Carcassonne Board Game

Credits: The primary source for this page was the "Carcassonne Strategy Guide" from the Meeple Mountain website, with additional input from "Carcassonne Strategy: The Basics (Hints and Tips)" from the Start Your Meeples website and "Tips to win Carcassonne" from the Ultra Board Games website.

Basic Game Strategy Guide

There are two kinds of Carcassonne players:

1. Those who enjoy a pleasant 45 minutes spent creating the rustic landscape of Southern France.
2. Those who win.

If you'd like to join the latter camp then read our Carcassonne Strategy Guide to find out how you can CarcassOWN your opponents!

Note: The strategies discussed here are for the base game, although they generally still apply when playing with expansions.

What is Carcassonne?

In a game of Carcassonne players take turns placing square tiles to build the medieval landscape of Southern France. Any features (roads, cities, monasteries and farms) depicted on each placed tile must match up to any adjacent tiles. Players can then place one of their Meeples onto one of the features on the tile they just placed and get points when those features are either completed or at the end of the game.

A Meeple can't be placed onto a feature that's already been claimed by another Meeple, but claimed features can be joined with some clever tile placement. Only the player with the majority of meeples on a feature gets that feature's points. At the end of the game unfinished features are scored and then the majority holders in each field get points for the number of completed cities in those fields. Most points win.

But you knew all this already, you're here for the good stuff - how to maximize your point scoring.

Carcassonne can also be played with up to 9 Major Expansions, 26 Minor Expansion, plus a number of additional Variants. The Strategies we are going to discuss can also be applied each expansion, but for now, to save a lot of time, let's limit our discussion to only the tiles in the Basic Game.

The Basic Mathematics

To fully understand Carcassonne we need to first understand the value of tiles and what they are worth in the game. At its heart, Carcassonne is all about tile placement, and being able to place a value on each tile within the game is a good place to really get to grips with the strategic thinking behind the game.

In the basic game, there are four ways of scoring points within Carcassonne. These are:

• Farms/Farmers
• Roads/Highway Men
• Cities/Knights
• Cloisters/Monks

Each one of those is scored differently, with Roads, Cities, and Cloisters being scored as they are completed within the game. Farms are slightly different and are not scored until the end of the game.

Within the basic game box, there are a grand total of 72 tiles which have four basic elements on them - roads, grassland, city parts, and monasteries. We can break them down the basic game tiles further. For instance:

• There are 48 tiles that have road on them.
• There are 13 tiles that will end a road.
• There are 23 Cxxx tiles that will close off a city wall on one side only.
• There are 13 CCXX CXCX tiles that will extend a city.
• There are 8 CCCx CCCC tiles that will expand a city.
• There are 6 tiles that will open up cloisters.

Knowing that kind of basic information allows for a return-on-investment to be placed on each tile. For instance, we know that there are 44 tiles with cities on them in total (23 of which close off one city side), and 10 of the city tiles have pennants (shields) on them, doubling their value.

There are a grand total of 48 points in road tiles, but only if they are closed off either onto themselves (difficult to do) or with one of 13 ending tiles.

There are 6 monasteries in the game, and each one has the potential to earn 9 points.

For now though, what we can see is clear. The potential point distribution throughout the game is not evenly weighted, and so not all meeples are born equal. The tiles differ in how much they are worth on a tile by tile basis judged by their potential scoring at the end of the game. That being said, there are several other things to take into account. Strategy is not all about mathematics in a game like Carcassonne where the meta can also take effect. There is also how the other players play, as well as a smattering of luck built in around choosing the tiles you need each turn.

A Word of Warning about Carcassonne Strategy

A.B.C - Always Be Closing

The more you can close off the stronger your game will become, simply because you will be able to retrieve meeples at the same rate as getting points. If you can close a city off with one tile, then place it with a meeple. In the best case scenario, you are the only person with a meeple in that space and you get the points. In the worst case scenario, place your meeple one tile space away from something your opponents are trying to close. Then, simply, join the gap. This will make you incredibly unpopular, leeching off their success, but it means you can score off your opponent's success with relative ease. It's points, no matter which way you look at it. It may not be good for your interpersonal relationships - but this is Carcassonne strategy, not making sweet love on the Riveria. This is serious stuff.

It's Not About Luck

Let's start with the biggest fallacy about Carcassonne - it's down to the luck of the draw. There are 72 tiles in the basic game of Carcassonne, with a decent mix of features on them. Some seem 'better' than others and there are times when you may be waiting for a specific configuration to complete your road or city, only for it never to be drawn on your turn.

