Pyramid Review
Carcassonne: The Princess & the Dragon
Designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
30 game tiles, wooden dragon pawn, wooden fairy pawn, & rules sheet; full color, boxed; $14.95
Carcassonne has been in a few places -- cities, castles, primeval forests -- and even a couple of time periods, but for a game with knights and castles it's been remarkably free of traditional trimmings like magic. Carcassonne: The Princess & the Dragon gives you not only the dragon and the damsel in distress, but a few other magical gifts as well.
The game comes with a wooden dragon figure, a wooden fairy pawn, and a set of playing tiles that put these pieces to work in the game. Once again, a supplement to the Carcassonne series depends mostly on slight alterations to the canonical method of play, and here it's all about putting down and picking up pawns.
The new tiles get shuffled in with the old. If you get a volcano, the dragon rises up from wherever he's been hiding and lands there; you, on the other hand, get no opportunity to play a pawn (which is just as well . . . who wants their token on the same space as a hungry dragon?). If you pull out a dragon tile, the dragon moves across the land. Players take turns moving him one space at a time, and any "meeples" he passes over in his six-space journey are returned to their owners . . .
. . . Unless, that is, they enjoy the company of the fairy (not to be confused with the princess of the supplement's title). If . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 21, 2005
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