Carcassonne (board game)

Carcassonne (/ˌkɑːrkəˈsɒn/) is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and by Rio Grande Games (until 2012) and Z-Man Games (currently)[1] in English.[2] It received the Spiel des Jahres[3] and the Deutscher Spiele Preis awards in 2001.

For other uses, see Carcassonne (disambiguation).
For the video game based on the board game, see Carcassonne (video game).
Carcassonne
3rd Edition (2022) box cover of Carcassonne
DesignersKlaus-Jürgen Wrede
Publishers
  • Hans im Glück (Germany)
  • Z-Man Games (UK, US)
  • 999 Games (Netherlands)
  • Фантасмагория (Bulgaria)
  • Lautapelit.fi (Finland)
  • Κάισσα (Greece)
  • Brain Games (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
  • メビウスゲームズ (Japan)
  • Giochi Uniti (Italy)
  • Piatnik Budapest Kft. (Hungary)
  • Devir (Spain, Portugal, Brazil)
  • MINDOK (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia)
  • Grow (Brazil)
  • Feelindigo (Ukraine)
  • Lineart (Romania)
  • Möbius Games (Japan)
  • Swan Panasia (Taiwan, Thailand)
  • Rio Grande Games (Sweden)
  • Hobby World (Russia)
  • NeoTroy Games (Turkey)
Publication2000 (2000)
Genres
Players2–5 (6–8 with expansion)
Setup time1–5 minutes
Playing time30–90 minutes
ChanceMedium

It is named after the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France, famed for its city walls. The game has spawned many expansions and spin-offs, and several PC, console, and mobile versions. A new edition, with updated artwork on the tiles and the box, was released in 2014.

Gameplay
The CRFR starting tile has three features: a single city edge, a straight road parallel to that edge, and the field occupying the remainder; tile notation describes the features on each edge, clockwise from the north

The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses. The game starts with a single specific terrain tile face up and 71 others shuffled face down for the players to draw from. Each player's turn consists of three distinct phases:

  1. Draw and place a terrain tile
  2. Station a follower on the newly-placed tile (optional)
  3. Score completed feature(s) (if relevant)

To start each turn, a player draws a new terrain tile and places it adjacent to tiles that are already face up.[4] The new tile must be placed in a way that extends terrain features on the tiles it touches: roads must connect to roads, fields to fields, and cities to cities.[5] Connections are made across adjacent edges only; corners do not connect. A cloister tile may be placed adjacent to another cloister tile, as there are no connecting features. If the newly-drawn tile cannot be placed anywhere legally, the players may choose to remove the tile from the game, or return it to the draw pile.[6]: 8–9 

A follower (or "meeple") on a tile, showing the walls and buildings of the town

After placing each newly drawn tile, the placing player may opt to station a marker (called a "follower" or "meeple") on a terrain feature (i.e., a road, city, cloister, or field) of that newly placed tile to claim control of it. However, if the feature is connected to a feature already claimed by another player, the follower cannot be stationed on that feature. When stationing a follower, the marker is placed upright on the feature to claim that feature, except for a field, where the follower is laid down instead to emphasize that fields are not scored until the end of the game; the follower's role depends on the feature claimed, changing from thief/highwayman (road) to knight (city), monk (cloister or monastery), or farmer (field). It is possible for terrain features to become "shared" by opposing players when tile(s) are placed in subsequent turns that connect previously unconnected features. For example, two separate fields (each with a follower/farmer) can become connected into a single field subsequently by a newly-placed terrain tile.[5]

If any feature (except a field) is completed during a player's turn, the score for the completed feature is counted for the player that controls that feature; after scoring, the controlling "meeple" is removed from the board and returned to the player's stock. Each player has eight followers; since one is used to keep track of the player's score, only seven can be in play at any moment.[5]

The game ends when the last tile has been placed. At that time, all incomplete features (including fields) score points for the players with the most followers on them. The player with the most points wins the game.[5]

Scoring

During each player's turn, completed cities, cloisters, and roads (but not fields) are scored before that player's turn ends. A player may complete a feature by drawing placing a tile, claim it by stationing a follower on the newly-placed tile, and receive the score for completing it all in the same turn, but the sequence of that turn means the player cannot redeploy the follower after it is returned to their stock. The stationing phase of the turn was completed by claiming the completed feature.[6]: 10 

Cities are completed when they contain no unfinished edges from which they may be expanded, roads are similarly completed when they have closed both ends or form a loop, and cloisters are completed when surrounded by eight tiles. Points are awarded to the players with the most followers in a feature. If there is a tie for the most followers in any given feature, all of the tied players are awarded the full number of points.[6]: 12  Once a city, cloister, or road feature is scored, all of the followers in that feature are returned to their owners.[5][6]: 13  In general (see table), points are awarded for the number of tiles covered by a feature; a completed cloister scores nine points for the cloister plus eight neighboring tiles.[6]: 11–13 

At the end of the game, when there are no tiles remaining, fields and all other claimed but incomplete features are scored.[6]: 14–15  The score of each field is based on the number of completed cities that field touches.[6]: 13–14 [7] It is possible for a field to be completely enclosed by a road without touching any completed cities, or a field can touch only incomplete cities, in which case those fields will score no points.[6]: 15 

FeatureCompleted during playGame end
City 2 points per tile + 2 points per pennant 1 point per tile + 1 point per pennant
Road 1 point per tile
Cloister 1 point + 1 point for each of the surrounding tiles
Fields (Not scored) 3 points for each completed city bordering the field.

Older editions

There are two older editions of Carcassonne, differing in scoring of cities and fields. The current scoring rules were introduced in the German version in 2004, but until 2008, the first edition scoring rules were still included with the English releases of Carcassonne, third edition rules[8][9] are now included with all editions (including the Xbox 360 and travel versions), and are assumed by all expansions in all languages.

