Carcassonne

Carcassonne is one of those rare games that is simple to explain and interesting to play, at any level of experience. Two people who have never played before can have a really fun first game. Two people who have played a hundred times will still find something new in the same tiles.

How it works

On your turn, you draw a tile showing a piece of medieval landscape (roads, city walls, fields, monasteries) and place it next to tiles already on the table. The map grows as the game goes on.

After placing a tile, you can put one of your meeples on it: as a knight claiming a city, a robber on a road, a monk in a monastery, or a farmer in the fields. When a feature is finished, the meeples on it score points and come back to you.

The catch is that you only have a handful of meeples, so placing one is a commitment. To get it back you have to finish the feature, which usually needs tiles from other players, and they may or may not help.

The tension

Carcassonne looks calm and pretty while you play. The tension comes when someone places a tile that joins two half-built cities, and they have a knight in both. Suddenly a city worth eight points to you is worth eight points to both of you, or worse, more to them.

Fields score at the end, rewarding farmers connected to completed cities. They’re easy to ignore during the game but can change the final scores a lot. Experienced players watch the fields. New players usually don’t. This is one of the things I explain before we start.

Best for

A good choice when the group spans different ages or experience levels. It also works well with two players, and it’s quick enough to play a few rounds in an evening.