Carcassonne (board game)
Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and by Rio Grande Games and Z-Man Games in English. It received the Spiel des Jahres and the Deutscher Spiele Preis awards in 2001.
It is named after the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France, famed for its city walls. The game has spawned many expansions and spin-offs, and several PC, console, and mobile versions. A new edition, with updated artwork on the tiles and the box, was released in 2014.
Gameplay
The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses. The game starts with a single specific terrain tile face up and 71 others shuffled face down for the players to draw from. Each player's turn consists of three distinct phases:- Draw and place a terrain tile
- Station a follower on the newly placed tile
- Score completed feature
After placing each newly drawn tile, the placing player may opt to station a marker on a terrain feature of that newly placed tile to claim control of it. However, if the feature is connected to a feature already claimed by another player, the follower cannot be stationed on that feature. When stationing a follower, the marker is placed upright on the feature to claim that feature, except for a field, where the follower is laid down instead to emphasize that fields are not scored until the end of the game; the follower's role depends on the feature claimed, changing from thief/highwayman to knight, monk, or farmer. It is possible for terrain features to become "shared" by opposing players when tile are placed in subsequent turns that connect previously unconnected features. For example, two separate fields can become connected into a single field subsequently by a newly placed terrain tile.
If any feature is completed during a player's turn, the score for the completed feature is counted for the player that controls that feature; after scoring, the controlling "meeple" is removed from the board and returned to the player's stock. Each player has eight followers; since one is used to keep track of the player's score, only seven can be in play at any moment.
The game ends when the last tile has been placed. At that time, all incomplete features score points for the players with the most followers on them. The player with the most points wins the game.
Scoring
During each player's turn, completed cities, cloisters, and roads are scored before that player's turn ends. A player may complete a feature by drawing and placing a tile, claim it by stationing a follower on the newly placed tile, and receive the score for completing it all in the same turn, but the sequence of that turn means the player cannot redeploy the follower after it is returned to their stock. The stationing phase of the turn was completed by claiming the completed feature.Cities are completed when they contain no unfinished edges from which they may be expanded, roads are similarly completed when they have closed both ends or form a loop, and cloisters are completed when surrounded by eight tiles. Points are awarded to the players with the most followers in a feature. If there is a tie for the most followers in any given feature, all of the tied players are awarded the full number of points. Once a city, cloister, or road feature is scored, all of the followers in that feature are returned to their owners. In general, points are awarded for the number of tiles covered by a feature; a completed cloister scores nine points for the cloister plus eight neighboring tiles.
At the end of the game, when there are no tiles remaining, fields and all other claimed but incomplete features are scored. The score of each field is based on the number of completed cities that field touches. It is possible for a field to be completely enclosed by a road without touching any completed cities, or a field can touch only incomplete cities, in which case those fields will score no points.
Older editions
There are two older editions of Carcassonne, differing in scoring of cities and fields. The current scoring rules were introduced in the German version in 2004, but until 2008, the first edition scoring rules were still included with the English releases of Carcassonne. Third edition rules are now included with all editions, and are assumed by all expansions in all languages.In the first and second editions of the game, completed cities covering just two tiles scored two points and one extra point for every pennant that resides in the city. This exception is removed from the third edition, in which there is no difference between "small" two-tile cities and cities of larger size.
The greatest divergence in scoring rules between the editions of Carcassonne is in scoring for fields. In the first edition, fields were considered from the point of view of the cities. The player with the greatest number of farmer/followers adjacent to a city were awarded four points for that city. Thus, followers from different fields contributed to the scoring for a city, and followers on a field may contribute to the scoring for multiple cities. The second edition considered different fields separately – for each field, the players with the greatest number of followers in a field scored three points for each city adjacent to the field, although points were only scored once for any given city. The third edition removes these exceptions and brings field scoring in line with the scoring of other features.
Examples
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Consider the sample game #1 in progress on the 5×5 board shown; there are four complete cities: ** scoring eight points and three two-tile, four-point cities *, *, and *. There are two complete roads, scoring two points each: — and —.