In the first and second editions of the game, completed cities covering just two tiles scored two points (one per tile) and one extra point for every pennant that resides in the city.[lower-alpha 1] This exception is removed from the third edition, in which there is no difference between "small" two-tile cities and cities of larger size.[6]: 12 

The greatest divergence in scoring rules between the editions of Carcassonne is in scoring for fields. In the first edition, fields were considered from the point of view of the cities. The player(s) with the greatest number of farmer/followers adjacent to a city were awarded four points for that city. Thus, followers from different fields contributed to the scoring for a city, and followers on a field may contribute to the scoring for multiple cities.[6]: 16  The second edition considered different fields separately – for each field, the players with the greatest number of followers in a field scored three points for each city adjacent to the field, although points were only scored once for any given city.[6]: 16  The third edition removes these exceptions and brings field scoring in line with the scoring of other features.

Examples
In-turn completion scoring examples
IllustrationFeatureScoreNotes
  A B C   Road 3 Road spans three tiles [A1]—[B1]—[C1] (three points); the road terminates in villages at both ends, [A1] and [C1]. Because corners do not connect, there are two distinct incomplete cities on the north edges of [B1] and [C1], respectively. In addition, there are four fields:
  1. West half of [A1]
  2. NE corner of [A1], connected to N half of [B1] and N half of [C1]
  3. SE corner of [A1], connected to S half of [B1] and SW corner of [C1]
  4. SE corner of [C1]
1  
 


  A B C   City 14 The completed city covers five tiles at [C1]*[A2]*[B2]*[C2]*[B3] = ten points; it encloses two pennants at [B2] and [C2] = four points. There are six fields in this example, with the largest that touches the completed city worth three points or more, depending on whether the incomplete city on the W edge of [A3] is completed by the end of the game.
1  
2  
3  
 


  A B C   Cloister 9 The cloister at [B2] (one point) is surrounded by eight tiles (eight points). Also note there is a completed road [A2]—[B2] between the incomplete city [A1]*[A2]*[A3] and the cloister [B2] worth two points. This example has five fields and three incomplete cities.
1  
2  
3  
 
Sample game #1 in progress (5×5)
  A B C D E  
1        
2      
3    
4      
5          

Consider the sample game #1 in progress on the 5×5 board shown; there are four complete cities: [B1]*[C1]*[C2] scoring eight points (three tiles plus one pennant) and three two-tile, four-point cities [C3]*[D3], [D3]*[E3], and [C4]*[C5]. There are two complete roads, scoring two points each: [A2]—[B2] and [B1]—[B2].

The largest field, bounded on the north by the roads in [A2]—[B2]—[C2], touches the two complete cities [C3]*[D3] and [C4]*[C5] and would score six points at the end of the game, more if the incomplete cities at [A2] and [C4]*[D4] are completed . In addition, the field could be extended by an appropriate piece in [D2] to touch the complete city [D3]*[E3].

Sample game #2 (6×10)
  A B C D E F G H I J  
1    
R
 
  
G
 
Y
 
  
2  
R
 
R
 
  
3
R
 
P
 
  
Y
 
  
4    
R
 
R
 
Y
 
Y
 
  
5    
G
 
B
 
B
 
B
 
  
Y
 
  
6    
B
 
  
B
 
G
 
      

Consider sample game #2 on the 6×10 board. In this example, followers are stationed on the board according to the capital first letter of the color name: "R"ed, "Y"ellow, "G"reen, "B"lue, and "P"urple, where purple is substituted for "B"lack to avoid confusion with blue.

There are three completed cities at [C2]*[D2]*[C3]*[C3], [F1]*[E2]*[F2]*[F3] and [H2]*[I2]. It is not possible to complete the city at [G4]*[G5]*[G6]; by examination of the available tiles, there is no tile that will fit in [H5] to continue all four edges, which also means the city in [H6] cannot be completed.

Similarly, because any piece that can be placed in [E1] must continue the three bordering edges, that piece in [E1] will connect the two fields that are currently claimed by the green farmer in [G1] and the red farmers in [C2] and [D2] alongside the yellow farmers in [H4], [H1], and [J3]. If no one else adds a farmer, yellow would claim the field by having the most followers in that merged field. The other shared-field situation is the red farmer in [D4] sharing a field with one blue farmer in [G5]. However, if a tile is played at [F6], it will connect to the field to the southeast; even though blue would have two farmers in the merged field, including the farmer in [G6], and would control the merged field, that field still does not touch any completed cities and would score no points unless the city at [C6]*[D6]*[E6] is completed.

There are two fields that have been completed and enclosed by loop roads in [I1]+[I2]+[J2]+[J1] and [C3]+[D3]+[E3]+[F3]+[F4]+[E4]+[D4]+[C4]. Neither of these fields touch any completed cities and so they would each score zero points. The Green farmer in [C5] is at risk of being enclosed in a loop and cut off from any completed cities.

The three cloisters at [H3], [E5], and [F5] include stationed monks because they are not completely surrounded by eight tiles; the two cloisters that are surrounded, at [G3] and [D5], are vacant because the claiming player(s) have scored those points. A tile played at [F6] would complete the surroundings for the blue monks at [E5] and [F5], scoring eighteen points for those followers.

Red has one knight follower in [D1], two thief followers in [B3] and [C4], and three farmer followers in [C2], [D2], and [D4]; this means that Red has only one follower remaining that can be stationed unless the roads or city are completed to score and return those followers to their stock. In contrast, purple only has one monk follower on the board at [H3] at this time, but that monk is effectively stranded until the end of the game: there is no possible tile that can be played in [I3] as there are only two single-road tiles (with a cloister) and those are already on the board at [H3] and [D5]. However, that monk will score eight points (one for the cloister and seven for the surrounding tiles) at the end of the game. Worse, the green knight follower in [H6] will not score any points and is stranded because the city will never be completed. Yellow has three farmer followers, one knight [J4], and one thief [I5]; both the knight and thief remain active and can be returned by completing that city and road, respectively.

Tiles

The original board game has 72 tiles with city, field, and road features; the River mini-expansion adds 12 tiles with river features. The version of the game currently in print includes the River and Abbot mini-expansions.

