Being the first Carcassonne game we’ve ever played as a family we had no pre-conceptions of what to expect. Starting our first game we were quite pleased. As usual my review is not based on detail of gameplay buy our personal impressions.

Learning Curve
About 30 minutes – this includes reading the rules, setting things up and figuring out if you’re playing the game right. If you have played any other Carcassonne game then it probably wont be that long. There are some little things about the game that make it kind of confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it then you’re off and running.

The Basics
You start the game by putting together a “frame” which makes the castle. All tiles will be played inside of this. Once the tiles are all played, the game is over. Around the castle walls are numbers from 0 – 99. This is the scoring track.

Every turn a player turns over a tile, plays it, and then decides if he wants to play a piece. The object of the game is to make large walls, houses, pathways, or open fields with marketplaces: the larger the structure, the more points.

My Feelings on the Game
I actually enjoy this game more than I thought I would. I generally enjoy more theme based, action games (ameritrash?), but I have to admit it’s pretty fun. There is definitely a lot of strategy involved as you figure out how to steal your opponents points and it can be quite tense wondering if you are going to finish what you’ve been working on all game.

The game can be a bit difficult as roadways have to connect. We tend to make a lot of mistakes placing pieces where they should not go – i.e. the road is actually connecting to nothing (which is against the rules). This can also cause for some long turns towards the end of the game when your places to go are limited. However, the road system is also a defensive tool and makes the game interesting – it wouldn’t be a good game without the roads.

Another interesting thing concerning the roads, is that they are the only tiles that are required to match. In other words, you could have a castle which connects directly to a house, which connects directly to a field. It makes the board a bit disorientating to look at sometimes as your brain is trying to make sense of everything, but once you get over that it’s no big deal.

Overall
I don’t think I could play this game every day for weeks on end, but it certainly is a nice one to just pick up and play. I also like that it comes in a pretty compact box that is easy to grab and throw in the back of the car. As a game for couples this is definitely a winner. I would give it an 9 out of 10 for what it is and what it delivers.