The Spell Circles

The Spell Circles incorporates spell circles to the mist. They attract ghosts, and extending or limiting a mist with spell circles will increase the number of ghosts to be added to meeples.

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The Spell Circles incorporates spell circles to the mist. They attract ghosts, and extending or limiting a mist with spell circles will increase the number of ghosts to be added to meeples.

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Promotional image of The Spell Circles posted on CundCo

Spell circles have appeared in the mist, attracting ghosts. Extending or limiting a mist with spell circles will increase the number of ghosts to be added to meeples.

General info and comments

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Expansion symbol

The Spell Circles was released by Hans im Glück in 2023.

It is a mini for Mists over Carcassonne that can also be used with the Carcassonne base game, as a mini expansion to  Exp. 11 - Ghosts, Castles & Cemeteries.

This expansion doesn't exist for the 1st edition (C1 for short) or the 2nd edition (C2 for short).

This expansion has cities with clipped buildings.

Contents

• 9 new landscape tiles with mist and spell circles

Tiles featuring mist and spell circles

Rules

Preparation

Shuffle all 9 tiles with spell circles with the tiles from the base game and  Exp. 11 - Ghosts, Castles & Cemeteries. This is your supply of tiles as usual.

The cat Eloise included with this expansion, like the hounds, does not like competitive games. She prefers to cuddle with the hounds in the box.

Gameplay

The rules from the base game and  Exp. 11 - Ghosts, Castles & Cemeteries still apply.

1. Placing a tile

If you draw a tile with a spell circle, you place it according to the usual rules.

If you place a tile with a spell circle in such a way it limits the mist (at least 1 side of the mist is adjacent to a side without mist), you must add as many ghosts as there are spell circles on the tile to your own meeples. You may distribute the ghosts among several meeples on the board.

Example 1: You place this tile with a spell circle limiting the mist on it. Therefore, you must add 3 ghosts from the supply to your meeple on the board. (The 3 ghosts in this case will remove your meeple if not distributed among several meeples.)

2a. Placing ghosts

If you placed a tile with spell circles, they draw in ghosts from the 8 surrounding tiles. If there are not enough, you have to take the remaining ones from the supply to fill all the spell circles on the tile.

Special case: If there are not enough ghosts in the supply, the remaining spell circles remain empty.

Note: As with the expansion, you must add ghosts to meeples if you expand or limit the mist (see  Exp. 11 - Ghosts, Castles & Cemeteries).

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More ghosts!

If, at a later time, you place a tile next to another with a mist that has at least 1 occupied spell circle, you must place even more ghosts. Again, it depends on whether you continue or limit the mist.

>> Continue the mist

If you place a mist tile in such a way that at least 1 of its sides continues an existing mist, you must add 1 ghost (from the supply) to another player’s meeple on the game board, as usual.
If there is at least one occupied spell circle in the mist you have continued, you must place another ghost. You take 1 ghost from one of these spell circles and add it to the meeple of your choice belonging to another player.
You may distribute the ghosts among several meeples.

Example 2: You place this tile and continue the mist with it. So you place 1 ghost from the supply to the blue meeple. As there is an occupied spell circle in the mist, you also take 1 ghost from one of the spell circles and add it to the yellow meeple.

If you close a mist with spell circles, you add all the ghosts that are in spell circles in this mist to meeples from another player. Here, too, you may distribute the ghosts among several meeples.

  Question: As per the rules, it seems that the ghosts placed on a tile with spell circles just placed cannot be added to meeples until a later turn, no matter if the mist is completed or not during this turn. Is this correct?

Answer: No, this is a special case. Ghosts from the spell circles are not added directly, when placing the spell circle tile. However, if you complete a mist with a spell circle tile, you move all the ghosts in the mist bank, including those just placed on the spell circle tile. (3/2024)

  Question: Red and Blue are playing a game. If Red completes this mist with a spell circle tile, does the player add the ghosts on it to the Blue's meeple?

Answer: Yes, you add all 3 ghosts, as shown in the picture (1 ghost from the supply for extending the mist and the 2 ghosts on spell circles in the mist since the it was just completed). (3/2024)

Example: The ghosts on the spell circles will be added to Blue's meeple as a special case, since Red completed the mist. If Red hadn't completed the mist, only one of the ghosts on the spell circles would be added to Blue's meeple.

>> Limit the mist

If you place a tile in such a way that at least 1 side of the mist is adjacent to one side without mist, you must, as usual, add 1 ghost to one of your meeples.
If there is at least 1 occupied spell circle in this mist, you must take all the ghosts from these spell circles and add them to your own meeples. You may also distribute the ghosts among your meeples.

Important: A maximum of 3 ghosts are allowed to be added to a meeple. Then you immediately return the meeple to the supply. If you are required to add more ghosts to your meeple, you must add the remaining ghosts to another of your meeples. If you have no more meeples on the board, the ghosts are forfeited and returned to the supply instead.

Example 3: You place this tile and limit the mist with it. So you add 1 ghost from the supply to your meeple. Since there is an occupied spell circle in the mist, you additionally take 1 ghost from the spell circles and add it to your meeple.

2b. Placing a meeple

If you placed a tile with spell circles, you may also place a meeple on the tile as usual. A meeple cannot be placed on a spell circle.

3. Scoring a feature

If you completed a feature with one or more tiles with spell circles, score it as usual. The spell circles do not affect the scoring.

Final Scoring

The spell circles do not affect final scoring.

Tile distribution

Total tiles: 9

 ×1

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 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

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 ×1

 ×1

Footnotes

For Icons explanation and licensing please visit Icons page.