Carcassonne Review

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(More customer reviews)Most people come to this game after they have already been introduced to the European Designer Games by Settlers of Catan. This is a different kind of game than Settlers but in some senses it shares a lot of commonalities.
The game is easy to learn for a wide audience, it is reasonably quick to play (30 - 40 minutes) and is a very "immersive" game i.e. there aren't long periods of boredom. There are elements of strategy and luck, which makes for a "fun" game experience.
This game is fun for children and adults. For children the "farmers" are a little too complex, but the game works very well without that element.
The game consists of laying tiles to build cities, roads and monasteries in the South of France. Points are gained by creating long roads, building large cities or farming multiple farms. It draws elements of building jigsaw puzzles together with a strategy game of competing for territory.
I have played this game with family members who aren't really into board games and they enjoyed it just as much as gamers.
There are many expansions to this game which add a few more dimensions as you get more advanced. There is a very high replay-ability.
I would high recommend this game to people who are bored with standard Monopoly or Cranium type board games that are popular in the US.
If you loved Settler's of Catan this a "must"!
Summary:
General
o 2 - 5 Players
o 30 - 40 minutes Playing time
Audience -
o Children & Adults
o Serious and Casual Gamers
Format
o Tile Laying
o Combines Strategy & Luck
Longevity
o High Replay-ability
o Quality Components

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Carcassonne - Hunters and Gatherers Review

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(More customer reviews)Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers is a brand new product in the Carcassonne line of games. The original game uses medieval tiles (castles, roads, monasteries, etc.), whereas this one takes place in prehistoric times (forests, lakes, meadows). In order to score, you need to actually close off the rivers and forests, unlike the original Carcassonne where you can keep on building and building onto a city in order to get more points. Also, if you complete a forest with a gold nugget, you get a bonus tile - basically an extra turn, but the bonus tiles sometimes have a huge bonus.
The original is fun, but if you're just getting into the game you definitely want to try this first. Scoring is different, as well as the addition of a new type of "meeple," but it plays a lot faster and just makes a little more sense. The original is good, but Hunters & Gatherers is *terrific*!

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Game Description: This is a new game (not an expansion) in the Carcassonne line. It has new graphics, a new set of components, a theme set in the stone age, and new rules to match the theme. As in Carcassonne, players place tiles and put game figures on them, but with different strategies and results. Players have figures that can represent hunters, gatherers, or fishermen and place them in meadows, forests, or on rivers. They also have huts, which can be placed on rivers or lakes and are scored at the end of the game as are the hunters. Gatherers and fishermen are scored when forests or rivers are completed. There are special forest tiles that give the player who plays a tile completing a forest an extra tile lay of special tiles with special features. Players will like this game that features the tile-laying and token placements of Carcassonne with many new twists.

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Carcassonne Abbey & Mayor 5th Extension Review

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(More customer reviews)Abbey & Mayor is the 5th full expansion to Carcassonne. With this expansion, players add a power and influence aspect to their game in four different parts. I've listed them in order of enjoyment.
Mayor -- The mayor piece is focused on controlling cities. The mayor's power grows as the city gains more pennant tiles. This piece can play a major role in the struggle for control that frequently takes place in large, valuable cities. As someone who enjoys competing for cities, I like this aspect.
Wagon -- Played as a regular piece, the wagon can travel from a completed area to somewhere unclaimed. This creates continuity and requires some extra vision. So far, this piece has been fun to play.
Barns -- The barn allows players to set up a super farm that grows in size as the game progresses pushing other, usually smaller, farmers out. The barn makes farm strategy important from the beginning instead of its typical end game position. However, a common complaint about farms in general is that they tend to grow too big. Those who don't enjoy that aspect of the game may not like this piece.
Abbey -- Acting as a sort of super cloister, the Abbey can be used to fill in those hard to close map features. It's a great escape valve for those who get trapped and it is also a quick way to add points. However, I think this takes away from the tactical aspect of trying to trap an opponents valuable pieces. This piece is probably my least favorite part of the Abbey & Mayor expansion.
Overall, I think this is a good expansion to Carcassonne falling in behind Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders but ahead of Princess & Dragon and The Tower. I think it will add the most to games with intermediate to experienced players.

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The fifth major expansion to Carcassonne, Abbey & Mayor adds 3 new wooden piece types, 6 abbey tiles, and 12 landscape tiles. The Abbey tiles act as Cloisters but do not have to match adjacent tiles and they complete adjacent features when placed. Mayors can be placed only in cities, with their strength determined by the number of pennants in the city. Barns allow players to score fields during the game rather than just at the end. Wagons are placed on roads, cities, or cloisters, and can move to an adjacent open feature when their current feature is completed.

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Carcassonne - Princess and Dragon Expansion Review

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(More customer reviews)Princess & Dragon adds an element of random disaster to Carcassonne. The primary addition to game play is a dragon that "eats" pieces, removing them from play. Secondary aspects include, a fairy to protect players from the dragon's attack, magic portals that allow players to teleport to other available map features, and princess tiles to help opportunists capture an opponent's incomplete city.
The Dragon element can be fun and does make for some tense situations as you wait to see if a dragon tile is coming out of the bag, but I find it only really adds to game play of four or more players.
The secondary aspects offer limited enjoyment and really don't add much to game play aside from complicating strategy and making the game last longer.
Overall, I consider it to be one of the lesser Carcassonne expansions and don't play with if very often. It is best suited for a more experienced player looking to add something new to the game. For newer players, I recommend purchasing Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, and Abbey & Mayor before picking up Princess & Dragon.

