Carcassonne
Objective
Score the most points by strategically placing tiles to build features (roads, cities, monasteries, and fields) and deploying Meeples to claim them.
The Basics
Carcassonne is a tile-placement game in which players build a shared medieval landscape one tile at a time. Features are scored when completed during the game, or at game end for incomplete ones. Fields are the exception: they are never scored mid-game but yield significant end-game points for completed cities they supply.
Setup
Place the Start tile (the one with a darker back) face-up in the center of the table. Shuffle all remaining land tiles and form several face-down stacks accessible to all players. Place the scoreboard nearby. Each player takes 8 Meeples of their color and stands one on the 0 space of the scoreboard as their marker (leaving 7 as their supply).
Turn Structure
On your turn, always perform these steps in order:
1. Draw and Place a Tile
Draw one tile from any stack and place it face-up so that at least one of its edges touches a previously placed tile. All touching edges must match: fields connect to fields, roads to roads, city segments to city segments.
If a tile has no legal placement, return it to the box and draw another.
2. Place a Meeple (Optional)
You may place one Meeple from your supply onto the tile you just placed, assigning it to a feature:
- Road — the Meeple becomes a Thief.
- City segment — the Meeple becomes a Knight.
- Monastery — the Meeple becomes a Monk.
- Field — the Meeple becomes a Farmer (lay it on its side).
Restriction: You may not place a Meeple on a feature that is already connected to another Meeple (yours or anyone's). A feature is "connected" if it is already linked through any chain of existing tiles.
3. Score Completed Features
If placing your tile completed any feature, score it immediately:
Completed Road — 1 point per tile in the road (the two endpoint tiles count once each). The Thief returns to its owner's supply.
Completed City — 2 points per tile in the city, plus 2 points per Shield (pennant) icon on any city tile. If two or more players share a city (both have Meeples in it), both score full points. Meeples return to owners.
Completed Monastery — 9 points (the monastery tile + all 8 surrounding tiles). The Monk returns to its owner's supply.
Farmers are never returned — they stay in the fields for the entire game.
Final Scoring
After the last tile is placed, score all incomplete features:
- Incomplete Road — 1 point per tile.
- Incomplete City — 1 point per tile, plus 1 point per Shield.
- Incomplete Monastery — 1 point for the monastery tile plus 1 point for each adjacent tile (1–8).
- Fields (Farmers) — 3 points per completed city that the field supplies. A field "supplies" a city if it is adjacent to that city (even a large city is worth 3 points, not more). If multiple players have farmers in the same field, only the player with the most farmers scores; ties result in all tied players scoring.
The player with the highest total score wins.
Key Rules
- A Meeple cannot be placed on a feature already containing a Meeple — even if you would tie for control.
- Farmers stay in the field permanently once placed; plan accordingly.
- Shields in cities score double during the game (2 pts) and once at game end (1 pt).
- When two or more players share a completed feature (Meeples merged by tile-joining), all tied players score the full amount.
At the Table
Farmers are the most powerful but the least visible scoring engine — committing a Meeple early to a large field can win games. Completing other players' cities is usually a mistake unless you can share control first. Keep at least 2–3 Meeples in your supply to stay flexible.