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on December 10, 2015
There has been a board game renaissance here lately, and I have missed out on it. So I thought hosting family for Christmas would be a good excuse to check out some of the new board games.
After a trip to Barnes and Noble derailed by sticker shock and a certain misunderstanding between me and my wife over what I meant by “let’s buy a board game,” there were two conditions. One, we needed a game that five players could play (so Settlers of Catan was out). Two, we needed a game five board game beginners could figure out on the fly (so the Game of Thrones board game was out—one reviewer suggested each player watch the instructional video and one player read the instruction manual cover to cover twice). Carcassonne met both conditions and was priced to sell so we went for it.
It turned out to be a great choice. For all the medieval trappings it is, as my father and law pointed out, ultimately a real estate game. It’s a straight forward set up. Each player places tiles with some combination of three features (road, city, abbey) and places “meeples” to control features. That’s it, tiles and meeples. No paper and pen are necessary and scores are kept by meeple on an accompanying scoreboard.
I’ve played three games so far, two with five players and one with two players. The first game we tried to play on the fly and, well, we screwed a bunch of the rules up but it was fun nonetheless. I read the short instruction manual between games and by the second game we had everything figured out. Five player games are hectic. You only get to put down so many tiles, and your plans will constantly be affected by moves by other players. This was the most fun part, as every other turn devolved into half-shouted attempts at cutting backroom deals (we had been drinking). This is in contrast to the two player game I played with my wife, where we mostly played our own way, occasionally trying to place a tile to thwart the other’s plans (which seems tough to do).
The replayability, I think, will be high. My wife is up for more Carcassonne game nights, and we already have a request to bring the game for Christmas. Three or four people is probably the ideal number to play, though. There is a lot of luck involved (i.e., the tiles you draw), but there are enough different ways to play tiles to keep it interesting for a while, especially with more players. The biggest flaw, I think, is that there is no penalty for failure to terminate roads and surround abbeys, only for failure to wall off cities. Board Game Geek lists the playing time as 30 – 45 minutes, but each of our games went well beyond that (we should really introduce a chess timer). The basic set comes with river tiles and an abbot meeple that we haven’t played with yet (two separate mini-expansions).
UPDATE:
We played another 5-player game with the river expansion tiles. The additional rules are admirably straightforward (and the reason we started with that instead of the abbot). It did make a big difference. It really spread the game out. For a 5-player game, that meant a lot less of the wheeling-and-dealing and backstabbing I talked about above. It was difficult, though, to do our own thing with so few turns and tiles per player. I think I prefer it without the river tiles, but that may be a bug or a feature, depending on your perspective.
After a trip to Barnes and Noble derailed by sticker shock and a certain misunderstanding between me and my wife over what I meant by “let’s buy a board game,” there were two conditions. One, we needed a game that five players could play (so Settlers of Catan was out). Two, we needed a game five board game beginners could figure out on the fly (so the Game of Thrones board game was out—one reviewer suggested each player watch the instructional video and one player read the instruction manual cover to cover twice). Carcassonne met both conditions and was priced to sell so we went for it.
It turned out to be a great choice. For all the medieval trappings it is, as my father and law pointed out, ultimately a real estate game. It’s a straight forward set up. Each player places tiles with some combination of three features (road, city, abbey) and places “meeples” to control features. That’s it, tiles and meeples. No paper and pen are necessary and scores are kept by meeple on an accompanying scoreboard.
I’ve played three games so far, two with five players and one with two players. The first game we tried to play on the fly and, well, we screwed a bunch of the rules up but it was fun nonetheless. I read the short instruction manual between games and by the second game we had everything figured out. Five player games are hectic. You only get to put down so many tiles, and your plans will constantly be affected by moves by other players. This was the most fun part, as every other turn devolved into half-shouted attempts at cutting backroom deals (we had been drinking). This is in contrast to the two player game I played with my wife, where we mostly played our own way, occasionally trying to place a tile to thwart the other’s plans (which seems tough to do).
