Easter in Carcassonne (1st edition)

Easter in Carcassonne brings this event to board game. Collect Easter eggs; they can be gained by placing the last tile around an Easter Nest, or when the Easter Bunny hops onto a tile on which you have a follower; unless they have been eaten, the two players with most Easter eggs score additional points.

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Symbol Easter.png

Easter in Carcassonne brings this event to board game. Collect Easter eggs; they can be gained by placing the last tile around an Easter Nest, or when the Easter Bunny hops onto a tile on which you have a follower; unless they have been eaten, the two players with most Easter eggs score additional points.

For Easter, ancient customs have been preserved in the area around Carcassonne. The Easter Bunny brings colorful eggs as a sign of fertility, but you have to find them in the nests first.

General info and comments

 
Tile sheet

Easter in Carcassonne was released by HiG in 2014. It was the 1st official PnP expansion.

Original design by Fritz_Spinne (CarcC CardF).

This is a Carcassonne fan-expansion to make yourself. This expansion is not for sale and may not be used for commercial purposes. Together with the diligent idea creator, HiG made this download version available to all who have fun with self-made expansion.


The tiles and rules files published by HiG are available here:

  • German version and English translation on Carcassonne Central (please register to access):
  • German version on Carcassonne Forum (please register to access):


The original fan expansion files can be found here:

  • German versions (rules and tiles) on Carcassonne Forum (please register to access):
  • English version (rules translation with additional ideas by Carcking) on Carcassonne Central (please register to access):

The following table summarizes the differences between the original version and the HiG version.

Action Original rules HiG rules
Bunny placement [1] Placed on Easter Nest tile (only placed on Easter Bunny tile if bunny not in play) Placed on Easter Bunny tile
Bunny movement (Easter Bunny phase) [2] Before scoring After scoring
Easter Nest scoring [3] After scoring according to text and interactions with other expansions During scoring according to text [4], but after scoring according to interactions with other expansions. The latter should prevail for the sake of consistency.

Contents

 
Easter Nest symbol
 
 
Easter Bunny symbol
  • 22 new landscape tiles (10 with an Easter Nest and 12 with an Easter Bunny)
 
Easter Nest tile
 
Easter Bunny tile
  • 1 Easter bunny figure [5]
  • Numerous Easter eggs, preferably made of chocolate (we recommend at least 2 packets of smaller, sweeter, Easter eggs) [6]
  • 1 special die marked 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3 (e.g. from Mini #1 - The Flying Machines) [7]

Rules

Preparation

Shuffle the new landscape tiles with the other land tiles. Place the Easter bunny, the Easter eggs and the die aside within easy reach of all players.

Gameplay

1. Placing a tile

The tiles are placed according to normal Carcassonne rules.

As soon as a player places an Easter Bunny tile, the player immediately places the Easter bunny figure on it. It does not matter where the player places the bunny, but he may not block any feature.

2. Placing a follower

After placing the bunny, the player may place a follower on the tile just placed according to the usual rules. [8]

3. Scoring a feature

If one or more regular features (e.g. a road, a city, a cloister...) are completed by the placement of a tile, they are scored according to the usual rules.

Easter Nest: If a player completely surrounds the Easter Nest by placing a tile, a scoring for that Easter Nest follows the regular scoring phase. [9] Surrounding means here the same as for a cloister, so the Easter Nest must be surrounded by 8 tiles.
4a. Scoring an Easter Nest

The player who placed the last tile around the Easter Nest (or the Easter Nest itself) immediately receives 2 Easter eggs. Then each player receives 1 Easter egg for each follower on the surrounding tiles (including the Easter Nest tile).

Easter Bunny: After the turn in which an Easter Bunny tile is placed, the game is briefly interrupted for an Easter Bunny phase. After this phase, it is the turn of the next player in clockwise order as usual.
4b. Easter Bunny phase

Starting with the player who placed the Easter Bunny tile, each player rolls the die in turn and moves the Easter bunny figure by as many tiles (hops) as the die shows. [10] The bunny may hop one tile to the right, left, top or bottom, but not diagonally.

The bunny may change its direction after each tile but it may not visit the same tile twice. Also the bunny cannot move on or over spaces without a tile. The bunny may also be moved deliberately into a dead end, so that it cannot no longer move. The following players will then have to refuse to move it.

If during its movement, the bunny hops on or over landscape tiles with followers, their owners receive an Easter egg for each follower. The followers remain on the tiles.

Final scoring

In the final scoring, no Easter eggs will be awarded to the followers of an unfinished Easter Nest area. The Easter bunny figure will not play a role in the final scoring either.

The player with the most Easter eggs gets 10 points. The player with the second most Easter eggs gets 5 points. [11] In the event of a tie, all players receive the corresponding points.

CAUTION!!!!: Only the Easter eggs that have not yet been eaten count. After the final scoring all Easter eggs should be eaten at your own risk...

