This is the game that really got me into gaming. I'll give a little backstory before jumping into a review. My wife and I were going to meet some friends for lunch one fateful Sunday. When we got to the restaurant, only two of our friends (we'll call them T&M) were there yet. They were sitting at the table, playing a game that reminded me of Settlers of Catan. They told us it was called Carcassonne, and then they stopped their current game and invited us to play with them. We liked it so much that I ordered it on Amazon that day and it arrived two days later. We later found out that T&M had been introduced to the game the previous Saturday evening by some friends of theirs, and had picked up their copy on their way to lunch on Sunday. After playing a few times, I ordered the first expansion, and later ordered a combined set of expansions from Germany (the instructions were in German, but I printed off an English version).
So I hope that tells you just how much this game made an impression on me. Now I'll talk a bit about the game. I would think most people on BGG are familiar with this particular game, but then, maybe you're newcomers to the genre like I was. Maybe you're here because of how much you liked some game called Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride.
The game is made up of tiles. Tiles that have different features on them - walls, roads, cloisters, or fields. Players take turns placing tiles, making sure the features on the edges match up (you can't have a road just suddenly dissapear, or an unwalled patch of city meet up with a field). They can then place a follower, or "Meeple" on a feature in that tile. When the feature is completed (a city will walls all the way around it, or a road with two endpoints, or a cloister with 8 tiles surrounding it), that feature is scored, and the player gets his Meeple back. With out getting too much into the technical details, there are some nuances - completed cities are worth more than roads, and incomplete features are worth points (less points if they are cities) at the end of the game.
And then there is also farming. A player can put a Meeple on its side on the field portion of a tile. That Meeple will remain there until the end of the game, and will then score 3 points for every completed city that touches its field.
Finally, there is the way in which you can steal (or share) features. You can't place a Meeple on a feature which is currently controlled by another player. However, you can place a Meeple on a feature (a city for example), which is separate at the time, and then try to place tiles so that your feature connects to another player's. If a completed feature has one Meeple from each of two players, those two players get the same score for that feature. But if one player manages to get two Meeples on a feature to another player's one Meeple, he gets all the points for the feature, and the other player gets none.
This introduces a lot of interesting strategy to the game. Do I play multiple Meeples as farmers to try to steal this big field from another player? It could be worth a lot of points in the end, but then I'll have fewer Meeples to work with for the rest of the game. Should I play this tile here to complete my city, or play it over there to connect my field to another player's?
Each player only has one tile in their hand at a time, which has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it means you spend less time on your turn (or waiting for other people's turns), because there are only so many places you can put that tile. But on the other hand, it makes it harder to strategize. You can hope you'll get certain tiles in the future to further a particular scheme or strategy, but you can't guarantee you'll get them.
But one thing I really like about this game is that a lot of scoring takes place at the end (farms and any incomplete features). So during the game, it's not always evident who is winning, or who is going to win. So if you're behind, you don't necessarily feel like the game is over for you. You can enjoy working on your cities, roads, farms, and cloisters, and getting points throughout the game. You might lose in the end, but in my experience (and the experiences of those who have played with me), the game is still really fun.
It is still possible for two players to gang up on a third, or for players to spend a lot of tiles sabotaging other players. But we don't really play that way, so that hasn't been much of an issue for us.
I won't get into the expansions much, other than to say that there are several expansion that are really fun. Some enhance the game, and some totally change it.
Overall, I heartily recommend Carcassonne.
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Carcassonne - My honest review - Likes and dislikes
Gaming Indoors
Reviews with images
It's fun like Catan and Civilization, but in the end no one gets hurt
>>> Note! If you are purchasing this game for the first time, buy the original game with the ‘river expansion’ AND the abbot expansion. This particular box set only has the river expansion. It would be much more economical to get the one with the river AND abbot, which I do not believe adds a whole lot of cost.What a fun new game I have discovered. I thought I had completely lost touch with board games until I happened upon this game in a coffee shop and watched a few friends play. One of my big issues with board games is that they can be such a commitment. I used to love to play Settlers of Catan, but the game can go on forever. Just the thought of Monopoly bores me to tears. I remember playing so many games and wishing they were over.The beauty of Carcassonne is that, not only is it fun, but each game lasts ~15-30 minutes and there is very little set-up or clean-up involved. You can teach someone to play on the fly. If you are learning for the first time with someone else, it is easy to pick up the rules.You will likely enjoy the fun and simplicity of this game if you like Settlers of Catan and Civilization. It is similar in content and goals, but much less cutthroat and invites friendlier gameplay without the worry that your best friends will become your dire enemy. It’s pretty hard for this game to cause a fight unlike other world-domination type strategy games.Another great aspect of the game is that you can pretty much customize the difficulty. You can play by drawing random tiles, building the map by chance. For strategy, you can play where each person has three tiles at a time that they can play. This allows for more strategy and adds some logical challenge.I do like the meeples, but sometimes I wonder that they are too big for the board pieces. Sometimes it’s hard to see where exactly a meeple is place, e.g., on a road or in a city, because they are large and cover up the game tiles. If you bump the table, the meeples may shift and you can have a disaster on your hands. Sometimes we end up counting meeples at the end and find one that we can’t quite identify, so someone loses a few points.Regarding quality, the tiles are well made out of solid industrial cardboard. They are thick with few imperfections and seem virtually indestructible. They have a satisfying texture and it feels great to “click” them down on the table as you watch your map grow.Hope this helps. Enjoy the game!
