Basic Information
Number of Players: 2-5 (up to 8 with expansions)
Age: 7+
Time: 35 min
Price: Medium – High
Introduction to Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a modern classic with easy game play, beautiful art, and good replay value. In essence it is a tile placing game where players create the landscape and score points by placing meeples. This style of game is a great for both casual and hardcore board gamers since it is easy to pick up and does offer a healthy dose of strategy into the mix. Great for all ages, Carcassonne is a must have, and with the bonus of adding more players with expansions.
How to Play Carcassonne
Caracassonne is an easy game to understand and fun to play. Each player places a tile then places a meeple to try and score points. Meeples have four roles in the base game; knights, monks, farmers, and robbers, and they each score points differently.
Knights are placed on castles and are only removed once a castle is completed. Each completed castle is worth 2 points per castle tile, just be careful because other players can try to take over larger castles and steal your points!
Monks are placed on monasteries. To complete a monastery a player must place 8 tiles around the monastery to get 9 points and return the meeple to your pool.
Farmers are best placed early in the game and are the only type that you do not get back. They are placed on farms which are the green patches of land and the farms boundaries is determined by the roads and rivers. They are a commitment and at the end the end of the game you score up points based off how many castles are within your farm. Like castles, other players can try to steal points off you by placing meeples on other land and connecting them up.
Lastly, Robbers are placed on roads and are only returned once a road is complete (with a castle, monastery, or village).
When placing the tiles, the edges must match up with the tiles they are being placed against in order for them to be valid. This is where the main strategy element comes in as you are trying to maximize your points with your tile and meeple placements.
Notes on Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a great game to relax and converse over. I play it mostly at family-get-togethers as we have a beer, chat about life, and try to get as many knights as we can into castles. I love the simplicity of it as it made teaching new players a breeze. Highly recommend for any board game collection.
