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The unique concept behind Carcassonne has players actually constructing the board as they play, interlocking the finely-crafted selection of 72 tiles that comprise the game and scoring points based on how many cities, roads, fields and cloisters (monk houses) they develop and control. Amazon.com: carcassonne board game. Ravensburger The Castles of Burgundy Board Game - Fun Strategy Game That's Easy to Learn and Play with Great Replay Value.

Rating:8.1 Very Good
Popularity:121
Difficulty:Very easy
Year:2000
Players: 2-5 players
Playing time: 30-45 minutes
Age:8+

Official Site:Official Z-Man Product Page (English)


Created by: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, Doris Matthäus, Anne Pätzke, Chris Quilliams

Published by: Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH, 999 Games, Albi

Alternate Names: Carcassonne Jubilee Edition, Carcassonne: Plus, Domínio de Carcassonne, Τα Κάστρα του Μυστρά, Каркасон

Description:

Carcassonne is a tile-laying game that is suitable for 2 till 5 players.

With its simple rules, depth of strategy, and large number of available expansions, it's considered by many to be a perfect 'gateway' to strategic boardgames.

The game comes with over 70 land tiles that are high quality and surprisingly detailed.

The starting tile has a different color on the backside, making it easy to find.

All tiles have a combination of city, road, field and monastery segments printed on them.

The game play of Carcassonne is very simple. The game starts with a starting tile. The rest of the tiles are mixed and placed face-down on the table.

Players gets during his turn 4 actions:

Carcassonne Board Game Strategy
  1. Draw a tile
  2. Place a tile
  3. Deploy a follower
  4. Score points by completed roads, cities or cloisters

All subsequent tiles are built off that single tile. You can place new tiles in any direction as long as they match the connecting tiles (roads must connect, city walls must connect, etc...). Don't worry, there's almost always a legal placement for a tile.

The game board will be built out organically as the game progresses into a beautiful, evolving arrangement of tiles that form an intricate landscape of controlled territories.

City walls start to enclose a city area, cloisters appear in the countryside and roads meander across the land, connecting some of the other features.

After you placed a title, you determine whether or not you want to put one of your 7 followers (meeples) on that tile.

You can't place a follower within a terrain that already contains a follower. So, if you placed a tile with a city segment next to an existing city with already a follower, then you can't put a follower on your tile.

Once a follower has been placed, it stays there until the feature it has claimed is finished.

Through the placement of their followers, players claim different completed features to gain more points for victory. You score extra points when you complete:

  • cities (all edges are closed off)
  • cloisters (all surrounding 8 tiles are placed)
  • Roads(each end of the road is connected to a crossing, city, cloister or when the road forms a closed loop)

Before a city, cloister, or road can be scored, it must first be determined who owns it, because there can be multiple followers in a single completed location.

The player with the most followers in the terrains scores all the points.

The endgame is very important. You need to make judgments based on what the board looks like and how many tiles are still available to be turned over by you. Someone else may not make a play that benefits you. (i.e. Don't place a new meeple in a city if you can't expand the city further).

When all tiles are exhausted, the game ends. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

To win in Carcassonne you need a mix of luck, timing and strategy. Always keep a follower on hand and place your tiles at the best places. Look for the best scoring possibility and don't concentrate on one feature at a time since tiles come out randomly.

Spread your interests and keep several different half-finished features on the go.

The game of Carcassonne is based on an actual southern French city which is famous for its heavily fortified walls and other features of the countryside.

Carcassonne came out in 2000 and won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) in 2001.

Due to the immense popularity of the game during the first 5 years of release, the game has seen over many expansions come to the market.

The game has endless replay value and the expansions will offer new elements.

Prices:
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Expansions:
20 Jahre Darmstadt Spielt
Carcassonne: Abbey & Mayor
Carcassonne: Bonusplättchen Spiel 2014
Carcassonne: Bonusplättchen Spiel 2015
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Awards:
Ludo Award Best Board Game Editor's Choice Winner 2012
Vuoden Peli Family Game of the Year Winner 2004
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Hra roku Nominee 2004
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Game Components

  • 70 Land tiles showing roads, cities, fields and monasteries. There is one start tile with a darker back.

    The 12 river tiles are not part of the basic game but have the same back as the start tile.

  • 40 followers in 5 colors.Each player will use one of their followers as a score marker.
  • One scoreboard.
  • One rulebook and 1 player aid.

