Carcassonne Board Game Review

Carcassonne Board Game

The southern French city of Carcassonne was founded on an important trade route between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Because of its strategic location, the city was often conquered and has known many rulers. As a result of this varied history, the city is famous for its unique mixture of Roman and Medieval fortifications. The players develop the area around Carcassonne by placing land tiles. Each turn the area becomes larger as the players expand and add roads, fields, cities, and cloisters. The players may also deploy their followers as thieves, farmers, knights, and monks to control and score points for the roads, farms, cities, and cloisters. As the players have only a few followers, the wise player will plan his moves carefully and deploy followers when and where he can earn the most points. Carcassonne is a simple, clever tile laying game that brings new challenges with every turn.

# of Players: 2 - 5
Mfg Suggested Ages: 8 and up
Category: Medieval

Carcassonne is an excellent family game, because the rules are simple, no one is eliminated, and the play is fast. A typical game takes only 45 - 60 minutes to play

Other Names:
Carcassonne Limited Edition
Carcassonne Big Box

In this fairly light tile-laying offering, players pull a tile from the pool and place it against one of the previously played tiles. If you start a new object (city, road, farm, or monastery), you can place one of your control markers on the tile to denote your control. Markers (called Followers by the publisher and called Meeples by us) cannot directly compete when placed, so to achieve some gains, you must place your marker and use later tiles to connect up to it.

As subsequent tiles are arrayed on the board, objects get bigger or even merge. When roads or cities are completed, or a monastery is surrounded, the control marker is returned to you and you score the points. However, farmers are not returned and will score points at the game end (there are several rules variations for the farmer scoring).

Therefore, it's possible to have all of your control markers locked on the board on incomplete objects, and not be able to convert them into farmers later in the game. You must balance the need to score points during the game with the need to score farmer points at game end.

The goal is to have the most points at the end, which can be tricky to control considering your choice for each turn isn't the tile itself, but rather the placement of the tile that you drew. Think of a more strategic version of Metro's tile placement, with some of the scoring methods from El Caballero or even the Very Clever Pipe Game.

The Carcassonne game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses.

The game of Carcassonne, winner of the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award in 2001 (German game of the year), was inspired by the medieval town of Carcassonne in Southern France, which is famous for its formidable city walls. Likewise, in this addictive game, players lay tiles to build a landscape of walled cities, roads, and farmland dotted with the occasional church. Rather than use a game board, players simply pick a tile at random, and place it into the existing landscape in such a way that it matches correctly on all sides. Players score points as the landscape grows by placing their followers in cities, on roads, in fields, or in cloisters.

Carcassonne succeeds because of its simplicity. The game is easy to learn, very fun to play, yet still requires a high level of strategic thinking to master. It is rare to find a game that plays just as well with two players as it does with three, four, or five. It is also rare to find a game that appeals so well to beginners as well as serious gamers. That is why I give Carcassonne my highest recommendation

User Reviews:

I love this game ! so easy to play and fun to play for a 2-6 players[(6)first expansion]more you are more fun you have . I buy all the expansions for more playing time in the game and more strategic moves ! all i can say if you dont have it you miss something good !!! excellent game !!!by Fred (Mar 23 2008)

I am so addicted to this game. by eric (Feb 06 2008)

I did not have fun the first time I played, however, once you figure out the strategy of the game it is enjoyable to play. One thing I like is that no two games are ever the same. by Tyler (Dec 08 2007)

I purchased this game for Christmas 2006. We finally got around to reading the directions and playing it over Thanksgiving weekend 2007. It was so different and loads of fun that I immediately bought two expansion packs to have for this Christmas break. Hats off to family game time! by Sandy (Nov 26 2007)

It was fantastic, but played even better when in pairs. As teams try to beat each other, the battle heats up and it gets even more exciting when each try to sabotage the other. A great game through and through...by Sue (Nov 13 2007)

I like strategy games, especially Settler's of Catan, but this game bores me to tears. Perhaps I'm missing something? by bella (Nov 09 2007)