Monasteries in Spain (fan expansion for Carcassonne)

Description

--- **Spanish Monasteries** is a 12-tile fan expansion for Carcassonne inspired by Spain's UNESCO-rich heritage, introducing specialized monastery mechanics. Key mechanics include: - *Dual placement options* Players choose regular monasteries (monk meeple) or Spanish monasteries (abbot, sideways meeple). - *Feature-based scoring* Spanish monasteries score points proportional to fully complete features in the 8 surrounding tiles. - *Completion dependency* Primary abbot scoring requires full feature completion; incomplete ones yield end-game points. This 12-tile fan expansion for Carcassonne celebrates Spain's cultural heritage as the nation with the third-most UNESCO World Heritage sites (48 as of July 2019, behind Italy and China), focusing on its prominent monasteries and a novel gameplay variant. Players may deploy these tiles as standard monasteries by placing a monk meeple or as Spanish monasteries symbolized by an abbot (a meeple balanced on its side). Spanish monasteries introduce special rules, awarding points based on the number of complete features—such as roads, cities, or fields—in their 8 adjacent tiles, with higher feature counts yielding greater scores. However, abbot deployment and primary scoring occur only upon full completion of those features; incomplete configurations still provide compensatory points during end-game scoring, encouraging strategic placement and risk assessment amid tile-laying competition. ---