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Carcassonne Game
Dropship Solutions
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$29.99
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$19.99 |
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$10.00
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A simple, clever tile laying game that brings new challenges with every turn. A classic euro-game. Simple to learn, lots of strategy. For 2 to 5 players. A great game the whole family can enjoy.
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Customer Reviews
for Carcassonne Game --- Dropship Solutions
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Carcassonne is serene, fierce, and deep strategically. It's also atmospheric.
Carcasonne - a cool strategy card laying game - succeeds brilliantly because of its simplicity, strategic depth, and atmospheric beauty. Game play is simple - a river is laid out creating the start for a growing medieval world of fields, roads, rivers, monasteries, and fortified cities. These features are on the playing cards the players lay down as tiles. As the game progresses the area of tiled cards grows, painting a medieval landscape in front of you.
You have a limited number of playing pieces which you use to take possession of roads, cities, monasteries, or fields for farming as you play your cards. You get points for completing these items - and whether you complete them depends on the cards you draw - and also on the choices other players make when tiling down their cards. When an item is completed you get your playing piece back and can use it to take possession of new features on the next card you lay down. Where and how you put cards down is constrained by the features of the card, and what's already been played. For example you must play a card with road on it only if there's already road - or a road terminus adjacent (no hanging roads - or cities). You work alone, but also sometimes in cooperation with other players (it's possible for two player's cities to merge in to one, then it benefits you both if you finish). Farming is complicated - but it's about controlling areas of contiguous field. Since the field areas are being created as the cards are laid down - there's an element of chance as well as strategy. The cards themselves are simple yet pretty and atmospheric. The game play is cutthroat - yet the visuals of pretty fortified medieval cities and fields, roads and streams is serene and soothing. This combination of attributes is compelling. This is a really fun game that gets the juices flowing.
As others have noted, except for farming, the rules are simple and kids can play (I'd say kids 8 and up). This game is sophisticated enough for even jaded gaming adults too. It's a great family game, and great thing to bring on weekend retreats (because it's quiet and non-electric). It's got fantastic replay value too.
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Carcassonne is simple, elegant, and deep strategically. It's also atmospheric.
Carcasonne - a cool strategy card laying game - succeeds brilliantly because of its simplicity, strategic depth, and atmospheric beauty. Game play is simple - a river is laid out creating the start for a growing medieval world of fields, roads, rivers, monasteries, and fortified cities. These features are on the playing cards the players lay down as tiles. As the game progresses the area of tiled cards grows, painting a medieval landscape in front of you.
You have a limited number of playing pieces which you use to take possession of roads, cities, monasteries, or fields for farming as you play your cards. You get points for completing these items - and whether you complete them depends on the cards you draw - and also on the choices other players make when tiling down their cards. When an item is completed you get your playing piece back and can use it to take possession of new features on the next card you lay down. Where and how you put cards down is constrained by the features of the card, and what's already been played. For example you must play a card with road on it only if there's already road - or a road terminus adjacent (no hanging roads - or cities). You work alone, but also sometimes in cooperation with other players (it's possible for two player's cities to merge in to one, then it benefits you both if you finish). Farming is complicated - but it's about controlling areas of contiguous field. Since the field areas are being created as the cards are laid down - there's an element of chance as well as strategy. The cards themselves are simple yet pretty and atmospheric. The game play is cutthroat - yet the visuals of pretty fortified medieval cities and fields, roads and streams is serene and soothing. This combination of attributes is compelling. This is a really fun game that gets the juices flowing.
As others have noted, except for farming, the rules are simple and kids can play (I'd say kids 8 and up). This game is sophisticated enough for even jaded gaming adults too. It's a great family game, and great thing to bring on weekend retreats (because it's quiet and non-electric). It's got fantastic replay value too.
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Simplicity is Elegance
This is a simple fun game, the turn consists of picking a tile and laying it down, then either placing a piece on the tile or not. It can be learned quickly, but there is also a lot of strategy that can go into it. It doesn't require a lot of space, a regular table-sized flat space is all, and it requires very little set-up, just divvy out the playing pieces, mix up the tiles and you're ready to go.
Other reviewers have given more comprehensive descriptions of the game, so I'll just say that everyone I've played the game with has enjoyed it greatly. It is something different from the standard game fare (not that we don't enjoy the standard board/card games, but this has a refreshing novelty for us).
