Carcassonne
Place land tiles, deploy meeples to claim cities, roads and farms, and build the highest-scoring medieval landscape against AI or friends.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Carcassonne?
Carcassonne is a classic tile-laying board game for 2-5 players. Players draw land tiles and take turns adding them to a growing medieval map of cities, roads, fields and monasteries, placing followers to claim features and score points. It won the Spiel des Jahres award in 2001.
How do you play Carcassonne?
On your turn, draw a tile and place it edge-to-edge with the existing map so that all touching edges match: road to road, city to city, field to field. You may then place one follower on the tile you just placed, and any feature your tile completes is scored immediately. When the 72 tiles run out, final scoring decides the winner.
How does scoring work in Carcassonne?
Completed cities score 2 points per tile plus 2 per shield, completed roads 1 point per tile, and a completed monastery 9 points. At game end, incomplete cities and roads score 1 point per tile (shields 1 point each), incomplete monasteries score 1 point per surrounding tile, and each field scores 3 points per completed city it touches. When several players share a feature, the one with the most followers scores all the points; tied players each score in full.
What is a meeple?
A meeple is the small wooden follower figure in Carcassonne — the word comes from 'my people'. You have 7 to deploy: knights go in cities, thieves on roads, monks in monasteries and farmers in fields. Meeples on completed features return to you; farmers stay until the final scoring.
Can you place a meeple on a city another player already occupies?
No. You may only place a follower on a feature that contains no follower at all — not another player's and not your own. Shared features arise when two separately-claimed features are joined into one by later tile placements, which is how tied majorities happen.
How do farmers work in Carcassonne?
A farmer is a follower placed on a field (the grass areas). Fields are connected across tile edges and are cut by roads and cities. Farmers are never returned during the game; at the end, each field's majority holder scores 3 points for every completed city that field touches. Because they are locked in all game, farmers are the most debated part of the rules.
Are the farmer rules optional?
In the 2022 third edition the base box officially made farmers an optional advanced rule, with a simpler family game without them. This implementation follows that idea: the farmer rules are on by default (classic 3 points per completed city) and can be switched off in the setup screen for a family-mode game.
How does the monastery work?
A monastery scores 9 points as soon as all 8 spaces around it are filled with tiles, and the monk placed there returns to you. If the deck runs out first, an incomplete monastery scores 1 point for every tile in its 3×3 area, including itself. Monasteries placed early near the action often complete quickly.
Can you play Carcassonne with two players?
Yes, Carcassonne works well with two players and is often considered most cutthroat at two, since each player can claim more features. This online version supports 2-4 players in hotseat mode, or solo play against 1-3 AI opponents with three difficulty levels.
Explore Game Details
How to Play Carcassonne
Goal: Build a medieval landscape together, one tile at a time, and score the most points by claiming cities, roads, fields and monasteries with your followers (meeples).
Setup
- The start tile is placed in the middle; the other 71 tiles are shuffled into a face-down deck.
- Each player takes 7 followers plus 1 scoring marker.
- Players take turns clockwise. On your turn you always place the tile you draw — you cannot skip.
Your Turn
Each turn has three steps:
- 1. Place the tile: draw the top tile and place it edge-to-edge with the existing landscape. Edges must match: road touches road, city touches city, field touches field. You can rotate the tile freely before placing.
- 2. Optionally place one follower from your reserve on the tile you just placed — on a city, a road, a field (farmer) or a monastery. The feature must not already contain any follower, not even your own.
- 3. Score completed features. If your tile completes a city, a road or a monastery, it is scored immediately and those followers return to their owners.
Scoring
- City: 2 points per tile and 2 points per shield once its walls are fully closed. A follower placed in a city is a knight.
- Road: 1 point per tile once it runs between two junctions, or closes into a loop. A follower on a road is a thief.
- Monastery: 9 points when all 8 surrounding spaces are filled. A follower there is a monk.
- Field (farmer): farmers stay on the board until the final scoring, then score 3 points for every completed city the field touches.
- Majority: if several players have followers in the same feature (usually after two features merge), the player with the most scores the full points; tied players each score the full points.
Game End and Final Scoring
After the last tile is placed, incomplete features score one last time: incomplete cities 1 point per tile plus 1 per shield, incomplete roads 1 point per tile, and each incomplete monastery 1 point per tile in its 3×3 area. Fields then score 3 points per completed city they touch. The highest total wins; ties share the victory.
Good to Know
- If a drawn tile has no legal placement anywhere, it is removed from the game and you draw again.
- Followers cannot be moved once placed — the only way to get them back is completing their feature (farmers excepted).
- Running out of followers is normal: you still place tiles, you just cannot deploy.
- This implementation includes the optional farmer rules toggle: turn it off for a family-friendly game without farmers, or leave it on for the classic 3-points-per-city field scoring.
Strategy Tips
Followers are your engine: a follower in reserve earns nothing. Early on, claim features that will complete soon — small 2-tile cities and short roads — to recycle your followers quickly.
- Watch open edges: before claiming a big city, count how many open city edges it has. Each one is a way in for opponents — and a way for your points to be shared.
- Share big cities deliberately: if an opponent has claimed a huge city, extend it from your side and drop in your own knight to force a tie — tied players both score full points.
- Monasteries are quiet points: a monastery placed with several neighbors around it completes quickly for 9 points. Grab them early while space is open.
- Farmers are a long bet: a farmer scores 3 per completed city and never returns. Commit one to a field that borders many city sites, but never spend all 7 followers on fields early.
- Deny, don't feed: you must place your tile somewhere — prefer placements that complete your own features or open your options, not ones that hand the opponent an easy completion.
- Keep a follower spare: holding one follower back lets you react when a juicy city or monastery appears late.
Tile discipline: track which tiles remain. If the deck still holds many straight roads, monasteries are safer; if the cities are nearly exhausted, banked city points are safe from sharing.
About Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a tile-laying board game designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, first published in 2000 by Hans im Glück. Named after the famous fortified French town, it won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) in 2001 and has become one of the most-played family strategy games in the world, spawning a large family of expansions and themed editions.
The third edition (2022) refreshed the artwork and, notably, made the controversial farmer rules an optional module — the inspiration for the family-mode toggle in this implementation.
This page is an unofficial, fan-made digital implementation of the base game: 72 tiles, 2-4 players, classic majority scoring, and three AI difficulty levels. It uses original generic artwork rather than any official card faces.
Carcassonne is a trademark of its respective owner. This page is an unofficial, fan-made implementation and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the trademark owner.
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