(to say nothing of the dog)

If there has ever been a more frustrating expansion published for Carcassonne than The River, I don't know what it is. This is not because it's a bad expansion - far from it - but because I don't actually have it. I've played with it often enough, but my copy of Carcassonne dates back before the days they started including it in the basic game.



I'll get it one day, but, for now, it's not significant enough to worry about. That mostly sums up my reaction to The River: Nice, but not really significant.

Still, what is it?

The River is a set of 12 tiles that replace the starting tile in regular Carcassonne. The spring tile is played first, then each player draws a random river tile and places it on the board so that it extends the river. As each new tile is placed, a Meeple can be placed on the farm, cloister, road or city that also appears on the tile. The river merely provides an extra border for the game.

After the ten river segments are placed, the twelfth tile, the Lake, is placed at the end of the River and the game begins in earnest.

There is one limitation to the placement of the tiles: the river can't make an immediate U-Turn; this is limited so that all the river tiles can be placed. Although it is possible (see image below) that it could happen, you can't rely on perfect placement.

This never happens!

The basic effect of The River is to provide a more structured opening to the game, and to open up the game a little more, especially in the placement of farms, as there are several roads that break the farms up into separate areas.

There is a certain level of frustration created by The River by the tiles that only contain river and farm spaces, as playing meeples on farms this early in the game is a very risky tactic. Aesthetically, these tiles look very good, but they don't play so well.

The River, all in all, has a minor effect on the play of Carcassonne, but what can you expect from twelve tiles? Personally, I feel that The River is of most use in larger games, as it spreads out the play of cities and opens more of the area on the table to interesting play. Overall, it's a worthy addition to Carcassonne.