# Anyone play Carcassonne?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [January 4, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863 "2018-01-04T19:58:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/1 "2018-01-04T19:58:00Z")
Over New Year’s my Girlfriend introduced me to Carcassonne. It’s a board game (sort of) where you place tiles and build up roads and cities. It was was a lot of fun and easy to play for two players. Anyone else play this? Just wondering.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/2 "2018-01-04T20:07:25Z")
It’s been around a while. Came out in 2000, abouts. It’s mostly straightforward, but there’s some next-level stuff in it, specifically farmers, that can really make a huge difference at the end of the game. In fact it’s rare IME that the person who invested heavily in farmers didn’t win (game tip!). It’s my understanding that adding some of the expansions greatly reduces this effect.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/3 "2018-01-04T20:10:07Z")
Love Carcassonne.
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### Author:  [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/4 "2018-01-04T20:14:26Z")
One of my favorites. Our base game came with the cathedrals add on. Need to get some of the expansions. The farmers are the key to winning, ether leave them out or know that you need to place them strategically.
I like it because the game board never repeats but remains simple and takes a relatively short time to play. You can play a quick game or several rounds.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/5 "2018-01-04T21:15:07Z")
Carcassonne is an excellent game! Lots of fun, with plenty of possible expansions you can buy. Also, there are some Carcassonne variation games, including my personal fav: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, which is set in the pre-civilization past.
I personally prefer Carcassonne to Catan. 🙂
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/6 "2018-01-04T21:53:23Z")
Fun game. Have played it a number of times, also with various expansions.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/7 "2018-01-04T22:32:27Z")
I got it last year (2016) for Xmas and only really played it like 2 or 3 times. I can see it being good, but I just don’t have too many people I’d want around me that I could stand to teach them how to play.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/8 "2018-01-04T23:19:53Z")
I’ve played it with an 8 year old and his father. It’s a good family game.
However we’ve now moved on to Pandemic.
Pandemic is great because:
- it’s co-operative (so the players can all work together against the game itself)
- it only takes about 45 minutes
- it’s easy to learn
- there’s skill in planning ahead, but it’s not too difficult for kids
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/9 "2018-01-04T23:28:46Z")
I like Carc except farmer scoring (ther are actually 3 different ways farmers have scored). For tile laying I prefer [Isle of Sky](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176494/isle-skye-chieftain-king) (a bit heavier), or [Cacao](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171499/cacao) (about the same level)
Brian
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### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/10 "2018-01-04T23:41:08Z")
> [@glee](#):
>
> I’ve played it with an 8 year old and his father. It’s a good family game.
>
> However we’ve now moved on to Pandemic.
>
> Pandemic is great because:
>
> - it’s co-operative (so the players can all work together against the game itself)
> - it only takes about 45 minutes
> - it’s easy to learn
> - there’s skill in planning ahead, but it’s not too difficult for kids
For a fun twist, pick up [Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192153/pandemic-reign-cthulhu), especially if you like Lovecraft.
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/11 "2018-01-05T00:23:06Z")
I have played a LOT of Carcassonne in my life. My main complaint with the base game is that it’s just a bit too luck-based. So my playgroup always plays with the following rule: The active player, instead of drawing a tile and playing it, flips over X+1 tiles, where X is the number of players. (S)he chooses and plays one. The next player plays one. The next player plays one, around the circle until the original active player plays the final of the revealed tiles. Then the next player flips over X+1, etc.
This adds a good bit of strategy without total information overload.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/12 "2018-01-06T22:23:23Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> I have played a LOT of Carcassonne in my life. My main complaint with the base game is that it’s just a bit too luck-based. So my playgroup always plays with the following rule: The active player, instead of drawing a tile and playing it, flips over X+1 tiles, where X is the number of players. (S)he chooses and plays one. The next player plays one. The next player plays one, around the circle until the original active player plays the final of the revealed tiles. Then the next player flips over X+1, etc.
>
> This adds a good bit of strategy without total information overload.
I’ve always preferred a variation on that: there is one tile already revealed, and then a new tile is turned, and the player choses from the two. Similar to rummy games in cards.
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/13 "2018-01-10T16:12:41Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> I’ve always preferred a variation on that: there is one tile already revealed, and then a new tile is turned, and the player choses from the two. Similar to rummy games in cards.