Setup

The start tile is placed in the center of the table, while the scoreboard is placed on the edge of the table. …



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Carcassonne
Designer(s)Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Publisher(s)
  • Hans im Glück (Germany)
  • Z-Man Games (UK, US)
  • 999 Games (Netherlands)
  • Фантасмагория (Bulgaria)
  • Lautapelit.fi (Finland)
  • Κάισσα (Greece)
  • Brain Games (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
  • メビウスゲームズ (Japan)
  • Giochi Uniti (Italy)
  • Piatnik Budapest Kft. (Hungary)
  • Devir (Spain, Portugal, Brazil)
  • Grow (Brazil)
  • MINDOK (Czech Republic, Poland)
  • Rio Grande Games (Sweden)
  • Hobby World (Russia)
Publication date2000; 19 years ago
Genre(s)
Players2–5 (6–8 with expansion)
Setup time1–5 minutes
Playing time30–90 minutes
Random chanceMedium

Carcassonne is a tile-basedGerman-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 (until 2012) and Z-Man Games (currently)[1] in English.[2] It received the Spiel des Jahres and the Deutscher Spiele Preis awards in 2001.

It is named after the medievalfortified 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.

  • 1Gameplay
    • 1.1Scoring
  • 4Expansions

Gameplay[edit]

A follower (or 'meeple') on a tile, showing the walls and buildings of the town.

The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses. The game starts with a single terrain tile face up and 71 others shuffled face down for the players to draw from. On each turn a player draws a new terrain tile and places it adjacent to tiles that are already face up. The new tile must be placed in a way that extends features on the tiles it touches: roads must connect to roads, fields to fields, and cities to cities.

After placing each new tile, the placing player may opt to station a piece (called a 'follower' or 'meeple') on a feature of that newly placed tile. The placing player may not use a follower to claim any features of the tile that extend or connect features already claimed by another player. However, it is possible for terrain features claimed by opposing players to become 'shared' by the subsequent placement of tiles connecting them. For example, two separate field tiles (each with a follower) can become connected into a single field by another terrain tile.

The game ends when the last tile has been placed. At that time, all features (including fields) score points for the players with the most followers on them. The player with the most points wins the game.

Scoring[edit]

During the players' turns, cities, cloisters, and roads (but not fields) are scored when they are completed—cities and roads when they are completed (i.e. contain no unfinished edges from which they may be expanded), and cloisters when surrounded by eight tiles. At the end of the game, when there are no tiles remaining, all incomplete features are scored. 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. In general (see table), points are awarded for the number of tiles covered by a feature; cloisters score for neighboring tiles; and fields score based on the number of connected completed cities.

Once a feature is scored, all of the followers in that feature are returned to their owners.

FeatureCompleted during playGame end
City2 points per tile + 2 points per pennant1 point per tile + 1 point per pennant
Road1 point per tile
Cloister1 point + 1 point for each of the surrounding tiles
Fields(Not scored)3 points for each completed city bordering the field.

Older editions[edit]

There are two older editions of Carcassonne, differing in scoring of cities and fields. Though, until recently, the first edition scoring rules were included with English releases of Carcassonne, third edition rules[3] are now included with all editions (including the Xbox 360 and travel versions), 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 (one per tile) and one extra point for every pennant that resides in the city.[a] This exception is removed from the third edition, in which there is no difference between 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, the players with the greatest number of 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.

Game interest[edit]

Walls of Carcassonne in France

Carcassonne is considered to be an excellent 'gateway game' by many board game players[4] as it is a game that can be used to introduce new players to board games. The rules are simple, no one is ever eliminated, and the play is fast. A typical game, without any expansions, takes about 45 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.

Box contents[edit]

Distribution of tiles of Carcassonne, including The River expansion categorised by number of city and road boundaries

The 2000 base box contains the following items:

  • 72 terrain tiles, each 45 mm (1.8 in) × 45 mm (1.8 in) × 2 mm (0.079 in)
  • 1 score table of up to 50 points
  • 40 wood followers in 5 colors (8 followers of each color)
  • Instructions on 4 sheets

The 2014 redesign contains the same items as the original and also adds the following items:

  • 5 Abbot followers (1 in each color)
  • 12 tiles from the River expansion.

Expansions[edit]

Carcassonne with several expansions simultaneously.

Several official expansions for Carcassonne have been published, which add numerous additional rules, tiles and new kinds of figures. Together, they can more than double the length of the game. These expansions are generally compatible with each other and may be played together.