Non-river terrain tiles   River tiles
City edges
Road edges
 01234
City edges
Road edges
 012
0 4× 5× 3× 2×
1× 2×
3× 2×		 3× 1× 1× 0 2× 2×
2×		   1× 1×
1 2×   1× 2×   1 1× 1×  
2 8× 9× 4×
3× 3×		 3× 2×   2 1× 1×  
3 4× 3×    
4 1×  

The river tiles are used as an alternative to the standard CRFR start tile and have the same dark-colored back to indicate this. The starting river tile is called the source (a river tile with a single river edge) and the final river tile is called the lake (again with a single river edge); players take turns placing all twelve river tiles to start the game, including follower placement and scoring, if relevant, then after the lake river tile has been played, proceed to place the remaining 71 terrain tiles.[7]

Nomenclature
Modified Kárná notation
C
R R
F

Kárná used a four-character tile code which described the feature on each edge of the tile as either a road (R), meadow (M, aka field), or city (C), written clockwise from an arbitrary starting edge. For instance, CRMR (modified as CRFR to conform with the terminology of this article) would describe the starting tile, starting from the top edge. With three possibilities for each edge, theoretically there are 81 (=34) possible tile combinations, but as some are duplicates because the tiles may be rotated arbitrarily, there are actually 24 possible combinations.[10] Capaldi and Kolba, professors of mathematics at Valparaiso University, also counted 24 distinct types amongst the 71 non-river tiles of the starting set, although 5 of these were duplicates of other terrain tiles with the addition of pennant/coat of arms features. They assigned a single letter to each of the 24 types.[11]

Reception
Walls of Carcassonne in France

Carcassonne is considered to be an excellent "gateway game" by many board game players[12] as it is a game that can be used to introduce new players to board games. In a 2017 Ars Technica holiday buyer's guide, it was described as "one of the absolutely foundational games of the modern board gaming hobby".[13]

The rules are simple, no one is ever eliminated, and the play is fast. A typical game, without any expansions, takes about 35 minutes to play. There is a substantial luck component to the game; however, good tactics greatly improve one's chances of winning. Examples of tactical considerations include:

  • Conserving followers. Since each player has only seven followers, it can be easy to run out. This is especially important with fewer players, because then each player will play more tiles during the game.
  • Joining in on other players' features. Often it is possible to add a separate road or castle segment near a big road or castle and join them up. This allows a player to gain points from their opponents' work.
  • Avoiding sharing. An advantage can be gained by preventing other players from getting points. This is more important with fewer players, or if the sharing player is doing well.
  • Judicious placement of followers in fields. Followers in the right field can be worth a lot of points. However, once placed, they are there for the whole game.
  • Trapping opponents' followers. Not all possible tile configurations exist in the game. So if a player knows which tiles exist or are more common, they can create situations where it is hard or impossible for an opponent to complete some feature. The result is the opponent's follower is stuck in something half-completed.

The game has been used in education to teach geographical concepts.[14]

Reviews

Expansions
Carcassonne with several expansions simultaneously

Several official expansions for Carcassonne have been published, which add numerous additional rules, tiles and new kinds of figures. Together, they can more than double the length of the game. These expansions are generally compatible with each other and may be played together.

Full expansions
"Inns and Cathedrals" ("Wirtshäuser und Kathedralen", 2002)(2015 New Edition)
Originally known simply as "Carcassonne: The Expansion," Inns and Cathedrals adds some new tiles, and one new figure.
  • A large figure that counts as two followers, when calculating who scores points for the completed feature.
  • Special tiles with Inns and Cathedrals can be placed as part of roads and cities to enhance their value—provided they are completed by the end of the game. Inns add one point per road tile, while Cathedrals add one point per tile or pennant in a city. However, if the city or road is not completed, it has zero value.
  • Six 50/100 point tiles to help keep score.
  • Followers that allow a sixth player to play (grey 2002)(pink 2015)
"Traders and Builders" ("Händler und Baumeister", 2003)(2015 New Edition)
Adds additional tile types, two new figures, and trade good tiles.
  • Trade goods appear in cities and are collected by the player who completes the city, even if they are not the one who scores it (thus encouraging the completion of other people's cities).
  • A "pig" follower which increases the value of a field it is placed in.
  • A "builder" follower which grants an extra turn to the owning player whenever the feature is extended or completed.
  • An opaque cloth bag which players can use while drawing tiles.
"The Princess and the Dragon" ("Burgfräulein und Drache", 2005)(2016 New Edition)
The Princess and the Dragon adds new tiles and figures.
  • Tiles with "magic portals" allow players to place followers on an incomplete feature of a previously placed tile.
  • Volcano and Dragon tiles that place and move the dragon.
  • Princess tiles and Dragon figure allow for followers to be removed.
  • A Fairy figure also allows protection to a follower and its tile from the dragon.
"The Tower" ("Der Turm", March 2006)(2016 New Edition)
The Tower adds a vertical element to Carcassonne, adding new tiles and tower pieces.
  • Eighteen tiles with tower foundations, which allow a player to add a tower section and capture nearby followers.
  • Tower pieces to build with.
  • A cardboard tile tower for easy tile storage, also acting as a mechanism from which tiles are drawn.
"Abbey and Mayor" ("Abtei und Bürgermeister", October 2007)(2016 New Edition)
Another full-sized expansion, featuring:
  • Abbey tiles that can fill in holes in the board and complete features.
  • Mayors who can be placed as followers in cities.
  • A barn that causes field scoring.
  • Wagons that can score features and then move to a nearby unclaimed and incomplete feature.
  • Additional tiles that, in response to fan feedback, fix specific situations that have been previously impossible to complete.
"Count, King & Robber" ("Graf, König und Konsorten", 2008)(2017 New Edition)
  • 12 tiles from River II mini expansion.
  • 12 tiles forming the city of Carcassonne as a 3x4 starting tile from the Count mini expansion. (New Edition has 2 large (2x3) tiles that form the city.)
  • Count meeple to be placed in the city of Carcassonne.
  • 5 tiles from King mini expansion.
  • King and Robber Baron tiles for the player/s who have completed the largest city and road respectively. (New edition also has 2 King and 2 Robber Baron tokens to mark the largest city and road scored so far.)
  • 5 tiles with Shrines from the Cult mini expansion.
"The Catapult" ("Das Katapult", 2008)
An expansion, featuring:
  • A physical catapult.
  • 12 fairground tiles that initiate a round using the catapult.
  • Tokens to be launched by the catapult.
"Bridges, Castles & Bazaars" ("Brücken, Burgen und Basare", February 2010)(2018 New Edition)
An expansion, featuring:
  • 12 Bridge pieces enabling players to bridge roads over field tiles.
  • 12 Castle tokens so players can gain additional points from 2-tile cities.
  • 12 new tiles, eight featuring bazaars which introduce a new auction element to the game and four miscellaneous tiles.
"Hills & Sheep" ("Schafe und Hügel", June 2014)(2018 New Edition)
An expansion, featuring:
  • 16 sheep tokens, featuring either one, two, three or four sheep each.
  • 2 wolf tokens.
  • 1 cloth bag for the sheep and wolf tokens.
  • 1 "shepherd" follower in each of the six colors (one for each player).
  • 18 new tiles, 8 featuring hills, 8 featuring vineyards and 2 featuring cloisters.
"Under the Big Top" ("Manege Frei", March 2017)
An expansion, featuring:
  • 20 new tiles, featuring Big Top or Acrobat tower
  • 16 animal tokens
  • 6 Ringmaster meeples, 1 in each player color
  • 1 wooden circus tent figure