The largest field, bounded on the north by the roads in ——, touches the two complete cities * and * and would score six points at the end of the game, more if the incomplete cities at and * are completed. In addition, the field could be extended by an appropriate piece in to touch the complete city *.
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Consider sample game #2 on the 6×10 board. In this example, followers are stationed on the board according to the capital first letter of the color name: "R"ed, "Y"ellow, "G"reen, "B"lue, and "P"urple, where purple is substituted for "B"lack to avoid confusion with blue.
There are three completed cities at ***, *** and *. It is not possible to complete the city at **; by examination of the available tiles, there is no tile that will fit in to continue all four edges, which also means the city in cannot be completed.
Similarly, because any piece that can be placed in must continue the three bordering edges, that piece in will connect the two fields that are currently claimed by the green farmer in and the red farmers in and alongside the yellow farmers in , , and . If no one else adds a farmer, yellow would claim the field by having the most followers in that merged field. The other shared-field situation is the red farmer in sharing a field with one blue farmer in . However, if a tile is played at , it will connect to the field to the southeast; even though blue would have two farmers in the merged field, including the farmer in , and would control the merged field, that field still does not touch any completed cities and would score no points unless the city at ** is completed.
There are two fields that have been completed and enclosed by loop roads in +++ and +++++++. Neither of these fields touch any completed cities and so they would each score zero points. The Green farmer in is at risk of being enclosed in a loop and cut off from any completed cities.
The three cloisters at , , and include stationed monks because they are not completely surrounded by eight tiles; the two cloisters that are surrounded, at and , are vacant because the claiming player have scored those points. A tile played at would complete the surroundings for the blue monks at and , scoring eighteen points for those followers.
Red has one knight follower in , two thief followers in and , and three farmer followers in , , and ; this means that Red has only one follower remaining that can be stationed unless the roads or city are completed to score and return those followers to their stock. In contrast, purple only has one monk follower on the board at at this time, but that monk is effectively stranded until the end of the game: there is no possible tile that can be played in as there are only two single-road tiles and those are already on the board at and . However, that monk will score eight points at the end of the game. Worse, the green knight follower in will not score any points and is stranded because the city will never be completed. Yellow has three farmer followers, one knight , and one thief ; both the knight and thief remain active and can be returned by completing that city and road, respectively.
Tiles
The original board game has 72 tiles with city, field, and road features; the River mini-expansion adds 12 tiles with river features. The version of the game currently in print includes the River and Abbot mini-expansions.The river tiles are used as an alternative to the standard CRFR start tile and have the same dark-colored back to indicate this. The starting river tile is called the source and the final river tile is called the lake ; players take turns placing all twelve river tiles to start the game, including follower placement and scoring, if relevant, then after the lake river tile has been played, proceed to place the remaining 71 terrain tiles.
Nomenclature
Kárná used a four-character tile code which described the feature on each edge of the tile as either a road, meadow, or city, written clockwise from an arbitrary starting edge. For instance, CRMR would describe the starting tile, starting from the top edge. With three possibilities for each edge, theoretically there are 81 possible tile combinations, but as some are duplicates because the tiles may be rotated arbitrarily, there are actually 24 possible combinations. Capaldi and Kolba, professors of mathematics at Valparaiso University, also counted 24 distinct types amongst the 71 non-river tiles of the starting set, although 5 of these were duplicates of other terrain tiles with the addition of pennant/coat of arms features. They assigned a single letter to each of the 24 types.Reception
Carcassonne is considered to be an excellent "gateway game" by many board game players as it is a game that can be used to introduce new players to board games. In a 2017 Ars Technica holiday buyer's guide, it was described as "one of the absolutely foundational games of the modern board gaming hobby".The rules are simple, no one is ever eliminated, and the play is fast. A typical game, without any expansions, takes about 35 minutes to play. There is a substantial luck component to the game; however, good tactics greatly improve one's chances of winning. Examples of tactical considerations include:
- Conserving followers. Since each player has only seven followers, it can be easy to run out. This is especially important with fewer players, because then each player will play more tiles during the game.
