Unboxed the Board Game Blog

Inspired by the medieval fortress in southern France of the same name, Carcassonne is a tile-laying game in which players fill in the countryside around the fortified city. Players choose from tiles that depict cities, roads, monasteries, and fields; each new tile placed creates an ever-expanding board on which players can then add their followers. Players score points by having followers on features as they're completed. The player who makes the most strategic placements of tiles and followers will score the most points and win the game.

This is mists over Carcassonne, the world’s first cooperative version of Carcassonne. Players take turns, adding a new land tile to the board each time. This creates an ever-enlarging game board onto which you place your meeples to score points. During the game, ghosts will keep appearing – your job is to pacify them. Together, you must reach the goal tile by scoring a pre-determined number of points. But watch out: If there are too many ghosts on the board, or you can’t draw land tiles anymore, then you have lost. All players play together against the game.

Can you escape the inferno? It’s the year of the Consulship of Augustus and Vespasianus. The rich, beautiful Roman city of Pompeii sits at the foot of majestic Mount Vesuvius. Renowned for exotic, easy, and ample luxury, the wealthy town attracts the best of Rome’s proud citizens. But a terrible secret lies deep beneath the slopes of the mighty mountain. A primeval secret is about to unleash unspeakable horrors on this fateful afternoon. The mountain, so very long asleep, is finally reawakening… Come to beautiful Pompeii! Use your cards to attract your Roman friends and relatives to visit select sites. But beware! The dreaded Vesuvius card means the mountain is awake, spewing fiery lava onto the unsuspecting city. Now you must struggle to get your compatriots out of the doomed town before they are engulfed. Rushing to avoid lava flows, your people must flee before Vesuvius explodes and ash seals their fate. Lead the most survivors to safety and you win !

The Inns & Cathedrals expansion adds more ways to shape the Medieval countryside in the award-winning tile-laying game Carcassonne. Eighteen Land tiles feature two new buildings that open additional avenues to scoring points. Construct imposing cathedrals that increase your cities' value, or build humble inns along your roads to double the value of your thieves. But be careful! An incomplete feature that uses an inn or cathedral scores no points at the end of the game.

This small expansion to Carcassonne released by Rio Grande Games is actually a compilation of smaller expansions. * The Cult, 6 tiles. (One tile is only available in this compilation.) * The Siege, 4 tiles. (The tiles in this release have different art than the original Spielbox 2004 Release.) * “Creativity”, 2 blank tiles that you can use to create your own expansion. Part of the Carcassonne series.

Carcassonne Phantoms consists of 6 transparent phantoms in 6 colours. The purple phantom is for the gray or pink player. Each player gets a phantom of his player color. When placing a follower on a tile, the player may also place his phantom as an additional follower on the same tile. When both the follower and the phantom occupy the same tile, they must be placed on two different features. When the player gets his phantom back from scoring, he may keep it to use in a later turn. The phantom can also be placed by itself, and always counts as a regular follower.

The River II (Der Fluss II) is a mini-expansion for Carcassonne. It adds twelve tiles with a river and has some differences with the first River expansion because the tiles are designed to combine with the first three expansions for Carcassonne, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders and The Princess & the Dragon. The River II is contained in Carcassonne: Expansion 6 – Count, King & Robber The river tiles are placed first, after that the game continues as normal. Part of the Carcassonne series.

Traders & Builders expands on the popular Carcassonne base game, adding new features and opening even more ways to outwit your opponents. With the new builder follower, you can speed up construction by placing another tile immediately after you add a Land tile to a road or city that your builder occupies. Further, the pig followers and Goods tokens give you more ways to score points. The pig enhances the value of any farmers you have in the same field, while completing cities with Goods icons on them awards Goods tokens; the player with the most gains bonus points at the end of the game.