This review was written by Susan van Heemst.

The Carcassonne game is a rather simple looking medieval tile-laying board game. It is also one of those games that everyone should try playing at least once and is quite easy to learn. The game is rather deceptive in its appearance and looks very simple. Firstly, you open up your box and expect all sorts of little bits and a rather extensive rule set. Then you discover that there are very few components. Could it be true? Could it not take hours to read through the instructions? Where are the endless pages of instructions and complex bits? They are simply not needed in this quick and rather addictive game. There’s a reason this game has won so many awards.

Carcassonne Board Game Info:

• Carcassonne (basic game, 1st Edition)
• Players: 2 – 5 players
• Ages: 8 yrs. and up
• Game time: about 30 min.
• Game style: Tile placement
• Game strategy: City building, Area control
• Designed by: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
• Published by:
  - Rio Grande Games
  - Hans im Glück
  - 999 Games
• Originally released: 2000

The components of Carcassonne are as follows:

• 72 land tiles
• 40 wooden followers (meeples), in 5 different colors
• 1 scoring board
• 1 rule booklet

Game play:

Carcassonne begins very simply with a single “starting tile” being laid down. The various tiles consist of city parts, roads, and monasteries. All of which are surrounded by meadows. (The meadows are important at the end of the game.) The player draws a tile and looks to see how it can be connected. What patterns can I match and build upon? The choices are simple: begin building a city, build a road, laying down a monastery, or connecting the meadowlands.

After the tile is laid, the player then decides on what to claim. This is done by placing a wooden meeple on the claimed area. The choices again are simple: You can claim a city that you are building, a road, a monastery, or the meadowlands. Once the meeple is placed, the turn goes to the following player. Meeples are reclaimed upon completion of cities, roads, and monasteries, but not from the meadowlands. This continues, with points being acquired along the way, until all tiles are used up. Then, the final points tally is made to decide the winner.

Points and Scoring:

How do you win at Carcassonne? The goal is to get the most points. Then the question is how do I get points? So, let’s break down the points and how to acquire them. (I will note that this review is based on the original version. There have been new editions released with slight variances within the points given.)

Building cities: The city parts come in various shapes in which you can build with. A completed city is completely closed, has no gaps, and can consist of as little as two tiles. The points vary slightly with cities. A small city of two tiles is a quick 2 points. Any city with 3 tiles or more gets 2 points per tile. Some city tiles have a special crest upon them. This crest gives an extra two points per crest. The bigger the city, the more points obviously. The danger in building an enormous city is in not being able to complete the city. An incomplete city will give points at the end of the game, but not as many.

Building Roads:

Building roads are pretty simple. You connect pieces of roads and have to complete the road. A completed road has two end points, or junctions. It can end at a city, a monastery, or a road junction. A completed road counts for 1 point per road tile within the completed road.

Monasteries:

Monasteries are different than city building and road building. You are not actually building the monastery, but enclosing it. A completed monastery is completely enclosed by 8 tiles. It gives 9 points (1 for each surrounding tile and the original monastery tile).

Controlling the Meadowlands:
This is where the rules get slightly complicated. The points for the meadows are calculated at the end of the game. Firstly, let’s define what a meadowland is. The meadowland is the grassy areas surrounding cities, roads, and monasteries. A meadowland consists of all connecting grass lands. Meadows can be broken up by roads and/or cities. So, there can be multiple meadowlands upon the board.

During the game, players can set a meeple upon unclaimed meadowland to gain control of it. Other players compete and try to overtake control of the meadowlands. Why, you ask? Points, of course! At the end of the game, the meadows can provide serious points to the player controlling the meadows. He with the most meeples on the meadowlands win! I will note that there are a limited number of meeples. So, battling for the meadowlands can seriously deplete your meeple supply. Your meeples remain on the board the entire game, unlike during the building process.

Once you claim a meadow, other players cannot place their meeples upon the claimed meadowlands directly. They have to be sneakier and place them on meadows that are not currently connected and hope to draw tiles which allow them to connect the meadowlands. While it sounds a bit complicated, the strategy becomes clear within a couple of games.

Now that we briefly know about the meadowlands, let’s talk points again. Here is where the meadows become really interesting. As the player controlling a certain meadow, you now receive 4 points per completed city lying within your meadow. It does not matter who built the city, just as long as it is completed. If there are 10 completed cities, you get 40 extra points. The points acquired by controlling the meadows can shift the scores completely.

Incomplete items: So, you haven’t been able to finish your city, road, or monastery? Never fear, you still get some points for your efforts. Now, you just receive 1 point per tile of incomplete cities, roads, and monasteries. This means that it is worth it to claim unfinished cities at the end.

Strategy: The basic part of the game is to build, build, build and gain points. The game play becomes more fun as players battle over control of the meadowlands. You need to spot where you could possibly place a tile and then later connect it to the meadowlands. How can I get more meeples on the meadows than my opponents? Of course, your opponents are thinking the same things and trying to block you.

While you are trying to build colossal cities, mega roads, and dominating the meadows; it is important to remember that there are a very limited number of meeples available. Meeples on the meadowlands remain on the board the entire game and cannot be removed. Building meeples remain until the item is completed. So, you must pay attention not to run out of meeples.

Sometimes, blocking is also needed. By placement of a tile, you can make it extremely difficult for your opponents to complete a city, road, or monastery. You can make it difficult for them to connect to the meadowlands. Of course, they can also do the same to you.

Beginning players normally just focus on building stuff. That is also enjoyable and they will have fun. After a few games, you begin to learn how the meadowlands work and how to control them. Then, strategy comes more into play.

Final thoughts:

Carcassonne is a game that appeals across the board to different age sets, genders, etc. It is easy to learn, has a fast game play, and is very reasonably priced. You never play the exact same game twice. An added bonus is the availability of the many expansion packs for the game. Again, they are reasonably priced and can be mini-expansions which include only one or two tiles, or a larger expansion. It all allows freedom to play the game as you like and bring in different layers. All of these reasons make Carcassonne a terrific “gateway game”. Carcassonne can be a great game to bridge that gap into the world of gaming for non-gamers and for people that want to try a “euro game” as well.

We have played Carcassonne with friends, family, and just the two of us. Both our 75yr. old Aunt and 8 yr. old niece enjoy playing with us. So, it really is not age specific (past 8yrs. and up). It appeals across the board. If you are looking for a new game, why not give this one a try?

To meet the author of this review you can visit Susan’s page on SophistiGames.

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Carcassonne expansion sets and extended family:

Carcassonne Large Expansions:

Carcassonne Small Expansions:

Extended family of Games (self-standing games):

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