Mini expansions
Carcassonne — The River (Carcassonne — Der Fluss, 2001)
Originally distributed for free as a give-away by the publisher at trade fairs. It was being included with many purchased versions by 2004. Early 2009 saw a slightly different version available at stores. The 2007 Xbox Live Arcade version includes a toggle option for the expansion. This expansion was added to the base game in August 2012, and also included in the 2014 Redesign of the base game.
  • 12 River tiles that replace the single initial tile.
Carcassonne — King and Scout (Carcassonne — König und Späher, 2003)
'King and Scout' is two expansions: King for Carcassonne and Scout for Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers.
  • King and Robber Baron tiles used to keep track of who built the largest road and city.
  • 5 additional tiles, with combinations that were previously missing
Carcassonne — The Cathars (Carcassonne — Die Katharer, 2004)
Originally published in the German board game magazine Spielbox, and republished in their Carcassonne almanac with an English translation.
  • Four siege tiles where Cathars break city walls. These halve the value of the city but double its contribution to field scores. Monasteries allow followers in cities to escape and come back to their players.
The Count of Carcassonne (Der Graf von Carcassonne, 2004)
Via new tiles, provides an incentive to complete other players' features: when a player does so, that player may place a follower in the city of Carcassonne, and then later move that follower into a feature as it completed (commonly known as "paratrooping").
  • Twelve tiles depicting the city of Carcassonne itself. These replace the initial starting tile and support new game mechanics.
  • A count figure, which can block paratrooping.
Carcassonne — The River II (Der Fluss II, November 2005)
Similar to the original River expansion, The River II tiles include features from previous expansions, for example a volcano to invoke the dragon. The 2012 Xbox Windows Phone version includes a toggle option for the expansion.
  • 12 new tiles to create a larger, forked river
Carcassonne — The Mini-Expansion (Winter 2006)
Published in Games Quarterly Magazine, Issue No. 11,
  • A new spring with a road, which separates a field, thereby preventing some very large fields as allowed by the original River.
  • 11 additional tiles.
Carcassonne — The Cult (Carcassonne — Die Kultstätte, 2007)
Published originally in Count, King & Robber, then republished as a standalone expansion in Spielbox: Hans im Glück Almanach 2008. Later available by Rio Grande Games in Cult, Siege & Creativity,
  • Six tiles depicting heretical shrines that can be used in rivalries with cloisters and abbeys
Carcassonne — Tunnel (Carcassonne — Der Tunnel, 2009)
Published in Spielbox: Issue 2009/6
  • Four new tiles and twelve chips to create tunnels
  • Tunnels can also be built with The Princess and the Dragon tunnel entrances
Carcassonne — Crop Circles (Carcassonne — Die Kornkreise, 2010)
Published with German versions of the Carcassonne base game.
  • Six new tiles depicting three pairs of symbols allowing players to add or remove followers from other tiles
Carcassonne — The Plague (Carcassonne — Die Pest, 2010)
Published in Spielbox, Issue 2010/6
  • Six new tiles depicting plague zones allowing players to remove followers from tiles.
  • Six small tiles numbered from 1 to 6
  • 18 flea chips
Carcassonne — The School (Carcassonne — Die Schule, 2011)
  • 2 additional starting tiles depicting a school with six roads branching off. When a road attached to the school is completed, the player claims the Teacher meeple included, and then gains the same points as the next scored feature, and returning the Teacher to the school.
Carcassonne — The Festival (Carcassonne — Das Fest, 2011) (2016 New Edition - 15th Anniversary)
Included as a bonus with the 10th anniversary edition of the base game.
  • Ten additional tiles (1 for each year since the game's release represent the festival) which allows players to either place a follower as normal, or take one back from any tile.
Carcassonne — The Phantom (Carcassonne — Das Gefolge, 2011)
Released as stand-alone mini expansion
  • Six additional followers, 1 for each color that represent phantoms and allow a second follower to be placed on a turn.
  • This is the first expansion that does not include tiles, and is also the first time meeples have been released in plastic. Each meeple is a see-through acrylic of a different color to represent a phantom.
  • 0 additional tiles.
  • Not compatible with the 10th anniversary edition of the base game (10th edition replaced all of the wooden meeples with the same plastic meeples used in the phantom expansion, which makes it impossible to tell them apart even though they would use new rules)
Carcassonne Minis (2012)

Six stand-alone mini expansions, with each containing a tile for a seventh mini expansion.