Full expansions[edit]

'Inns and Cathedrals' ('Wirtshäuser und Kathedralen', 2002)(2015 New Edition)
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 (grey 2002)(pink 2015)
'Traders and Builders' ('Händler und Baumeister', 2003)(2015 New Edition)
Adds additional tile types, two new figures, and trade good tiles.
  • 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 (thus encouraging the completion of other people's cities).
  • 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.
'The Princess and the Dragon' ('Burgfräulein und Drache', 2005)(2016 New Edition)
The Princess and the Dragon adds new tiles and figures.
  • 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.
'The Tower' ('Der Turm', March 2006)(2016 New Edition)
The Tower adds a vertical element to Carcassonne, adding new tiles and tower pieces.
  • Eighteen tiles with towerfoundations, 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 and Mayor' ('Abtei und Bürgermeister', October 2007)(2016 New Edition)
Another full-sized expansion, featuring:
  • 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.
'Count, King & Robber' ('Graf, König und Konsorten', 2008)(2017 New Edition)
  • 12 tiles from River II mini expansion.
  • 12 tiles forming the city of Carcassonne as a 3x4 starting tile from the Count mini expansion. (New Edition has 2 large (2x3) tiles that form the city.)
  • 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. (New edition also has 2 King and 2 Robber Baron tokens to mark the largest city and road scored so far.)
  • 5 tiles with Shrines from the Cult mini expansion.
'The Catapult' ('Das Katapult', 2008)
An expansion, featuring:
  • A physical catapult.
  • 12 fairground tiles that initiate a round using the catapult.
  • Tokens to be launched by the catapult.
'Bridges, Castles & Bazaars' ('Brücken, Burgen und Basare', February 2010)(2018 New Edition)
An expansion, featuring:
  • 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.
'Hills & Sheep' ('Schafe und Hügel', June 2014)(2018 New Edition)
An expansion, featuring:
  • 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 (one for each player).
  • 18 new tiles, 8 featuring hills, 8 featuring vineyards and 2 featuring cloisters.
'Under the Big Top' ('Manege Frei', March 2017)
An expansion, featuring:
  • 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[edit]

Carcassonne — The River (Carcassonne — Der Fluss, 2001)
Originally distributed for free as a give-away by the publisher at trade fairs. It was being included with many purchased versions by 2004. Early 2009 saw a slightly different version available at stores. The 2007 Xbox Live Arcade version includes a toggle option for the expansion. This expansion was added to the base game in August 2012, and also included in the 2014 Redesign of the base game.
  • 12 River tiles that replace the single initial tile.
Carcassonne – King and Scout (Carcassonne – König und Späher, 2003)
'King and Scout' is two expansions: King for Carcassonne and Scout for Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers.
  • 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
Carcassonne – The Cathars (Carcassonne – Die Katharer, 2004)
Originally published in the German board game magazine Spielbox, and republished in their Carcassonnealmanac with an English translation.
  • 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.
The Count of Carcassonne (Der Graf von Carcassonne, 2004)
Via new tiles, provides an incentive to complete other players' features: when a player does so, that player may place a follower in the city of Carcassonne, and then later move that follower into a feature as it completed (commonly known as 'paratrooping').
  • 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.
Carcassonne — The River II (Der Fluss II, November 2005)
Similar to the original River expansion, The River II tiles include features from previous expansions, for example a volcano to invoke the dragon. The 2012 Xbox Windows Phone version includes a toggle option for the expansion.
  • 12 new tiles to create a larger, forked river
Carcassonne – The Mini-Expansion (Winter 2006)
Published in Games Quarterly Magazine, Issue No. 11,
  • 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.
Carcassonne – The Cult (Carcassonne – Die Kultstätte, 2007)
Published originally in Count, King & Robber, then republished as a standalone expansion in Spielbox: Hans im Glück Almanach 2008. Later available by Rio Grande Games in Cult, Siege & Creativity,
  • Six tiles depicting heretical shrines that can be used in rivalries with cloisters and abbeys
Carcassonne — Tunnel (Carcassonne – Der Tunnel, 2009)
Published in Spielbox: Issue 2009/6
  • Four new tiles and twelve chips to create underground tunnels
  • Tunnels can also be built with The Princess and the Dragon tunnel entrances
Carcassonne – Crop Circles (Carcassonne – Die Kornkreise, 2010)
Published with German versions of the Carcassonne base game.
  • Six new tiles depicting three pairs of symbols allowing players to add or remove followers from other tiles
Carcassonne – The Plague (Carcassonne – Die Pest, 2010)
Published in Spielbox, Issue 2010/6
  • Six new tiles depicting plague zones allowing players to remove followers from tiles.
  • Six small tiles numbered from 1 to 6
  • 18 flea chips
Carcassonne — The School (Carcassonne — Die Schule, 2011)
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.
Carcassonne — The Festival (Carcassonne — Das Fest, 2011) (2016 New Edition - 15th Anniversary)
Included as a bonus with the 10th anniversary edition of the base game.
  • Ten additional tiles (1 for each year since the game's release represent the festival) which allows players to either place a follower as normal, or take one back from any tile.
Carcassonne — The Phantom (Carcassonne — Das Gefolge, 2011)
Released as stand-alone mini expansion
  • 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 (10th edition replaced all of the wooden meeples with the same plastic meeples used in the phantom expansion, which makes it impossible to tell them apart even though they would use new rules)
Carcassonne Minis (2012)

