The Basic Game


Released in 2000.
  • General Placement
  • Introduction
    allgemein
    • The player whose turn it is draws a land tile from one of the face-down stacks.
    • The tile drawn must be placed so that every edge on it continues the terrain on the abutting tiles. If need be, that includes a road, city or farm segment already occupied by the follower of another player.
    • On the land tile just placed a player may now deploy one follower, as long as he or she has one available and the segment is not occupied by another follower—even a follower of the same player.
    • If a cloister, road or city (but not a farm) is completed by the placement of the tile, it is now scored, and any followers involved are returned to the appropriate players.
    • Then it is the next player’s turn.

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  • In this game, when a new land tile is placed, does it have to fit on all edges, or is it enough if the edge that you want to connect to fits?
    allgemein1

    The new land tile must fit the adjacent terrain on all edges. During placement it is not enough to look for only one side that fits.
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  • Over the course of time we have become thoroughly familiar with the individual tiles. Are we allowed to place tiles in such a way that it is impossible for an opponent to complete a city?
    allgemein3
    Yes, that is allowed, even if it infuriates an opponent. Such a tactic would be particularly interesting in a city with a cathedral from the Inns and Cathedrals expansion.
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  • If you complete a previously unoccupied city when placing a tile, do you have to occupy this city and the earn points, or can you close the city without it being occupied and deploy a farmer?
    allgemein4

    So long as the farm is unoccupied you may deploy a follower to it. The city does not necessarily require a knight to look after it.
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  • Too few meeples—are we playing wrong or are there really too few?
    allgemein5
    In our view there are not too few. A certain shortage of followers is entirely intentional. An important element of the game is precisely learning to be economical with one's followers (please also see the next question).
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  • From the rule booklet: “…followers are returned to players…” We’re not sure how this happens during the game.
    allgemein6

    Whenever a road, cloister or city is scored, any followers involved are returned to the players. They are then ready to be deployed by the player again.
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  • Unclear: can a knight freed on the completion of a city be immediately redeployed to the tile placed (as a farmer or thief)?
    allgemein7
    No! The order of play is: place tile, deploy follower, score. It is naturally possible to place a follower on the tile, but only when you have another one. The follower returned to the player through scoring can at the earliest be deployed again in the next turn. The same is true of roads and cloisters.
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  • There is just one situation that puzzles us. If a player draws a tile with two city segments and completes a small city, earning 2 points (or according to the newest rules, 4 points), can he or she then deploy a follower to the new city segment in the same turn?
    allgemein9
    A player may only deploy one follower per turn, and that follower may be deployed only once, and it must be before any scoring.

    If the player already occupies the small, now-completed city, he or she may deploy a second follower to the other city segment immediately after placing the tile. The small city will then be scored and the follower involved returned to the player.

    If the player does not yet occupy this city, he or she can decide which of the two city segments to deploy a follower to. If the follower is deployed to the small city, it will be returned immediately and the player will earn 4 points, but the follower cannot be redeployed.
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  • A player is building two cities and has knights on each of them. During the course of play the two cities join together to form a single one, but it is not yet complete. Can one of the two knights be taken out of the city at this point? The same question goes for a road that isn't yet complete.
    allgemein10
    The knight stays put! The only time a follower is returned to a player is during scoring.1 It is also not possible to voluntarily evacuate a segment. Since the scoring of farms, even completed ones, only occurs at the end of the game, farmers are never returned.
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  • When a completed road/city/cloister is scored, are not completed roads/cities/cloisters also scored at the same time?
    allgemein11
    During the game, scoring only affects the roads, cities or cloisters that have just been completed. All other incomplete segments are unaffected and the followers remain where they are. In the example shown, only the black thief is scored, the others not.
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  • Connecting
  • Introduction
    einklinken
    • During the course of play, two previously separate roads, cities or farms can be connected by placing a land tile.
    • If both segments are already occupied by one or more followers, the player with the resulting majority has claim on the points of the newly-created single segment of road, city or farm.
    • In the case of a tie, each tying player earns the total points.
    • When connecting two already occupied segments, a follower may not be deployed to the new tile, as the segment concerned is already occupied.

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  • Cities & Knights
  • Introduction
    stadt
    • Every city tile—including those with several city segments—in a completed city earns the occupier 2 points.
    • Every pennant in the completed city is also worth 2 points.
    • At the end of the game, city tiles and pennants earn only 1 point each.

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  • In my opinion, on page three of the rule booklet a mistake must have crept in. In third example, don't red and blue in the completed city earn 12 points each (not 10 as it says in the booklet)?
    stadt1
    The booklet is correct. The tile in the top left corner has two city segments, but the city is scored according to the number of tiles. In the example shown there are four tiles, scoring 2 points each, making a total of 8. The same problem can be see in the rule booklet for Inns and Cathedrals in the cathedral example.
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  • Questionable score in an example in the rule booklet (page three, first example: red earns 8 points?)
    stadt2
    The rule booklet is also correct in this case. Don't forget the pennant!

