Section 1: Introduction
Carcassonne is a tile-placement strategy game in which players collectively build a medieval landscape of cities, roads, monasteries, and fields. Each player places followers, commonly called meeples, on selected features to claim them and earn points. The landscape grows differently in every game, so players must balance immediate scoring opportunities against long-term control.
This rulebook covers the classic base game for two to five players. A typical game lasts about 30 to 45 minutes. Editions may include extra River or Abbot material, but those additions are not required for the standard game described here.
Object of the Game
Score the most points by completing and controlling roads, cities, and monasteries during play, then receiving final points for unfinished features and controlled fields. The player with the highest score after final scoring wins.
Important Terms
- Landscape: All connected tiles placed during the game.
- Feature: A road, city, monastery, or field shown on one or more tiles.
- Follower or meeple: A player's wooden playing piece.
- Highwayman: A follower placed on a road.
- Knight: A follower placed in a city.
- Monk: A follower placed on a monastery.
- Farmer: A follower laid flat in a field. Farmers normally remain there until the game ends.
- Coat of arms: A shield symbol appearing on certain city sections and worth additional points.
Players share responsibility for checking legal tile placement and keeping the scoring track accurate. When a question arises, compare the artwork at every touching tile edge and resolve the issue before the next player draws.
Section 2: Components
A standard base game requires landscape tiles, followers, and a scoring track. Component appearance and exact artwork can vary by edition without changing the core rules.
Required Equipment
- Landscape tiles: The classic base set contains 72 square tiles, including one starting tile with a distinct back. Tiles display combinations of cities, roads, monasteries, and fields.
- Playing pieces: Each player needs a set of eight followers in one color. One follower is normally assigned to the scoring track, leaving seven available for placement in the landscape.
- Game board: A scoring track numbered from 0 through 49 records points. Players who pass 49 continue from 0 and remember that they have completed a lap.
Understanding the Tiles
Each tile edge shows field, road, or city terrain. A tile may be placed only when every one of its touching edges matches the neighboring terrain: city must meet city, road must meet road, and field must meet field. A road may end at a city, monastery, junction, or another printed endpoint, but it may not simply stop against an unmatched field edge.
A city can occupy one or several tile sections. Roads and fields may be divided by cities, roads, or other printed boundaries. Decorative artwork does not create a boundary unless the terrain artwork clearly separates the feature.
The scoring follower is not available for placement in the landscape. All other followers begin in their owner's supply. Followers returned after completed features may be reused on later turns.
Edition-Specific Extras
Some boxes include River tiles, abbot pieces, gardens, mini-expansions, or alternative starting tiles. Keep these separate unless everyone agrees to use the corresponding variation. Mixing unexplained expansion symbols into the base tile supply can create features for which the group has not chosen rules.
Section 3: Setup
- Place the starting tile face up near the center of the playing area. Leave ample room for the landscape to expand in every direction.
- Shuffle the remaining landscape tiles face down. Arrange them in several convenient stacks where all players can reach them.
- Each player chooses a color and takes all eight followers of that color.
- Each player places one follower on space 0 of the scoring track. The other seven followers form that player's personal supply.
- Choose a starting player by mutual agreement or a simple random method. Play proceeds clockwise.
Playing Area
Use a flat surface large enough to keep every tile aligned in a square grid. Tiles must touch edge to edge; they may not overlap, sit diagonally as their only connection, or be placed at an angle. Moving the entire landscape slightly to create room is acceptable if no connections are changed.
Information and Supplies
Followers in each player's supply should remain visible so everyone can tell how many are available. The face-down tile supply should not be inspected or sorted by artwork. Only the currently drawn tile is public information.
Starting Player Options
For a quick casual choice, let the youngest player begin, roll a die if one is available, or have each player draw a tile and compare an agreed feature. Return any drawn tiles and reshuffle before starting. The method used to select the first player has no effect on later rules.
Section 4: Gameplay
On a turn, the active player completes the following steps in order: draw and place one tile, optionally place one follower, and score any features completed by that tile. After all required scoring is resolved, the next player begins.
1. Draw and Place a Tile
- Draw one face-down landscape tile and show it to the group.
- Rotate the tile as desired.
- Place it beside at least one tile already in the landscape.
- Match the terrain on every touching edge. All city, road, and field portions must continue into the same terrain type.
A tile that touches more than one existing tile must match all of them. Corner-to-corner contact alone is not enough. Players may discuss possible placements, but the active player makes the final choice among legal positions.
If everyone agrees that the drawn tile has no legal placement anywhere, remove it from the game and draw another tile. Repeat until a tile can be legally placed. Players should carefully rotate and test the tile before declaring it unplayable.
2. Optionally Place a Follower
After placing the tile, the active player may place at most one follower from their supply onto a feature on that newly placed tile. The follower may become a knight in a city, a highwayman on a road, a monk on a monastery, or a farmer in a field.
The chosen feature cannot already contain another follower anywhere along its connected length, even if that follower belongs to the active player. Players must trace the entire connected road, city, or field before placing. A follower may still be placed on a separate feature printed on the same tile.
Separate occupied features may later become connected by a newly placed tile. This is legal and may create a shared feature containing several followers. The player who joins the features does not move or remove any existing follower.
