The Carcassonne board game is a unique and clever game design

Game:
Carcassonne
Board game manufacturer:
Mayfair
Number of players:
2-5 (six with expansion)

Quick Verdict

The Carcassonne board game is a superb idea and it's brilliantly executed. Lovely, tactile pieces and addictive gameplay will keep you happy for weeks. Meanwhile, you'll spend happy times waiting for your turn by stacking your followers in acrobatic (and sometimes pornographic) formations!

Carcassonne is a superb, modern game design and suitable for most family members, though younger players (and some adults!) may be overwhelmed by the scoring rules.

There are numerous expansion packs available, plus some unofficial updates which occasionally surface on eBay, made by fans of the game for other fans to enjoy.

There's a lot to admire about the concept, from the cute, watercolour-styled tiles to the chunky wooden "Meeple" follower pieces. It's definitely one of the most tactile games we've played.

The game

There is no board as such. A playing field is created as players pull tiles from a central fund (a bag is supplied in one of the expansion packs) and lay them down to create landscape features, including roads, fields and cities. Tiles must be placed with like edges touching. So, for example, a full grass edge can only touch another grass edge; a road can only join to another road.

As the player lays his tile, he can place a follower to claim any feature that has not previously been claimed by another follower. This feature remains under control by the claiming player, unless an opponent manages to share, or even wrest away, control by placing other followers to infiltrate the work in progress!

Many tiles in the Carcassonne board game have multiple options, which is where the fun and strategy comes in. Should you build a new city, or try to infiltrate an opponent's? How about attempting to sabotage a city in progress by laying a road tile leading into it, making it more tricky to complete?

Random tile drawing makes Carcassonne different every time. Points are scored by completing features on the board. Features are cities (minimum of two tiles), roads and cloisters (which are special tiles completed by surrounding them on all sides, including diagonally). When a feature is completed, any followers on it are returned to the player(s) and points are awarded.

The fields are dealt with using special rules at the end of the game.

Farmers (followers placed on fields) serve each city their field touches with food. There can be multiple farmers serving each city, and so the player with the majority of farmers earns points for each city he dominates. Shared cities awards points to all tied players.

The basic set comes with a single starting tile, which features one green edge, one road and one city feature. Recent editions have included 12 extra tiles, originally sold separately, called the River Expansion.

There are special rules for these tiles, but essentially it opens up the field of play much wider from the beginning.

Click here to read part two of the Carcassonne board game review