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In this expansion from the prize-winning Carcassonne, we move into the realm of fantasy. The land around Carcassonne is being visited by a dragon, making life very difficult for the followers. Brave heroes venture forth to face the danger, but without the aid of the fairies, their chances are not good.In the city, the princess seeks help from the knights, and farmers build secret passages to move about undetected by the dragon. We hope you enjoy this special trip into the land of Carcassonne!

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Carcassonne - The Tower Expansion Review

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(More customer reviews)We tried out our new Tower Expansion and were pleasantly surprised at how simple the rules were! It added a whole new dimension to the game though, and you really need to brace yourself to have all your potential points taken away if your follower is taken prisoner off of a big city or farming area. It made the game much more intense though, and it really causes you to change your strategy to keep the towers in mind. We also like playing with the tower tiles just as an addition to the regular game, without actually building towers or using the new rules. The tile-holder that came with it was also useful and better quality than we expected. And it still leaves plenty of room to grow with future expansions!

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In this Carcassonne expansion, players have the opportunity to build upwards! The lords of the region around Carcassonne erect towers to strengthen and promote their power and influence. They employ followers to stand guard on the towers, watching over the land so they can inform their lords of all who travel and move throughout the area. Players may capture opponents followers, holding them in prison. Later, the players may arrange a prisoner exchange, to the advantage of the players involved. Also, a player may arrange to pay ransom for the return of an imprisoned follower. Fans of Carcassonne will enjoy the new tactical opportunities offered by this expansion. The expansion also includes a special tower for storing the landscape tiles, giving players a convenient way to draw tiles during the game.

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Carcassonne the Count Review

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(More customer reviews)The Count of Carcassonne (CoC) is an expansion for the game Carcassonne. It is a starting point to be used in place of the river or single starting tile included with the basic game.
CoC allows players to "stash" pieces in the town. As the game progresses, they can draw on these pieces to take control of valuable map features (cities, roads, cloisters, farms) as other players score. It makes the game more complex and adds another dimension to strategy and game play.
The design of the tiles also eliminates the mega farms the often develop in the basic game.
I think those who prefer Carcassonne sessions heavy on strategy and competition for each and every scoring opportunity, will enjoy this expansion the most. We enjoy it but don't play with it often.

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This small expansion adds the 12 tiles that represent the actual city of Carcassonne and are the starting tiles for the game. During the game, players who help others score points may place followers in the city and later move them to scoring features out

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Carcassonne: Traders Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an expansion for the Carcassonne game; note that you need the original game to use this. Also note that this is not compatible with the Hunters and Gatherers version of Carcassonne.
This expansion introduces trade goods into cities. When a city is completed, the person collects all goods inside the city (this person who completes the city may not be the same person who controls a city -- this introduces incentive to complete an opponent's city.) The person who had a majority of one of the three trade goods collects 10 extra points at the end of the game, which may give a 30 point swing at the end.
A builder is also introduced. A builder is placed on either a city or a road that you already control. When you add a tile to this road or city, you get to take an extra turn (maximum of one extra turn.) This can really help complete a city.
Finally, a farmer is introduced; it's placed in a field you already control and all fields are worth a puny extra point. (So at the end of the game a city would score 5 points instead of 4.) This is the single worst addition to the game in both expansions, as it has little effect on the game. But the rest of the game is good.
There are a lot of new city tiles, many of them "strange" in the way they cut off cities and fields. It's worth playing. A bag is included for storing tiles which solves the problem of the 1st expansion having slightly different colored backs. (Something I didn't notice until pointed out to me.)

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This 2nd expansion takes Carcassonne to new dimensions of fun and excitement. Traders can earn players extra points and builders enable players to place extra tiles, allowing the cities and roads to grow faster. A pig, properly placed, can enrich the value of a farm. Also included is a small cloth bag for the tiles, making it easier to shuffle and draw them during the game. Traders & Builders is not a complete game, but must be played with Carcassonne.

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Inns and Cathedrals Review

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(More customer reviews)Note that this is an expansion set to the original Carcassonne game; you need the main game before you can use this. (Also note that this is not compatible with the Hunters and Gatherers set.)
This expansion introduces several new city, temple, and road tiles which aren't in the original set. It adds two types of tiles -- two "Cathedral" tiles, which causes a city to be worth 3 times the points if it is finished, or makes a city worth nothing at the end of the game if it isn't finished. It also adds a handful of "Inn on the lake" tiles which makes a road worth 2 times the points when finished or worth nothing if unfinished at the end of the game. Finally, a new pawn is included, which is worth two people when determining ownership of completed sections.
There are two disadvantages with this set -- the backs are slightly different than the original set, which I didn't originally notice. It's not too bad, but it was bad enough for the hardcore players that a bag is given in a later expansion set to solve this problem. The other disadvantage is that it is sometimes difficult to tell which one of your pawns is the big guy, as the only difference is that it's slightly bigger. I've been meaning to paint small sheriff badges on mine to make it easier to tell the difference.
In the end, it's a very nice expansion for one of the greatest board games I've ever played.

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The expansion offers all fans of Carcassonne new challenges: The Cathedral triples the value of a city, and the Inn doubles the value of a road but only when they are completed. Players may use the new large follower to double their chances of controlling a city, road, or field. Also included is all necessary material to allow a sixth player to join in the fun. Finally, there are six point tiles to make scoring easier when players score more than 50 points. You need to have the Carcassonne game in order to use this expansion.

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