The replayability, I think, will be high. My wife is up for more Carcassonne game nights, and we already have a request to bring the game for Christmas. Three or four people is probably the ideal number to play, though. There is a lot of luck involved (i.e., the tiles you draw), but there are enough different ways to play tiles to keep it interesting for a while, especially with more players. The biggest flaw, I think, is that there is no penalty for failure to terminate roads and surround abbeys, only for failure to wall off cities. Board Game Geek lists the playing time as 30 – 45 minutes, but each of our games went well beyond that (we should really introduce a chess timer). The basic set comes with river tiles and an abbot meeple that we haven’t played with yet (two separate mini-expansions).
UPDATE:
We played another 5-player game with the river expansion tiles. The additional rules are admirably straightforward (and the reason we started with that instead of the abbot). It did make a big difference. It really spread the game out. For a 5-player game, that meant a lot less of the wheeling-and-dealing and backstabbing I talked about above. It was difficult, though, to do our own thing with so few turns and tiles per player. I think I prefer it without the river tiles, but that may be a bug or a feature, depending on your perspective.
on October 5, 2016
I LOVE Carcassonne, and as someone who hasn't won even one game of Carcassonne yet, that's telling you something. Probably why I'm so intent on playing it. Super easy to learn, and we've only played the basic version of it (just using the Meeples). We love Settlers of Catan, but that game isn't as fun with just two people. I think Carcassonne is perfect for 2+ people and for ALL ages, because it really is simple. It's always interesting to see how the tiles are laid out by the end of the game. Though luck is a HUGE factor (i.e. which tiles you pull), there is some strategy involved depending on the ever-changing layout. Highly recommend. Really hoping I win one of these days.
on June 23, 2015
This game simply amazes me. Everyone loves it. My 7 and 9 year old kids. 20-something Younger brother. 30-something friends. 50-60-something parents. Even 80-something grandparents. Literally everyone I've ever shown this game loves it.
Place a tile. Place a meeple. Remove meeples from completed structures and score points. That is essentially the game. The game mechanics are simple enough for anyone to play, but always a lot of fun. The game "board" is always different since you build your own map as you go and play off it.
Really the only disadvantage I can think of is that the New Edition is the only set in the new art-style. Meaning if you purchase any existing expansions they won't look quite the same. They'll still match up mechanics-wise, they'll just look different. You can search online for pics of old and new tiles together and see if you are okay with that. Also, from what I understand there's no definite plan to re-release any of the old expansions in the new style. "In negotiations" is all you'll get from Z-Man. I've asked. So this could possibly be the only set in the new art style. And if that is really a factor for you, then go with the old sets. You won't get the Abbot as it's tied to the new artwork, but really, it's not that much of a loss. If you really, really have to have the Abbot then continue reading for my take on it...
Abbots:
The Abbot acts as another monk somewhat. You can play the Abbot on a Monastery. You can also play the Abbot on flower gardens (new in the New Edition artwork) which effectively become another Monastery. You can remove an Abbot from an uncomplete Monastery and score the existing points instead of placing a Meeple. This to me isn't a very good ability. Yeah, you can remove the Abbot early, but you can only play an Abbot on another Monastery or flower garden. So it really limits what you can do with that Abbot you just removed early. So what are you really gaining by removing early? The low chance of drawing one of the few remaining Monastery or flower tiles. Not a good mini-expansion in my mind.
Place a tile. Place a meeple. Remove meeples from completed structures and score points. That is essentially the game. The game mechanics are simple enough for anyone to play, but always a lot of fun. The game "board" is always different since you build your own map as you go and play off it.
Really the only disadvantage I can think of is that the New Edition is the only set in the new art-style. Meaning if you purchase any existing expansions they won't look quite the same. They'll still match up mechanics-wise, they'll just look different. You can search online for pics of old and new tiles together and see if you are okay with that. Also, from what I understand there's no definite plan to re-release any of the old expansions in the new style. "In negotiations" is all you'll get from Z-Man. I've asked. So this could possibly be the only set in the new art style. And if that is really a factor for you, then go with the old sets. You won't get the Abbot as it's tied to the new artwork, but really, it's not that much of a loss. If you really, really have to have the Abbot then continue reading for my take on it...
