Carcassonne by Rio Grande, 2000
Personal Information
Acquired: 21 September 2001
The River expansion acquired: 5 December 2001
When
I was in the 9th grade, my family took a trip to France.
During our stay, we toured much of the country, including a visit to the
medieval city of Carcassonne. All I really remember about the city were
the stone roads and walls, as well as buying some fun souvenirs from one of the
many tourist shops. Anyways, after I saw Carcassonne advertised as the
winner of the 2001 Spiel des Jahres and Deutscher Spiele Preis, the fact I had
visited the town as a kid was all the convincing I needed to
shell out the $14 for the game. After playing a few times with some of my
friends, I have definitely not regretted my purchase.
I have enjoyed playing the game with some of my gaming friends, and
I think some of my non-gaming friends might enjoy it as well.
Description:
Carcassonne is a tile laying game where 2 to 5 players build up cities,
roads, farms and monastaries. Each player also has 7 wooden units they can
deploy on the tiles to score points. The units remain on the board until
the structure they are occupying is completed, at which point they are returned
to the owner's stock to be reused on subsequent turns. Thus, concerns
include not only where to place tiles, but also when and where
to best deploy one's units. The rules are quite simple
and easy to learn, and each
game lasts less than a hour. This makes Carcassonne a fast and
easily
accessible game for new players. The only major complaint I see people having
is the luck factor. The best laid plans of mice and men can
oft be ruined by the draw of poor tiles. Nevertheless, I have no real problem
with games that rely partly on luck
(see addendum to Lord of the Rings)
and the game plays quickly enough that even a bad streak of tiles will not
spoil the fun.
The game pieces themselves are fairly high quality and I like the look and
feel of the tiles. This makes the game a bargain at about $15. Overall,
I am definitely impressed with Carcassonne and definitely recommend
it to people looking for a light, simple and entertaining game.
My Score: 8/10
Links:
Board Game Geek page.
Back to my board games page!