Carcassonne rules

Tile-laying medieval roads, cities, and farms.

Players: 2–5 (6 with Inns & Cathedrals)
Time: 30–45 min
Ages: 7+
Goal: Lay tiles to build a landscape of roads, cities, monasteries and fields, and put your meeples on them to score. Most points at the end wins.

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How to play Carcassonne

Setup

Sort the tiles: 13 tiles have a dark back — the start tile (a city, a road and fields) and the 12 river tiles. Put the river tiles back in the box unless you're playing The River.
Put the start tile face up in the middle of the table. (Playing The River? Box the start tile and follow that section instead.)
Shuffle all the normal-backed tiles face down into a few stacks everyone can reach.
Put the scoreboard beside the play area. It loops at 50 — when you reach or pass 50, note it down or lay your scoring meeple on its side.
Each player takes the 8 meeples of one colour: 7 go in front of you as your supply, 1 goes on the 0 space of the scoreboard. Unused colours go back in the box.
The youngest player goes first; play continues clockwise.

Your turn

Every turn has the same three steps, in this order:

Place a tile next to one already down, with every touching edge matching: road to road, city to city, field to field. If it fits nowhere, return it to the box and draw another.
Place a meeple (optional) on a feature of that tile, but not one that already has a meeple anywhere along it.
Score any road, city or monastery your tile completed, whoever's meeples are on it.

Example: Your tile closes off the far end of an opponent's road. It's complete, so they score it now and take their meeple back.

You can't join an occupied feature directly, but you can start your own nearby and connect them later.

Where meeples go

Meeple roles: a traveller on a road, a knight in a city, a monk in a monastery, a farmer lying down in a field.
Field: a connected green area, split up by roads and cities. Farmers stay until the game ends.

You have 7 meeples, and they only come back when their feature scores. Don't spend them all early.

Scoring during the game

Completed road: 1 point per tile.
Completed city: 2 points per tile + 2 per coat of arms.
Completed monastery (all 8 neighbours filled): 9 points.
Shared features: whoever has the most meeples scores in full; tied players all do.
Afterwards, the meeples on it go back to their owners.

Example: A completed city of 3 tiles with 1 coat of arms scores 3 × 2 + 2 = 8 points.

Game end & final scoring

The game ends after the last tile is placed and scored. Then score every meeple still on the board:

Unfinished road: 1 point per tile.
Unfinished city: 1 point per tile + 1 per coat of arms.
Unfinished monastery: 1 point + 1 per neighbouring tile.
Farmers: each field scores 3 per completed city it touches, for whoever has most farmers in it; tied players all score.
Winner: most points. The rules give no tie-breaker.

Expansion rules

Only needed if you play with the expansion named on each heading.

The River The River

Not recommended for your first game.

Setup: put the normal start tile back in the box. Place the spring in the middle instead. Set the lake aside, shuffle the other river tiles face down in their own stack, and put the lake at the bottom. Shuffle the land tiles into stacks as normal.
Placement: play the river tiles first, one per turn. Each must continue the river, and it can never turn the same way twice (a U-turn).
Meeples never go on the water. The river divides fields.

The Abbot The Abbot

Not recommended for your first game.

Setup: each player also takes the abbot in their colour, alongside their 7 meeples. Unused abbots go back in the box.
Abbot: instead of a meeple, place it on a monastery or garden of your new tile. Only an abbot can go in a garden.
Gardens score like monasteries.
Recall: instead of placing a meeple, you may take your abbot back. It scores this turn (step 3), 1 + 1 per neighbouring tile.

Inns & Cathedrals Inns & Cathedrals

Setup: shuffle the 18 new tiles in; each player takes their large meeple, and the 6th player's pieces allow 6 players.
Inns: a completed road with an inn scores 2 points per tile, not 1.
Cathedrals: a completed city with a cathedral scores 3 points per tile and per coat of arms, not 2.
Unfinished: an inn road or cathedral city still unfinished at game end scores nothing.
Large meeple: place it like a meeple. It counts as 2 meeples when deciding who has the majority.

