Luck and Strategy: Carcassonne

Luck and Strategy: Carcassonne

Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

Type: Tabletop Game (tiles)

Suggest Ages: 8+

# of Players: 2-5 players

Playing Time: 35 minutes

Replay-ability: 8 out of 10

Expansions available: Yes, SO many, mini expansions, large expansions, etc.

Cost: Approximately $26

 

This game is my new obsession. My girlfriend bought it Friday (overpriced at a small business but Yay, small business!) and since then, we've played the game at least 25 times. It helps that the games are short--about a half hour. It's a quick game, and it's quick to learn, but it's easier to learn in a practice game rather than a layout all the rules before hand way. Although the rule instruction sheet is really readable and clear which is a blessing because some games have really confusing rule books.

In this game, players take turns placing tiles to form cities and roads. They can place meeples (the game pieces) on different features such as the cities, roads, monasteries, and gardens. (Farmer meeples can be placed on grass but will get to that later.) When completed or at the end of the game, these features give the players points. If a feature is completed, then the player scores the points and gets that meeple back.

The object of the game is just to earn more points than any other player.

Farmers are special meeple placements. These meeples are laid down flat to indicate that they are farmers. Farmers score 3 points for every completed city they are touching. So if a farmer's field touches 7 completed cities, that farmer would earn 21 points. Farmers are a big game changer and can be both frustrating and fun. If you're playing for the first time, you might not want to deal with the farmers, though my friends and I started with farmers and were fine.

This game is a great combination of luck (getting the tiles you need) and strategy (placing your meeples in the most effective spaces and cutting your opponents off from points). I really enjoy this game because you create the board every time you play which allows for different game play each time. And it's often hard to tell who is actually going win so you never really feel to discouraged about your position on the scoring board.

The scoring board can be very small depending on the number of players playing. So when we do one lap (after 50 points) we lay the scoring meeples flat and then if we lap again we place them into a sort of break dance position. This helps us remember where they really are in terms of points. We also like to throw the tiles into a hat and draw from there because sometimes drawing from stacks can seem not quite random enough.

I really recommend this game. There are also a lot of expansions available. If you're really interested in the expansions and the games, there are big box sets that come with a copy of Carcassonne and multiple expansions which could save you money.