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Pretty cool game.
The game's a bit hard to learn. Easier if you're familiar with games like Settlers of Catan. Once you play a few games, you begin to see the strategy involved. I think there's a nice blend of luck-of-the-draw, and actual personal strategy to the game. I've only played with one other player, but 3 or 4 player games would be more entertaining.
The cards/board is made of a pretty heavy duty paper board. The pieces are all wooden. The directions are not written that well...I think this is the main reason the game is a bit hard to learn at first. However, some of the ideas in the game are simply hard to explain with written words. Spend a little time reading the directions and you'll get the hang of it. Certainly need at least one adult to help teach the game at first.
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This game is Alot of fun
It was definitly not what i expected, but once I started playing and trying to become the most powerful I quickly got addicted to it. I recomend it to anyone who likes strategy yet simple (not to simple though).
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Fun, strategy, good for two, lovely game
The game is truly entertaining. Are you better off as knight and build large towns, do you lurk as thief on the road or do you get locked up in a cloister? How about a life as farmer? You have to play with a strategy from the beginning, because the total score is determined at the end of the game. But Carcassonne will not stress you, like a good game of chess. It does not take long to read and learn the simple rules. The river tiles included in this package add a bit of variation. Fun even for only 2 players (maximum 5).
I would suggest to make the instructions a bit more durable. A simple hardcover would do the trick. And replacing the cardboard tiles with wooden tiles can only improve the quality. I would not mind to pay a bit more for better quality.
Great game!
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Carcassone - fun tile game home and away
I first played Carcassone with friends on a weeks-long Alp-hike. The cards were easy to backpack with and provided before-dinner fun several times a week for 3 to 5 of us. At Thanksgiving I introduced it to my dad, sister, and 15-year old nephew : it went over well with all.
Carcassonne has few enough rules to make explication possible over the course of a half-hour's play. Yet the strategy subtleties and geosocial reflections continue after many hours. We even experienced interesting map development differences depending on the spirit in which the individuals played.
I enjoy it with and without the river addition, although I can't find a rule describing whether the river acts as a boundary, like roads do.
Have fun,
Christine
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Very challenging and always different!
The rules may look intimidating at first, but this is game is easy to learn! Every game is different and it's always a challenge to come up with a game winning strategy. I can play game after game without ever getting bored.
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Not for everyone, but I love it.
While I agree with the others that this is a great game, quick to play, and good for most ages, I have to add that not EVERYONE will enjoy it. We gave it as a gift to a young couple and they couldn't figure it out at all. They asked several of their friends for help and even asked a child to see if they could understand how to play, and none of them could. My husband and I sat down with it and played a game within a few minutes. We think it has to do with our enjoyment of jigsaw puzzles and logic puzzles. So, while I whole-heartedly recommend this game, I would caution you that there are some people who simply won't get it, and won't even want to once they have watched you play.
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good family fun
This is a great game for adults and older children. My college roommates love playing it during our study breaks and my little brother also really loves playing it whenever I am home.
It is easy to learn and it never gets old because the game is different every time. It is a great game for just two, but I prefer playing with more people.
If you enjoy this game I would recommend purchasing some of the expansions. I would also recommend Settler of Catan, which is another great strategy game.
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Carcassonne vs. Settlers of Catan Smackdown
We've been playing Settlers of Catan for years, a great game for ages 8-ish (with some help) and up, but too often someone (okay, I'm talking about me) ends up starting in a poorly chosen position and there really isn't any way to dig yourself out of the hole. Too frustrating to be fun.
Carcassonne, on the other hand, is easier to understand for younger children and fortunes can change within a turn or two. Hope springs eternal in this game! One player may think s/he owns a city, road or farm, but suddenly another player can end up sharing it or even stealing it away. There is definitely nothing predictable about Carcassonne, even towards the very end, and we've greatly enjoyed playing it for the last few months at least every other day with different combinations of elementary, high school, college kids and adults.
Three pieces of advice --
1. Allow each player to hold two tiles at a time. Having a little more choice makes strategies much more interesting and achievable.
2. Get the Big Box. The expansion packs are definitely worth it, even if you only use the extra tiles without the additional rules/tokens.