    Here is another example: four tiles plus one pennant, times two, is 10 points.
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  • We have difficulty deciding when a placed tile represents a new city or belongs to one already being built.
    stadt3

    ‘Corner to corner’ is not a connection! Segments can only be connected on the edges. In the example shown there are two cities at the moment.
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  • Roads & Thieves
  • Introduction
    strasse
    • A road earns 1 point per road tile.
    • They end at all types of crossing and whenever they lead to a city.

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  • We would like to draw your attention to an ambiguity. You speak of crossings—in the game there are crossings and junctions.
    strasse1
    That’s right! But since all crossings have the same effect—namely, to bring a road to an end—it was decided to sacrifice the distinction between crossings and junctions (or T-crossings, or T-roads…?) in order to not unnecessarily complicate matters.

    On many depictions of Jesus, the vertical beam does not rise above the crossbeam (which is probably a more realistic depiction). Nevertheless, no one speaks of “Jesus on the T”.
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  • How are the road segments between T-junctions scored? Are the horizontal segments (on top of the T) also ends, or do these count as straight roads that have to be completed elsewhere?
    strasse2
    Every crossing (or junction) ends a road, irrespective of which direction they reach the junction from. The thieves cannot enter the small villages on the junctions either. In the example shown, every thief is on its own road.
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  • Can a road end in nothing?
    strasse3

    No, like all the usual land tiles, a road segment must continue to another road segment on all edges.
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  • Cloisters & Monks
  • Introduction
    kloster
    • A cloister must be immediately occupied by a monk when the tile is placed, or else it stays empty for the rest of the game and earns no one points.
    • When scoring, the player with the monk earns 1 point for the cloister itself and 1 point for each tile immediately neighbouring it—also diagonally—which results in 9 points for a completed cloister.
    • After scoring, the monk is returned to the player.
    • Surrounding the cloister is a normal farm segment with normal characteristics.

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  • Can cloisters be placed directly next to each other, or corner to corner, or must there always be eight other tiles neighbouring a cloister?
    kloster2
    Why ever not? A cloister stands in the middle of a farm segment and other segments can be can be placed next to it. The sentence “cloister tiles cannot be continued” identifies cloisters as closed segments. In contrast to roads, cities and farms it is not possible to connect to a cloister. In the example shown every monk occupies its own cloister, which will be scored independently of the neighbouring cloisters.

    There are no religious conflicts in the Basic Game of Carcassonne!
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  • On cloister tiles, are we allowed to deploy a follower on the surrounding farm segment?
    kloster3
    Yes! The same rules are valid for a farm surrounding a cloister as for any other farm. You can also deploy a farmer next to cloister. In this case the cloister remains unoccupied for the rest of the game.
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  • How many points does an incomplete cloister earn in the game: 1 point for the cloister or 1 point for each neighbouring tile?
    kloster4
    Both! In the final scoring, the cloister earns 1 point for the cloister itself and 1 point for every surrounding tile. With six cards around the cloister that makes a total of 7 points.
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  • Farms & Farmers
  • Introduction
    wiese
    • Farmers earn 3 points for every city adjacent to their farm.
    • Farms are limited by cities, roads and the edge of the playing field.
    • Farmers remain on the farm until the end of the game. Without exception!

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  • We can't figure out how to score farms! Could you explain how it works?
    wiese1
    In the example shown there are two completed cities. Each city earns the player with the most farmers on the farm 3 points, which is a total of 6.

    Red and blue both have one farmer on this farm, so they both have the majority and both earn the full number of points.
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  • Do you really get points for every farm adjacent to the city?
    wiese2
    No, the farms don't earn any points at all. The only thing that earns any points is completed cities.

    In the example shown, red earns 6 points: 3 points for each completed city that borders or lies within the farm.
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  • Do the cities earn points for red once or twice, since the farms are not connected?
    wiese3
    The two farms will indeed be dealt with entirely separately. On one farm both blue and red have the majority and so both earn 6 points. On the other farm red is alone, and also earns the points for both cities. The rule has been changed recently to simplify the scoring.
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  • At the end of the game, do only those cities which immediately border a farm earn points, or all the cities within it?
    wiese4
    All the cities which lie on or adjacent to the farm in question earn points. The farm continues through the neighbouring cards until it is halted by a road, a city or the end of the playing field.

    In the example shown, the yellow farmer earns 6 points, even though neither of the cities directly border its tile.
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  • The only thing that’s unclear is how big a farm can be. I assume that a road is a border. But we’ve already played games where a farm was not halted by a road for almost the entire game.
    wiese5
    Farms can be limited by all kinds of barriers, for example, roads or cities which cannot be circumvented, or the edge of the playing field. It can certainly happen that a farm covers almost the entire playing field.

