Game Review: Carcassonne

If there was any game that Games magazine got me interested in, it's Carcassonne. A read through the article set a spark in me; a game with easy rules and simple gameplay that has great replay value through randomness is something I know me and my game board amateur friends would love.

A game summary is as follows: Starting with a starting tile, players draw tiles from a pile, place it wherever it can connect to any part of the map(all tiles must be placed in an orthogonally-connected blob), and if the player wants to, place a piece of their color onto a feature of the tile played. This is how you earn points, by claiming terrain features and hopefully completing them.

The basic set has the following features: roads, cities, monasteries and fields, each with different values, and this is done by placing a figure on the terrain.

Roads are worth a point a tile whether they're completed (by an intersection or city entrance) or not, Cities are worth 2 points a tile when completely walled in (4 if a tile has a shield emblem) and a respective 1 and 2 points for incomplete ones. Monasteries are worth a point a tile completed by surrounding a tile with a other tiles all over, incomplete ones follow the same conditions but null spaces don't count.

Fields, on the other hand, are a bit more complicated. Meeples placed down are farmers and stay there until the end of the game. Completed cities bordering a farmer's patch of green score 3 points each.

The only point of contention I've experienced that has my playmates opting out of is the farm feature. While Carcassonne can be played without it, it sure does take away a bit of the charm by taking away the one main feature that is based on long-term planning. I might have to blame my inability to explain the concept well. Territorial fights rarely happened but this requires a bit of planning that requires some experience to get the hang of.

The balance between expanding and closing a claim is a balancing act between being able to score big and having the resources to do so. In most sessions completing said claims as soon as possible tends to happen, taking in quick scores over uncertainty.

We played the game with the river, which doesn't really affect much in terms of geography but does give a different starting area for every game. A review with this edition's abbot expansion will be covered in a different piece as as of this writing I have not played it.