If you are familiar with the world of European board games, then you are familiar with the world of Carcassonne. A family of tile laying games, Carcassonne has many expansions and stand-alone versions, each with their own twist and flavor. The most unusual out of all of the Carcassonne family may well be Carcassonne the Castle.

For one thing, the Castle is the only Carcassonne not designed by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede. Instead, it was designed by Reiner Knizia, one of my favorite game designers and one of the bigger names in the German board game scene. Also, the Castle is a two-player only game. While other versions of Carcassonne will support multiple players, the Castle is specifically designed as a two-player game.

Those two things alone would make the Castle stand out. However, there are many other differences that make the Castle an unusual member of the Carcassonne family.

When you buy Carcassonne the Castle, you get the expected tiles and sets of meeples. However, you also get a set of walls that will surround and define the playing area, as well as a set of special wall tiles that will go on the wall.

The castle tiles (that is, the tiles you’ll be building the board with) are the standard sturdy cardboard tiles that make up the heart of Carcassonne games. The castle tiles show red houses, gray towers, and green courts, as well as paths. Some of the paths have wells by them and some of the courts have purple merchant stands. The various terrain features are blockier and more squared off than the terrain features on Carcassonne games. I think it does make them less attractive than other Carcassonne tiles but they are still easy on the eye. There are sixty of them.

The meeples come in black and tan, a combination that makes me want to stop by the pub. In addition, these meeples have little pointy heads so if you ever start a communal meeple bag, they will be easy to tell apart from the meeples from other games. You get seven of each color. Each color also gets a little piece that looks like a church steeple. This is your keep piece.

Now we come to the wall pieces. These fit together puzzle fashion in order to create an irregularly shaped playing area that is small enough to fit on the average card table but is still good-sized. The walls also serve as the score board for the game, as well as defining the board. The walls have a definite medieval walled fortress feel. On the inner side, there are sections which look like tile pieces. These are the starting sections.

The wall tiles are smaller than the other tiles with different backs and a very different look on their fronts. You will have no problems telling them from the castle tiles. Wall tiles are placed on specific locations on the score track of the wall and each one gives a player a certain one-time use bonus power. There are eighteen of them but you will only use thirteen of them in any given game.

To set up the game, you start by putting the wall together. After the wall has been completed, you randomly place wall tiles face down on every corner spot on the wall, each of which takes up two scoring positions. Since the wall is not a rectangle, there are more than four corner positions. There are fourteen but you will not put a wall tile on the starting corner. Each player will take a set of scoring pieces, putting one of their meeples on the start of the score track. The castle tiles are placed in a bowl or bag or some other method that will let you randomly draw them. Now you are ready to play.

You take your turns in the usual Carcassonne fashion. You draw a castle tile and place it on the board, with the option of placing a meeple on it. However, there are some changes in the tile placement rules.

The castle tiles must be placed within the walls. If a tile isn’t placed next to another tile, it must be placed next to one of the starting sections on the wall. So, if nothing else, the first tile played is going to be next to one of the starting sections.

Also, the only thing that must match are paths. That’s right, Reiner Knizia took one of the fundamental concepts of Carcassonne and threw it out the window. Red houses can be placed right next to gray towers or green courts. Don’t get too cocky, though. There are plenty of paths on the castle tiles. Between the paths and the limited play area, you can still get blocked in tight. Paths are allowed to terminate at the castle wall, which adds a little flexibility.

You can place your meeples on the red houses, the paths, the gray towers, or the green courts. In each place, your meeple will be taking on a different task.

On the red houses, your meeples become squires. A house is completed when all of its sides have been surrounded. Corners don’t count. In fact, it is possible to have a one tile house. A house is worth one point per tile. However, remember the keep piece? You place your keep piece on the largest house that one of your meeples claimed, even if the other player placed the last piece. After you finish off the house, you get that meeple back.

The keep plays a very special role, one that makes building houses worthwhile. There are not enough tiles to fill up all the spaces in between the castle walls. There will be at least sixteen empty spaces at the end of the game. The player whose keep is on the larger house will get points equal to the number of tiles that would fit in the largest empty space.

Meeples who hang out on the gray towers are knights. Towers are completed the same way that houses are, when all of the sides are surrounded. Towers are worth two points per tile and you get your meeple back after his tower has been completed.

The meeples who make their living on the paths are called heralds. Paths end either at buildings, at clearly marked closed intersections (There are open intersections), or at the castle wall. Paths are worth one point per tile, unless they have a well alongside them. Wells make paths worth two points per tiles and multiple wells do not double the value more than once. After a path is completed, the herald returns to supply.

Incomplete houses, towers and paths are worth nothing at the end of the game, just so you know.

Carcassonne wouldn’t be Carcassonne without some equivalent to the farmer and the meeples serving as merchants are just that. Merchants are placed lying down on the green courts and they stay there for the duration of the game. At the end of the game, merchants will collect three points per purple stand in the courtyard they control. There are other little pictures in the courts but you only count the purple stands.

In other Carcassonne games, if players manage to have an equal number of meeples on the same piece of territory, they share the points of that territory. In Carcassonne the Castle, that isn’t the case. If there are an equal number of meeples, nobody gets anything. Since it is just a two player game, it’s almost the same thing but it does have a different psychological feel. If it is a house, neither player can place their keep on that house.

That’s how you use meeples and castle tiles. However, there are still those wall tiles that I mentioned earlier. If your scoring meeple lands on a space containing a wall tile, you will get that tile. That’s right, leave it to Knizia to add a twist in the scoring. Not only do you want to get more points than the other guy, you want to get those points in specific amounts at a time.

Each of wall tiles gives you some kind of special one-time privilege. This can include doubling the score of a completed board element or allowing you to score an incomplete element at the end of the game, as well as other good stuff. The tile you have is secret until you decide to use it. All of the wall tiles are useful, although some may be more useful than others, depending on your board situation.

The game ends when you run out of castle tiles. Then, after any appropriate wall tiles and the largest keep are sorted out, the player with the most points wins.

First off, let me say that Carcassonne the Castle is an excellent game. If you like Carcassonne and ever play with only one other person, this is a game well worth picking up.

I think that it is a game that is designed for people who have grown complacent with normal Carcassonne. It turns many of the innate concepts of Carcassonne in on themselves. You do not expand. You build inwards with the play area growing tighter and more cramped with every tile. Not only do you not have to match sides, about the only way to complete board elements is to not match sides. The theoretical cooperative element of the game is thrown out the window because you will never be able to share points.

The crowded space combined with the greater freedom of placement increases the strategy of the game. On one hand, you know that will be easier to find a piece that will fill a hole, unlike regular Carcassonne where there might be only one piece that could do it. On the other hand, the wall also makes it easier for you to get boxed in.

Carcassonne the Castle becomes a very intense game as the board becomes more crowded and claustrophobic. You are not only watching each other’s scores but also watching your scoring meeples creeping towards those potentially game upsetting wall tiles. A tight game is a gut-twisting, knuckle-popping good time.

All that said, I will add two caveats. One, this is not the first Carcassonne that I would introduce people to. While I think it’s a great game, I think it breaks too many of the basic concepts to be someone’s first Carcassonne. Second, because it can play only two people, I would not make it the only Carcassonne you own unless you almost exclusively play two-player games. That being said, I was quite happy to own only Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers and Carcassonne the Castle for quite some time.

Apart from that, Carcassonne the Castle is a very strong game and it’s a very fun game. If you get any kind of enjoyment from Carcassonne of any flavor, you will enjoy Carcassonne the Castle.