Rules adaptation

If no die from the expansion Mini #1 - The Flying Machines is available, a regular six-sided die can also be used. In this case, the Easter bunny figure moves 1 hop for rolls 1-2, 2 hops for 3-4 and 3 hops for 5-6.

New land tiles

Tunnel: The two road segments that proceed through the tunnel are part of a single connected road. The lower field is not interrupted, and the upper field is not interrupted either. [12]

Other expansions

 Exp. 1 - Inns & Cathedrals

  The big follower only gets one Easter egg.

 Exp. 2 - Traders & Builders

  The special figures Builder and Pig go away empty-handed when the Easter eggs are distributed.
  During a double turn, the scoring of Easter Nests and the Easter Bunny phase may happen once for each part of the turn. [13]

 Exp. 3 - The Princess & the Dragon

  The dragon eats the Easter bunny figure (a dragon can't miss that). [14]
  The bunny can be on the same tile as the fairy. [15]
  If an Easter Nest is completed with a dragon tile, the movement of the bunny takes place after the dragon has been moved, if it is still on a tile. [16]

 Exp. 4 - The Tower

  The tower does not capture the Easter bunny figure. A follower on the tower also gets an Easter egg as a gift.

 Exp. 5 - Abbey & Mayor

  The wagon and the mayor receive an Easter egg, but the barn does not.

 Exp. 6 - Count, King & Robber

  No follower from the city of Carcassonne can be deployed when scoring a completed Easter Nest. Even a heretic at a place of cult receives an egg.

 Exp. 7 - The Catapult

  If an Easter Nest is completed with a catapult tile, the scoring of the Easter Nest takes place after the catapult round.

 Exp. 8 - Bridges, Castles & Bazaars

  A follower on a bridge receives an Easter egg. Completing an Easter Nest does not trigger the scoring of a castle. The bazaar round is carried out after the scoring of Easter Nests.

 Exp. 9 - Hills & Sheep

  Even the shepherd receives an Easter egg, although it is not a follower! The hills and vineyards do not affect the distribution of the eggs.

 Mini #4 - The Goldmines

  The completion of an Easter Nest does not cause the distribution of gold pieces.

 Mini #5 - Mage & Witch

  The Mage and the Witch do not affect the distribution of the Easter eggs, the Easter bunny figure can be on the same tile with any of them.

New tiles

 The Tunnel

  If using the tunnel tokens from The Tunnel, then the road shown on the tile with a tunnel is indeed broken, and the segments may never actually meet.

Tile distribution

Total tiles: 22

Footnotes

For Icons explanation and licensing please visit Icons page.

  1.   In the original version, Easter Nests define the new location of the bunny and Easter Bunny tiles just trigger the movement from the bunny's current location. The HiG version uses the Easter Bunny tile as starting point for each bunny movement, so Bunny Nests are just a scoring device.
  2.   The sequencing of the bunny movement is important, since followers on completed features are removed during scoring and may not receive Easter eggs.
  3.   The sequencing of the Easter Nest scoring is important, since followers on completed features are removed during scoring and may not receive Easter eggs.
  4.   This discrepancy seems a mistake in the wording, since the interactions with other expansions stay the same.
  5.   You could use any of the rabbit figures available on www.spielematerial.de
  6.   This may represent around 60 Easter eggs. (3/2021)
  7.   If no special die is available, you can use a regular die. See Rules adaptation for more information.
  8.   Followers cannot claim the Easter Bunny symbol or the Easter Nest symbol. They are not proper features.
  9.   The original rules indicated that the Easter Nest scoring happens during the scoring phase (3. Scoring a feature), but the interactions with other expansions indicate this action happens later.
  10.   The fan-made version included this variant without a die: Each player moves the bunny 2 hops.
  11.   In the original fan-made rules, the 5 points were only awarded in games with more than 2 players.
  12.   If using The Tunnel, the road shown on this tile may be affected (See Other Expansions for more details).
  13.   These actions are associated to the placement of a tile and will take care after the regular scoring phase (3. Scoring a feature) as inferred from the clarification for Exp. 7 and Exp. 8: after a catapult round and before a bazaar round.
  14.   In the original fan-made rules, the dragon could not eat the Easter bunny figure. HiG reverted this in the final version.
  15.   The original fan-made rules and the HiG rules indicated that the Easter bunny figure could be on the same tile as the fairy and the dragon. This could be possible in the original rules. However, mentioning the dragon in the final rules is a contradiction, since the dragon can eat the bunny now. For this reason, the dragon was removed from this sentence and only the fairy is mentioned.
  16.   This means that, besides the placement of an Easter Bunny tile, the completion of an Easter Nest with a dragon tile also triggers an Easter Bunny phase.
    If the Easter bunny is not placed on a tile in the playing area, the Easter Bunny phase does not take place. This may happen in the following cases:
    • At the beginning of the game, before an Easter Bunny tile is placed.
    • During the game, if the Easter bunny was eaten by the dragon and no Easter Bunny tile has been placed yet, if any left.