Carcassonne: The City

by Gary Sonnenberg

(Waukesha, WI)

Carcassonne: The City expansion
Board game manufacturer:
Rio Grande Games
Number of players:
2-4
Ages:
10yrs+
Time:
45 mins

Quick verdict

If you like the original Carcassonne, you’ll probably appreciate the variety that Carcassonne: The City offers. If you’re new to Carcassonne, you’ll enjoy the strategic opportunities this game affords.

The game and gameplay

The City is a tile-laying board game in which you create the board as you go. Most of the game involves drawing a random tile, placing it into the playing area (adjacent to any tiles already there), and optionally placing a meeple (little wooden person) on the tile you just played.You can stand your meeple on a road, in a colored (red, blue, or yellow) market, or lay him down outside a market to score for any markets he controls at the end of the game. When a road is completed, you score 1 point per tile or 2, if the road is more than 3 tiles long. When a market is completed, you score the number of tiles times the number of colors in the market.

Carcassonne: The City expansionAfter you play 30 tiles, some new rules kick in. The next time that someone causes scoring, he plays a special gate piece anywhere along the outer edge of the current board. Each of the other players then places a section of wall on either side of the gate.

When you place a wall, you have the option of standing one of your meeples on top of it (where he will remain until the end of the game). Such guard meeples will score points for the row or column of tiles they oversee. Tiles in that row or column that have special gray buildings will score 2 points per building or 3, if the building has a banner flying over it.

After walls are placed, the player who caused the original scoring has the option of placing one of his towers at the end of a wall, which scores 1 point for each section of wall between the current tower and the gate or previously-placed tower.

After 25 more tiles have been placed, the next time someone causes scoring there will be 2 rounds of wall placement before the optional tower building.

The game ends when all 20 remaining tiles have been played or when the two ends of the city wall are within 5 tile sides of each other.

Pros and cons

Carcassonne: The City makes you think more about scoring opportunities than basic Carcassonne (without expansions) does.

One small drawback with this version is that you can’t play with more than 4 people.

The verdict

For lots of fun with tiles and meeples packed into a relatively short amount of time, play Carcassonne: The City.

If you’ve played Carcassonne: The City, please leave a rating and comments using the link below.