1. Carcassonne — The Flying Machines (Carcassonne — Die Fluggeräte)
  • 8 tiles which allow the player to "fly" to claim an unfinished feature (even if already occupied), or to "crash" by landing where there are no tiles, by rolling a die that gives only 1/2/3.
  • 1 Custom Die
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.
2. Carcassonne — The Messengers (Carcassonne — Die Depeschen)
  • 6 new Messenger Meeple for the scorecard which allow for possible bonus points by drawing from a new stack of action tiles.
  • 8 action tiles
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.
3. Carcassonne — The Ferries (Carcassonne — Die Fähren)
  • 8 tiles featuring roads leading to lakes. Players may place an included ferry piece to extend a road.
  • 8 Ferry pieces
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.
4. Carcassonne — The Gold Mines (Carcassonne — Die Goldminen)
  • 8 tiles which incorporate the included gold bar pieces, which allow for bonus points at the end of the game
  • 16 Gold Bar pieces
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.
5. Carcassonne — Mage & Witch (Carcassonne — Magier & Hexe)
  • 8 tiles which allow placement of the Mage or Witch on incomplete features. Resulting in adjusted scoring when completed.
  • 1 Mage figure & 1 Witch figure
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.
6. Carcassonne — The Robbers (Carcassonne — Die Räuber)
  • 8 tiles which allow placement of a Robber, resulting in stealing some of another player's points.
  • 6 Robber Meeples
  • Plus a bonus Corn Circles II tile.
7. Carcassonne — Corn Circles II (Carcassonne — Die Kornkreise)
  • 6 tiles making a new Corn Circles expansion composed of each of the bonus tiles from the 6 minis.
  • Corn circles allow for placement of a second follower in a feature already claimed by that player, or to remove a follower from the board.
  • Different Corn Circle tiles from that of the previous Corn Circles expansion. (Can both be combined for more Corn Circles.)
  • Not available as a stand alone.
Carcassonne — The Wind Roses (Die Windrosen) (2012-2013)[16]
Carcassonne — The Watchtower (Carcassonne — Die Wachtürme, 2014)
Released through cundco.de
  • 12 tiles depicting watchtowers with specialized bonuses on each tile.
  • Players placing a meeple on the bonus feature of the watchtower tile get the bonus when that feature is completed.
Carcassonne — Halflings (Carcassonne — Halb so wild I & Halb so wild II, 2014)[17]
  • 24 triangular land tiles
Carcassonne — The Markets of Leipzig (Carcassonne — Die Märkte zu Leipzig, 2017)
Released through cundco.d
  • Includes 4 double-sized tiles that form the market town of Leipzig with 4 roads extending out to replace the starting tile.
  • Whenever a player scores on one of the attached road networks, they may move their meeple to one of the 4 quarters of Leipzig and potentially score additional points at the end of the game.
Carcassonne — The Fruit-bearing Trees (Carcassonne — Die Obstbäume, 2018)
Released through cundco.de
  • Includes 6 tiles with fruit trees on them.
  • When the fruit-bearing tree tile is placed, 4 tokens are stacked face down on top of it. When another tile is placed adjacent to the fruit-bearing tree tile, the player may either collect the top token from the tree and score the points depicted or sell their collected tokens at the market.
Carcassonne — The Toll Keepers (Carcassonne — Die Zöllner, 2019)
Released through cundco.de
  • Includes 6 tiles and 6 toll tokens (1 in each player color).
  • Instead of placing a meeple, you may place your toll token on an open crossroads. When a road that ends at your tolled crossroads, you score points for the travelers, farms, stables, highwaymen, and gardens on the road.
Carcassonne — Maps (2019-)
  • Each map sold separately.[18]
  • Set of 30 chips sold separately[19]
  • Map selections include France, Benelux, Great Britain, Península Ibérica (Iberian Peninsula), Deutschland (Germany), USA West und East, Taiwan, Nordics, and Ukraine.
Carcassonne — The Peasant Revolts (Carcassonne — Bauernaufstände, 2020)[20]
  • 12 terrain tiles with icons denoting revolt in a city, road, or cloister
Carcassonne — The Gifts (Carcassonne — Die Geschenke, 2020)[21]
  • 25 cards
Carcassonne — The Signposts (Carcassonne — Die Wegweiser, 2021)[22]
  • "12 new land tiles, each depicting 2 of 3 different types of signposts"
Carcassonne — The Bets (Carcassonne — Die Wetteinsätze, 2022)[23]
  • 10 bookmaker tiles (land tile with a betting office depicted) & 36 betting chips
Mists over Carcassonne (Nebel über Carcassonne, 2023)[24]
  • spin-off played as a cooperative game, or acts as a competitive expansion called Ghosts, Castles and Cemeteries (Geister, Schlösser und Friedhöfe)
  • 60 land tiles (roads, cities, castles, cemeteries, mist), 4x4 starting tile, scoring track with 2 hound tiles (Rufus & Ronja) and 1 goal tile, 30 guard meeples, 15 ghosts

