Grasping for the Wind: Carcassone and Friends

June 28, 2007

Carcassone and Friends

On Monday, we caught up with some friends from college who were in town, and another set who live in the same metropolitan area as us. It's always great to spend time with folks like that. I always end up coming away from get-togethers like these feeling more relaxed and fulfilled. Since the wife and I have had difficulty making any friends since moving to ATL, such times of rest and relaxation are few and far between. conversation ranged from the recent birth of another couple's new baby, to Neil Gaiman's book American Gods, to the Apple iPhone.

During this time, we sate at the the kitchen table and played a board game I had never heard of called Carcassone. Based on the medieval walled city of the same name, gameplay is:

The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses. The game starts with a single terrain tile face up and 71 others shuffled face down for the players to draw from. On each turn a player draws a new terrain tile and places it adjacent to tiles that are already face up. The new tile must be placed in a way that extends features on the tiles it abuts: roads must connect to roads, fields to fields, and city walls to city walls.

After placing the new tile, the placing player may opt to station a follower piece on that tile. The follower can only be placed on the just-placed tile, and must be placed in a specific feature. A follower claims ownership of one terrain feature—road, field, city, or cloister—and may not be placed on a feature already claimed by another player's follower. However, it is possible for terrain features to become shared after the further placement of tiles. For example, two field tiles which each have a follower can become connected into a single field by another terrain tile.

The game ends when the last tile has been placed. At that time all features (including fields) score points for the players with the most followers in them. The player with the most points wins the game.

It sounds like it would be complicated like Axis and Allies or Settlers of Catan. And while it is comparable to Settlers, one friend put it best when they said this was a game you could play "without having to think to hard" and just enjoy the company around you. It's true. If you don't care too much about winning, and counting your points, you can just relax and have fun. Even then, it's not real difficult to follow the scoring system in the first few expansions so you can actually be competitive. The elements of chance in drawing tiles and placing meeples also makes the winner uncertain until the very end.

So we had a great time together. I miss friendship in close proximity, and the ability to get together for a friendly board game.