Carcassonne (board game) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Carcassonne is a German-style board game, invented by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, for two to five players. It received the Spiel des Jahres award in 2001. It is named after the medieval town of Carcassonne in southern France famed for its city walls.

Game Play

The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses. The game starts with a single terrain tile face up and 71 others shuffled face down for the players to draw from. On each turn a player draws a new terrain tile and places it adjacent to tiles that are already face up. The new tile must be placed in a way that matches, i.e. roads must connect to roads, fields to fields, and city walls to city walls.

After placing the new tile, the placing player may opt to station a follower (sometimes called a meeple) on that tile. The follower can only be placed on the player's last played tile. A follower claims ownership of one terrain feature- road, field, city, or cloister- and may not be placed on a feature already claimed by a another player's follower. However, it is possible for terrain features to become shared after the further placement of tiles. For example, two field tiles which each have a follower can become connected into a single field by another terrain tile.

When a terrain feature is completed, the followers placed on that feature earn points for their owning players and are returned to the players to be stationed again later. For example, when a city wall forms a closed loop, the city is completed and the player with the most followers in the city scores points based on the size of the city. If two or more players tie for the most followers, all tied players score points.

The game ends when the last tile has been placed. At that time all uncompleted terrain features score points for the players who have followers stationed on them. The player with the most points wins the game.

Game Interest

Carcassonne is considered to be an excellent family game since the rules are simple, no one is eliminated, and the play is fast. A typical game takes only 45 minutes to play. Even so, it is not a game characterized by shallow strategies and lots of luck. Strategic points include:

• Judiciously conserving followers, particularly in games with fewer players. Each player has only seven followers; once they are all stationed he can't claim any more features until one is returned. Thus it is sometimes better not to station a follower at all, or to station one that scores only a couple of points but will be returned quickly.
• Attempting to share lucrative features. For example, a player may place a tile which creates a new short road, station a follower on that new road, and then place later tiles to connect his road to another player's long and valuable road.
• Preventing the sharing of one's features. Sometimes it pays to close off one's own features for a smaller number of points than to allow another player to join the fun. However, one should not be unthinkingly selfish: if another player is sharing your city then he will essentially be working with you to score more points.
• Playing farmers at the right time. Farmers (i.e. followers in fields) have the potential to score more points than any other type of follower. The disadvantage of farmers is that they are never returned to a player during a game. They only score points at the end. One must judge whether the potentially large payoff at the end of the game is worth having one follower fewer to work with in the middle of the game.
• Being aware of who is helped and hurt by each play. Most tile placements will directly or indirectly add points to the scores of other players. Advanced players don't simply play to maximize their own score, they also look to hinder the other players at the same time.

• The River Expansion - This was originally a free expansion, but is now included with the base game.
• Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals - Originally known as Carcassonne: the Expansion, this adds pieces for a sixth player and some new tiles.
• Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers - A stand-alone game that involves the building of forests, rivers and wildlife rather than cities and roads.
• Carcassonne: Traders and Builders - An expansion to the base game with additional tile types and strategic possibilities.
• Carcassonne: King and Scout - A few additional tiles and special rules for both the original Carcassonne and "Hunters and Gatherers".
• The Ark of the Covenant - A biblical-themed version of Carcassonne set in the time period of the Old Testament.
• Carcassonne: The Castle - A stand-alone 2-player Carcassonne game designed by Reiner Knizia where building is constrained within the walls of a castle.

• BrettspielWelt Free Site to play Carcassonne online.
• Carcassonne Main site for the game.
• PC Carcassonne Online Main site for the PC version of the game.

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