Abbots:
The Abbot acts as another monk somewhat. You can play the Abbot on a Monastery. You can also play the Abbot on flower gardens (new in the New Edition artwork) which effectively become another Monastery. You can remove an Abbot from an uncomplete Monastery and score the existing points instead of placing a Meeple. This to me isn't a very good ability. Yeah, you can remove the Abbot early, but you can only play an Abbot on another Monastery or flower garden. So it really limits what you can do with that Abbot you just removed early. So what are you really gaining by removing early? The low chance of drawing one of the few remaining Monastery or flower tiles. Not a good mini-expansion in my mind.
on January 21, 2016
It's a fun game and can be as competitive and strategic (or not) as you want it to be.
A hint: The starting tile has a different background than the other tiles, but it is the same background as the tiles for the river expansion (which is an alternate starting method). Therefore, we keep the starting tile in the bag with the meeple so that we can find it fast and easy (especially since it's such a generic tile) and just make sure that the river tiles don't get mixed up (but they're pretty easy to separate as there are no other tiles with water).
As mentioned, there is both a river expansion and an abbot expansion included in the box. The river expansion is fun to change things up a bit in the beginning and get things spread out and I haven't used the abbot expansion yet so I cannot speak to how that adds to the game. The abbot concept, however, seems simple enough and I think will be easy to incorporate when we want to.
A hint: The starting tile has a different background than the other tiles, but it is the same background as the tiles for the river expansion (which is an alternate starting method). Therefore, we keep the starting tile in the bag with the meeple so that we can find it fast and easy (especially since it's such a generic tile) and just make sure that the river tiles don't get mixed up (but they're pretty easy to separate as there are no other tiles with water).
As mentioned, there is both a river expansion and an abbot expansion included in the box. The river expansion is fun to change things up a bit in the beginning and get things spread out and I haven't used the abbot expansion yet so I cannot speak to how that adds to the game. The abbot concept, however, seems simple enough and I think will be easy to incorporate when we want to.
on August 20, 2016
Carcassonne is a city building table top game. Taking turns placing tiles that have features to build, laying down a follower as you place your tile to claim that feature. This game has 72 tiles, including the first mini-expansion The River (which is a nice touch). There's 5 color sets of followers for 5 players and includes comprehensive rule book to help you get going. For first time players it can be a bit much to take in. It's gameplay is simple but can be quite fun and competitive once you get going. This is one of my favorite table top games and fun for the whole family!
on April 19, 2017
I have wanted this board game for years now and finally decided to spend the money. It is better than I expected. I was looking for a two player game that me and my husband could play on those slow days and this is perfect. I do enjoy it more as a two player game as I find that with more players it would only be fun with more expansions because the tiles run out so much quicker and the strategy aspect is lost.
on April 2, 2017
This game has taken over my families down time. It is great for teens and adults. Every time you play the game is different since tiles can be played in any configuration as long as the images line up. The directions are clear, short and easy to follow. Make sure you have A LOT of table space for this game to spread out. I recommend this game to everyone, you will not be disappointed. The game also has plenty of expansions if you would like to add on. Although the base game can be played over and over again and does not loose anything.
on May 17, 2017
The game is elegantly designed, and I look forward to playing it, but I have to reduce the rating because of the component quality, namely the tiles. The game requires that they are indistinguishable until drawn, but the paper on back did not seem to be firmly adhered and several tore badly during separation, which marks the back of the tiles. I'd chalk it up to being under twenty dollars and fix them with tape, but on top of that, one board of tiles was misprinted... See the photos...The one with the darker back is supposed to be the starter tile, the one played at the beginning of the game, but instead it's on the tile with a straight road and city along one side. There is a big strategic advantage to knowing which tile the next player is going to play when placing yours, I have to exclude this and the ones with damaged backs out babe players shuffle and draw with eyes closed. It's like a deck of cards where five of them have visual defects on back and one is printed in a different color. I'll adjust the review if I find out this is a one-time printing error
on March 22, 2015
Since being introduced to this game by a friend, it's become my favorite board game. It's endlessly replayable, and once you get the hang of the strategy, it becomes very engaging and fun. Highly recommended.
on October 26, 2016
Fun game! Anyone of any age would enjoy this. You can have up to five players, but it works really well for only two also and the rules are fairly simple and easy to catch onto quickly. Would recommend to anyone looking for something they can play over and over since your "board" is different every time.
