Description
The city of Carcassonne in the south of France is famous for its mighty walls. In Carcassonne you build its surroundings yourselves: tiles form roads, cities, monasteries and fields, and you send your people onto them to earn you points. The landscape is different every time and ends up covering a good part of the table.
How to play Carcassonne
On your turn you draw one tile and place it so that roads continue into roads and cities into cities. Then you may place one of your meeples on it: on a road, in a city or in a monastery. When a road, city or monastery is completed, you score points and the meeple returns to you.
You may not place your meeple in an area where a meeple already stands. You can, however, join two areas later with a new tile. Then the points go to whoever has more meeples there. The game ends when the tiles run out. The player with the most points after the final scoring wins.
Why you will like it
- Every tile is a small decision: finish your city, start a new road or sneak into your neighbour's city.
- You have only seven meeples. If you leave too many of them in unfinished areas, you run out just when the right tile comes along.
- Once you have mastered the basics, you add farmers, who lie in the fields until the end of the game and often decide the winner.
- The box also includes the River and Abbot mini expansions, which let you vary the game later on.
Who is Carcassonne for
The game is for 2 to 5 players aged 7 and up, and a game takes 30 to 45 minutes. It is fairly easy, and players like it best with two. There is no text on the components, so children and adults can play together. The rules recommend playing your first games without farmers. It also suits those who are only just getting to know board games.
What you might not like
Which tile comes up next is a matter of luck. So the game may not be the best fit for those who want to plan everything in advance.
What is in the box
- 72 land tiles and 12 river tiles
- 40 meeples in five colours
- 5 abbots
- scoreboard
- rules
