Carcassonne

Components

Setup

1. 1Put the start tile (the one with the darker back) in the middle of the table. If you play with the river, put the spring tile there instead (see 'The River' below).
2. 2Shuffle the rest of the tiles and split them into several face-down stacks, so everyone can reach at least one stack.
3. 3Put the scoreboard to one side.
4. 4Each player picks a color, takes 7 followers, and puts an 8th follower on space 0 of the scoreboard.
5. 5If you play with the abbot, also take the abbot of your color.

Your turn (always in this order)

1. 1Place 1 tile — draw a tile, turn it face up, and add it to the tiles already on the table. You must place it.
2. 2Place 1 follower (optional) — you may put one on the road, city, monastery or field of the tile you just placed.
3. 3Score — if your tile completed a feature, score it right away and take the follower back.

Step 1 — how to place a tile

• A new tile must share at least one edge with a tile already on the table, and every edge that touches must match: the terrain (road, city, field) has to continue.
• Roads meet roads, cities meet cities, fields meet fields. If even one edge does not match, you cannot place the tile there.
• If you draw a tile that fits nowhere (this is rare), put it back in the box and draw a new one.

Step 2 — how to place a follower

• You may only place a follower on the tile you just placed. Never on a tile that was already on the table.
• Where you put it decides its role: road = thief, city = knight, monastery = monk, field = farmer (laid on its back).
• You cannot place it if that feature (the whole connected road, the whole city, the whole field) already holds a follower of any color — even one of your own.
• If all your followers are out, you simply skip this step. Followers you take back from completed features can be used again.

Step 3 — scoring: roads

A road is complete when both ends are closed. An end is closed when it runs into a village, a city or a monastery, or when the road loops around and closes on itself. A completed road scores 1 point per tile.

Step 3 — scoring: cities

A city is complete when it is fully closed by its walls with no gap left inside. A completed city scores 2 points per tile, plus 2 more points for each coat of arms inside it.

Step 3 — scoring: monasteries

A monastery is always in the middle of its tile. It is complete once all 8 spaces around it (orthogonal and diagonal) are filled, and it scores the 8 surrounding tiles plus its own tile = 9 points.

When one feature holds several followers

• If a completed feature holds several followers, the player with the most followers on it takes all of the points.
• If two or more players are tied for the most, each of them takes the full score. The points are not split.
• Whether they scored or not, every follower on a completed feature goes back to its owner.

Farmers and fieldsSupplement rules

• The green ground is the field. Fields are cut apart by roads, cities and rivers — a single road splits one field into two.
• A follower laid on its back in a field is a farmer. Laying it down marks that it will not come back for the rest of the game.
• Farmers score nothing during the game. They only count in the final scoring: 3 points for each completed city that touches their field.
• If one field holds several farmers, the same majority rule as roads and cities applies. You cannot add a farmer to a field that already has one.

The RiverIn the box in the new edition

The 12 river tiles replace the start tile. If you play with the river, put the start tile back in the box.

1. 1Set the spring tile and the lake tile aside.
2. 2Shuffle the other 10 river tiles into a face-down stack and slide the lake tile to the bottom of it.
3. 3Put the spring tile where the start tile would go.
4. 4Until the river tiles run out, draw from the river stack instead of the normal stacks. Once the lake comes up and the river ends, start drawing normal tiles.

• River tiles follow the usual matching rules, and above all the river itself must not be broken.
• You may place followers on the roads, cities and fields of a river tile as usual. You may not place one on the river itself.
• The river may not turn back on itself. If two bends in a row curve the same way so that the river doubles back, the tile cannot be placed.

The AbbotIn the box in the new edition

• Each player takes the abbot of their color. The gardens printed on some tiles are the abbot's own spaces.
• When you place a tile with a monastery or a garden, you may place your abbot instead of a normal follower. The abbot may only go on a monastery or a garden, and a normal follower may never go on a garden.
• A garden scores exactly like a monastery: 9 points once all 8 surrounding spaces are filled.
• Special ability — if you did not place a follower in step 2 of your turn, you may take your abbot back off the board and go straight to step 3 to score that monastery or garden as it stands right now (1 point for its own tile plus 1 for each surrounding space filled so far).
• In the final scoring, an abbot still on the board is scored the same way as a monk.

End of the game and final scoring

The game ends when the last tile has been placed and there is nothing left to draw. Features that were completed already scored during the game, so the final scoring only covers the unfinished features that still hold a follower.

Rules people get wrong

History and editions

There have been two big changes of edition. The artwork was redrawn in 2014, and the 3rd edition (2021) that is sold today folds in the river and the abbot, which used to be bought separately. This guide follows that 3rd edition.