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2016
What a fun new game I have discovered. I thought I had completely lost touch with board games until I happened upon this game in a coffee shop and watched a few friends play. One of my big issues with board games is that they can be such a commitment. I used to love to play Settlers of Catan, but the game can go on forever. Just the thought of Monopoly bores me to tears. I remember playing so many games and wishing they were over.
The beauty of Carcassonne is that, not only is it fun, but each game lasts ~15-30 minutes and there is very little set-up or clean-up involved. You can teach someone to play on the fly. If you are learning for the first time with someone else, it is easy to pick up the rules.
You will likely enjoy the fun and simplicity of this game if you like Settlers of Catan and Civilization. It is similar in content and goals, but much less cutthroat and invites friendlier gameplay without the worry that your best friends will become your dire enemy. It’s pretty hard for this game to cause a fight unlike other world-domination type strategy games.
Another great aspect of the game is that you can pretty much customize the difficulty. You can play by drawing random tiles, building the map by chance. For strategy, you can play where each person has three tiles at a time that they can play. This allows for more strategy and adds some logical challenge.
I do like the meeples, but sometimes I wonder that they are too big for the board pieces. Sometimes it’s hard to see where exactly a meeple is place, e.g., on a road or in a city, because they are large and cover up the game tiles. If you bump the table, the meeples may shift and you can have a disaster on your hands. Sometimes we end up counting meeples at the end and find one that we can’t quite identify, so someone loses a few points.
Regarding quality, the tiles are well made out of solid industrial cardboard. They are thick with few imperfections and seem virtually indestructible. They have a satisfying texture and it feels great to “click” them down on the table as you watch your map grow.
Hope this helps. Enjoy the game!
It's fun like Catan and Civilization, but in the end no one gets hurt
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2016
>>> Note! If you are purchasing this game for the first time, buy the original game with the ‘river expansion’ AND the abbot expansion. This particular box set only has the river expansion. It would be much more economical to get the one with the river AND abbot, which I do not believe adds a whole lot of cost.Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2016
What a fun new game I have discovered. I thought I had completely lost touch with board games until I happened upon this game in a coffee shop and watched a few friends play. One of my big issues with board games is that they can be such a commitment. I used to love to play Settlers of Catan, but the game can go on forever. Just the thought of Monopoly bores me to tears. I remember playing so many games and wishing they were over.
The beauty of Carcassonne is that, not only is it fun, but each game lasts ~15-30 minutes and there is very little set-up or clean-up involved. You can teach someone to play on the fly. If you are learning for the first time with someone else, it is easy to pick up the rules.
You will likely enjoy the fun and simplicity of this game if you like Settlers of Catan and Civilization. It is similar in content and goals, but much less cutthroat and invites friendlier gameplay without the worry that your best friends will become your dire enemy. It’s pretty hard for this game to cause a fight unlike other world-domination type strategy games.
Another great aspect of the game is that you can pretty much customize the difficulty. You can play by drawing random tiles, building the map by chance. For strategy, you can play where each person has three tiles at a time that they can play. This allows for more strategy and adds some logical challenge.
I do like the meeples, but sometimes I wonder that they are too big for the board pieces. Sometimes it’s hard to see where exactly a meeple is place, e.g., on a road or in a city, because they are large and cover up the game tiles. If you bump the table, the meeples may shift and you can have a disaster on your hands. Sometimes we end up counting meeples at the end and find one that we can’t quite identify, so someone loses a few points.
Regarding quality, the tiles are well made out of solid industrial cardboard. They are thick with few imperfections and seem virtually indestructible. They have a satisfying texture and it feels great to “click” them down on the table as you watch your map grow.
Hope this helps. Enjoy the game!
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Daniel Chard
We rarely play anything else
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2014