- Joining in on other players' features. Often it is possible to add a separate road or castle segment near a big road or castle and join them up. This allows a player to gain points from their opponents' work.
- Avoiding sharing. An advantage can be gained by preventing other players from getting points. This is more important with fewer players, or if the sharing player is doing well.
- Judicious placement of followers in fields. Followers in the right field can be worth a lot of points. However, once placed, they are there for the whole game.
- Trapping opponents' followers. Not all possible tile configurations exist in the game. So if a player knows which tiles exist or are more common, they can create situations where it is hard or impossible for an opponent to complete some feature. The result is the opponent's follower is stuck in something half-completed.
Reviews
- Games Unplugged #7
- Pyramid
- #9
Expansions
Full expansions
;"Inns and Cathedrals" : Originally known simply as "Carcassonne: The Expansion," Inns and Cathedrals adds some new tiles, and one new figure.- A large figure that counts as two followers, when calculating who scores points for the completed feature.
- Special tiles with Inns and Cathedrals can be placed as part of roads and cities to enhance their value—provided they are completed by the end of the game. Inns add one point per road tile, while Cathedrals add one point per tile or pennant in a city. However, if the city or road is not completed, it has zero value.
- Six 50/100 point tiles to help keep score.
- Followers that allow a sixth player to play
- Trade goods appear in cities and are collected by the player who completes the city, even if they are not the one who scores it.
- A "pig" follower which increases the value of a field it is placed in.
- A "builder" follower which grants an extra turn to the owning player whenever the feature is extended or completed.
- An opaque cloth bag which players can use while drawing tiles.
- Tiles with "magic portals" allow players to place followers on an incomplete feature of a previously placed tile.
- Volcano and Dragon tiles that place and move the dragon.
- Princess tiles and Dragon figure allow for followers to be removed.
- A Fairy figure also allows protection to a follower and its tile from the dragon.
- Eighteen tiles with tower foundations, which allow a player to add a tower section and capture nearby followers.
- Tower pieces to build with.
- A cardboard tile tower for easy tile storage, also acting as a mechanism from which tiles are drawn.
- Abbey tiles that can fill in holes in the board and complete features.
- Mayors who can be placed as followers in cities.
- A barn that causes field scoring.
- Wagons that can score features and then move to a nearby unclaimed and incomplete feature.
- Additional tiles that, in response to fan feedback, fix specific situations that have been previously impossible to complete.
- 12 tiles from River II mini expansion.
- 12 tiles forming the city of Carcassonne as a 3x4 starting tile from the Count mini expansion.
- Count meeple to be placed in the city of Carcassonne.
- 5 tiles from King mini expansion.
- King and Robber Baron tiles for the player/s who have completed the largest city and road respectively.
- 5 tiles with Shrines from the Cult mini expansion.
- A physical catapult.
- 12 fairground tiles that initiate a round using the catapult.
- Tokens to be launched by the catapult.
- 12 Bridge pieces enabling players to bridge roads over field tiles.
- 12 Castle tokens so players can gain additional points from 2-tile cities.
- 12 new tiles, eight featuring bazaars which introduce a new auction element to the game and four miscellaneous tiles.
- 16 sheep tokens, featuring either one, two, three or four sheep each.
- 2 wolf tokens.
- 1 cloth bag for the sheep and wolf tokens.
- 1 "shepherd" follower in each of the six colors.
- 18 new tiles, 8 featuring hills, 8 featuring vineyards and 2 featuring cloisters.
- 20 new tiles, featuring Big Top or Acrobat tower
- 16 animal tokens
- 6 Ringmaster meeples, 1 in each player color
- 1 wooden circus tent figure
Mini expansions
- 12 River tiles that replace the single initial tile.
- King and Robber Baron tiles used to keep track of who built the largest road and city.
- 5 additional tiles, with combinations that were previously missing
- Four siege tiles where Cathars break city walls. These halve the value of the city but double its contribution to field scores. Monasteries allow followers in cities to escape and come back to their players.
- Twelve tiles depicting the city of Carcassonne itself. These replace the initial starting tile and support new game mechanics.
- A count figure, which can block paratrooping.
