Okay. (takes a deep breath) this one is a biggie. Carcassonne is one of those board gaming monoliths which due to its age and wealth of expansions are a considerable commitment to review. So to make this more palatable for me and you, I shall treat this as Alice suggests and “Start at the beginning.”
Carcassonne is a tile and worker placement game in what we have come to know as the European style. Each turn a tile is placed by a player from the randomised deck of tiles and then that player has the opportunity to set down one of their “Meeple” on that newly placed tile in an attempt to score. You can score the feature on the newly placed tile, things like roads, cities, cloisters, and the hard to place farms. Once a the scoring conditions for the structure type have been met, scoring is recorded on a common scoring track and the Meeple is return to your pool. That’s it. Play continues until the tiles run out and then any Meeples left on the map are scored, at a slightly less lucrative rate than if they had been scored before the end in some cases.
With only 7 Meeple in your supply the game becomes a race to score your Meeple and return them to your supply before you are faced with placing tiles and missing scoring opportunities. The design is tight and satisfying with the randomised tiles bringing just the right level of frustration to proceedings. Aggressive players with have to content themselves with disruptive tile placement to upset their opponent’s plans and trying to inveigle their Meeple into other players scoring opportunities. Passive players will thrive by rapidly scoring opportunities, keeping their score ticking up and using their in hand Meeples to thwart others muscling in on their scoring.
There are a huge number of expansions to this game and I will be covering those as time permits and adding the links here.
Awards
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2000 Winner
- Spiel des Jahres 2001 Winner
Credits
- Designer(s): Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Year first published: 2000
Vital Statistics
- Tile and Worker placement game
- 2-5 players
- 30 – 45 minutes a game
- Age Range: A smart 6 year old can be taught the game, a smart 8 year old can hold their own
- Website: https://www.zmangames.com/en/products/carcassonne/