    In that case, the only thing that can be said is, “Me too!”
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  • Are the farm segments occupied by yellow and green connected corner to corner, or must the long edges be touching?
    wiese6
    Corner to corner is not connecting in Carcassonne! Only connections on the long sides of the tile are clear and final. Yellow and green are therefore occupying different farms (and black is on a different farm anyway).
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  • At the end of the game, do we score farms which are completely closed off by roads, but which don't have any adjacent cities? If so, how?
    wiese8
    Hmm-mm…

    Strictly speaking, they should be scored exactly like every other farm, with three points for every completed city. In this case, that makes a total of zero points. And the farmer is nevertheless unable to leave the farm.

    All this is naturally highly frustrating and cries out for revenge!
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  • Does the farm on the tile with four city segments really count as a farm, which you can exclusively occupy and so win four adjacent cities very quickly?
    wiese9
    Yes, this farm behaves exactly like every other farm. A farmer on this farm will have an unchallenged majority. However, the separate city segments could be connected and, in the worst case scenario, form a single city. That would seriously reduce the winnings.
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  • What are the differences to the rules of the first edition, when Carcassonne won Game of the Year?
    wiese10
    The scoring of farms was not from the perspective of the farms themselves, as it is now, but rather from the perspective of the cities.

    For every city, you had to check how many farmers of each colour were adjacent to it, irrespective of from which side. The player with the majority of adjacent farmers supplying a city would earn 4 points for it. Each city would as such only be scored once, and therefore earned more points.

    According to the old rules, blue would be the only one to score points, since two of his or her farmers are supplying the cities, even though they are on different farms. Yellow has only one farmer adjacent to the city and goes home without anything. According to the new rules, both farmers earn points; and following the most recent rule changes, blue even earns points twice.
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  • Final Scoring
  • Introduction
    schluss
    • The final scoring occurs after the last land tile has be placed. The player involved can still complete his or her regular turn first; in other words, he or she can deploy a follower and—assuming a road, city or cloister is completed in the process—score as usual.
    • The player with the majority of thieves on any incomplete roads earns one point per road segment and the thieves are removed from play. Incomplete roads with an inn from Inns and Cathedrals earn no points.
    • The player with the majority of knights in incomplete cities earn one point per city segment and one point per pennant. The knights are then also removed. Incomplete cities with a cathedral from Inns and Cathedrals earn no points, regardless of their size.
    • Before monks are removed from play, they earn 1 point for the cloister tile and 1 point for each land tile that surrounds it.
    • Only the farmers should remain at this point. The majority on the individual farms is established and scored one after the other. The player with the most farmers on a given farm earns 3 points per completed city bordering his or her farm. The actual size of the farm has no direct influence on the points that it earns; the only decisive factor is the number of adjacent completed cities.

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  • When a player has two or more thieves on an incomplete road during final scoring, does the player earn double or multiple points?
    schluss1
    No! As is the normal course of play, the number of followers on a road or city has no effect on the number of points earned. There are simply not enough passers-by on a road to provide a source of income for more than one thief.
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  • Final scoring: segments of incomplete roads. One point per follower or 1 point per road segment?
    Cloister: 1 point for every neighbouring tile (e.g. 5), or is an incomplete cloister worth only 1 point?
    schluss2
    During the final scoring roads earn exactly as much as during the game, that is, 1 point per road segment. In the example shown, blue earns four points at the end of the game. The only exception in the final scoring is a road with an inn from Inns and Cathedrals, which earns no points whatsoever at the end of the game.

    The cloister earns 1 point for the cloister itself and 1 point for every neighbouring tile. When there are five tiles surrounding the cloister it earns 6 in total.
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  • It is unclear whether incomplete farms earn points during the final scoring.
    schluss3
    It is probably almost impossible to close off or complete most of the farms. The most important thing when scoring the farms are the cities, which do indeed have to be complete.

    So: completed cities count, on incomplete farms as well.
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  • Errata
  • If the player on my right plays the last tile has the game finished? Or, if I have an abbey left, can I say, "No I want my turn. I choose not to take a tile, but to play my abbey"?
    Strictly speaking, all abbeys can be played. As such, players who don’t have an abbey left can be passed by… not nice.

    But the abbey is definitely a land tile, and according to the basic rules the game is over when all land tiles have been played. I’m not keen on that, but we did write it…

    Wait! I’ve just spoken with the boss, and he also thinks it isn’t very nice, and not in the spirit of the game. So we agreed on a new definition: “The game is over when the last face-down land tile has been played.” If a player hasn’t played their abbey by the time that the last ‘regular’ land tile is played, it’s tough luck.
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