A farmer is placed lying flat to distinguish it from other followers. Fields are separated by roads and city walls. A field can wind around features and connect across many tiles, so check its printed boundaries carefully.
Placing a follower is optional. A player without a follower in supply simply skips this step. A follower cannot be moved from one unfinished feature to another.
3. Complete and Score Features
The newly placed tile may complete one or more roads, cities, or monasteries. Score every completed feature before the turn ends. Determine control, award points, move scoring followers, and return followers from those completed features to their owners.
A player may place a follower on a feature completed by the same tile, provided the feature was unoccupied before placement. That feature is then scored immediately, and the follower returns to its owner's supply.
Fields are not scored during ordinary turns. Farmers remain in place until final scoring unless an agreed expansion or house rule specifically removes them.
Section 5: Scoring & Winning
Controlling a Feature
The player with the most followers on a completed feature controls it. If two or more players tie for the most followers, every tied player receives the feature's full point value. Followers belonging to players below the tied majority score nothing for that feature.
Completed Roads
A road is complete when both ends terminate at cities, monasteries, junctions, or other printed endpoints, or when the road forms a closed loop. The controlling player scores 1 point for each tile occupied by that road. Count a tile only once for the road, even if the road curves across that tile.
Completed Cities
A city is complete when its walls form an unbroken enclosure with no open city edges. The controlling player scores 2 points for each tile in the city plus 2 points for each coat of arms in that city. If one tile contains more than one distinct section of the same connected city, that tile still counts only once.
Completed Monasteries
A monastery is complete when its own tile is surrounded by eight adjacent tiles, including the four orthogonal and four diagonal spaces. Its monk scores 9 points: 1 for the monastery tile and 1 for each surrounding tile.
Returning Followers
After a road, city, or monastery is scored during play, return every follower on that completed feature to its owner. Returned followers are immediately available for later turns, though they cannot be placed again during the scoring turn that returned them.
Using the Scoring Track
Advance a player's scoring follower by the number of points earned. If a player passes the final numbered space, continue around the track and record one completed 50-point lap. Players may use any clear reminder for completed laps.
End of the Game
The game ends after the final available landscape tile is placed and that turn's completed features are scored. If an unplayable final tile is removed, the game ends once no tiles remain to draw. Players then conduct final scoring.
Final Scoring
- Unfinished roads: The controlling player scores 1 point per tile occupied by the road.
- Unfinished cities: The controlling player scores 1 point per city tile plus 1 point per coat of arms.
- Unfinished monasteries: The monk's owner scores 1 point for the monastery tile plus 1 point for each surrounding tile already present.
- Fields: Determine the majority of farmers in each connected field. The controlling player scores 3 points for each completed city touching that field.
Each completed city counts only once for a particular field, even if several parts of that city touch the field. The same completed city may score for more than one separate field. When players tie for the most farmers in a field, every tied player receives the field's full score.
After all final points are recorded, the player with the highest total wins. If players tie for the highest score, they share the victory unless the group agreed on a tie-breaker before play began.
Section 6: Variants & House Rules
Variants should be chosen before setup so every player understands how they affect placement and scoring. Unless stated otherwise, all standard rules remain in effect.
River Opening
If the game includes River tiles, use them instead of the ordinary starting tile. Place the spring first, shuffle the intermediate River tiles, and place the lake last. Players take turns extending the river while following the terrain shown on all touching edges.
A common restriction forbids the river from making an immediate U-turn that would cause it to double back on itself. Players may place followers normally on features shown on River tiles, but the river itself is not claimed or scored. After the lake is placed, shuffle the regular landscape tiles and continue the game from the completed river.
No-Farmer Learning Game
For a simpler first game, do not allow followers to be placed as farmers. Roads, cities, and monasteries work normally, but fields are ignored during final scoring. This shortens the explanation and keeps new players focused on tile matching and follower recovery.
Three-Tile Hand
Each player maintains a visible or private hand of three tiles and chooses one to play on each turn, then draws back to three. This reduces luck and increases planning, but it gives experienced players more control. When the supply cannot refill every hand, continue until all held tiles have been played or discarded as unplayable.
Friendly Tile Redraw
For a relaxed game, allow each player one voluntary redraw during the game. The rejected tile goes face down at the bottom of a stack, and the replacement must be played if legal. Use a marker or turn the player's unused scoring-lap reminder to show that the redraw has been spent.
Limited Table Space
Before play, define a rectangular boundary for the landscape. A tile that would extend beyond the boundary is not a legal placement. This variation works well on small tables but can make some tiles impossible to play sooner than usual.
Two-Player Draft
Reveal three tiles at the start of each turn. The active player chooses one to place, the opponent chooses one of the remaining tiles to reserve for their next turn, and the third returns to the bottom of a stack. Agree on how to refill the display and handle unplayable tiles before starting.
Tie-Break Options
The standard casual result is a shared victory. Groups wanting one winner may instead compare, in order, the number of followers remaining on the landscape, the number of completed cities controlled during play, and then the number of followers in supply. Because these are house rules, the tie-break method must be announced before the first tile is placed.
Combining Expansions
Add only components whose rules everyone understands. Keep expansion tiles identifiable during cleanup, explain new symbols before shuffling, and settle any interaction questions in advance. When an expansion changes scoring or follower placement, its specific procedure takes priority for the affected component while the rest of the base game remains unchanged.