Are you in the mood to develop the French countryside, claiming roads, cities, and fields as your own? No? Okay, then are you in the mood to play a game where you lay tiles and “deploy” cute little figures known as meeples, scoring points along the way? Maybe?
Then check out this week’s game: Carcassonne.
Two of the things that draw me to this game are the mechanic (tile-laying instead of rolling dice or playing cards) and the adorable little wooden pieces that are the key to scoring points. In the game world, these little wooden guys are known as Meeples. Don’t ask me why. But I do like the name. And I like them, too.
Carcassonne is a game for 2-5 players where, as mentioned above, you pick and lay tiles to develop the countryside near the French city of Carcassonne. My husband loves this game and it’s his first choice to play if we have another couple over for a game night. We’ve dragged Chad’s brother and his wife into Carcassonne appreciation as well, and they now request it when they come over.
So how does it work?
In a nutshell: Carcassonne consists of 72 colorful tiles; each tile contains one or more of the following countryside elements: road, field, city, monastery. On your turn, you choose a tile from one of several stacks of face-down tiles. You then place this tile anywhere in the playing area, as long as it’s adjacent to one or more tiles that have already been played. You must “match” your tile to the one(s) you lay it next to.
For example, if you pick up this tile:
…one of your options would be to lay it where the X is:
…because the “city portion” of the tile you picked matches the city on the tile above the X, and the “road portion” of the tile you picked matches the road on the tile to the right.
Ta-da!
After you’ve laid a tile, you may place one of your meeples (you start with 7) on one of the elements (road, city, etc.) to claim it as your own. Two keys: You can’t place it on an element that has already been claimed by another player, and you must place it on the tile you just laid. In the example above, you could deploy one of your meeples to either the road or the city of the tile that you put in place.
As the game continues, the countryside grows and roads will be completed, cities will be enclosed, monasteries will be surrounded. As those various elements are completed, you score points for the ones that you have claimed with your meeples. Once an element is scored, you get your meeple back, so you can deploy it somewhere else (in pursuit of more points).
Here’s what a game in progress might look like:
The game ends when all tiles have been played. Uncompleted roads, cities, etc. are now scored and the player with the most points wins.
Carcassonne is easy to learn and plays fairly quickly. And although it’s recommended for ages 10 and up, we’ve included C. (age 7) in games easily – we just help him think through his tile placement. There are also a bunch of expansion sets – sets that add additional tiles and options. They are fun as well, and I may review some of them in the future, but the base set stands alone as a great game.
In summary:
Carcassonne
Number of Players: 2-5
Time required: 30 minutes (unless you have a player who agonizes forever over each move)
Ages: 10 & up, but younger kids can play with a little help
Where to buy: Amazon.comor Time Well Spent. It also tends to pop in seasonal “game stores” that show up in malls around Christmas.
Callapidder recommends it for: Family game night or fun for two couples
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