Not to be an idea-pooper, but I feel like that’s just going to converge on the normal rules fairly quickly. If everyone is fighting for a city, and one of the tiles available is a useless road piece, then on each player’s turn they’re just going to be flipping their “new” tile and hoping like heck it helps with the city.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/14 "2018-01-10T16:38:02Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> Not to be an idea-pooper, but I feel like that’s just going to converge on the normal rules fairly quickly. If everyone is fighting for a city, and one of the tiles available is a useless road piece, then on each player’s turn they’re just going to be flipping their “new” tile and hoping like heck it helps with the city.
The trouble with your rule (a variation of which I’ve played with) is that it results in WAY too much time spent analyzing which piece to select when there are so many choices. Carcassonne can take a while to play, as it is, especially when you have several players who love to kibitz. 😛
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/15 "2018-01-10T17:05:23Z")
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> It’s been around a while. Came out in 2000, abouts. It’s mostly straightforward, but there’s some next-level stuff in it, specifically farmers, that can really make a huge difference at the end of the game. In fact it’s rare IME that the person who invested heavily in farmers didn’t win (game tip!). It’s my understanding that adding some of the expansions greatly reduces this effect.
_Carcassonne_ is basically the first worker placement game (some will argue it is not techincally worker placement because you’re playing on a board with physical geometry, but most of the mechanics are basically the same) and yes, without the expansions there are ways to manipulate the game to virtually guarantee a win, but it’s still fun and pretty easy to learn. Once you get tired of that check out [_Agricola_](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola) and [_Stone Age_](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34635/stone-age). I enjoy [_Viticulture_](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128621/viticulture), too, but it always seems to take much longer to play than it should, and I lose interest and then make a stupid mistake that costs me the game.
> [@glee](#):
>
> Pandemic is great because:
>
> - it’s co-operative (so the players can all work together against the game itself)
> - it only takes about 45 minutes
> - it’s easy to learn
> - there’s skill in planning ahead, but it’s not too difficult for kids
_Pandemic_ is my hands down favorite board game, partially because of the cooperative effort and the challenges of having to balance preventing or dealing with outbreaks versus curing diseases. The base game is hard enough on Heroic level, but the [On The Brink](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/40849/pandemic-brink) expansion really ramps up the challenge. I’ve played the game with a couple of virologists and a former EIS officer, and we spent as much time creating backstories for the individual contagions and their vectors as playing the game. The only real problem is that because of the cooperative aspect one experienced player might dominate gameplay, and we’ve instituted house rules that only the acting player can choose to allow people to speak and/or players can pass notes of only five words or less. We also tried only allowing the player to speak to players in co-occupited or adjacent cities but that didn’t work very well.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/16 "2018-01-10T17:25:38Z")
We love Carc, except for the towers expansion. That was the only place when it can get really nasty, with capturing other players’ meeples.
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### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/17 "2018-01-10T17:44:44Z")
There is now a Carcassonne Big Box available, base game plus eleven expansions- priced well, too.
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### Author:  [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/18 "2018-01-11T15:20:18Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> I’ve always preferred a variation on that: there is one tile already revealed, and then a new tile is turned, and the player choses from the two. Similar to rummy games in cards.
I’ve played with a similar mechanic, which avoids the “dead tile” issue where the revealed tile is worse than most random tiles: Draw Two, play One. Usually discarding the second tile back into the bag, but possibly with an option to keep it for the next round.
The most important thing I’ve found, no matter the draw procedure, is to have players draw at the end of their turn instead of at the start. That cuts down on the game time significantly, as you can start strategizing while other players are playing their turns rather than waiting until your turn to start to determine which lines are open.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/19 "2018-01-11T15:26:45Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> I’ve always preferred a variation on that: there is one tile already revealed, and then a new tile is turned, and the player choses from the two. Similar to rummy games in cards.
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> Not to be an idea-pooper, but I feel like that’s just going to converge on the normal rules fairly quickly. If everyone is fighting for a city, and one of the tiles available is a useless road piece, then on each player’s turn they’re just going to be flipping their “new” tile and hoping like heck it helps with the city.
You could allow a choice from _three_ tiles, placing new tiles on the left and then removing the rightmost tile after the selection, so tiles will stay at most three turns.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-play-carcassonne/805863/20 "2018-01-12T13:57:45Z")
I prefer Carcassonne: The Castle
It’s a two-player variant and I enjoy it more. A lot of times, my wife and I were playing the original one-on-one and realizing that the farms were the entire game. In the Castle, the various scoring options are more equal.
It is $60 with shipping right now on Amazon and sadly, that is a _good price_ for this version.
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers is also a good version and the farms are adjusted there to be more reasonable as well. Sadly, it’s about $100 on Amazon right now.
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