BASIC CARCASSONNE RULES HOW TO

The five players build one city each, using three tiles with no shield.

Assuming five players, let us consider the following two theoretical examples. If you do not, you will lose to players who do. In any game of more that two players, there is an effect which has to be employed in order to win.

BASIC CARCASSONNE RULES HOW TO

Recognising how to do this for every piece takes a lot of experience and analysis, but I consider it the most important skill needed to win. Even if rotating the piece in a certain direction will only give you very slight advantage, doing so will in the long run build up your chances of winning tremendously. There number of ways to master luck in Carcassonne is paramount to my desire to describe them, but let me just leave it at saying that most of them will come gradually with experience.Ĭonclusively, the most desired skill in Carcassonne (and most other games) is to be able to maximise each play so that it leads to the goal of winning the game. Try to have at least one road and one city being built all times and avoid having two projects which require the same kind of tile to be completed. The best play is a piece which helps oneself and, at the same time, is bad for someone else (preferably more than one opponent).Ī rule of thumb in this spirit is that you should always have several different projects to develop that require different kinds of tiles (thus maximising the chance that the next tile is useful). Therefore, strive to play each piece so that it achieves both positive aspects at once, or, if that is not possible, at least one of them, prioritising helping oneself over causing damage to an opponent. Negative things include disruption of one’s own play and helping opponents. Positive things include helping oneself and disrupting one’s opponents. Very few tiles played in Carcassonne are trivial or without meaning (seldom more than one or two during an entire game). As is the case in all games involving any kind of luck, the quintessential idea is to maximise the probability of a positive result and minimise that of a negative one. When playing Carcassonne for the first time, it feels much like throwing dice sometimes one gets the desired tiles, but most often not, and the winner is determined by chance. Without them, I would never have played the game as much as I have and I would never have reached the conclusions presented here. Please note that even if I have originated many of the ideas in this article, I am indebted to my friends. If someone happens to find it interesting or rewarding in any way, that is a significant bonus, but it is not what makes me write in the first place. Even if I am confident that we are pretty close to mastering the game, I write this mostly because I want to focus and clear my own mind. I have never participated in a competition, but I have played the game several times a week for a couple of years together with friends who are as analytic and interested in games as I am. That being said, who am I to lecture about how to play Carcassonne? No one, really. Most of what I say is relevant for all games anyway, but I have provided a special part discussing number of players and why the goal of the game has to be determined in advance and what consequences the choice entails. I will explain why I have made these assumptions later, but just take my word for that they are very important for the strategy of the game. Firstly, I assume that there are five players, and secondly I assume that the goal of the game is to get a good a rank as possible (as opposed to getting as many points as possible). I am making two assumptions for the majority of this guide, which both are crucial.

Even though some specific parts of this article will pertain only to games using that particular setup, most strategies are valid for other combinations as well (even for games in general). Over the years, we have tried various rule sets and different expansions, and we have finally settled on playing with first edition rules and only one expansion, Inns & Cathedrals. If need be, I will of course refer to a specific rule to prove a point. I do not intend to explain the rules of the game and I assume that the reader is familiar with the basic mechanics of the rules. This article is meant to lay the groundwork for how to master the board game Carcassonne (Wikipedia).

Basic carcassonne rules