- 12 new tiles to create a larger, forked river
- A new spring with a road, which separates a field, thereby preventing some very large fields as allowed by the original River.
- 11 additional tiles.
- Six tiles depicting heretical shrines that can be used in rivalries with cloisters and abbeys
- Four new tiles and twelve chips to create tunnels
- Tunnels can also be built with The Princess and the Dragon tunnel entrances
- Six new tiles depicting three pairs of symbols allowing players to add or remove followers from other tiles
- Six new tiles depicting plague zones allowing players to remove followers from tiles.
- Six small tiles numbered from 1 to 6
- 18 flea chips
- 2 additional starting tiles depicting a school with six roads branching off. When a road attached to the school is completed, the player claims the Teacher meeple included, and then gains the same points as the next scored feature, and returning the Teacher to the school.
- Ten additional tiles which allows players to either place a follower as normal, or take one back from any tile.
- Six additional followers, 1 for each color that represent phantoms and allow a second follower to be placed on a turn.
- This is the first expansion that does not include tiles, and is also the first time meeples have been released in plastic. Each meeple is a see-through acrylic of a different color to represent a phantom.
- 0 additional tiles.
- Not compatible with the 10th anniversary edition of the base game
Six stand-alone mini expansions, with each containing a tile for a seventh mini expansion.
; Carcassonne — The Wind Roses
- 6 land tiles with wind roses
- 12 tiles depicting watchtowers with specialized bonuses on each tile.
- Players placing a meeple on the bonus feature of the watchtower tile get the bonus when that feature is completed.
- 24 triangular land tiles
- Includes 4 double-sized tiles that form the market town of Leipzig with 4 roads extending out to replace the starting tile.
- Whenever a player scores on one of the attached road networks, they may move their meeple to one of the 4 quarters of Leipzig and potentially score additional points at the end of the game.
- Includes 6 tiles with fruit trees on them.
- When the fruit-bearing tree tile is placed, 4 tokens are stacked face down on top of it. When another tile is placed adjacent to the fruit-bearing tree tile, the player may either collect the top token from the tree and score the points depicted or sell their collected tokens at the market.
- Includes 6 tiles and 6 toll tokens.
- Instead of placing a meeple, you may place your toll token on an open crossroads. When a road that ends at your tolled crossroads, you score points for the travelers, farms, stables, highwaymen, and gardens on the road.
- Each map sold separately.
- Set of 30 chips sold separately
- Map selections include France, Benelux, Great Britain, Península Ibérica, Deutschland, USA West und East, Taiwan, Nordics, and Ukraine.
- 12 terrain tiles with icons denoting revolt in a city, road, or cloister
- 25 cards
- "12 new land tiles, each depicting 2 of 3 different types of signposts"
- 10 bookmaker tiles & 36 betting chips
- spin-off played as a cooperative game, or acts as a competitive expansion called Ghosts, Castles and Cemeteries
- 60 land tiles, 4x4 starting tile, scoring track with 2 hound tiles and 1 goal tile, 30 guard meeples, 15 ghosts
Compilations
- The original game,
- Inns and Cathedrals
- Traders and Builders
- The Princess and the Dragon
- Tower
- River
- Cult
- Siege
- Two blank white tiles for use in making custom expansions
- The original game
- Inns and Cathedrals
- Traders and Builders
- The Princess and the Dragon
- Abbey and Mayor
- Count, King and Cult
- River II
- 72 tiles with some new/different tiles as compared to the original base game.
- 40 followers and a scoreboard.
- A new start-tile which depicts the Wheel of Fortune
- The Wheel of Fortune – a new mechanic based on icons on 16 tiles allowing an element of "fate" into the game. Events that can be triggered include famine, plague, and fortune, among others.
- A large pink pig animeeple that moves along the rim of the wheel.
