Carcassonne

The Basic
Description: In this tile-laying game, players pull a tile from the pool and place it against one of the previously played tiles. If you start a new object (city, road, farm, or monastery), you can place one of your control markers on the tile to denote your control. Markers cannot directly compete when placed, so to achieve some gains, you must place your marker and use later tiles to connect up to it. As subsequent tiles are arrayed on the board, objects get bigger or even merge. When roads or cities are completed, or a monastery is surrounded, the control marker is returned to you and you score the points. However, farmers are not returned and will score points at the game end (there are several rules variations for the farmer scoring). Therefore, it's possible to have all of your control markers locked on the board on incomplete objects, and not be able to convert them into farmers later in the game. You must balance the need to score points during the game with the need to score farmer points at game end. The goal is to have the most points at the end. This can be tricky to control considering your choice for each turn isn't the tile itself, but rather the placement of the tile that you drew.

How to Play

• Spielezeit (Power Point Video)
• Tutorial (www.Geekdo.com)
• Boardgamegeek (Rio Grande Games)
  

Where to Play Online:

• Aso Brain (Free - Registration Required)
  

Cheat Sheets (from the Geek):

• Overview and Summary (from the Geek)

Game Hints

• Basic Strategy: Thread on the Geek
• My Tips: The link above is pretty good. The first few games, focus on castles and roads. Once you got that down, then start playing with sneaking into farms.

Views

• Opinion: I really enjoy this game. I enjoy Hunters more, but this is an easy game to learn. I can teach it and go over it at lunch time, at the house or online.
• Online: A lot quicker and easy to manage online
• Work: We would need a big table, the tiles can take up space. Would play easily at lunch time.
  
• Home: Only issue could be space.
  

Other Info

• Plays best with: Works fine with 2-5 players, best with 2.
  
• Gateway Suitability: Very easy to learn, might take two games to grasp farmer scoring. A great gateway game.
• Spouse Suitability: Chrissy like the tile placement aspect.
• Re-playability: This and Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers see table and online action.
• Real Life Setup: A few minutes, just placing tiles in the bag, and handing out pieces.
• Real Life Time/Length: Without the expansions 30-45 minutes.
• Geek Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/822