Gameplay in Brief:
In the game Carcassonne, players place a total of 72 tiles to develop an area of France and place their eight meeples (wooden, people-shaped pawns) on the roads, in the cities, in the cloisters, and in the fields.
The game is a model of simplicity: a player's turn is simply to draw a tile and then place it on the table, adjacent to a previously played tile. They then have the option of placing a meeple on the board. At that point, any completed feature (city, road, etc.) is scored and the scoring meeples are returned to the players. Meeples score based on the quality of the areas where they are placed.
Basics:
For 2 to 5 players, ages 10 and up. About 60 minutes per game.
Designer:
Carcassonne was designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede.
Publisher:
Carcassonne was published by Rio Grande Games, Hans im Glück, and numerous other companies.
Genre:
Carcassonne is a tile-laying game with a medieval theme.
Also by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede:
In addition to numerous expansions for Carcassonne and games built on the Carcassonne mechanics, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede's most popular games include The Downfall of Pompeii (2004), Mesopotamia (2005), Die Fugger (2003), and Venedig (2007).
Awards:
Carcassonne won the 2001 Spiel des Jahres, the 2001 Deutscher Spiele Preis, and a 2000 Meeples Choice Award.
Expansions and Related Games:
Numerous expansions for Carcassonne have been published, including Inns & Cathedrals (2002), Traders & Builders (2003), The Princess & the Dragon (2005), The Tower (2006), Abbey & Mayor (2007), and The Catapult (2008). In addition, several other games based on Carcassonne's core mechanics have been published, including Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (2002), The Ark of the Covenant (2003), Carcassonne: The City (2004), and New World: A Carcassonne Game (2008).
