Somewhere out there, there is a list of tabletop games that everyone should play. On this list, I suspect, is Carcassonne. Themed after the French-walled city of the same name, this German-designed tile-laying game consists of just under 100 tiles and tasks players with building castles, roads, and farms. Players score points for staking a claim in and completing various things like castles or surrounding a cloister with tiles. At the end of the game, incomplete projects as well as farms -- tracts of land that serve one or more completed cities -- are scored, and a winner is crowned.
Play truly is as simple as matching the pattern on one tile to the pattern on the immediately surrounding tiles. If the edge of tile A ends in a road, the edge of Tile B must continue it. In this respect, it is the "zen game" of Eurogames, and profoundly accessible -- my 7-year-old enjoys this game just as much as my MFA students who study and make games more than most.
In this accessibility lies Carcassonne's sweet spot. Grab a group of people of wildly varying ages and abilities, and all will walk away satisfied. Play simply, or play as an opportunistic robber jumping in and stealing the game-long work of others. At worst, you'll end up no further behind. At best, you take it all or get as many points for their work as they do. While these strategies take time to emerge for the average player, even without them, the game is satisfying for the same reason Legos are still satisfying for us all these years later. It is fun to build things, and it is especially fun to build things with friends.
On the down side, Carcassonne's end-of-game scoring is a bit confusing for the completely uninitiated. The latest release of Carcassonne includes a new set of instructions that makes this easier to comprehend, though, and once you get it, you've got it. I can score a full end game in less than a minute easily, and with a few games under your belt, so can you.
For those who aren't big fans of tabletop games, Carcassonne is a great game to challenge any old assumptions you may have about games of this type. Carcassonne converts one player after another, and particularly those players who insist they don't like playing tabletop games at all.
As such, it also serves as the perfect gateway game and an introduction to the more complex but even more enjoyable Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico or Entdecker (which actually looks like a Carcassonne mod).
motivation
I bought Carcassonne shortly before moving to a new city away from everyone I gamed with. It has languished in a box with my other games, pining to be played.
This short write-up has re-motivated me to break it out and find some people to try it out with!
Yes
I remember playing with this as a kid, I invented a scoring system based around what kind of patterns one could make with contiguous castles. After I played SimCity I thought that it needed more grid-space and pieces.
Carcosone
Another game that spawned a 1,000 expansion.
The scoring is slightly off in that farmer score you a ton more points then anything else - (or used to anyway) so it became a game of farmer escalation.
Personally I've always prefered Carcosone - Hunters and Gathers. Which is really the same game but the scoring and play better balanced. And it stands on it's own without needing a ton of expantions.
it became a game of farmer
it became a game of farmer escalation
Carcassone is a game (largely) about farmer placement. When more than one player understands this, the game expands a bit in depth, and more care is taken with tile placement and anticipating of how to join fields to have one set of farmers counter another set. I don't see this as a problem: it's a central facet of the game that doesn't seem obvious from the outset. Having your longterm investment opportunities (farmers) come from the same pool as your shortterm investment opportunities (scoring, and taking back your piece) makes a clever balance that, amongst players with equal experience, tends to put a cap on out-of-control farmerism.
For those that don't want
For those that don't want the creeping expansionism, and also who want a slightly simpler method of scoring, look to the "Hunters and Gatherers" (green box) version of Carcassonne. I actually prefer this set to the blue box series. It has one, mini, expansion (a small set of special tiles combined in a teeny box with a small set of tiles for the blue series) which is well worth the money, even if you don't own the blue series, but the expansion is not at all required to play the game and make it fun.
Varying scoring methods
Carcassonne is a great game, without a doubt.
Note that there are different scoring methods depending on which version of the game you have. The first American edition had the method that put a heavy emphasis on farmers (4 points for the most meeples in the farm, IIRC).
This link gives the current official rule (3rd edition):
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/783301#783301
{snip}
Whichever player(s) win each farm score 3 points for each completed city that touch that farm.
{/snip}
I haven't played that version yet. The version I played in the past gave 3 points for the most meeples but that reduction of emphasis on farms improved the game IMHO, so I expect the 3rd edition rule to be better than the 4-points-per-winner version.
I'm a huge fan of
I'm a huge fan of Carcassone. I actually think that it's no less deep than Catan or Puerto Rico, and because of it's simplicity might be a better game than both.
it's a central facet of the
it's a central facet of the game that doesn't seem obvious from the outset
Maybe that's my issue. It is a game that appears to have multible routes to victory but in reality there is only one - farmers. And if that is not obvious to new players - then it's value as a gateway game is reduced.
Farmers and routes to victory
Maviscruet - have you tried the 3rd edition scoring rule? I had the same exact problem with the original American scoring version since farmers were the only thing that mattered. With the version I was playing, farmers were still very important but not the only piece worth really worrying about.