Carcassonne is one of the most popular board games ever since it was first published in the year 2000 and is also famous for introducing meeples to the world of board games. Since then, many expansions have been released and a World Championship has been established since 2006, held every year at SPIEL in Essen, Germany. Whether you’re preparing for a tournament or just want to brush up on your Carcassonne skills, this strategy guide is for you, based on my own gaming experience.

The game is played by 2 to 5 players and while with 2 players strategy plays a bigger role than luck, with more players things start to get out of hand and luck seems to take the lead. Or not? In the following guide, I will first discuss some general aspects of the game and then give you some tips on 2 player games and 3-5 player games separately.

General strategy

Carcassonne consists of 72 mosaics of land that may include fields, cities, roads, and cloisters. The most important thing about the game and what you need to do first if you want to improve your game is to learn exactly what these tiles are, and more importantly, how many tiles of each type exist. Knowing if a specific piece exists, and if so, how many copies there are of it, is the power you have to control the game and lessen the element of luck. For example, if you know you can place a tile near an opponent’s unfinished city that will make it difficult for them to complete their city (because you’ll need a tile of a specific configuration and you know there aren’t many left) or even impossible (if there’s no tile to matches your needs), then that is very valuable information to use.

followers

You only have seven followers. You should always be careful to have at least one free follower to place “instant” points, which are points earned by placing a follower, immediately earning some points, and taking it back. An example of that is the cities of 2 tiles or the roads already closed at one end. Instant points may not seem like a big deal, but you’ll be surprised when you figure out how many points you can earn in each match. If you place all your followers with little chance of getting one back soon and there are still a lot of tiles left to place, you will be at a huge disadvantage as you won’t be able to gain instant points and generally react to anything your opponents do. Towards the end of the game, make sure to place the last follower in the best possible way, for example, on a farm with at least one town, or a free town or road already developed.

Campos: Invest early or not

Fields are a big deal in Carcassonne and can generate a lot of points late in the game. Some prefer to place followers on fields early in the game, even from the first turn, but that involves a lot of risk, especially in games with more than 2 players where you don’t have much control over where new cities are created. Placing followers on fields is a permanent option because you can’t get them back until the end of the game, so if you invest too early on fields you should be sure it’s worth it. If you place the first farmers, your opponents will surely try to reduce their value by starting cities on other fields or building big cities. In a 2 player game, early farmers will be more valuable because you can make them profitable by building many small towns on your fields. With more players you will not have much control over the development of your field and this strategy is not so good. In relation to the previous paragraph, the placement of farmers has to do with the good management of the followers. By placing a lot of farmers in the early or mid game, you only have a few left to score cities, roads and cloisters and if some of them get trapped then you have even fewer. On the other hand, placing farmers towards the end of the game is more difficult, especially with many players because you may not have enough time to connect them to the larger fields, which is your goal. Knowing how many tiles of each type there are will go a long way in calculating what your chances are of connecting a field to a larger one.

Roads

In general, you shouldn’t invest too much in roads because they don’t get a great score. Having up to one follower on a path is the typical path to follow, as is aiming to gain instant points by placing followers on tiles with crosses with an already closed path at one end. If you see an opponent deploying a long path you should try to share it with them or even steal it if you get the chance.

But there is much more to the roads than just scoring points. Actually its importance does not lie in marking but in these other uses. First of all, path tiles are your main weapon to make it difficult or even impossible for someone to complete their city/cloister. By placing your road tile next to a space your opponent needs to complete or grow a city, you force them to find a tile with a specific configuration to complete their city, which, especially in games with many players, will be difficult. . Take a look at the following example:

Another use of roads, especially in the early stages of the game, is to use them to surround an opponent’s field so that it doesn’t grow large enough to include many cities.

Cities: big or small

Cities are your main way to score points.

When to go to small towns:

• If you plan to control a field, you should always try to build as many small towns as you can on it.
• In games with many opponents it is preferable to bet on small cities because the bigger ones will attract your opponents and try to share them with you, steal them or make sure they are not completed and trap your followers. Of course, you should do the same if you see someone trying to score a big city.

