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Carcassonne is © 2000 Hans im Glück / Rio Grande Games.
The River expansion is © 2001 Hans im Glück / Rio Grande Games.
The Carcassonne Expansion is © 2002 Hans im Glück / Rio Grande Games.

These rules appear courtesy of Jay Tummelson and Rio Grande Games.

Green ball Introduction
Green ball Contents
Green ball Overview
Green ball Preparation
Green ball Playing the Game
Orange ball Placing tiles
Orange ball Deploying followers
Orange ball Scoring
Green ball Game End
Orange ball Final Scoring
Green ball Winning
Green ball Alternate Farmer Scoring

Green ball The River
Green ball Expansion Set

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TopA tile-laying game for 2-5 players aged 10 and up.

The southern French city of Carcassonne is famous for its unique Roman and Medieval fortifications. The players develop the area around Carcassonne and deploy their followers on the roads, in the cities, in the cloisters, and in the fields. The skills of the players to develop the area and use their thieves, knights, monks and farmers will determine who is victorious.

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TopCONTENTS

72 land tiles (including one starting tile with a dark back), which picture road, city cloister and field segments
40 followers in 5 colours. Each follower can be used as a thief, knight, monk or farmer. One of each player's followers in the player's scoring marker
1 scoring track, used to track players' scores
1 rules booklet

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TopOVERVIEW

The players place tiles turn by turn. As they do so, the roads, cities, fields and cloisters emerge and grow. On these, the players can deploy their followers to earn points. Players score points during the game and at the end. The player with the most points after the final scoring is the winner.

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TopPREPARATION

Place the starting tile face up in the middle of the table. Shuffle the remaining tiles face down and stack them in several face-down stacks so that all players have easy access to them. Place the scoring track near one edge of the table to leave room for the players to place tiles in the middle of the table.

Each player takes the 8 followers in his colour and places one as his scoring marker in the large space at the lower left of the scoring track. Each player places his remaining 7 followers before him on the table as his supply.

The youngest player decides who will be the starting player.

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TopPLAYING THE GAME

Players take turns in clockwise order beginning with the starting player. On a player's turn, he executes the following actions in the order shown:

  1. The player must draw and place a new tile
  2. The player may deploy one of his followers from his supply on the tile he just placed
  3. If, through the placement of the tile, roads, cities or cloisters are completed, they are now scored.


TopPlacing tiles

First a player must draw a tile from one of the face-down stacks. He looks at it, shows it to his fellow players (so they can advise him on the 'best' placement of the tile), and places it on the table, using the following rules:

Spacing graphic Tile placement - example 1 Spacing graphic Road and field segments match
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Spacing graphic Tile placement - example 2 Spacing graphic City segments match
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Spacing graphic Tile placement - example 3 Spacing graphic On one edge the city matches and on the other edge the field matches
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Spacing graphic Tile placement - example 4 Spacing graphic This is an invalid placement as the road and city edges do not match

In the rare circumstances where a drawn tile has no legal placement (and all players agree), the player discards the tile from the game (into the box) and draws another tile.


TopDeploying followers

After the player places a tile, he may deploy one of his followers, using the following rules:

Spacing graphic Follower placement - example 1 Spacing graphic A thief on a road
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Spacing graphic Follower placement - example 2 Spacing graphic A knight in a city
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Spacing graphic Follower placement - example 3 Spacing graphic A monk in a cloister
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Spacing graphic Follower placement - example 8 Spacing graphic A farmer in a field - in either of the positions shown

The player may not deploy a follower on a road, city or field segment if that segment connects to a segment on another tile (no matter how far away) that already has a follower (from any player) on it.  See the following examples:

Spacing graphic Follower placement - example 5 Spacing graphic Blue can only deploy a farmer as there is already a knight in a connected city segment
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Spacing graphic Follower placement - example 6 Spacing graphic Red can deploy his follower as a thief, knight or farmer in the small field, but not as a farmer in the large field as there is already a farmer on a connected field segment.

When a player has deployed all his followers, he continues to play tiles each turn. Although a follower may not be recalled, followers are returned to players when roads, cities and cloisters and scored.


TopScoring completed roads, cities and cloisters

Completed road

A road is complete when the road segments at both ends connect to a crossing, a city of a cloister. A road is also complete if it connects to itself in a loop. There may be many segments along the road.

The player who has a thief on a completed road scores one point for each tile in the road (count the number of tiles). The player moves his scoring marker forward on the scoring track a number of spaces equal to the points earned.

Spacing graphic Scoring a road - example 1 Spacing graphic Red scores 4 points
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Spacing graphic Scoring a road - example 2 Spacing graphic Red scores 3 points

Completed city

A city is complete when the city is completely surrounded by a city wall and there are no gaps in the wall. There may be many segments in a city.

