Carcassonne: Build medieval France, one tile at a time


Carcassonne - Create French countryside

Summary

Create a medieval French countryside to claim the landscape

Players: 2-5 players

Gametime: 30-45 minutes

Gameplay

Set up the game

  • Place the starting tile in the center of the table.
  • Shuffle the remaining tiles and place them face down in a draw pile.
  • Each player chooses a color and takes their corresponding set of meeples (or player tokens).

Build the landscape

  • On each turn, draw a tile from the draw pile and place it adjacent to an already placed tile.
  • Then, you can choose to place one of your meeples on a feature of the tile, such as a road, city, monastery, or field.
  • You can also choose to pass on placing a meeple.

Score points

  • When a feature is complete, such as a road or city, you score points for it.
  • The player with the most meeples on a completed feature scores the most points.
  • You also score points for completing a large city or long road.

Manage your meeples

  • You only have a limited number of meeples, so you must manage them carefully.
  • Once a meeple is placed on the board, it stays there until the feature it is on is completed.
  • You can also choose to take back a meeple from the board by forfeiting any points it may have earned.

End the game and count final scores

  • The game ends when all tiles have been placed.
  • Players score final points for incomplete features, such as incomplete roads and cities.
  • The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

Here is a video from Rodney Smith teaching us how to play Carcassonne

Review

An award winning game with easy rules and strategic meeple placement, Carcassonne has great re-playability. With each game a new landscape emerges, a new challenge to place meeples and a new way to block the opponents. Carcassonne is a classic tile-laying game that is easy to learn and has a lot of depth. The game is well-designed with high-quality components and beautiful artwork and can be a great start in your board game journey.

Difficulty: Easy

Likeness: 65%

Purchase

You can purchase Carcassonne on Amazon here