Compilations
Carcassonne Big Box
  • The original game,
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • The Princess and the Dragon
  • Tower
  • River (only in Rio Grande version)
Carcassonne — Cult, Siege, and Creativity (2008)
  • Cult (with one additional tile)
  • Siege (an adaptation of the Cathars expansion)
  • Two blank white tiles for use in making custom expansions
Carcassonne Big Box 2 (2008, 2009)
This Big Box is the same size as the previous Big Box, but with a slightly different component mix.
  • The original game
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • The Princess and the Dragon
  • Abbey and Mayor
  • Count, King and Cult
  • River II
"Wheel of Fortune" ("Das Schicksalsrad", July 2009)
A full replacement for the base game and/or expansion, featuring:
  • 72 tiles with some new/different tiles as compared to the original base game.
  • 40 followers (in 5 colors) and a scoreboard.
  • A new start-tile which depicts the Wheel of Fortune
  • The Wheel of Fortune – a new mechanic based on icons on 16 tiles allowing an element of "fate" into the game. Events that can be triggered include famine, plague, and fortune, among others.
  • A large pink pig animeeple that moves along the rim of the wheel.
Carcassonne Big Box 3 (2010, 2011)
  • The original game
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • The Princess and the Dragon
  • Abbey and Mayor
  • Bridges, Castles and Bazaars
Carcassonne 10 year anniversary edition (2011)
A stand alone release of the original game to celebrate the 10th anniversary with special packaging, "crystal" meeples made from see through acrylic and a special mini expansion, the festival.
  • The original game,
  • The Festival
  • Meeple shaped storage box (holds only the base game and meeples, no room for expansions)
  • Acrylic meeples (not compatible with phantom expansion which uses the same figures to create new rules options)
Carcassonne Big Box 4 (2012)
This Big Box edition is published by Z-Man Games.
  • The original game
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • Mini Expansion 1 – The Flying Machines
  • Mini Expansion 2 – The Messengers
  • Mini Expansion 3 – The Ferries
  • Mini Expansion 4 – The Gold Mines
  • Mini Expansion 5 – Mage & Witch
  • Mini Expansion 6 – The Robbers
  • Mini Expansion 7 – The Crop Circles II
Carcassonne Big Box 5 (2014)
This Big Box edition is published by Z-Man Games.
  • The original game
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • Hills & Sheep
  • The Wheel of Fortune
  • Mini Expansion – The River
  • New Meeples for 7 & 8 player games
Carcassonne Big Box 6 (2017)
This Big Box edition is published by Z-Man Games.
  • The new edition of the original game with river and abbot expansions
  • Inns and Cathedrals
  • Traders and Builders
  • Mini Expansion 1 – The Flying Machines
  • Mini Expansion 2 – The Messengers
  • Mini Expansion 3 – The Ferries
  • Mini Expansion 4 – The Gold Mines
  • Mini Expansion 5 – Mage & Witch
  • Mini Expansion 6 – The Robbers
  • Mini Expansion 7 – The Crop Circles II

Spin-offs
Comparison of the starting tile and tile backs for the basic game (center) with two spin-offs: The Ark of the Covenant (left) and Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (right)

Following the success of Carcassonne, a number of games have been spun off from the main game, all sharing similar mechanics. There is also a travel-sized version of the original game, Travel Carcassonne (Reise-Carcassonne), released in 2007.

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (Carcassonne: Die Jäger und Sammler, 2002): Hunters and Gatherers is a stand-alone game that involves the building of forests, rivers and wildlife rather than cities and roads. This game attempted to rectify some perceived faults in the original by eliminating cloisters, introducing a "special tile" system to encourage players to complete cities (now forests) owned by other players, and making the value of meadows vary both up and down with animals that appear on the tiles.
The Ark of the Covenant (2003)
Ark is a biblical-themed version of Carcassonne by Inspiration Games based on the Old Testament, which includes the animal feature found in Hunters and Gatherers, as well as the Ark itself which may be moved in lieu of follower placement, scoring points for followers that they pass through.
Carcassonne: The Castle (Carcassonne: Die Burg, 2003): The Castle is a two-player spin-off, designed by Reiner Knizia, where the game is played within the confines of a fixed castle. Players gain extra abilities by scoring an exact number of points, and tile placement rules are relaxed. A downloadable expansion called The Falcon was released in 2015.
Carcassonne: The City (Carcassonne: Die Stadt, 2004): The City is a "deluxe-style" stand-alone game similar to The Castle, where tile placement is relaxed. The significant new rules involve the addition of city walls when the city grows beyond a certain size.
Carcassonne: The Discovery (Carcassonne: Neues Land, 2005): An exploration-themed stand-alone game that involves mountains, seas and meadows. The significant change in this game is that followers are no longer automatically removed when a terrain feature is completed: they must be removed as a game action, in lieu of placing a new follower that turn. Players may choose to remove a follower from, and score for, a terrain feature before it is completed, albeit for fewer points; followers remaining on the map at the end of the game also suffer a score penalty even if the features they are standing on are completed.
New World: A Carcassonne Game (Carcassonne: Mayflower, 2008): New World is a stand-alone game that allows players to play Carcassonne in the New World, aka America. Players begin the basic tile-laying from a coastal edge and move westward, creating towns, hunting, farming, and trail blazing as they go along. Although terminology has changed, this game follows the basic rules of Carcassonne very closely but is more restricted than the basic game.
My First Carcassonne (Die Kinder von Carcassonne, 2009)
Unveiled at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in February 2009[25] this is a short game for younger children inspired by Carcassonne, designed by Marco Teubner.[26][27]
Cardcassonne (2009)
This is a card game based on Carcassonne.[28]
Carcassonne: The Dice Game, 2011: A set of 9 specialized dice with city segments, meeples, and catapults, where players roll the dice to create cities to gain points.
Carcassonne: Winter Edition (2012): is a standalone Carcassonne game where the tiles are depicted with Winter Snow, the set contains the base-72-tiles plus an additional 12 tiles .[29] An expansion called The Gingerbreadman was released in 2012.
A game of Carcassonne: South Seas
Carcassonne: South Seas (Carcassonne: Südsee, 2013): South Seas is the first title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series. A tropical-themed version, varying gameplay by adding a resource element that affects the point score.[30] An expansion called Friday was released in 2013.
Carcassonne: Gold Rush (Carcassonne: Goldrausch, 2014): Gold Rush is the second title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series of tile-laying games. Gold Rush, players return to the 19th century in the United States. Players mine for gold and complete railroads to score points. A new mechanic is the Tent which can be used to steal Golden Tokens from other players before they complete their mountain. An expansion called The Sheriff was released in 2014.
Carcassonne: Over Hill and Dale (Carcassonne: Über Stock und Stein, 2015): Over Hill and Dale is a standalone game in the Carcassonne series. In this new game, towns and castles are replaced by fields of fruits and vegetables. Fruit is collected, stables are built to house animals, and paths can be walked down to score points.
Carcassonne: Star Wars (Carcassonne: Star Wars, 2015): In this Star Wars version, the known rules of Carcassonne are simplified by removing the farmer mechanic, but Cloisters are replaced with Planets that can be attacked, by rolling dice to beat one's opponent. Co-op play is introduced with a 2v2 mechanism. A boxed expansion for this game was released in 2016.
Carcassonne: Amazonas (2016): Amazonas is the third title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series. It takes players to the Amazon rainforest, where players can expand villages, forests, and the Amazon River and tributaries.
Carcassonne: Safari (2018): Safari is the fourth title in the Carcassonne: Around the World series.

