Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals

Carcassonne is a tile-placement game based on the southern French city of Carcassonne, famous for its unique Roman and Medieval fortifications. In Carcassonne, players develop the area around Carcassonne and deploy their followers on the roads, in the cities, in the cloisters, and in the fields. Each tile has a piece of southern French landscape on it featuring parts of cities, roads, cloisters, grasslands, or some combination thereof, and must be placed adjacent to tiles that have already been played, in such a way that the images are connected sensibly. After placing a tile, the player can then decide to place one of his meeples on one of the areas on it: on the city as a knight, on the road as a robber, on a cloister as a monk, or on the grass as a farmer. When that area is complete, that meeple scores points for its owner.

During a game of Carcassonne, players are faced with decisions like: “Is it really worth putting my last meeple there?” or “Should I use this tile to expand my city, or should I place it near my opponent instead, giving him a hard time to complete his project and score points?” Since players place only one tile and have the option to place one meeple on it, turns proceed quickly even if it is a game full of options and possibilities.

Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals is the first major expansion pack for Carcassonne and introduces two new kinds of tiles: the Cathedral triples the value of a city, and the Inn doubles the value of a road – but only when they are completed. Each player also gets a big meeple, which counts as two regular meeples. More meeples and more tiles in different shapes also brings up the player count, and a new set of scoring cards makes scoring a little easier.

The game is recommended for ages 8 and up, and supports 2 to 6 players. The Carcassonne base game is required to play.