- The original game
- Inns and Cathedrals
- Traders and Builders
- The Princess and the Dragon
- Abbey and Mayor
- Bridges, Castles and Bazaars
- The original game,
- The Festival
- Meeple shaped storage box
- Acrylic meeples
- The original game
- Inns and Cathedrals
- Traders and Builders
- Mini Expansion 1 – The Flying Machines
- Mini Expansion 2 – The Messengers
- Mini Expansion 3 – The Ferries
- Mini Expansion 4 – The Gold Mines
- Mini Expansion 5 – Mage & Witch
- Mini Expansion 6 – The Robbers
- Mini Expansion 7 – The Crop Circles II
- The original game
- Inns and Cathedrals
- Traders and Builders
- Hills & Sheep
- The Wheel of Fortune
- Mini Expansion – The River
- New Meeples for 7 & 8 player games
- The new edition of the original game with river and abbot expansions
- Inns and Cathedrals
- Traders and Builders
- Mini Expansion 1 – The Flying Machines
- Mini Expansion 2 – The Messengers
- Mini Expansion 3 – The Ferries
- Mini Expansion 4 – The Gold Mines
- Mini Expansion 5 – Mage & Witch
- Mini Expansion 6 – The Robbers
- ''Mini Expansion 7 – The Crop Circles II''
Spin-offs
;Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers : Hunters and Gatherers is a stand-alone game that involves the building of forests, rivers and wildlife rather than cities and roads. This game attempted to rectify some perceived faults in the original by eliminating cloisters, introducing a "special tile" system to encourage players to complete cities owned by other players, and making the value of meadows vary both up and down with animals that appear on the tiles.
;The [Ark of the Covenant |The Ark of the Covenant] : Ark is a biblical-themed version of Carcassonne by Inspiration Games based on the Old Testament, which includes the animal feature found in Hunters and Gatherers, as well as the Ark itself which may be moved in lieu of follower placement, scoring points for followers that they pass through.
;Carcassonne: The Castle : The Castle is a two-player spin-off, designed by Reiner Knizia, where the game is played within the confines of a fixed castle. Players gain extra abilities by scoring an exact number of points, and tile placement rules are relaxed. A downloadable expansion called The Falcon was released in 2015.
;Carcassonne: The City : The City is a "deluxe-style" stand-alone game similar to The Castle, where tile placement is relaxed. The significant new rules involve the addition of city walls when the city grows beyond a certain size.
;Carcassonne: The Discovery : An exploration-themed stand-alone game that involves mountains, seas and meadows. The significant change in this game is that followers are no longer automatically removed when a terrain feature is completed: they must be removed as a game action, in lieu of placing a new follower that turn. Players may choose to remove a follower from, and score for, a terrain feature before it is completed, albeit for fewer points; followers remaining on the map at the end of the game also suffer a score penalty even if the features they are standing on are completed.
;New World: A Carcassonne Game : New World is a stand-alone game that allows players to play Carcassonne in the New World, aka America. Players begin the basic tile-laying from a coastal edge and move westward, creating towns, hunting, farming, and trail blazing as they go along. Although terminology has changed, this game follows the basic rules of Carcassonne very closely but is more restricted than the basic game.
;My First Carcassonne : Unveiled at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in February 2009 this is a short game for younger children inspired by Carcassonne, designed by Marco Teubner.
;Cardcassonne : This is a card game based on Carcassonne.
;Carcassonne: The Dice Game, 2011: A set of 9 specialized dice with city segments, meeples, and catapults, where players roll the dice to create cities to gain points.
;Carcassonne: Winter Edition : is a standalone Carcassonne game where the tiles are depicted with Winter Snow, the set contains the base-72-tiles plus an additional 12 tiles. An expansion called The Gingerbreadman was released in 2012.
;Carcassonne: South Seas : South Seas is the first title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series. A tropical-themed version, varying gameplay by adding a resource element that affects the point score. An expansion called Friday was released in 2013.
;Carcassonne: Gold Rush : Gold Rush is the second title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series of tile-laying games. Gold Rush, players return to the 19th century in the United States. Players mine for gold and complete railroads to score points. A new mechanic is the Tent which can be used to steal Golden Tokens from other players before they complete their mountain. An expansion called The Sheriff was released in 2014.
