How to win Carcassonne: Advanced strategy (ELO 1700 - 2000) - game 5
Game #5 - Advanced
Carcassonne Master has a slight change with the winter expansion to celebrate the holiday season and the onset of the winter season.
The expansion is larger than the normal base game with 90 tiles. Six of the additional tiles include a gingerbread man which boosts city scoring. When the gingerbread man leaves a city, players with a follower in that city receive 1 point per city tile (per follower), so two followers in a city with a gingerbread man would receive two points per city piece.
I was rusty on this expansion as you can see - making a silly mistake early on missing an easy road. I think my opponent was a bit fortunate to get two city-completing tiles just at the right time to thwart my blocking tactics.
However I also got lucky with a tile to finish a big city that secured me the game. If I’d not completed it I think I still would have won with the farmers/field but the margin would have been less.
Given my opponent had a low ELO and I was poor tactically I think I was gifted an early Christmas present and frankly only deserved 1 ELO point.