The Game that Changed the World

As the new millennium rolled in, so did a new board game... Carcassonne is credited by many as being the game that brought back board gaming. It won awards all over the world the following year, including the "Spiel Des Jahres", the "Game of the Year" in Germany. The thick cardboard tiles and colorful wooden pieces (WOOD! Not Plastic! What a refreshing change...) gave this game a visual and tactile appeal that no other game has had in a long time. It takes a little while to get used to the rules, but learning them is quite rewarding. As you play the game, it as satisfying to be watching the world unfold before as it is making big scoring plays.

You are placing tiles to make a map where roads, cities, and fields unfold. You have a sort of god-like control -- you place the land tiles wherever you want, as well as populate the world as you see fit. As roads and towns are completed, followers on those areas score points. When a cloister is completely surrounded, the monk in the cloister obtains points for the influence they exert on the surrounding areas. Farmers in the fields score points at the end of the game for the towns to which they sell their wares.

This is the map at the end of the first game, played by Jake and Chris. Here's how the turns went down...

• Jake broke onto the scene with a 2 point town
  
• Chris got a 6 point town
  
• Jake got an 8 point town
  
• Chris got a 2 point town
  
• Jake got a road for 6 pts
  
• Chris surrounded a cloister - 9 pts
  
• Jake finished a town for 8 pts
  
• On his next turn, Jake capped off Chris' large town - giving Chris 22 pts!
  
• Chris finished another cloister - 9 pts
  
• Jake finished a town for 10 pts
  
• Chris finished a road he had been sitting on since the start of the game - 12 pts
  
• Jake got a quick 2 pt town
  
• Chris completed an 8 pt town, and got a 2 pt road at the same time
  
• Chris finished another 8 pt town on his next turn
  
• Chris got a 3 pt road
  
• Chris got a 5 pt road
  
• Chris got ANOTHER 2 pt road
  
• Jake got a 4 pt road
  

All the tiles were placed, so we went to the endgame...

• We looked at Jake's partials first:
  
  
  
  • 8 pt cloister
    
  • 4 pt road
    
  • 3 pt road
    
  • 4 pt town
    
  
  
• The Chris' partials:
  
  
  
  • 4 pt cloister
    
  • 8 pt cloister
    
  • 4 pt cloister
    
  • 3 pt road
    
  • 4 pt town
    
  
  
• Then onto the final bit of counting the income from farms:
  
  
  
  • Jake had 2 farms -- one had 2 towns (for 8 points), the other had 7 towns (for 28 points)
    
  • Chris simply shared Jake's 7-town farm (for 28 points in all).
    
  
  

The final score saw Chris winning with 138 points, and Jake with 98 points.