![\"title\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/carcas_t.jpg\")
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Publisher<\/b>: Hans im Gl\u00fcck<\/p>\n
Author<\/b>: Klaus-J\u00fcrgen Wrede<\/p>\n
Tester<\/b>: Aaron Haag<\/p>\n
Game Type<\/b>: tactical tile-laying game<\/p>\n
The Game<\/b>: Carcassonne is a nice city in the south-western part of France – not
\ntoo far away from Toulouse. It’s quite famous for its historical fortress from the
\nancient times of Romans and knights. Two to five players recreate Carcassonne with its
\ntown areas, roads, farmland and monasteries with the objective to score as many victory
\npoints as possible. On his turn a player takes a tile from the face-down stack of area
\ntiles and places it orthogonal next to the tiles already placed by other players (or the
\nspecially marked start-tile on the very first turn). A tile placed must fit in terms of
\nroads, farmland and city walls to the already placed tiles it connects to. Immediately
\nafter placing the tile the player may place one of his 7 pawns on the just played tile –
\neither on a road, a farmland, the monastery or the city itself. This pawn marks the
\ncorresponding area as “under control”. During the turn of the game these areas
\nextend due to other tiles played (roads get longer, cities and farmland cover a larger
\narea, monasteries are surrounded by other tiles). Once a road is completed by connecting
\ncities, villages or monasteries the “owner” of this road scores points
\naccording to the length of the road (2 points per tile). Similarly, once cities are
\ncompleted by closing the city walls they also score. Monasteries score points at the
\nmoment all surrounding tiles (i.e. 8) have been placed. Farmland though only score at the
\nend of the game. In each case the pawn that scored the points is handed back to the
\nplayer and is again available for placement.<\/p>\n
Playing Time<\/b>: The game can easily be explained and played in 30 to 45
\nminutes.<\/p>\n
Similar Games<\/b>: El Caballero (Hans im Gl\u00fcck)<\/p>\n
Westpark Gamer’s Opinion<\/b>: This game is a perfect starter for an evening of
\ngaming. It plays quite fast (unless you are playing with gamers that just cannot decide
\non the perfect spot for laying their tile) but still has a lot of depth. The players are
\npermanently struggling between short-time tactics and long-term strategy for placing
\ntiles and pawns. This is certainly an upside of Carcassonne. Players have to watch out
\nfor those extending farmlands which score big points at the end of the game and at the
\nsame time do some housekeeping with their pawns. The decision between quickly scoring a
\nfew points for completing a road and getting back a pawn compared to extending a
\nstructure and scoring later is tough. There is also quite a bit of player interaction
\ninvolved when the other players lend their advice for “perfect” tile placement
\nto the one whose turn it is. On the downside there is definite element of luck introduced
\nby taking tiles from a face-down stack. If you do not draw monastery tiles or never get
\nthat one matching city tile there is not much you can do to win besides preventing other
\nplayers to score – certainly not an empire builder’s game. And destroying the other
\nplayer’s plans again requires some luck in tile drawing. There have been suggestions
\nto place a number of tiles face up (e.g. corresponding to the number of players) as in El
\nCaballero. We still have to play this variant to judge on it.<\/p>\n
Aaron’s Rating<\/b>: 7 (out of 10)<\/p>\n
Westpark Gamers’ Rating<\/b>: 6.8<\/p>\n