3. Penalize mean or counterproductive play. We started giving out "yellow cards" as in soccer when a player ends up more than a lap behind (50 points) and a "red card" if more than two laps behind (100 points) since it meant the player focussed more on disrupting other players' strategies than working on their own. A red card was an automatic one game suspension and a yellow card, well, your family can decide for themselves how to adjudicate that! Good sportsmanship sometimes needs a little reinforcement, we found, especially for boys under 13 or so.
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A Tile-Laying Masterpiece
At first glance, this gem of a game may not look like much from the cover, however do not let it fool you. This is one fantastic game. It is a game unlike any other board game, as you actually create the "board" itself as you craft the various cities, roads, and monasteries that make up Carcassonne.
Each player receives a handful of small colored wooden people that have been dubbed "meeple" (as in miniature people) to be used as markers on the tiles for scoring purposes. The individual square tiles that make up the game are shuffled up and then set in a few stacks face-down within reach of the players. On the player's turn, they take a tile and flip it over to put it on the playing surface. Each tile has a one or more items. They may include part of a road, part of a city, or a cloister, and a tile may include one or more of these items. Once a tile has been laid, the next player chooses a face-down tile, flips it over and then has to match it up against the already placed tile so that the edges fit perfectly. When more than one tile has been laid, the players can pick where they want their tile to go.
After a tile has been laid, a meeple can be placed on it. If placed on a city tile, it becomes a soldier. If a road, a thief. Lastly, if it's placed on a cloister it becomes a monk.
The scoring mechanism is based on completed objects. Roads are complete when each end of the road stops at a crossroads or a city. Once complete, roads are worth 1 point per tile, cities are worth 2 points per tile, (some cities tiles have shield icons that are worth 2 points in addition) and cloisters are worth 9 points when the cloister tile itself is completely surrounded by other tiles (1 point per tile).
Once all the tiles are used up, the game is over and the one who has the most points is the winner. A nice scoring board comes with the game where you place a meeple of your chosen color to mark your score as the game progresses.
Hans Im Gluck, the creator of the game is a genious. Who would have ever come up with such a fantastic game? Carcassonne is one of the most played games in my collection and is a superb two-player game. Especially with the Traders and Builders and Inns and Cathedrals expansions. Pick this one up!
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One of the best games I've played
This is a game that is easy to learn and strategy develops the longer you play. It doesn't take very long to play and has growing potential with expansions.
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A great game for everyone
I got this game not too long ago. I have since played it with about a dozen different people and everyone one of them wants to play it again when they come over to my house. Everyone seems to enjoy it, from the super gamers who live to play games and get deeply into the strategy of it, to the casual player. Best game I have picked up in a long time.
This is a great game, so I'd like to explain why I gave only 3 stars to some categories. It is not really an 'educational' toy, however I think most games that involve strategy have some lessons to teach. As for the durability... the wooden game pieces are very sturdy, the only real concern is with the tile pieces. They are a strong cardboard and should hold up fine for a long time but you'll probably need to be careful of getting them wet (don't spill your drinks at the gaming table).
Hope you enjoy this as much as I have!
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Great game, easy to play, always different
We've played this game about 10 times and each time it played out differently. It takes about 40 minutes to play out a game; there are not that many decisions to make each turn so the game can move quickly. We've played both two and four handed - it worked both ways. The counter for keeping score is a bit funky, but does not distract.
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Carcassonne
This is a tile game based in the Middle Ages when there were walled cities in Europe. Carcassonne is in southern France, but we've stayed in a similar German city -- Dinkelsbuehl. Grandpa got it for a Christmas present in 2005 and since then we've bought extension sets and played it with the adult children. Somewhere along the way, the grandchildren (ages 5-9) discovered this was a game they could play with the adults and so we gave the game to two families this Christmas. The grandkids love playing with the grown-ups and don't have to understand the strategy in order to enjoy playing and sometimes to win. The game goes faster than others we play like Settlers of Catan and Rail Baron.
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Deceptively Addictive
When I first read the description of Carcassonne, I dismissed it as something that I wouldn't really enjoy (I've never really liked how luck is the dominant element of tile-laying games). But there were so many fantastic reviews that mentioned how `strategic' it was, we decided to dig into our game fund and buy it! It was an instant hit with family and friends including my wife and daughter, who are not avid game players.
I won't waste time explaining the rules or details of gameplay, but I will say that learning the game is very easy. The game plays in about a half hour (a bit more with expansions), which is great because people can come and go as they please - no long term commitments here. Even adding `The River' (included in the basic game edition that we bought) and the `Inns and Cathedrals' expansion rules isn't a burden. The only area that can be a bit confusing is scoring for farmlands. We did it incorrectly the first night, but as I was re-reading the rules to clarify it, it became clear on how they should be scored.
