If your opponents are developing larger forests and rivers, it can be a great tactic to sneak in before they complete to share the points. If they have laid four or five tiles and you just laid one or two tiles to share the score you come out on top here as you haven’t used as many turns to achieve that score. Classic Carcassonne Meeple Shirt | Board Gamer T-shirt | Board Games | Board Game Geek Gift | Boardgamer Present | Tabletop Gaming It is a 2-5 player game. Gameplay is very different for the total amount of players involved. A two player is a totally different version of the game compared with playing against four other people and requires a different strategy.

Carcassonne | Waterstones Carcassonne | Waterstones

Roads score when both ends of them get closed off. Examples of this could be when a road meets a T-junction or a crossroads. Some roads terminate at city walls or a monastery. When you complete a road, count the number of tiles this road stretches along. The meeple on this road scores you one point per tile. For example, a road that spreads along four tiles scores four points. It’s possible to share points from high-scoring features. You can even oust opponents altogether! It’s legal to place a meeple on your tile when you place it, providing it’s not encroaching on a pre-claimed feature. If you then connect and combine this feature to a neighbouring feature, such as the same road, it becomes one long road. Upon completion, if two (or more), say, highwaymen sit on this road, you both score the points for it. Carcassonne France Travel Print Carcassonne Wall Decor Carcassonne Poster France Travel Prints Carcassonne Art Print Carcassonne I’m not sure why I feel the need to give away my game secrets, I won’t be sharing them in my gaming circles. But if you are a fan of Hunters and Gatherers like me you will likely benefit from this. So, my views on the best chance of winning this game. Complete The ForestsAs of 2014, Carcassonne also includes two mini-modules in the box: The River, and The Abbot. Later in this post, I’ll teach you how to play Carcassonne with these variants. Firstly, however, let’s take a look at how to play Carcassonne in its original base game form. It’s a perfect ‘gateway game’ for board game beginners and younger players. The setup of the game is simple. Place the starting tile face up in the middle of the play area. Place the remaining game tiles face down to the side and give every player a set of meeples. I have well over 100 games in my collection, considerably more if my wife isn’t reading this! Despite this, Carcassonne is still one of my favourite family games. Without farmers, 5 year old Max can play to win, he often won’t as he will get caught up in a meeple-sapping battle over a huge town, but he can be a stubborn whatsit! In Carcassonne, players are creating an ever-expanding section of southern France. These tiles can depict a combination of cities, roads, cloisters, and grasslands. Each player has a number of meeples that can be placed on the tile to score points. Victory points are scored depending on the piece of landscape that the meeple is placed on. Gameplay I truly love this game. I think all the Carcassonne games are incredible but this one is my absolute favourite of all board games, not just Carcassonne. My box is so beat up as it has been used hundreds of times (and that really isn’t an exaggeration). It has been incredibly well used and now I look at the box thinking about all of the history of so many board games. My History With This Game

Games, Carcassonne Under the Big Top, Board Game Z-Man Games, Carcassonne Under the Big Top, Board Game

If you’ve played Carcassonne before, you’ll know some of the features here. Your turn consists of tile placement into a communal, ever-growing landscape. You can place one of your meeples onto that tile, with the aim to complete objectives to score it later. But Hunters and Gatherers takes place in a time before castles and monasteries. Instead, this is a land of forests, rivers, lakes and meadows – complete with wild animals! Always be aware of what others are doing as sometimes focusing just on your own game will not be useful or, critically, high scoring. Sharing other peoples scores can very much keep you on top and is one of Carcassonne’s best features. Final Thoughts This should be your first objective when playing this version of the game. You must try and complete (laying the closing tile) as many forests as you can and gain as many of the 16 bonus tiles as possible. These bonus tiles are extra turns and usually have a better than average points value attached with them. Lots of fish, bigger animals to hunt, or another special rule. If you get the majority of these tiles, you will have had more turns with the prospect of higher scores. My experience, particularly in 2 player games, is that whoever gets the majority of the bonus tiles usually (but not always) comes out on top. Combine Your River Network With Your Hunting FieldsIf you are even remotely aware of the existence of Carcassonne, then you will be aware of the sheer multitude of modular expansions that are available. Some of those have been incorporated into this edition. The ones you may be familiar with are The River and The Abbot expansions. There are also an additional 5 tiles for The River that are new to this edition of the game. Top tip: placing a farmer early game can be a risk/reward see-saw. It’s a permanent venture, but it prevents other players from jumping in on a profitable location. The risk is other players hem your farmer in with road tiles, and it scores few or even zero points! Oust Opponents And Pinch Points With so many amazing board games out there is it possible to single out a favourite game, something you believe to be greater than all the rest? I’m going to have a go at pitching my absolute favourite of all time and that is Carcassonne, specifically Hunters and Gatherers. Here’s why. Why Hunters & Gatherers I would also like to point out that I really love the rulebook. As like the version as a whole, it stays true to the original but you can tell it has been updated and modernised. There are two different rule books, one is the base game stripped down to the basics that is intended for first time players. The second one adds rules for farmers, the abbot, the river, and the anniversary expansion. I really like that they separated the rules for the farmer, as even though it is not an expansion, it is one thing that a lot of inexperienced players struggle to grasp at first. Can I Mix Other Carcassonne Sets? Did you know that the term ‘meeple’ originated in a game of Carcassonne? Shortly after Carcassonne’s release, player Alison Hansel created a portmanteau. When describing her wooden pawns, Alison blended ‘my’ and ‘people’ together –‘meeple’. The term grew in popularity and is now a worldwide term for wooden silhouette player pieces! Turns Are Easy As One, Two, Mee(ple)