The player who has a knight in the completed city scores two points for each segment in the city (count the number of tiles). Each shield on a city segment earns the player two bonus points.  Exception: When a completed city has just two segments, the player scores two points (not four).

Spacing graphic Scoring a city - example 1 Spacing graphic Red scores 8 points
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Spacing graphic Scoring a city - example 2 Spacing graphic Red only scores 2 points for a 2 segment city

What happens when a completed road or city has more than one follower?

It is possible through clever placement of tiles for there to be more than one thief on a road or more than one knight in a city. When this occurs in a completed road or city, the player with the most thieves (on a road) or the most knights (in a city) scores all the points.

When two or more players tie with the most thieves or knights, they each score the total points for the road or city.

Spacing graphic Multiple followers example Spacing graphic Red and blue each score the full 10 points for the city as they tie with 1 knight each in the completed city.

Completed cloister

A cloister is complete when the tile it is on is completely surrounded by tiles. A player with a monk in the cloister scores nine points.

Spacing graphic Completed cloister example Spacing graphic Blue scores 9 points

Returning followers to players

After a road, city or cloister is scored (and only then), the followers involved are returned to the appropriate players. The returned followers may be used by the players as any of the possible followers (thief, knight, monk, farmer) in later turns.

It is possible for a player to deploy a follower, score a road, city or cloister, and have the follower returned in the same turn.
  1. Complete a road or city by placing the new tile
  2. Deploy a thief or a knight
  3. Score the completed road or city
  4. Return the thief or knight
Spacing graphic Instant follower scoring - example 1 Spacing graphic Red scores 3 points for the road
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Spacing graphic Instant follower scoring - example 2 Spacing graphic Red scores 2 points for the city

The farms

Connected fields are called farms. Farms are not scored during the game. They exist only as places to deploy farmers. Farmers are only scored in the final scoring.

Farmers remain in the field segment where they are deployed for the entire game and are never returned to the players!

Farms are bordered by roads, cities and the edge of the area where the tiles have been played.

Spacing graphic Farmer placement - example 1 Spacing graphic All 3 farmers have their own farms. The roads and cities separate the farms from each other.
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Spacing graphic Farmer placement - example 2 Spacing graphic After the placement to the new tile, the farms of the 3 farmers are connected. Note: the player who played the new tile may not deploy a farmer because the connected field segments already have farmers.

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TopGAME END

At the end of the player's turn in which the last tile is placed, the game ends. The final scoring then takes place.


TopFinal scoring

First, all incomplete roads, cities and cloisters are scored. For each incomplete road and city, the player who has a thief on the road or a knight in the city scores one point for each road or city segment in the incomplete road or city. Shields earn the city player one point each. For incomplete roads and cities with more than one follower, use the rules for completed roads and cities to determine who gets the points. For each incomplete cloister, a player with a monk in a cloister scores one point for the cloister tile and one point for each tile that surrounds it.

Spacing graphic rules_21.gif (2133 bytes) Spacing graphic Red scores 3 points for the incomplete road.
Blue scores 4 points for the incomplete city.
Yellow scores 4 points for the incomplete cloister: 1 point for the cloister tile and 3 points for the tiles that surround it.

Farmers score points for supplying cities

Farmers score points as shown below:

Spacing graphic Scoring farms - example 1 Spacing graphic Blue scores 4 points for the complete city. Blue scores no points for the incomplete city on the second tile from the left.
Spacing graphic Scoring farms - example 2 Spacing graphic Blue scores 8 points.
Spacing graphic Scoring farms - example 3 Spacing graphic Blue scores 4 points and red scores nothing as blue has the most farmers.
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Spacing graphic Scoring farms - example 4 Spacing graphic For the small city, red and blue are tied and each score 4 points.
For the big city, blue scores 4 points. Red has no farms adjacent to the big city.

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TopWINNING

The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

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TopAlternate farmer scoring

The method for scoring farmers shown above is the original method. German editions of the game from October 2001 scored farmers differently. This scoring method was not introduced to the English version of the game for many years, although it is now the standard rule. As it was introduced later, it is still referred to here as alternate farmer scoring. Always be clear before you start a game which of the farmer scoring methods is being used.

Farms score points for the cities they supply

Most of the farmer scoring examples shown above work the same, except that reduced points are scored. The third example scores differently, however.

Spacing graphic Scoring farms - example 3 Spacing graphic Blue scores 6 points for two farms and red scores 3 points for one farm. Each farm scores independently of the others.

The following examples demonstrates the scoring when more than one farmer is in a farm.

Spacing graphic Scoring farms - example 3 Spacing graphic Red scores 3 points for the farm, as he has two farmers compared to blue's single farmer.

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Mail me © Keith Thomasson November 1st 2012