The mechanics of gameplay can be tinkered with to produce variations that you may like. For instance, we don't use the standard rules for placing the river tiles at the beginning of the game. We shuffle all 12 tiles, picking and laying tiles to build the river only until the two ends (the spring and the lake) have been placed. This way, the length of the river (2 to 12 tiles) varies from one game to the next.
The tile laying aspect of this game is, of course, mostly luck. There's no strategy that can give you the tile you need - you'll either be lucky or not. On one game, my son and I were both waiting to finish cities near the end of the game, needing identical pieces. He drew the tile and scored, I ended up with a zero for that city and lost the game. Had I drawn the tile, I'd have won. Of course, the more players you have, the less chance you have of getting that tile that you really need.
Placing tiles carefully is the key to strategizing. Should you build a bunch of small cities, or a lesser amount of large ones? Should you finish that road or try to build it as long as possible? Should you expand your own farms, roads, and cities, or `steal' points from another player? There is no one strategy that is fail-safe (at least none that I've found).
Strategy comes in not only in where the tiles are places, but also in the placement of your followers (`meeples') to score points for roads (as thieves), farms (farmers), cloisters (monks) and cities (knights). Since you have only a small amount of meeples, so managing them wisely is of the utmost importance. .
When it's all put together, these elements combine to make a fun and unpredictable game that is different every time you play it.
We purchased the "Inns and Cathedrals" expansion, in which Inns can double the value of roads and Cathedrals score you additional points in cities. But if those cities and roads remain unfinished at the end of the game, the whole city (or road) is worthless! This set also comes with a large follower (worth 2 regular followers) for each color, a complete set of followers for a sixth color (gray), and `50/100' tiles to make keeping score easier.
There are several other expansions for Carcassone, each adding a twist here or there, as well as increasing the number of tiles. We hope to add some of those to our collection over time, but we don't really find the game lacking anything the way it is, either. While these expansions aren't necessary to enjoy the game, the additional tiles, rules, and strategies really modify the game up nicely. There is also a `big box' available which includes the base game plus five expansions.
I recommend this game highly. While I can't say that it will replace game nights of taking out a large board game for a 2-3 hour showdown, this game stands on its' own merits, being a fine game for 2 to 5 players (six with the I & C expansion). But more importantly, it's the kind of game that can entice non-gamers into the fold, and every person that I have introduced the game to (both gamers and non-gamers alike) loves it. Carcassonne is proof that a game doesn't have to be massive or have highly technical rules to be challenging and fun.
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Great for couples
As you can tell from the reviews, this game is awesome.
My girlfriend and I love to play it together, as it works very well with two players. Lots of the great strategy games work well with 4-6 players, but Carcassonne manages to be great with only two as well.
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Claim the Country
This is a tile-placement game. Square tiles have roads, monasteries, cities and farmland printed on them. Each player in turn reveals a tile and places it such that all edges match edges already placed. For instance, a road has to connect to a road, it can not just stop. Once a player places a tile, they can claim part of the tile (road, farmland, city, or monastery). As these features grow the player gets more points. Monasteries do not grow, points are gained by filling in the nine surrounding spaces.
The skill comes from knowing just what to claim. Each player has a limited number of claim tokens. Once a feature is completed (road, city or monastery), the points are collected and the claim token becomes available for use again. Players must balance their use of the tokens and work to complete features so they can claim even more. One trick is to complete a short road or small city (just two tiles, sometimes three) and then claim it, thus getting the points and getting the claim token back immediately.
This is a quick game. Playing time is relatively short (thirty minutes or so) and play is easy. No two games are ever the same thus keeping the game fresh. A fun game for two to six players. The game is reasonably small and easy to transport. Pieces are cardboard tiles and wooden claim tokens. If you are looking for a fun game that doesn't take hours, then this one might be for you.
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Awesome Game
This game has it all and I highly recommend it. The game is about building the town and deploying your followers to get you points. Since you build the board as you play, there is very little set-up time needed. Also the game is easy enough for anyone to pick-up, but there is a complexity to it which keeps you playing over and over. Lastly, it isn't a marathon game like monopoly or risk, which is nice.
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