Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a tile-placement game in which the players draw and place a tile with a piece of southern French landscape on it.

This is one of Game Therapist Michael Thorburn’s favourite games, and one that he has used in art programs where participants paint their own tiles featuring the castles, roads, cities, etc and even create their own meeple tokens.

The tile might feature a city, a road, a cloister, grassland or some combination thereof, and it must be placed adjacent to tiles that have already been played, in such a way that cities are connected to cities, roads to roads, etcetera.

Having placed a tile, the player can then decide to place one of his meeples on one of the areas on it: on the city as a knight, on the road as a robber, on a cloister as a monk, or on the grass as a farmer.

When that area is complete, that meeple scores points for its owner.

During a game of Carcassonne, players are faced with decisions like: “Is it really worth putting my last meeple there?” or “Should I use this tile to expand my city, or should I place it near my opponent instead, giving him a hard time to complete his project and score points?”

Since players place only one tile and have the option to place one meeple on it, turns proceed quickly even if it is a game full of options and possibilities.

EXPANSIONS

An extensive list of expansions is to come.

AWARDS & HONORS

• 2012 Ludo Award Best Board Game Editor’s Choice Winner
• 2004 Vuoden Peli Family Game of the Year Winner
• 2004 Vuoden Peli Family Game of the Year Nominee
• 2004 Hra roku Nominee
• 2002 Årets Spel Best Family Game Winner
• 2001 Spiel des Jahres Winner
• 2001 Spiel des Jahres Nominee
• 2001 Spiel der Spiele Hit mit Freunden Recommended
• 2001 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Nominee
• 2001 International Gamers Awards – General Strategy; Multi-player Nominee
• 2001 Deutscher Spiele Preis Best Family/Adult Game Winner
• 2000 Meeples’ Choice Award