Traders & Builders Traders & Builders

Setup: shuffle the 24 new tiles in, put the 20 goods tokens (wine, grain, cloth) by the board, and give each player a builder and a pig.
Trade goods: when a tile completes a city with goods symbols, its placer takes one token per symbol after the city scores, even with no knight there. At game end, the most tokens of each good score 10; tied players each score 10.
Builder: instead of a meeple, place it on a road or city of the new tile where you have a meeple. It doesn't count for majorities. It goes home when you have no meeple there.
Builder's second tile: extending that feature later gives you a second tile at once, a full turn with meeple and scoring, never a third.
Pig: instead of a meeple, place it in a field of the new tile where you have a farmer. It doesn't count for majority and goes home if your last farmer there leaves. When you score that field, each completed city is worth 4, not 3.

Princess & Dragon The Princess & the Dragon

Setup: shuffle the new tiles in and put the dragon and the fairy beside the board.
Volcano tile: the dragon moves onto it, and no meeple may be placed this turn.
Dragon tile: you may place a meeple. Then, clockwise from you, players take turns moving the dragon 1 space up, down, left or right, up to 6 in all. It can't re-enter a tile this turn or enter the fairy's tile; if stuck, it stops. Meeples it meets go home.
Early dragon tile: if you draw one before any volcano is in play, set it aside and draw again. Shuffle it back in once the first volcano is placed.
Fairy: on a turn you place no meeple, you may put it on one of your meeples' tiles; the dragon can't enter it. If the meeple goes home, the fairy stays there.
Fairy points: while the fairy is with your meeple, score 1 point at the start of each of your turns, and 3 when that meeple's feature scores.
Princess tile: if it extends a city with knights, you may send one knight home, even your own, but then place no meeple this turn.
Magic portal tile: you may place your meeple on any unoccupied, unfinished feature anywhere.

The Tower The Tower

Setup: shuffle the 18 tower-foundation tiles in. Tower floors each: 10 with 2 players, 9 with 3, 7 with 4, 6 with 5, 5 with 6; box the rest.
Build: instead of a meeple, add one of your floors to any foundation or open tower. You may then capture one meeple (even your own, which returns to you) in reach: its own tile and as many tiles in each straight line as it is tall, over gaps and towers.
Close: instead of a floor, place a meeple on top of an open tower to close it.
Prisoners: two players holding each other's prisoners swap at once. Otherwise, on your turn, pay a captor 3 points (you need them) to buy one of yours back.

Abbey & Mayor Abbey & Mayor

Setup: shuffle the 12 new tiles in; each player takes an abbey tile, a mayor, a wagon and a barn. Unused abbeys go in the box.
Abbey: instead of drawing a tile, place it in an empty space with tiles on all 4 sides. It needn't match them, closes every edge it touches (scoring any feature it completes), and a monk on it scores like a monastery.
Mayor: instead of a meeple, place it in a city with no knights or mayors. It counts as one meeple per coat of arms in that city (none if none) and goes home when the city scores.
Wagon: instead of a meeple, place it on a road, city, monastery or abbey. After that feature scores, you may move it to an unoccupied, unfinished feature on the same or an adjacent tile (diagonals count), or take it back.
Barn: instead of a meeple, place it where four tiles meet with field at all four corners, in a field with no barn. That field scores at once, 3 per completed city to the farmer majority; its farmers go home. At game end the barn scores 4 per completed city.
Barn field: a barn field can't hold farmers. When a later tile joins a farmer field to it, that field scores at once at 1 per completed city and its farmers go home.

The Count of Carcassonne The Count of Carcassonne

Setup: box the start tile and lay the 12 city cards of Carcassonne side by side as the rulebook diagram shows, Count on the castle quarter. The city replaces the start tile, so the first land tile goes next to it. With the River, it flows away from the city.
Quarters: at the end of your turn, if your tile made an opponent score and you scored nothing, you may put a meeple into a quarter and move the Count to any quarter.
Moving out: when a feature scores, from the player left of the placer round to the placer, each may move all or none of their meeples from the matching quarter onto it before the majority is decided. No one may leave the quarter the Count is in.
Matching quarters: castle for cities, blacksmith for roads, cathedral for monasteries, market for fields at game end.

The Catapult The Catapult

Setup: shuffle the 12 fair tiles in, put the catapult and measuring board nearby, and give each player one token of each type.
Fair tile: after the player who drew it finishes their turn, they pick a token type and fling first, then everyone else flings the same type once each. Take the tokens back. Many groups leave this out.
Token types: knock-out sends home every meeple the token touches, yours too, and knocked meeples can knock off others. Seduction: if it comes to rest on the map, swap one of your meeples (from supply or map) with the opponent meeple nearest the token. See Catapult Tokens.
Target and catch: target scores 5 for the closest token resting on the fair tile; ties all score. Catch: players pair up as hurler and catcher, and the catcher hurls next; each throw awards 5 points.