Video games
Carcassonne for Facebook
A Facebook application.[31]
Carcassonne for iOS
An iPhone and iPad application developed by TheCodingMonkeys.[32] This version has a Metacritic rating of 93% based on 10 critic reviews.[33]
Carcassonne for Windows Phone
An Xbox Live-enabled Windows Phone 8 application.
Carcassonne on mobile- and smartphones (Android, J2ME)
Developed by exozet games. Release: July/August 2011.[34]
Carcassonne: The Computer Game: A PC-based version of Carcassonne that included AI, online, and hotseat modes.[35] It was distributed only in Germany[35] by games company Koch Media[36] and discontinued in 2006.[37]
Carcassonne on BrettspielWelt (BSW)
Includes the expansions: The River, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, Princess & Dragon, and King & Scout, as well as options to score based on different rulesets used across various editions of the game.
Carcassonne for Xbox 360
In 2006, Microsoft announced in a press release that Carcassonne would be an Xbox Live Arcade title[38] alongside Catan and Alhambra. The title was published by Sierra Online and released on 27 June 2007;[39] it includes all the tiles of the original game and those of "The River" expansion. This version of the game uses the 3rd Edition scoring rules by default; the game allows alternate and/or older rules for non-ranked and single player games. Sierra had promised to release the expansions as well. As of 30 October 2009, The River II expansion and King & Baron (King & Scout) expansions are available. On 15 November 2007, Microsoft made Carcassonne available free of charge for seven days to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their Xbox Live service.[40]
Carcassonne for Nintendo DS
Video game news website Kotaku announced on 9 July 2009 that an iteration of the game will be released on Nintendo DS in 2009. According to Kotaku, the game will include the "River" expansion as well as three new "worlds" described as "Asian, Nordic and Arabic."[41]
JCloisterZone
A PC-based application implemented in Java.[42]
"Age of Thieves"
A game made for AmigaOS 4.1
Concarneau
A web version of the game implemented in JavaScript.[43]
Carcassonne: Tiles & Tactics:The official adaptation of the board game published on Steam. The game includes the Abbots and the River expansion as a DLC.[44] A port based on Tiles and Tactics (Asmodee Digital). It was announced in a September Nintendo Direct. It was released on 29 November 2017.[45]

Tournaments and World Championships

International Carcassonne tournaments were held in Germany in 2003–2005.[46]

The first official Carcassonne World Championship was held at SPIEL in Essen, Germany, in 2006.[47] An annual world championship has been held at SPIEL every year since 2006 with the exceptions of the 2010 and the 2023 championships, which were held during SPIEL but at an alternate location in Herne, Germany; and the 2020 edition which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[48] As a result of the cancelation of the 2020 World Championship, in the 2021 edition each country was allowed to participate with two players (except Romania, that was allowed to participate with three players including the 2019 champion Marian Curcan).[49]

Ralph Querfurth has been the World Champion in four editions.[50]

Year World Champion 2nd 3rd 4th Participants
2006Germany Ralph QuerfurthAustria Michael WischounigCzech Republic David KorejtkoHungary Dávid Erdős16
2007Germany Sebastian TrunzTaiwan Chen Wei-ChiFinland Janne JaulaNorway Henrik Fürstenberg20
2008Germany Ralph QuerfurthCzech Republic Martin MojžišGermany Sebastian TrunzAustria Stefan Leopoldseder20
2009Germany Ralph QuerfurthAustralia Daniel GerombouxSlovakia Matej TabakFinland Petri Savola20
2010Germany Ralph QuerfurthCzech Republic Martin MojžišSlovakia Matej TabakAustralia Randy Dreger22
2011Netherlands Els BultenJapan Shinnosuke KomukaiGermany Robert MütznerCzech Republic Martin Mojžiš24
2012Czech Republic Martin MojžišAustria Stefan LeopoldsederSlovakia Matej TabakNetherlands Els Bulten26
2013Greece Pantelis LitsardopoulosCzech Republic Martin MojžišLatvia Aleksejs PeguševsPoland Maciej Śmieszek36
2014Japan Takafumi MochizukiGreece Pantelis LitsardopoulosSlovakia Matej TabakPortugal Ricardo Gomes34
2015Greece Pantelis LitsardopoulosJapan Takafumi MochizukiNetherlands Els BultenBrazil Humberto Fukuda32
2016Russia Vladimir KovalevGreece Pantelis LitsardopoulosBelgium Vannes VansinaSlovakia Matej Tabak36
2017Poland Tomasz PreussGreece Pantelis LitsardopoulosItaly Davide SandrinSlovakia Matej Tabak38
2018Japan Genro FujimotoRomania Marian CurcanGermany Kolja StratmannPoland Tomasz Preuss34
2019 Romania Marian Curcan Taiwan Ying Chien Chien Estonia Timofei Gretsenko Italy Paolo Ballabeni 36
2021 Poland Maciej Polak Brazil Melvin Quaresma Poland Tomasz Preuss Portugal Nuno Torres 42
2022 Romania Árpád Gere Taiwan Min-Wei Chen Czech Republic Martin Mojžiš Norway Hogne Jorgensen 34
2023 United Kingdom Matt Tucker Latvia Aleksejs Peguševs Netherlands Patrick Bekkenutte China Xiangyu Qin 42

World Team Carcassonne Online Championship

As a result of the cancelation of World Championship in 2020, the community of Carcassonne Catalonia decided to create an online world championship for teams, to be played online for several weeks on the online platform Board Game Arena.[51] It is called the World Team Carcassonne Online Championship (WTCOC) and the Japanese team won the first edition. A second edition was played in 2021, and during this edition the publisher Hans Im Gluck and Spielzentrum made official their support for the championship.[52][53] The second edition in 2021 and the third edition in 2022 were won by Japan. The fourth edition held in 2023 was won by China.

