As of 2014, Carcassonne also includes two mini-modules in the box: The River, and The Abbot. Later in this post, I’ll teach you how to play Carcassonne with these variants. Firstly, however, let’s take a look at how to play Carcassonne in its original base game form. It’s a perfect ‘gateway game’ for board game beginners and younger players. Set Up The Carca-zone This should be your first objective when playing this version of the game. You must try and complete (laying the closing tile) as many forests as you can and gain as many of the 16 bonus tiles as possible. These bonus tiles are extra turns and usually have a better than average points value attached with them. Lots of fish, bigger animals to hunt, or another special rule. If you get the majority of these tiles, you will have had more turns with the prospect of higher scores. My experience, particularly in 2 player games, is that whoever gets the majority of the bonus tiles usually (but not always) comes out on top. Combine Your River Network With Your Hunting Fields

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (2020) | Board Games Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (2020) | Board Games

If your opponents are developing larger forests and rivers, it can be a great tactic to sneak in before they complete to share the points. If they have laid four or five tiles and you just laid one or two tiles to share the score you come out on top here as you haven’t used as many turns to achieve that score. As of 2014, Carcassonne also includes two mini-modules in the box: The River, and The Abbot. Later in this post, I’ll teach you how to play Carcassonne with these variants. Firstly, however, let’s take a look at how to play Carcassonne in its original base game form. It’s a perfect ‘gateway game’ for board game beginners and younger players. It’s possible to share points from high-scoring features. You can even oust opponents altogether! It’s legal to place a meeple on your tile when you place it, providing it’s not encroaching on a pre-claimed feature. If you then connect and combine this feature to a neighbouring feature, such as the same road, it becomes one long road. Upon completion, if two (or more), say, highwaymen sit on this road, you both score the points for it. I am by large impressed with this edition of a well-loved classic. However, there is always room for improvement. One thing this game is missing however is the inclusion of some expansions that many people deem as ‘essential’ to the core experience. The game would have felt much more complete if it had included at least the Inns & Cathedrals expansion that would give us scoring tiles for complete laps of the scoreboard and the larger meeple for better area control. As well as some risk and reward features. I also consider the Traders & Builders expansion to be essential as it adds reasons for people to close each other’s cities, more reason to claim fields/farmland and reasons to build bigger and bigger with the builder meeple. In Carcassonne, players are creating an ever-expanding section of southern France. These tiles can depict a combination of cities, roads, cloisters, and grasslands. Each player has a number of meeples that can be placed on the tile to score points. Victory points are scored depending on the piece of landscape that the meeple is placed on. GameplayThe puzzle-like tile placement is very satisfying when you finally get that perfect piece but can be disappointing if it doesn’t quite fit! Seeing the map sprawl in front of you gives this game real table presence.

Carcassonne Board Game - Etsy UK Carcassonne Board Game - Etsy UK

Once placed, if you have a meeple in your supply, you can sit it inside the city walls as a ‘knight’. Like highwaymen and roads, only one knight may occupy a city. Some city tiles have a coat of arms on them. These are worth extra points! If you can complete a city’s walls, you must score it. You get two points per tile that the city spreads over. The classic style of Carcassonne put into the rural forestry and rivers of the natural environment. It looks stunning for me but others may see it as quite simple. I would say there is a lot more detail in this game over its original predecessor. Plus, the bonus tile adds some additional quality detailing. The Future Did you know that the term ‘meeple’ originated in a game of Carcassonne? Shortly after Carcassonne’s release, player Alison Hansel created a portmanteau. When describing her wooden pawns, Alison blended ‘my’ and ‘people’ together –‘meeple’. The term grew in popularity and is now a worldwide term for wooden silhouette player pieces! Turns Are Easy As One, Two, Mee(ple)This review is for the Z-Man games version which caused a ridiculous uproar when released that the tiles were too bright and colourful. Oh, and don’t mention the change to the colour of the roofs – this caused uproar! Well, there comes a time where sentimentality can stifle progress. I like the tiles. I even prefer them to the images I have seen of the old pale and placid artwork of the original version. Change isn’t always a bad thing. Many of the tiles have city walls on them. If you want, you could rotate and place this tile so that it connects to (or even completes) an earlier city segment. You cannot place this tile in a manner where it would intersect a road. Neither could you have it so the city walls don’t align with adjacent tiles. Transport yourself to the old, medieval, hilltop town of Carcassonne in this tile and worker placement game that has become an absolute staple of the board game world. You may see that a player is about to complete a castle feature and score a respectable eight points. However, you see an opportunity to steal said feature and end up placing tiles away from the feature, joining it up and stealing it from right under their noses, as you will have placed more meeples on that feature than them! This is just one of the many strategies one can employ while playing Carcassonne and it is something that sets this game apart. A game of Carcassonne lasts around 45 minutes. The aim? There’s a bunch of square tiles in the box, with different features on them. Roads, fields, monasteries, and walled cities. Like the actual medieval citadel. You’ll compete to build up the French countryside in a communal manner, but you’ll score your own completed features. Once the last tile gets placed, there’s some end-game scoring, and the player with the most points wins!

Carcassonne - Mists over Carcassonne | Board Games | Zatu Carcassonne - Mists over Carcassonne | Board Games | Zatu

If you have a tile with a road on it you can place it next to another road tile, further elongating that road. Once placed, if you have a meeple in your supply, you can sit it on this road, as a ‘highwayman’. Only one highwayman can occupy each individual road. They like to operate alone! Meeples placed on fields become farmers, and remain on the field until the end of the game when they score depending on how many cities touch the field. Placing a meeple in a monastery converts it into a monk. It will score you nine points when you surround it in tiles, one point for every tile touching it.Carcassonne is one of the best-known modern board games in existence. Since its release in 2000, it has sold over 10 million copies! It’s an incredibly popular tile-placement game, for one reason above all others: it’s so simple to play. Anyone can learn how to play Carcassonne. And, thanks to this tutorial, you too will have no problem teaching it at your next games night… Some tiles are monasteries, surrounded by fields and sometimes with a road leading out of it. Again, when placing a monastery, you must align it to fit in with the surrounding landscapes. If you place a meeple into this monastery, it becomes a ‘monk’. Monasteries are only ever one tile in size.