Carcassonne Board Game Strategy Guide

Six stand-alone mini expansions, with each containing a tile for a seventh mini expansion.

1. Carcassonne — The Flying Machines (Carcassonne — Die Fluggeräte)

Carcassonne Game Online

  • 8 tiles which allow the player to 'fly' to claim an unfinished feature (even if already occupied), or to 'crash' by landing where there are no tiles, by rolling a die that gives only 1/2/3.
  • 1 Custom Die
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.

2. Carcassonne — The Messengers (Carcassonne — Die Depeschen)

  • 6 new Messenger Meeple for the scorecard which allow for possible bonus points by drawing from a new stack of action tiles.
  • 8 action tiles
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.

3. Carcassonne — The Ferries (Carcassonne — Die Fähren)

  • 8 tiles featuring roads leading to lakes. Players may place an included ferry piece to extend a road.
  • 8 Ferry pieces
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.

4. Carcassonne — The Gold Mines (Carcassonne — Die Goldminen)

  • 8 tiles which incorporate the included gold bar pieces, which allow for bonus points at the end of the game
  • 16 Gold Bar pieces
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.

5. Carcassonne — Mage & Witch (Carcassonne — Magier & Hexe)

  • 8 tiles which allow placement of the Mage or Witch on incomplete features. Resulting in adjusted scoring when completed.
  • 1 Mage figure & 1 Witch figure
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.

6. Carcassonne — The Robbers (Carcassonne — Die Räuber)

  • 8 tiles which allow placement of a Robber, resulting in stealing some of another player's points.
  • 6 Robber Meeples
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.

7. Carcassonne — Corn Circles II (Carcassonne – Die Kornkreise)

  • 6 tiles making a new Corn Circles expansion composed of each of the bonus tiles from the 6 minis.
  • Corn circles allow for placement of a second follower in a feature already claimed by that player, or to remove a follower from the board.
  • Different Corn Circle tiles from that of the previous Corn Circles expansion. (Can both be combined for more Corn Circles.)
  • Not available as a stand alone.
Carcassonne — The Watchtower (Carcassonne — Die Wachtürme, 2014)
Released through cundco.de, includes 12 tiles depicting watchtowers with specialized bonuses on each tile. When a player places a meeple on the bonus feature of the watchtower tile, he or she gets the bonus when that feature is completed.
Carcassonne — The Markets of Leipzig (Carcassonne — Die Märkte zu Leipzig, 2017)
Released through cundco.de, 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.
Carcassonne — The Fruit-bearing Trees (Carcassonne — Die Obstbäume, 2018)
Released through cundco.de, 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.

Compilations[edit]

Carcassonne Big Box
  • The original game,
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • The Princess and the Dragon
  • Tower
  • River (only in Rio Grande version)
Carcassonne — Cult, Siege, and Creativity (2008)
  • Cult (with one additional tile)
  • Siege (an adaptation of the Cathars expansion)
  • Two blank white tiles for use in making custom expansions
Carcassonne Big Box 2 (2008, 2009)
This Big Box is the same size as the previous Big Box, but with a slightly different component mix.
  • The original game
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • The Princess and the Dragon
  • Abbey and Mayor
  • Count, King and Cult
  • River II
'Wheel of Fortune' ('Das Schicksalsrad', July 2009)
A full replacement for the base game and/or expansion, featuring:
  • 72 tiles with some new/different tiles as compared to the original base game.
  • 40 followers (in 5 colors) 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.
Carcassonne Big Box 3 (2010, 2011)
  • The original game
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • The Princess and the Dragon
  • Abbey and Mayor
  • Bridges, Castles and Bazaars
Carcassonne 10 year anniversary edition (2011)
A stand alone release of the original game to celebrate the 10th anniversary with special packaging, 'crystal' meeples made from see through acrylic and a special mini expansion, the festival.
  • The original game,
  • The Festival
  • Meeple shaped storage box (holds only the base game and meeples, no room for expansions)
  • Acrylic meeples (not compatible with phantom expansion which uses the same figures to create new rules options)
Carcassonne Big Box 4 (2012)
This Big Box edition is published by Z-Man Games.
  • 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
Carcassonne Big Box 5 (2014)
This Big Box edition is published by Z-Man Games.
  • 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
Carcassonne Big Box 6 (2017)
This Big Box edition is published by Z-Man 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