When to go to the big cities:

When in a 2 player game, your opponent goes to the fields early. By investing in big cities, you will decrease the value of your opponent’s farmers.

Cloisters

Cloisters is another way to score points. You should try to place them where it is easier to fill them (spaces with a lot of tiles around). It is important that you try to finish your cloisters as soon as possible because if you don’t, your opponents may try to trap your follower. Towards the middle or end of the game, if you have one or two followers, you’d better not place them in cloisters unless they can be completed very quickly or you can get another follower back soon enough because you’ll probably have a better use for them. for example, trying to control a field or scoring instant points.

In general, when drawing a mosaic, you will need to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Can I use the mosaic to develop or close my city, road or cloister?
2. Can I use the tile to earn instant points from a city/road?
3. Can I use the token to block an opponent’s city/road/cloister or make it harder for them to finish it?
4. Can I use the token to force an opponent to share their city/road?
5. If it’s a path tile, can I use it to go around an opponent’s field, mitigating their farmer’s value (especially early game)?

If more than one option is available, which is often the case, the correct choice depends on the particular situation. For example, if you have few followers, getting one back should be a priority; otherwise trapping an opponent’s follower, if you can, will be a great option and priority number one.

Tips for 2 player games

A 2-player game is more strategic and less reliant on luck. Blocking plays a minor role because our opponent will steal a lot of tiles and eventually find the tile he is looking for, however it can slow him down. Towards the end of the game, when there are few tiles to draw, blocking can become more effective and followers can be caught more easily.

Strategy 1:

You can invest early in a field and then build many small towns on it. Small towns will give you easy and instant points and fields will give you a big score at the end. Your opponent will try to prevent your field from growing by surrounding it with paths, so you should route these paths appropriately and build cloisters with a path, if you have the chance (there are only 2), on the field to ensure further development. . By investing in farmers early, you will have fewer followers available, so place them carefully and avoid getting trapped. You will also have a reduced ability to share or steal from your opponent, so you should only try to share their big cities and roads.

Strategy 2:

Another strategy is to bet on the big cities and late farmers. Your opponent will try to share or steal your cities, so you have to be very careful when developing your city. Expand to the side with fewer tiles to avoid blocking and sharing.

Place the farmers in the middle of the game where you can clearly see the fields with many developing cities. If your opponent goes for the first farmers, he builds your cities on other fields and tries to surround his fields with roads. Trapping followers of a player with a lot of placed farmers greatly reduced his options as he will have very few followers available.

Tips for games with 3 to 5 players

The more players there are in Carcassonne, the fewer chips each player will draw, and consequently luck will play a bigger role in the game. While in a 2-player game each player draws 35-36 tiles, in a 3-player game they draw 23-24, in a four-player game 17-18, and in a 5-player game only 14-15. In games with many opponents you should preferably bet on small cities and instant points, investing as time goes on more in farmers where you see fields with many cities developing. Big cities will eventually be blocked or you will be forced to share them. If you get the chance, try to get your opponents to share their roads/cities with you. Remember that the most important thing is not the absolute amount of points you get but the relative amount, compared to other players. So if, theoretically speaking, you share with all the players and they don’t, you will get more points than them at the end of the game. Try to share with the player with the fewest points. If you can’t force an opponent to share their city, try to make the city never end and trap the followers inside it, especially targeting the player who is further up the score. The best tiles that can be used in this way are tiles with paths. In general, if someone is ahead in the score, try to make all the other players share with you and catch his followers, so that you earn more points relative to him. In my opinion it is better to try to trap your opponents supporters in cities than to try to get them to share because this way they will lose their follower and if you manage to share there is a chance, especially in a multiplayer game, that a third player who does not claim the city, he will try to make it unending and trap the followers of the 2 contending players. That’s pretty devastating if you’ve invested 2 or 3 followers in the cause.

I hope this little guide will help you improve in Carcassonne. Feel free to share any other ideas you may have about the game’s strategy or comment on my ideas. This guide will be updated from time to time with any new ideas I come up with in the future.

You can find a useful list of all the tokens and their frequency in the game here.