Carcassonne strategy summary

After two game of Carcassonne I have already learn a lot. The reason why is that we played two completely different type of game. The first game I was alone with another player on the board and in the second game I was there with five other Carcassonne player. The game dynamic was a lot different and it was nearly impossible to find a strategy that would I’ve work good in the two games. So let’s find out in details what best worked in building the city of Carcassonne in both games.

Farms

In game one, farmers were still strangers to me so I didn’t make a good use of it. If I take a look back at the game, Carcassonne was shaping in a way that would have make it fairly easy to me to compete with my brother and get my fair share of the points for farmers. Since you draw a new tile every two turns, you can manage to put a tile with some land that will later on connect to the rest of the lands. Trying to do the same thing in game two was a lot more challenging since you were competing against more people and the Carcassonne tile placed on the table were more often not under your control. I could easily end up waiting many turn to get a good tile to accomplish my plan. And when I was not picking a good tile I was trying to put it in some other places to get another access to the main battlefield and wasting another meeple has a farmer.

Cloister

I found out that this game element was one of the few that worked good in both game. They gave me good point in game one and in game two, the only difference is the time it took to get back my meeple from it.

In game one, it stayed there for a longer time; my brother was not giving away “free tile” to help me finish it.

In game two, more players were involved and they cared less if they were indirectly helping me. In a multiplayer game, you can’t always take an action that will not benefit another Carcassonne builder. In general, cloisters gave me 8 points or more in the two game.

City

Building big city was not a good plan for me in game one. I started late and missed a few tile to completed it. Another thing I’ve learned from game two about cities is how dangerous it is to let an open city on the board. My sister-in-law got stuck with an unfinished city (and abandoned meeples) because of the four side city tile.

In game two, building small or medium city was the good way to go. You don’t let another player put meeple in it and you close it has soon as possible. In game one, if you start right from the beginning, you can manage to build larger city, especially if the killer tile is already out (there’s only one if you don’t play the expansions).

Roads

Like the cloisters, roads were always good to score some points in both games. They are probably the most strategic tiles in a 1 vs 1 type of game. You can make good use of them to short circuit your opponent trying to farm everywhere. If your Carcassonne opponent is showing his cards right from the beginning by dropping two or more meeples has farmer, then you should think of a plan to build roads that will trap him in small pieces of land.

In game two, my mother dropped a pawn in almost every new road built and scored a lot since other player were not caring about letting some point go in a hope to build their own individual project (i.e. a city or a cloister).

Cathedrals and Inns

No player scored big with Cathedrals. In fact, I didn’t see anybody finish a city with a cathedral in it. But it is worth mentioning that they were a great weapon to handicap the other Carcassonne player. In the multiplayer game, the number of open city was high, so when this tile was drawn, it was almost always used against someone and not for their own good. There’s two of them in the pile of tiles so you need to remember of their existence!

Inns were always a very good way to score points. In both game, leaving a meeple on such road had a positive result. So if you have the chance to take a Carcassonne road with one on it, don’t miss it. But remember one thing, you need to completely finish it before the end of the game otherwise you won’t score point. So don’t think to big for those in a multiplayer game.

Strategy summary ( 1 vs 1)

Build bigger if in early stages of the game. Watch your opponent farmer strategy and use roads to prevent him from accessing the universe (put a meeple on that road). Cloisters are good for point but you might loose a meeple for a while.

Strategy summary (3 or more players)

Try to score fast by controlling roads and building small or medium cities. Cloisters are your friend. Don’t waste farmer meeple if there is already a war for controlling the lands of Carcassonne. Don’t build to big road with inns on it, you might end up with an unfinished one at the end of the game.

General strategy

Use the cathedrals or the four side city tile, in a multiplayer game, to slow down your opponents.

My other post about Carcassonne board game

Carcassonne strategy
My first game of this great board game, heads up with my brother. Find out what strategy came out of this game

More Carcassonne strategies
Other strategy for other type of Carcassonne board games. In this post, I revealed my experience with this game when playing with more than two opponent.