just unoccupied, for example, when adding a tile to it. (12/2021)
- ↑
This sentence has been reworded to match the clarifications provided. The original wording was misleading, assuming the active player had to remove only one meeple, if any present on the chosen road:
"After the road has been scored, the player's meeple is put back into their supply." - ↑
In other words, you may change a meeple to another feature only if it requires a position change: a meeple standing on a road, in a city or on a monastery may become a meeple lying down in a field on the same tile and vice versa. Moving a meeple to another feature without a position change is not allowed (e.g. a meeple standing in a city cannot change its position directly to stand on a road, or a meeple laying in a field cannot change to another field).
This wording is based on the base game, where meeples are only placed lying down in fields but they are always standing on other features. So, in general terms, consider that the position change implies that a meeple on a non-field feature becomes a farmer on the same tile, or that a farmer moves to another non-field feature on the same tile. This is important when playing with some expansions that allow you to place a meeple on a non-field feature in a special position (placed sideways or even lying down). - ↑
If there are no tiles left to draw a second tile, this gift will have no effect and you will play the only tile you have as usual.
- ↑
If you open a Take 2 gift card and the second tile you draw is unplaceable, you will discard it and draw a new one until you have two valid tiles. At this point, you will play one of them and discard the other. If there are no tiles left to draw a second placeable tile, this gift will have no effect and you will play the only tile you have as usual.
Question: If you open a Take 2 gift card and you draw an unplaceable second tile, how do you proceed?
Answer: You basically "ignore" the tiles that can't be placed until you have two valid options. (4/2022)