Carcassonne Review - Board Game Review Carcassonne Review - Board Game Review

The puzzle-like tile placement is very satisfying when you finally get that perfect piece but can be disappointing if it doesn’t quite fit! Seeing the map sprawl in front of you gives this game real table presence. As of 2014, Carcassonne includes two mini expansions that you will likely never play without. The first expansion is The River. This gives you a selection of tiles that you have to start with, each is a section of a river that spreads the map out nicely at the start. With its simple yet rich game mechanics and eighty-four tiles that can be configured into numerous combinations, Carcassonne appeals to beginners and veteran gamers alike. This edition is entirely redesigned and modernised and includes two expansions: The River and The Abbot. This easy-to-play, fast-paced, family-friendly game encompasses everything good about board gaming and will give you an experience you will cherish for many games to come! The second mini-expansion features the Abbots. Give one to each player in their colour. You’ll notice that square gardens sit on some of the tiles. They’re not a primary feature like a singular road or an entire monastery. However, you treat them like a monastery, for scoring purposes…

On your turn you add one square tile into the expanding map. Terrain types have to match, like in regular Carcassonne. When you place a meeple on that tile, it represents different type of neanderthal. This is dependent according to the terrain. It’s a hunter when placed in the meadows, a gatherer if you put it in a forest, or a fisherman when in a river. So, if you are no stranger to Carcassonne then you will not be at a loss here. The artwork has been done in such an interesting and clever way. All the tiles are of course usable with other editions and expansions (mostly) but the small details on the tiles are what make this game really pop. There is UV print on all the tiles and on the box cover itself, giving the game an irresistible gleam. One thing that I never realised until I played this version was how baren the Carcassonne world looked before. Now that we can see little people on the tiles all over the place, it breathes life into the game and makes it feel like a much more real city that we are building. Beware: this can turn into an area majority game if you’re not careful! It can get competitive (with farmers, in particular). If a player combines a feature with an opponent and one of them has the majority of meeples within, the majority alone scores it. The Modular River Set-Up If you have no meeples left in your supply, you cannot place one on this tile right now. This also means that neither you nor anyone else will ever get a chance to place a meeple on this tile later. It’s a one-time opportunity. On the other hand, you don’t have to place one of your meeples on this tile. You have a limited number of them – and herein lies the core decisions of Carcassonne.

Carcassonne: 20th Anniversary Edition | Board Games | Zatu

Carcassonne is a tile-placement game in which the players must draw and place a tile with a piece of southern French landscape on it. The tile might feature a city, a road, a cloister, grassland or some combination thereof, and it must be placed adjacent to tiles that have already been played, in such a way that cities are connected to cities, roads to roads, etcetera. Having placed a tile, the player can then decide to place one of his meeples on one of the areas on it: on the city as a knight, on the road as a robber, on a cloister as a monk, or on the grass as a farmer. When that area is complete, that meeple scores points for its owner.As of 2014, Carcassonne also includes two mini-modules in the box: The River, and The Abbot. Later in this post, I’ll teach you how to play Carcassonne with these variants. Firstly, however, let’s take a look at how to play Carcassonne in its original base game form. It’s a perfect ‘gateway game’ for board game beginners and younger players. Set Up The Carca-zone Carcassonne sees 2-5 players compete for the most points to be the winner of the game. On their turn, players will draw a tile from a selection of facedown options and they will then place this tile to adjoining laid tiles making sure that any features fit together like a puzzle. They then have the option to place one of their meeples to claim either a road, city, field or monastery if it is on that tile and otherwise unclaimed. You may see that a player is about to complete a castle feature and score a respectable eight points. However, you see an opportunity to steal said feature and end up placing tiles away from the feature, joining it up and stealing it from right under their noses, as you will have placed more meeples on that feature than them! This is just one of the many strategies one can employ while playing Carcassonne and it is something that sets this game apart. It is evident that the publishers are aware of this too, as there is plenty of space in the box for more tiles. The base tiles in the box do not even fill half of the space available. Final Thoughts