Carcassonne

The game starts with one tile face up in the middle of the table. On your turn you draw a tile and add it to the map. Its edges must match the tiles it touches: roads join roads, city walls join city walls and fields join fields.

After placing the tile you may put one of your meeples on a feature of that tile. On a road it is a robber, in a city a knight, on a monastery a monk and in a field a farmer. You cannot place a meeple on a road, city or field that already has a meeple anywhere along it. Each player has eight meeples. One of them marks your score, so seven are left to play.

When a feature is finished, it scores straight away and the meeple goes back to its owner. A finished road scores 1 point per tile. A finished city scores 2 points per tile, plus 2 for each coat of arms. A monastery scores 9 once all eight tiles around it are filled. If two features with meeples join up, whoever has more meeples there takes all the points, and a tie means everyone in it scores in full. This is how you sneak into someone else's big city.

The game ends when the last tile is placed. Unfinished roads, cities and monasteries then score 1 point per tile (and 1 per coat of arms). Farmers score last: each field earns 3 points for every finished city it touches. Farmers stay on the board for the whole game, so many groups leave them out of their first game.

The current Z-Man box also includes two small expansions. The River is 12 tiles laid first, which make a winding river to build around. The Abbot gives each player one extra piece that can go only on a monastery or a garden. You can also take it back early to score its unfinished monastery or garden.

There are two genuine versions in India. The English/Hindi edition from Yes Papa Games was licensed from Hans im Glück, and Vibrant Hobbies announced it in 2022. It was the cheaper listing, at ₹2,500 on Bored Game Company, but out of stock on 5 October 2026. The other is the imported Z-Man Games edition (item ZM7810). Gameistry listed a copy at ₹3,199, also out of stock, and the Amazon.in listing showed no price that day. Both use the same tiles and rules, so pick whichever genuine copy is in stock.

Start with the base game, simply called Carcassonne. The current box has the redesigned artwork and includes The River and The Abbot mini-expansions. Other boxes on Indian shelves are different products. My First Carcassonne is a simpler version for ages 4 and up. Mists over Carcassonne is a cooperative standalone game. Carcassonne Winter Edition and Hunters and Gatherers are standalone variants with their own rules. Traders & Builders and the other numbered expansions need the base game to play.