Spinoffs[edit]

Carcassonne Board Game Online

Comparison of the starting tile and tile backs for the basic game (center) with two spin-offs: The Ark of the Covenant (left) and Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (right).

Following the success of Carcassonne, a number of games have been spun off from the main game, all sharing similar mechanics. There is also a travel-sized version of the original game, Travel Carcassonne (Reise-Carcassonne), released in 2007.

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (Carcassonne: Die Jäger und Sammler, 2002)
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 (now forests) 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 (2003)
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 (Carcassonne: Die Burg, 2003)
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 (Carcassonne: Die Stadt, 2004)
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 (Carcassonne: Neues Land, 2005)
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 (Carcassonne: Mayflower, 2008)
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 (Die Kinder von Carcassonne, 2009)
Unveiled at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in February 2009[5] this is a short game for younger children inspired by Carcassonne, designed by Marco Teubner.[6][7]
Cardcassonne (2009)
This is a card game based on Carcassonne.[8]
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 (2012)
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 .[9] An expansion called The Gingerbreadman was released in 2012.
A game of Carcassonne: South Seas
Carcassonne: South Seas (Carcassonne: Südsee, 2013)
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.[10] An expansion called Friday was released in 2013.
Carcassonne: Gold Rush (Carcassonne: Goldrausch, 2014)
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 (Carcassonne: Über Stock und Stein, 2015)
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 (Carcassonne: Star Wars, 2015)
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 (2016)
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 (2018)
Safari is the fourth title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series.

Video games[edit]

Carcassonne for Facebook
A Facebook application.[11]
Carcassonne for iOS
An iPhone and iPad application developed by TheCodingMonkeys.[12] This version has a Metacritic rating of 93% based on 10 critic reviews.[13]
Carcassonne for Windows Phone
An Xbox Live-enabled Windows Phone 8 application.
Carcassonne on mobile- and smartphones (Android, J2ME)
Developed by exozet games. Release: July/August 2011.[14]
Carcassonne: The Computer Game
A PC-based version of Carcassonne that included AI, online, and hotseat modes.[15] It was distributed only in Germany[15] by games company Koch Media[16] and discontinued in 2006.[17]
Carcassonne on BrettspielWelt (BSW)
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[18] alongside Catan and Alhambra. The title was published by Sierra Online and released on 27 June 2007;[19] 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 (King & Scout) 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.[20]
Carcassonne for Nintendo DS
Video game news website Kotaku announced on 9 July 2009 that an iteration of the game will be released on Nintendo DS in 2009. According to Kotaku, the game will include the 'River' expansion as well as three new 'worlds' described as 'Asian, Nordic and Arabic.'[21]
JCloisterZone
A PC-based application implemented in Java.[22]
'Age of Thieves'
A game made for AmigaOS 4.1
Concarneau
A web version of the game implemented in JavaScript.[23]
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.[24] A port based on Tiles and Tactics (Asmodee Digital). It was announced in a September Nintendo Direct. It was released on 29 November 2017.[25]

Tournaments and World Championships[edit]

International Carcassonne tournaments were held in Germany in 2003–2005.[26]

The first official Carcassonne world championship was held at SPIEL in Essen, Germany, in 2006,[27] and every year after that. The fifth was held on 24 October 2010 during SPIEL but in an alternate location in Herne, Germany. Ralph Querfurth has been the World Champion in four editions.[28]

