Carcassonne (includes river expansion)

The perfect game for a family. Easy to learn, with a great combination of luck and strategy. As someone who hates losing, I'm always looking for games I enjoy but don't have to win. This is it.

A great game. Doesn't take too long to get through and it is always different. It is also good for two people. Highly recomended. Hours of fun.

Having played too many games of snakes and ladders and junior monopoly, I was particularly looking for a game that I could play with my 6 year old daughter. She has picked this tile game up without any difficulty (although, as suggested in the rules, we omit the slightly more tricky variant of "farmers") and she's hooked, as am I. The rules are well written, the concepts straightforward and most games are close until the final points are counted. I would recommend this to anyone interested in a new challenge, particularly if you have children that you like to play games against and hate playing badly just to even up the odds for them!

A very good game for young and old alike. Even better when using the German rules (instead of the English rules). You can obtain these rules and any assistance regarding Carcassonne from www dot carcassonnecentral dot com. This deal from Infinity Games is a very good price.

Great game for the family, plays different everytime, excellent.

I had heard a lot of positive things about Carcassonne over the period of about a year, thus, when I was on the look-out for games it was firmly on my radar. After doing my final research on boardgamegeek, I placed my order and received the game promptly a few days later. Our first play-through was marred by a little rules misunderstanding, but as soon as this was sorted, we started to really enjoy the game.

It is as it says, a clever tile-laying game indeed. It is ever so simple in its basic mechanics, and yet there is plenty of depth behind the simple facade. There is also a nice level of confrontation involved, especially in the two player game, with each player trying desperately to sabotage the other's plans!

I much prefer playing the game with the rule variant that has each player play from a three tile hand, as it adds a further layer of strategical planning to the game, but the basic variant is certainly workable enough.

All in all, I heartily recommend this for anyone who is after a simple but very involving game. It is well deserving of its fame!

This is a fantastic game that everyone will enjoy. It is simple enough to be understood by all, yet has depths of strategy and skill to hold the interest of more experienced players. It is one of the few games I have played that works just as well with two players as it does with three or more.

The best thing about this game is that nobody gets bored. No one gets eliminated and often everyone has a shot at winning right up until the final score is totted up. It only lasts about 30-45 minutes so doesn’t take a large time commitment to enjoy. Great for families.

Most of the time we end up playing more than one game though!

Carcassonne is the second Rio Grande game I was introduced to and 1.5 years on, I’m still hooked onto it. It is a fairly simple, clever tile laying game that brings new challenges with every turn. As Carcassonne isn’t a game that’s terribly difficult to pick up, I have successfully managed to introduce it to many friends, and the general feedback after the initial introduction is always really good. It is game that has relatively simple mechanics, yet still requiring a high level of strategic thinking to master it.

The game consists of 70 different tiles which contain varieties of terrain, and the players have to place the tiles to create roads, fields, cities and cloisters. To score points, the players will have to place their followers as thieves, farmers, knights and monks to control the roads, fields, cities and cloisters. As each player has as limited amount of followers, there is some planning involve as to when and where followers should be placed in order to score the maximum amount of points. There is an element of luck involved as the tiles are drawn at random, so the game can change dramatically after a round, and no two games are ever the same! Part of the reason Carcassonne is so immediately satisfying is that it's the sort of game you can actually win without realising it. There are so many different ways to earn points that it's not tough to place something somewhere without thinking and get a bunch of points for it.

Carcassonne succeeds because of its simplicity. The game is suitable for people of all ages, and it is rare to find a game that appeals to both beginners as well as more serious gamers. It is incredibly easy to learn, extremely fun to play, but at the same time, it has strategic depth to challenge those who want to think. The best part is that it plays just as well with two players as it does with more, up to a maximum of five. There are also many expansion sets to keep the game interesting and set new challenges once the basic game has been mastered. I would definitely recommend Carcassonne as a top board game.

What's left to say about this game that hasn't been said yet? Nothing, I'd wager. I'd like to state, for the record, that this game is awesome with two players. It almost becomes another entirely when compared to how it plays with three or more players. There is a constant battle of the wits for controlling fields and taking over each others cities before they can be completed. After playing this game for years I must say that I almost prefer to play it with only one opponent, it makes for a quite intense, and very quick, game. It's easy to cram in quite a few sessions in an hour or so, perfect for when you and your better half are waiting for Grey's Anatomy to begin. Awesome, awesome game. A must buy if there ever was one.

This is a fabulous game and within an hour of getting it out of the box we were playing with grandma and the kids. Grandma only usually plays scrabble or bridge so this was a departure and a whole new adventure but she was sharply competitive and demanded a second game which she won! Rivalries soon built together with tentative alliances which shattered when going for grabbing a rather big city. Like the computer game civilisation but on a smaller scale, taking only and hour and far more fun for the family! If you are not sure go for this one – well worth the IGUK price – you can’t lose. 9/10