Mists over Carcassonne: Creepy Cooperative Halloween Carcassonne!

The Medieval walled city of Carcassonne has been over-run with ghouls. Players must work together to eliminate the ghosts lingering in the mist, whilst also cooperating to collectively score enough points to complete the tile-laying challenge. Spooky, cooperative, Halloween Carcassonne… that’s the hook.
But wait… there’s more! This isn’t just a cooperative variant of the classic game. It’s an expansion too! Players connect up foggy tiles to inflict negative scoring ghosts on their opponents. Amass three ghosts on a single meeple, and they’re a goner, so you’d better complete your features fast - and don’t bank on that farmer being around at game end! Creepy, cut-throat, competitive Carcassonne… that’s the hook.
Two Carcassonne variants for the price of one! That’s got to be a good thing right?

[@darvidtorres]

I love your format of videos, please keep doing more reviews

[@swfanakin]

Carcassonne holds a special place in my heart as the game that got me into "hobby boardgames." It's fun every time I play it, easy to teach to younger players or non-gamers, and just random enough that a good player can still lose sometimes (as a fan of trading card games, this is also a plus in my book). I'm excited for this because I love the theme, and I have a lot of friends who are mostly interested in co-operative experiences. The fact that it provides that as well as a competitive expansion to the game I love is just perfect!

[@AdaminWales]

Great! I think you'll really enjoy it.

[@bruceknight3720]

I like the look of the Coop version. When I first got into the hobby in 2016 I became a bit obsessed with amassing Carcassonne expansions, stored in a beautiful wooden box from Basically Wooden. I even bought the Catapult, which is utterly ridiculous!. Quite a few of them remain unplayed but I get the box out sometimes and admire them 😉 Once I played a mega game with 3 friends and 8 expansions...... fun, but we didn't feel the urge to repeat it! Excellent video as always, Adam.

[@AdaminWales]

Thanks Bruce. I’ve been introducing all the different variants to my wife recently. They’re very variable in quality. I’m kicking myself that I sold Knizia’s version, Carcassonne The Castle, a few years ago. That was great. 🙂

[@bruceknight3720]

@@AdaminWales Oh yes, I spent some time searching for that 2 player version. I guess it's hard to find. I remember reading once that the Finnish version was readily available, but that may have changed

[@astrolabius3857]

Thanks for your review. It's deep and businesslike. I'm interested in the title as a modest Carcassonne fan.

[@TisButAScratch666]

Still never played any version of Carcassonne, but it's been regularly considered

[@AdaminWales]

I think it holds up well - so long as you don’t go into it expecting a mind-blowing experience. It’s only mind-blowing if it’s the first modern board game you’ve played. For experienced players, it’s pleasant but fairly pedestrian.
That said, Mists Over Carcassonne has a bit more drama than most versions!

[@TisButAScratch666]

@@AdaminWales I'll keep that one in mind. Thanks for the tip Adam

[@olivierjodoin2283]

@@TisButAScratch666 I just passed the 100 games mark in my collection and Carcassonne is still in my top 20, ahead of both much heavier and lighter games. The game's ability to accomodate different situations (playing with young kids, playing with new adults gamers in a relaxed way or very cutthroat with experienced gamers, playing well at various player counts, etc.) just makes it so easy to recommend.

[@TisButAScratch666]

@@olivierjodoin2283 Looks like my Christmas wish list might be getting longer! Cheers!

[@stevecardiff444]

Some interesting changes to the usual rules. Great video as always.

[@AdaminWales]

Thanks Steve :)

[@kurtulmer8087]

Thanks for the well rounded review. Looking forward to getting a copy.
Under the Big Top gets the most plays for expansions. We like the acrobats, extra points for ring leader, and the random points from circuses leaving town. The flea circus for 1 point cracks me up. It is a good length for 2 players.
Princess & the Dragon does not get a lot of play due to the cut throat nature. I do like the mechanics of that one.
Best!

[@kosterix123]

2:00 only a matter of time.
Well, if it were that easy it would have already been made! You're totally overlooking how hard solos can be to design.

[@MKFusionProject]

South Seas is the best spin-off.

[@AdaminWales]

I like South Seas very much - lots of lovely wooden pieces, and no score track!

[@Pathstalker]

I have in my collection the first 8 (except catapult) major expansions (all second edtition), and halflings 1 and 2, and I love them all, I plan co complete collection someday. The hardest thing for me is to convince people to play with all the expansions that I have, because I like my Carcassonne as complex as possible.

[@AdaminWales]

I also have a temptation to collect ALL things Carcassonne. Totally unnecessary of course! But I always have fun with every version I play.

[@Pathstalker]

@@AdaminWales My man

[@Thantas]

One question about the rules in the solo and cooperative version: if a city is completed and there are two warriors of different color inside, do we get double the points for each color? Or are all colors considered as being the same in the solo and cooperative version?

[@AdaminWales]

Colours are NOT considered the same in the coop and solo version. If sharing a city, the colour with the most warriors scores points. But if both colours are tied, both colours score the same points (exactly as in the competitive game). But since we are working together, this is great because it's essentially a double score!

[@Thantas]

@@AdaminWales in solo mode we play a different color every turn in a row or we can choose any color we want and place?

[@olivierjodoin2283]

Your videos are top notch as always! Are you aware if some publishers and designers watch them? I watch a lot of board game content creators and very seldom hear you mentioned but that's a real shame. I really love your approach and it's quite unique. I can only think of Jamey Stegmaier who sometimes produces videos with somewhat similar content that analyzes game production and design.

[@AdaminWales]

Thanks Olivier. I know Jamey Stegmaier watches. We’ve communicated a bit over the years. He likes my game Pikoko, and I’ve enjoyed all the Stonemaier games I’ve played. He supports the channel with review copies from time to time. I’ve been very vocal about my love of Zoch Verlag games over the years, and I’ve got to know a few of the Zoch team. They also support me with review copies. There must be more publishers who watch, but I don’t hear from them much. I tend to communicate with publishers more when I want them to make my own games!! :)
Several distributors support the channel: Hachette Board Games UK, Coiled Spring, and Amaroni (HABA) supply review copies from time to time.
I don’t really do the social media thing, where other TH-camrs are prolific (Twitter etc). I often share links to my videos on game design forums, but not much wider. I prioritise videos which will be picked up in TH-cam search: “How to design XYZ etc” So these continue to get views years after release. It’s a slow build.
I also know a few UK reviewers (a little bit). I started around the same time as Jon Purkis (Actualol) and Dan Hughes (Dice Tower) and Matthew Jude (Watch it Played). I know they all watch and comment from time to time.
Yes, I always hope that one day I’ll be listed among the popular TH-camrs, but I don’t really mind all that much. I’m happy with a small, engaged community of viewers. It’s great seeing the same names regularly in the comments.

[@olivierjodoin2283]

​@@AdaminWales Wow thanks for the detailed answer! I really like Jon Purkis as well, he reviews lighter social games and keep recommending older games, so he's not "cult of the new" or gushing about all the medium-heavy games that come out.