Bridges, Castles & Bazaars Bridges, Castles & Bazaars

Setup: shuffle the new tiles in; each player takes 3 bridges and 3 castles (2 of each with 5–6 players).
Bridge: after placing a tile, you may place one bridge on it or a touching tile, straight (never diagonal) with both ends in fields. It counts as a road. Put a meeple on it only if it's on the tile you just placed.
Castle: when a tile completes a 2-tile city your meeple is in, you may place a castle there instead of scoring 4. Your meeple goes home; the castle stays. An unscored castle is worth 0.
Castle scoring: it scores the full value of the first feature completed on its 2 tiles or the 2 tiles either side. That feature also scores normally for its own meeples. In field scoring a city with a castle counts 4, not 3.
Bazaar: after placing a bazaar tile and finishing your turn, unless fewer tiles remain than players, reveal 1 tile per player and hold an auction.
Auction: the player on your left picks a tile and opens the bidding in points; others bid higher or pass, clockwise. The picker buys it (paying the top bidder) or sells it (the top bidder pays them; no bids, no payment).
After the auction: the next player without a tile picks; the last takes the final tile free. Then each places theirs in turn, with meeple and scoring; play resumes left of whoever placed the bazaar.

Hills & Sheep Hills & Sheep

Setup: shuffle the 18 new tiles in, put all 18 sheep and wolf tokens in the cloth bag, and give each player the shepherd of their colour.
Shepherd: instead of a meeple, place it in a field on your new tile with no shepherd, then draw a token. A sheep stays beside it; a wolf goes back in the bag and the shepherd goes home.
Flock: when you extend that field, after your meeple step choose one. Grow: draw a token; a wolf sends every sheep and shepherd there back. Guide: score 1 per sheep shown on the tokens, then return them and your shepherd.
Hill tile: slide a face-down tile under it unseen, then place it as normal. If players tie on a feature, in final scoring too, the one with a meeple on its hill tile scores alone.
Joined flocks: if shepherd fields join, their sheep form one flock; guiding scores it for every shepherd's owner and all the shepherds go home. A field fully enclosed by roads and cities is guided at once. Shepherds and sheep left at game end score nothing.
Vineyards: a completed monastery scores 3 extra per vineyard on the 8 tiles around it.

Under the Big Top Under the Big Top

Setup: shuffle the 20 new tiles in, shuffle the 16 Animal tokens into a face-down stack with the Big Top beside it, and add each player's ringmaster to their supply.
First circus: the first Circus tile placed gets an Animal token face down and the Big Top.
Circus tile: score any features it completed, then reveal the Animal token under the Big Top and score the circus: each player scores its value per meeple on the Big Top's tile and the 8 around it. Meeples stay put.
Next circus: put that token face up beside the scoreboard, put a new face-down token on the new circus space and move the Big Top there. Circus and acrobat spaces end roads and split fields; meeples never go on circus spaces.
Acrobats: after placing an Acrobat tile, you may put a meeple on one of its two acrobat spaces. Later, place a meeple as an acrobat on an Acrobat tile next to your new tile (diagonals too). A third meeple on top of two completes the pyramid. Colours may mix.
Pyramid: instead of placing a figure, score any completed pyramid: each acrobat scores its owner 5 and goes home. In final scoring, first score the Big Top's circus once more, then each acrobat scores 5.
Ringmaster: counts as a normal meeple but can't be an acrobat. When its feature scores, even if you lose it, you also score 2 per Circus and Acrobat tile it is on or next to.

All Carcassonne rules (77)

General

Clarification

Scoring

The River expansion

The River

The Abbot expansion

The Abbot & Gardens

Inns & Cathedrals expansion

Traders & Builders expansion

The Princess & the Dragon expansion

The Tower expansion

Abbey & Mayor expansion

The Count of Carcassonne expansion

The Catapult expansion

Bridges, Castles & Bazaars expansion

Hills & Sheep expansion

Under the Big Top expansion

Expansions covered

The River in the base box
The Abbot in the base box
Inns & Cathedrals
Traders & Builders
The Princess & the Dragon
The Tower
Abbey & Mayor
The Count of Carcassonne
The Catapult
Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
Hills & Sheep
Under the Big Top

More about Carcassonne