;Carcassonne: Over Hill and Dale : Over Hill and Dale is a standalone game in the Carcassonne series. In this new game, towns and castles are replaced by fields of fruits and vegetables. Fruit is collected, stables are built to house animals, and paths can be walked down to score points.
;Carcassonne: Star Wars : In this Star Wars version, the known rules of Carcassonne are simplified by removing the farmer mechanic, but Cloisters are replaced with Planets that can be attacked, by rolling dice to beat one's opponent. Co-op play is introduced with a 2v2 mechanism. A boxed expansion for this game was released in 2016.
;Carcassonne: Amazonas : Amazonas is the third title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series. It takes players to the Amazon rainforest, where players can expand villages, forests, and the Amazon River and tributaries.
;Carcassonne: Safari : Safari is the fourth title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series.
Video games
;Carcassonne for Facebook: A Facebook application.;Carcassonne for iOS: An iPhone and iPad application developed by TheCodingMonkeys. This version has a Metacritic rating of 93% based on 10 critic reviews.
;Carcassonne for Windows Phone: An Xbox Live-enabled Windows Phone 8 application.
;Carcassonne on mobile- and smartphones : Developed by exozet games. Release: July/August 2011.
;Carcassonne: The Computer Game: A PC-based version of Carcassonne that included AI, online, and hotseat modes. It was distributed only in Germany by games company Koch Media and discontinued in 2006.
;Carcassonne on BrettspielWelt : Includes the expansions: The River, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, Princess & Dragon, and King & Scout, as well as options to score based on different rulesets used across various editions of the game.
;Carcassonne for Xbox 360: In 2006, Microsoft announced in a press release that Carcassonne would be an Xbox Live Arcade title alongside Catan and Alhambra. The title was published by Sierra Online and released on 27 June 2007; it includes all the tiles of the original game and those of "The River" expansion. This version of the game uses the 3rd Edition scoring rules by default; the game allows alternate and/or older rules for non-ranked and single player games. Sierra had promised to release the expansions as well. As of 30 October 2009, The River II expansion and King & Baron expansions are available. On 15 November 2007, Microsoft made Carcassonne available free of charge for seven days to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their Xbox Live service.
;Carcassonne for Nintendo DS: Video game news website Kotaku announced on 9 July 2009 that an iteration of the game would be released on Nintendo DS in 2009. The game includes the "River" expansion as well as three new "worlds" described as "Asian, Nordic and Arabic."
;JCloisterZone:A PC-based application implemented in Java.
;"Age of Thieves":A game made for AmigaOS 4.1
;Concarneau:A web version of the game implemented in JavaScript.
;Carcassonne: Tiles & Tactics:The official adaptation of the board game published on Steam. The game includes the Abbots and the River expansion as a DLC. A Nintendo Switch port based on Tiles and Tactics was announced in a September Nintendo Direct and released on 29 November 2017.
Tournaments
The format of competitive Carcassonne tournaments is to use only the base game of Carcassonne and for games to be between only two players.International Carcassonne tournaments were held in Germany in 2003–2005.
World Championship
The first official Carcassonne World Championship was held at SPIEL in Essen, Germany, in 2006. An annual world championship has been held at SPIEL every year since 2006 with the exceptions of the 2010 and the 2023 championships, which were held during SPIEL but at an alternate location in Herne, Germany; and the 2020 edition which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Qualification for the World Championship is primarily reserved for national champions, along with the defending World Champion. Since 2023 a number of additional wildcard qualifications have been granted. This has included the winner of the Mind Sports Olympiad online championship, and top ranking teams of the World Teams Online Championship. In the 2021, each country was allowed to participate with two players, following the cancellation of the 2020 edition.
Ralph Querfurth has been the World Champion in four editions. Pantelis Litsardopoulos is the only other player to have won the World Championship on more than one occasion, having reached the final in five consecutive years. Els Bulten is the only female champion.
| Year | World Champion | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Participants | |||||||||||
| 2006 |  Mind Sports OlympiadSince 2020 the Mind Sports Olympiad have run open international tournaments in a similar format to the World Championships. For 2020 and 2021 only an online tournament was held, but since 2022 both online and in-person tournaments have been held in London.Online Tournaments
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