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I got this as a gift for my son and he was very pleased to get it. He said it was something he had played and wanted to have his own to enjoy.
Since there is no permanent game board, there are no patterns to learn or unfair advantages for veteran players over beginners. Such was the case with Carcassonne, a staple among Rio Grande's catalog since the year 2000 and a game that has spawned literally dozens of expansions and spin-offs. In all, I find the game to be quite enjoyable and almost relaxing in its mechanic. If all of these facts weren't quite enough to hint toward a winner, the game comes decorated with a host of awards it managed to earn along its storied decade of existence.Written originally by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede, Carcassonne originally came into being in Germany by a firm called Hans Im Gluck and like most Rio Grande Games, was translated into English and reintroduced to the North American market shortly thereafter. Pieces are all easy to identify and it really doesn't take long before the table is just completely occupied by sprawling cities and villages. They then take turns drawing a tile from the stack and placing it immediately, in other words, no one ever has tiles in their hand. Since there is an east-to-follow scoring card included, the need for a calculator or scratch paper is pretty much eliminated entirely.Rounds take around 45 minutes but that time seems to decrease to closer to a half hour as players get into the swing of things.
Laying the tiles is quite intuitive in nature as the only rules to follow are to make sure the roads connect. It turns out that the reason for the game's near-legendary status among hardcore fans and casual gamers alike has more to do with simplicity in its game mechanics and a highly addictive formula that's nearly subliminal to learn but limited only to the imaginations of the players involved.The system, which is deceptively simple, works like this: Players begin by shuffling then stacking the 83 land tiles then place the start tile in the center of the table. The strategy comes in the form of the scoring mechanic, which is derived at by when and where a player decides to place his pawns. It can be enjoyed by players of nearly any age and level of experience, doesn't grow old quickly, and offers up enough strategy to keep players coming back for more.
Sometimes you can feel the hype surrounding a game long before you ever play it. The recommended requirement of ages 8 and up seems pretty on par but, and as I've discovered is the case with many games, much of this has to do with the way the rules are presented in the book/ grasping the game for the first time. It would appear that teaching the game to others once an adult has a firm grasp on it could very well open up the game's playability to children of nearly all ages as the mechanics are brilliantly simplistic.The art itself is nothing too fancy or elaborate, which most certainly contributes to the game's user-friendly charm. An additional bonus to tile-laying games like this is that it is literally a new game each and every time it is played. Pawns placed in the cloister (monks) can earn 9 points and farmers can make oodles of points depending on how many nearby cities they supply with goods.About the trickiest part is of course learning the scoring method/ point breakdowns (some pieces are scored immediately then the pawns returned to the player's inventory while others, like the farmers, aren't scored until the end of the round). In other words, playing with just one other person never feels like a scaled down version of the "real" experience.Like so many timeless classic board games before it, Carcassonne's greatest strength and most enduring attribute would have to be its clever simplicity. The illustration credit goes to Doris Matthaus and Jay Tummelson rounds out the roster as the man behind the English translation.Consisting merely of 84 cardboard land tiles, a single cardboard scoring track, 40 wooden pawns and a color rule sheet, I wasn't sure what to expect going in. Never does it feel like a direct competition between players so much as an opportunity to create various landscapes while earning points in the process.
Pieces in the city segments are labeled knights and score 2 points per tile, pieces on the roads become thieves and earn a single point per tile. The game comes to its conclusion once all of the tile pieces have been placed. While the core game supports 2-5 players, this is one of few titles that can truly boast intuitive couple-play. It's hard to imagine a more successful formula than that.
I like that Carcassonne doesn't take too long to play, and that you have to think about what the other players are doing as much as what you're doing. The board tiles are made out of sturdy card board with a nice finish, so they should hold up for a while (although, it would be nice if they were plastic so they would last even longer).
The truth is that the game is easy enough for people of any age to understand after playing once or twice. Give this game a chance and odds are it'll win you over. Usual playing time is between a half hour and an hour depending on how seriously the players take the game, and it doesn't have anything to do with Dungeons and Dragons.What this game suffers from is poor marketing. Initial responses range from it looks too complicated, to board games take forever, and I don't like nerdy Dungeons and Dragons type games. Fortunately none of these assumptions are correct. The unusual German name and fantasy world cover art portray this game as something it is not. When in reality it is something that everyone who has taken the time to give it a chance has really enjoyed.
The premise is good, the rules a easy to learn, and there is without a doubt a lot to think about. In a random distribution over time, drawing tiles in multiple games will level this out. Carcassonne comes off as interesting. Over the course of 4 days, I played this game about 20 times. To preface, this is the first time a product on Amazon has ever moved me to review it. sorry Carcassonne. In most games, the value of City tiles can be disproportionately high. This is not quite Candy Land, but it is closer than it first appears.
In short, once everyone knows how the game works, you are just going through the motions of trying not to screw up in a game with a pre-determined result -- ick. The games are fairly quick, and you can occasionally have fun working together & trying not to cheat each other in games with multiple players. I am a fairly avid gamer -- not a hard-core gaming geek -- but I think a lot about games and have designed a few myself. But in a given game, it can make all the difference -- and usually does.Why I gave this game 1 star: Even if each player plays with the best strategy available to place a given tile (which starts happening pretty quickly since the rules & strategy are easy to learn), there is no way to beat the player who happens to draw the best tiles. The limitation on the number of pieces you can use is the big key to game, followed closely by strategic placement of tiles. The bad: way too much luck & not enough strategy. That is about the harshest possible criticism of any game I think of. Play Dominion, Settlers of Catan, or even Set instead.
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