Year World Champion 2nd 3rd 4th Participating teams
2020 Japan Japan Russia Russia Germany Germany Romania Romania 21
2021 Japan Japan Russia Russia Romania Romania Catalonia Catalonia 29
2022 Japan Japan China China RCP Portugal Portugal 25
2023 China China RCP Latvia Latvia Spain Spain 32

Notes
  1. The part of the rule involving pennants was redundant, as it is impossible to have a two-tile completed city with pennants.

References
  1. Miller, Elliott (7 June 2012). "Carcassonne Moving to Z-Man Games". The Gaming Gang. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  2. Schend, Steven E. (2007). "Carcassonne". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 46–48. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  3. "Carcassonne".
  4. Perling, Anna; Austin, James (9 December 2019). "The best beginner board games for adults". The Wirecutter. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  5. Wrede, Klaus-Jürgen (2016). "Carcassonne rules" (PDF). Z-Man Games. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
  6. "Carcassonne: The Complete Annotated Rules" (PDF). Carcassonne Central. 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  7. "Carcassonne — Supplementary Rules" (PDF). Z-Man Games. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  8. "There seem to be several different scoring systems for fields/cities in Carcassonne — which is correct?". 22 October 2012.
  9. "Third Edition Rules". Rio Grande Games. 13 December 2008. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  10. Kárná, Lucie (2–5 May 2012). "Carcassonne — Description of the game" (PDF). In honor of the 60th birthday of Michal Křížek. Applications of Mathematics 2012. Prague: Institute of Mathematics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. pp. 107–116. ISBN 978-80-85823-60-8.
  11. Capaldi, Mindy; Kolba, Tiffany (September 2017). "Carcassonne in the Classroom". The College Mathematics Journal. 48 (4): 265. doi:10.4169/college.math.j.48.4.265. S2CID 54011673. alternative PDF link
  12. Wheeler, Adam (19 August 2016). "Carcassonne review". Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  13. Zimmerman, Aaron; Anderson, Nate; Mendelsohn, Tom (8 December 2017). "Ars Technica's ultimate board game buyer's guide". Ars Technica. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  14. Mewborne, Michael; Mitchell, Jerry T. (3 April 2019). "Carcassonne: Using a Tabletop Game to Teach Geographic Concepts". The Geography Teacher. 16 (2): 57–67. Bibcode:2019GeTea..16...57M. doi:10.1080/19338341.2019.1579108. ISSN 1933-8341. S2CID 181375208.
  15. "Pyramid: Pyramid Pick: Carcassonne".
  16. "Carcassonne — The Wind Roses". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  17. "Carcassonne — Halflings". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  18. "Carcassonne 3.0 Maps (GER/EN)". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  19. "Map-Chips". Retrieved 4 September 2023..
  20. "Carcassonne — The Peasant Revolts". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  21. "Carcassonne — The Gifts". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  22. "Carcassonne — The Signposts". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  23. "Carcassonne — The Bets". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  24. "Carcassonne 3.0 - Mists over Carcassonne (GER)". Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  25. "News from Nurnberg". Rio Grande Games. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
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  27. "Die Kinder von Carcassonne". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  28. "Cardcassonne". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  29. "Carcassonne: Winter Edition". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  30. "Carcassonne: South Seas". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  31. "Carcassonne for Facebook". Archived from the original on 12 January 2014.
  32. "Carcassonne for iPhone and iPod Touch".
  33. "Carcassonne". Metacritic.
  34. "exozet develops Android and J2ME version of board game classic Carcassonne". Archived from the original on 1 April 2011.
  35. Shannon Appelcline (20 April 2005). "Review of Carcassonne: The Computer Game". RPG.net. Retrieved 8 February 2011. Carcassonne: The Computer Game is a high-quality adaptation of the SdJ-award-winning Carcassonne tile game by Koch Media for Windows PCs... This computer game is currently available only in Germany
  36. "Koch Media concludes "Carcassonne" licensing contract for Nintendo DS". Deepsilver. 30 June 2009. Archived from the original on 9 July 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2011. As early as 2002, Koch Media published the first PC version of "Carcassonne"
  37. "Carcassonne for PC newsfeed" (in German). KOCH Media. 1 January 2006. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2011. Carcassonne, Carcassonne add-on and Carcassonne King and collector since 1.1.2006 no longer available. (Carcassonne, Carcassonne Add-On und Carcassonne König und Sammler ist seit 1.1.2006 nicht mehr erhältlich.)
  38. "Microsoft Offers More Ways to Play Games for Windows and Xbox 360 at German Games Convention". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 8 September 2007.
  39. Porcaro, John (25 June 2007). "Build a Medieval Empire on Xbox LIVE Arcade with the Popular German Board Game Carcassonne". Archived from the original on 1 July 2007.
  40. Mark Wilson (13 November 2007). "Xbox LIVE Turns Five, Gives Away Carcassonne". Kotaku. Retrieved 8 February 2011. Carcassonne, an already released XBLA board game, will be available for free download
  41. Plunkett, Luke (9 July 2009). "Carcassonne Coming to a DS Near You".
  42. "JCloisterZone – Java implementation of Carcassonne board game".
  43. "Concarneau – web version of the Carcassonne board game".
  44. "Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactic on Steam".
  45. "Carcassonne Steam store page". Steam.
  46. "Carcassonne International Championship 2003". Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  47. "Carcassonne World Championship 2006". Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  48. "Carcassonne World Championship 2020". Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  49. "Carcassonne World Championship 2021". Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  50. "Carcassonne World Championship 2010". Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  51. >"World Team Carcassonne Online Championship". 29 April 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  52. "Hans Im Gluck and Spielezentrum support the WTCOC". 15 April 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  53. "Tournament". Retrieved 7 February 2022.
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