YearWorld Champion2nd3rd4thParticipants
2006Ralph Querfurth Michael Wischounig David Korejtko David Erdos16
2007Sebastian Trunz Chen Wei-Chi Janne Jaula Henrik Fürstenberg20
2008Ralph Querfurth Martin Mojžiš Sebastian Trunz Stefan Leopoldseder20
2009Ralph Querfurth Daniel Geromboux Matej Tabak Petri Savola20
2010Ralph Querfurth Martin Mojžiš Matej Tabak Randy Dreger22
2011Els Bulten Shinnosuke Komukai Robert Mützner Martin Moijzis24
2012Martin Mojžiš Stefan Leopoldseder Matej Tabak Els Bulten26
2013Pantelis Litsardopoulos Martin Mojžiš Aleksejs Peguševs Marciej Smieszek36
2014 Takafumi Mochiduki Pantelis Litsardopoulos Matej Tabak Ricardo Gomes34
2015Pantelis Litsardopoulos Takafumi Mochizuki Els Bulten Humberto Fukuda32
2016Vladimir Kovalev Pantelis Litsardopoulos Vannes Vansina Matej Tabak36
2017Tomasz Preuss Pantelis Litsardopoulos Davide Sandrin Matej Tabak38
2018 Genro Fujimoto Marian Curcan Kolja Stratmann Tomasz Preuss34

References[edit]

  1. ^Miller, Elliott. 'Carcassonne Moving to Z-Man Games'. The Gaming Gang. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  2. ^Schend, Steven E. (2007). 'Carcassonne'. In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 46–48. ISBN978-1-932442-96-0.
  3. ^'Third Edition Rules'. Rio Grande Games. 13 December 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  4. ^Wheeler, Adam. 'Carcassonne review'. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  5. ^'News from Nurnberg'. Rio Grande Games. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
  6. ^'Kids of Carcassonne'. Rio Grande Games. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
  7. ^'Die Kinder von Carcassonne'. BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  8. ^'Cardcassonne'. BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  9. ^'Carcassonne: Winter Edition'. BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  10. ^'Carcassonne: South Seas'. BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  11. ^'Carcassonne for Facebook'. Archived from the original on 12 January 2014.
  12. ^'Carcassonne for iPhone and iPod Touch'.
  13. ^'Carcassonne'. Metacritic.
  14. ^'exozet develops Android and J2ME version of board game classic Carcassonne'. Archived from the original on 1 April 2011.
  15. ^ abShannon Appelcline (20 April 2005). 'Review of Carcassonne: The Computer Game'. RPG.net. Retrieved 8 February 2011. Carcassonne: The Computer Game is a high-quality adaptation of the SdJ-award-winning Carcassonne tile game by Koch Media for Windows PCs... This computer game is currently available only in Germany
  16. ^'Koch Media concludes 'Carcassonne' licensing contract for Nintendo DS'. Deepsilver. 30 June 2009. Archived from the original on 9 July 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2011. As early as 2002, Koch Media published the first PC version of 'Carcassonne'
  17. ^'Carcassonne for PC newsfeed' (in German). KOCH Media. 1 January 2006. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2011. Carcassonne, Carcassonne add-on and Carcassonne King and collector since 1.1.2006 no longer available. (Carcassonne, Carcassonne Add-On und Carcassonne König und Sammler ist seit 1.1.2006 nicht mehr erhältlich.)
  18. ^'Microsoft Offers More Ways to Play Games for Windows and Xbox 360 at German Games Convention'. Archived from the original on 8 September 2007.
  19. ^Porcaro, John (25 June 2007). 'Build a Medieval Empire on Xbox LIVE Arcade with the Popular German Board Game Carcassonne'. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007.
  20. ^Mark Wilson (13 November 2007). 'Xbox LIVE Turns Five, Gives Away Carcassonne'. Kotaku. Retrieved 8 February 2011. Carcassonne, an already released XBLA board game, will be available for free download
  21. ^Plunkett, Luke (9 July 2009). 'Carcassonne Coming to a DS Near You'.
  22. ^'JCloisterZone – Java implementation of Carcassonne board game'.
  23. ^'Concarneau – web version of the Carcassonne board game'.
  24. ^'Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactic on Steam'.
  25. ^'Carcassonne Steam store page'. Steam.
  26. ^'Carcassonne International Championship 2003'. Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  27. ^'Carcassonne World Championship 2006'. Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  28. ^'Carcassonne World Championship 2010'.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^The part of the rule involving pennants was redundant, as it is impossible to have a two-tile completed city with pennants.

Carcassonne Board Game Strategy List

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carcassonne (game).
  • Carcassonne and the many Carcassonne expansions and spin-offs at BoardGameGeek
  • Carcassone product page on Z-Man Games website
  • Comprehensive set of rules for all Carcassonne editions and variants on WikiCarpedia
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