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We offer comprehensive game instructions for Carcassonne, including all the important rules and tips. Learn how to skillfully expand your landscapes, collect points, and challenge your fellow players.
Carcassonne game rules: Setup and objective
Carcassonne consists of 72 landscape tiles, all of which have the same back except for the starting tile. There is also a scoring board, eight scoring tiles, and seven figures, called meeples, for each player.
- At the beginning, lay out the starting tile face up. Place the other landscape tiles in face-down stacks at the edge of the table. Each player must have access to them. The scoring tiles are only needed for the final scoring.
- Each player chooses a color and receives all the meeples of that color. Place the scoring board at the edge of the table and place one meeple of each player’s color on the 0 space as a scoring marker.
- The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible by building monasteries, roads, and cities, as well as by farming land.
Systematic and sequence of rounds in brief
A game round always consists of three steps: drawing a tile, placing it, and optionally placing a meeple.
- The player whose turn it is first draws a new landscape tile and tries to place it on the existing game board. All adjacent sides must fit together logically – roads to roads, meadows to meadows, city walls to city walls.
- If no suitable tile can be placed, the player may set the drawn tile aside and draw a new one; the unsuitable tile is returned to the stack later.
- The player may then place a meeple on the tile just placed, if possible. This is followed by the scoring of completed areas. The game continues clockwise.
- Once an area has been scored—i.e., a city, road, or monastery has been completed—the players get their meeples back. This return is important in order to be able to occupy new areas. If meeples remain on open structures for too long, this can limit the options available. If players circle the scoring track multiple times during a round, a scoring tile is flipped over each time to mark the hundreds place.
Detailed gameplay of Carcassonne
Carcassonne is played clockwise, with the youngest player starting. Players take turns performing actions and earning points for them.
- First, the player whose turn it is draws a landscape tile and places it next to an existing tile so that roads, cities, and other features match up.
- If there is a road on the tile, the player may place a meeple on it if there is no other meeple on another tile of the road. The same applies to cities, fields, and monasteries, although monasteries are only depicted on one tile and are surrounded by fields.
- If you place a meeple on a field, lay it flat for a better overview. The meeples on the fields remain on the tile until the final scoring.
- A road is completed when it ends at both ends in an intersection, a village, a city, or a monastery. The player who owns the piece on the road receives one point per tile on which the completed road is visible. They may advance this number on the scoring board and get their meeple back.
- A city is considered completed when it is completely surrounded by walls and has no more holes. If a meeple is standing on a section, the player receives two points for each tile and two points for each city coat of arms depicted. They may also advance this on the scoring board and get their meeple back.
- A monastery is completed when it is directly surrounded by eight tiles. If a player’s meeple is standing on it, they receive nine points, take the meeple back, and advance their score on the scoreboard.
- If a road or city is completed and several meeples from different players are standing in it, both players receive the points if they have the same number. If one player has more meeples in or on it, only that player receives the points.
- When a player has completed the entire scoring board, they receive a point tile and start again from zero.
Examples of Meeple Placement and Roles in the Game
Depending on its position on the game board, a meeple takes on a specific role:
- On roads, the meeple becomes a highwayman who collects points for completed roads.
- In cities, it acts as a knight who receives points for completed city walls and coats of arms.
- On monasteries, the Meeple becomes a monk who earns points for the monastery and all eight surrounding spaces.
- On meadows, it becomes a farmer that remains in place until the end of the game and earns points for adjacent cities.
End of the game and final scoring
Once all tiles have been placed, perform the final scoring, awarding points once again.
- First, each player receives one point per tile for each road and city that one of their meeples is placed on, and for cities, they also receive points for the coats of arms. For monasteries, the player receives one point for the monastery itself and for each additional tile surrounding it. The scored meeples are removed from the game board.
- Next, all meeples on fields are scored. The fields are separated by roads and cities. The player receives three points for each adjacent city on their field. If several players have the same number of meeples on a field, they all receive the points. Otherwise, the player with the most meeples on a field receives the points.
- Now all points have been scored and the player with the highest score wins.
- If there is a tie in the final scoring, all players with the highest score win together. Expansions or variants can offer additional sources of points, such as for rivers, cathedrals, or inns that enhance certain buildings.
Popular expansions and variants of Carcassonne
Carcassonne has various add-ons that expand the basic game and make gameplay more varied:
- Taverns and Cathedrals adds special tiles that give cities and roads extra points, but also make them riskier.
- Traders and Builders allows players to take double turns and collect goods that give extra points.
- River adds a new starting area, which makes the setup more varied.