What tile you get to play on your turn is entirely random, but... that doesn't mean that luck determines the winner. Here is the first golden rule you should remember when playing Carcassonne:

Every tile is useful.

Yep, that's right. Every tile. Beginners complain about the luck of the draw, competent players understand that Carcassonne is as much about minimizing your opponents' scores as it is maximizing your own. Every tile can be used to further your own score or hinder your opponents. Luck is which specific tile you draw on a turn, skill is knowing what to do with it.

Now that we understand this common misconception, let's look at just what we can do with those tiles.

Sabotage

You win Carcassonne by having more points than your opponents. Whilst you're busy scoring points, your opponents are too... unless you stop them.

Green has built what could be a valuable city and Blue has placed a tile and meeple hoping to share the city's points. There are a number of different two sided city tiles that would close this city giving the closer one wheat and two wine tokens while Green and Blue would score a 10 tile city worth at least 33 points because of the Cathedral tile.

BUT, Red is placing a tile that will limit the possible closing tiles. This tile does not exist in the Basic Game tiles or the Trader and Builder tiles, and there is only one possible tile in the Inns and Cathedrals. If that tile is not drawn by Green or places by someone else, Green will score zero points because of the Cathedral!

This is an excellent example of near perfect Sabotage, and it would be perfect if Red knows in advance that the one and only tile has already been played!

But Sabotage does not have to be perfect. If an opponent finishes building a city they'll get a decent injection of points. But if they fail to complete the city by the end of the game they'll only get half the number of points. Perhaps you can help them fail?

Sabotaging Yellow's city by increasing the number of edges that need to be closed.

The most generous way to do this would be to expand their city, widening its borders and making it harder to complete. There's a tile that's all city and several tiles that are cities on three sides. If an opponent is one tile away from completing their city then one of those tiles would make it a lot harder for them to finish it. Depending on how much of the game is left to play, the “gift” of a single city tile might be outweighed by the reduction in points they receive at the end of the game.

More sneakily, you can place tiles to make it trickier for your opponent to complete their city. Since you know where they're looking to place their next city tile, a road leading into that space would reduce the probability that they'll pick up a tile with the right city AND road orientation to fit the space and finish the city.

These practices are applicable to any feature so if you can't set up a way to score points on your turn then look for how you can stop your opponents from scoring. With enough practice you'll soon start to see ways to thwart your opponents on every turn.

Meeple Trapping / Isolation

In a game of Carcassonne, Meeples are your most precious resource. You only have 7 meeples at your disposal. Once placed, you'll only get them back when the feature is completed or otherwise at the end of the game. Finding a way to isolate one of your opponent's meeples for the remainder of the game can be incredibly effective at denying them opportunities for short- and long-term points. This is particularly useful when the trapped meeple is a knight as this also ensures that the city they occupy will only be scored at one point per tile/pennant rather than the two points it would be worth if the city to which it belonged were to be completed.

The act of trapping an opposing meeple refers to the practice of ensuring that the meeple will never be returned to its owner. In this example, Red placed a tile that created a four sided space where the missing tile does not exist in the basic game's 72 tiles, so Blue will have two meeples trapped on the board until the end of the game.

Parasitism

If you can't beat them, become a parasite and join them! Your opponent has spent several turns building a feature so why not profit from all their hard work and place a tile so that when the feature is expanded you'll be a part of it, gaining points for minimal effort.

Joining a Feature

Meeples can't be placed onto a feature that has already been claimed, but claimed features can be joined with some clever tile placement. In this example, Yellow has created a city with 5 tiles and 2 coats of arms. A final closing tile would bring the value of this city up to 16 points. Red want to join in on the value of this city. The tile that could be placed above Red's new tile will most likely join Red's single tile city to Yellow's multiple tile city. When that city is then closed, both Red and Yellow will get the same number of points.

Stealing a Features

After Red placed the tile in the previous example, Red also placed a 3 sided city tile that finished the Joining process. Yellow does not want to share the points, so, instead of placing the Yellow tile that would close the city, Yellow places the tile for a second Joining. But, in this case it would not be a Joining, it would be Stealing the points back because only the player with the majority of meeples on a feature gets that feature's points.

Freeloading

In a similar vein to parasitism, freeloading lets your opponents do the hard work for you. They want to complete their features and you want to complete yours, but sometimes the act of doing one will achieve the other.

Monasteries are the freeloader's weapon of choice (although it's not impossible to use roads or cities). Place a monastery next to an opponent's city and they'll help you complete your monastery whilst trying to finish their city. Place a road next to an opponent's monastery and they'll need to extend it if they want those sweet priestly points. Place a monastery next to an opponent's monastery and they'll do half the work for you.

