When I am introducing a new player to the wide world of board games, I often try to pick games where the artwork is attractive, the rules are quick to learn, and the downtime is minimal. There are new games coming out every week, but sometimes the best introductory games are those modern classics that have been out for a longer time. Released 23 years ago, the game Carcassonne (named after a fortified city in France dating back to the medieval times) is one of those that I frequently bring out for new players. A worker placement style game that originated the design of the now ubiquitous “meeple”, I love the aesthetic of this game so much that we had Carcassonne themed cake toppers and a Carcassonne groom’s cake at my wedding reception. Let’s just say that I am a fan, and I hope by the end of this review, you will be too.
A player’s turn in Carcassonne has two different parts. The first is drawing and placing a tile with at least one side touching the existing grid of tiles, and all of its sides matching any adjacent terrain types. There are cities, roads, monasteries, and fields depicted in various orientations on the tiles, so part of the fun is that by the end of the game the players will have collectively built out a map on their table which always seems to be a photo opportunity for players. The second part of the turn is optionally placing one of a player’s seven meeples out onto a terrain feature on the tile they just played to claim that feature and potentially score points from it as the map fills in. Each type of feature scores different amounts of points, but in general the feature is not scored until it is completed in some way (i.e. a road that has cities on each end, or a city that is fully walled in). Players continue placing tiles, claiming features, and scoring points, until they run out of tiles at which point the game ends, and scores are totaled up to see who won.
There are a large number of expansions for Carcassonne, each of which adds new twists to the basic tile laying or worker placement aspects of the game. I like the Inns and Cathedrals expansion for its addition of some useful scoring markers and another set of meeples to allow a 6th player, and I like the Builder’s and Trader’s expansion for its builder meeple to allow players who plan ahead to get bonus actions on building out their cities or roads. That being said, all the expansions are totally optional, and the base game is often enough to keep players engaged for 2 or 3 games in a row. There is a reason this game has been around so long, and if you give it a chance, it just might hook you. If you'd like to learn and play games like this, join us at an upcoming Tabletop Games event! Details and dates here.