Yellow is placing a monastery next to Green's monastery - if Green wants to complete their monastery then they'll have to help Yelow out too.

What matters here is that you're benefiting on your opponents' turns, whilst using your own turns to score more points or cause problems for them elsewhere on the map. Appropriately for the expansion-heavy Carcassonne, this brings us to the first golden rule's first expansion:

Since every tile is useful, every turn is an opportunity.

Freeloading reduces the relative value of your opponents' turns whilst letting you maximize your own.

Double Disruption

At the end of the game each field is scored based on the number of completed cities within it. Some cities will naturally straddle two fields and will therefore be scored twice. If you have the majority in both fields - great! If your opponent owns them both - not great!

Both of the large cities in this example will be counted in both of Blue's farms at the end of the game. Blue will get 9 points for the 3 cities that touch his lower farmland plus 9 points for the 3 cities that touch his upper farm land. If Red places a road tile to connect both farms, Blue will only get a total of 12 points, not 18 points, for the 4 cities in the combined farmland.

Try to identify where double scoring might occur and farm those fields. If you see that an opponent is benefitting from double scoring then look to join them. If you can't then consider how you might merge their two fields and prevent them getting double the points from those cities.

Intelligence

So far we've learned that sabotage, isolation, parasitism, freeloading and disruption can benefit you and really mess with your opponents. It's time to discuss the second golden rule of Carcassonne:

Your opponents are just as aware of these tricks as you are.

They will spend much of the game trying to minimize your points and maximize their own. They will sabotage, isolate, parasitize, disrupt and freeload as much as they can. What's important to learn about the second golden rule is that you can work to limit their efforts.

Take cities as an example. Sure, a huge city will score you lots of points, but the bigger a city is the more likely it is that your opponents will sabotage or parasitize it. Since cities don't score points exponentially there's no difference between you scoring one vast city or lots of smaller cities. In fact, if you have the field majority then lots of small cities are both safer and more profitable. In Carcassonne, big is not always beautiful.

In a game of Carcassonne with multiple expansions, some of the cities will be a lot riskier than others.

Start to look for how an opponent might try and muscle into your features and then consider how you could block them in much the same way that you block them from finishing their features. Sometimes not finishing a feature is more profitable than letting another player join it. And if you really can't prevent the merger then let your opponent spend a turn doing it whilst you look for better opportunities elsewhere.

Management

We've already seen that meeple are your most precious resource - after all, meeples score points, not tiles.

Manage your meeples effectively, changing your approach as the game progresses. In the early stages of the game you have plenty of scoring opportunities ahead of you so the relative value of each meeple is high. Towards the end of the game each meeple's value is lower as there are fewer tiles left to place - the costs of a meeple being isolated decrease. By the game's end it's often a good idea to have all your meeple in play, scooping up end game points.

Generally though, you'll always want to keep at least one meeple in reserve for those cases where you place a tile and instantly complete a feature. The others you can allocate to short-, medium- and long-term goals as they come up. Just keep an eye on your meeple numbers and the stage of the game to ensure you don't end up missing out on juicy opportunities for points.

Advanced Intelligence

Let's talk tiles. There are 72 tiles in the base version of Carcassonne, with 24 different combinations of roads, cities, fields and monasteries. You can learn them all and count them as they get played. Doing so lets you keep track of what tiles remain to be played and will help you when it comes to all the approaches detailed above. For instance, if you know what tiles remain to be placed then you can use a single tile to sabotage an opponent's feature, guaranteeing that it's impossible for them to complete it.

WikiCarpedia has tile lists for every Carcassonne release / expansion.

But tile counting is difficult and a fairly extreme approach to Carcassonne unless you want to join the highest echelons of the game. The simplest and best thing you can do is to be aware of those 24 combinations. Even just the knowledge of what patterns exist can help you predict what will work and what won't, supporting your decisions as you look for points and ways to slow your opponents.

Maneuvers

Want to get better at Carcassonne? Practice. The world's best players have played tens of thousands of games of Carcassonne, it's how they got so good. With plenty of practice you'll soon start seeing opportunities for points and aggressive plays on every turn.

Further Training

We've come to the end of this brief guide to the core concepts for playing Carcassonne well. But if you really want to improve at Carcassonne then check out 2020's 'The Book of Carcassonne'. Written by games journalist Steve Dee and top UK player Dan Chard, The Book of Carcassonne gets into the finer details and advanced strategy of Carcassonne.