#All Carcassonne Expansions, ranked – Destructoid

There are ten Carcassonne expansions that throw in new tiles, meeples, and guidelines to earn factors in numerous methods. As there’s a lot alternative, you’ll wish to know which of them are the perfect to get first. Let’s rank all of the Carcassonne expansions.

Within the a few years of Carcassonne’s reign, there have been many expansions and mini-expansions. Nevertheless, I’ll solely be rating the expansions at the moment commercially out there from their writer, Z-Man Video games. Chances are you’ll discover loads of different mini-expansions being offered second-hand, however I’ll be ignoring the discontinued additions.

The Rely, King, and Robber Carcassonne enlargement is a bloated field full of recent nice options. I imagine that that is an integral enlargement that’ll make its manner into each future recreation, making this much less of an enlargement however a cornerstone.

You might be given two methods to begin a recreation of Carcassonne: beginning with a winding river that establishes a divide and alternative within the land to construct from or an enormous 3×4 beginning metropolis. In case your meeples are a part of a completed characteristic the place you didn’t rating, they’ll get despatched to a district of town for use in a artful scoring system. Nevertheless, the patrolling Rely will make transferring out and in of town tough.

Such basic options are why the Rely, King, and Robber is so extremely rated, however that’s not all. You’ll achieve factors from the King and Robber must you full the most important metropolis or highway, and the presence of Cultists permits gamers to finish shrines for factors and level denial competitively. It’s a big enlargement that’s vital.

The Abbey and Mayor enlargement for Carcassonne is one which advantages each recreation I play of it due to the incredible tiles and new meeples that may be positioned.

The titular abbeys are unusual tiles that may be positioned adjoining to something, which is ideal for plugging gaps and shutting off options. Mayors are quite massive meeples that take their power from the precious coats-of-arms on sure cities, which means they will brute-force their manner into dominating a metropolis fully on their very own.

Abbey and Mayor additionally comes with wagons that may scoot off to a different unfinished characteristic after you rating for it and barns that enhance the scoring of fields. With extra versatility and a technique to make scoring for cities and fields simpler, this Carcassonne enlargement might accompany each future recreation you play.

Inns and Cathedrals is the primary enlargement for Carcassonne, and it provides a few inclusions that make it really feel proper at residence. Respectively, the brand new Inns and Cathedrals are present in cities and roads and supply you double the factors for these buildings must you full them. Nevertheless, they make the characteristic nugatory ought to it not be accomplished by the top of the sport.

This results in attention-grabbing dynamics the place it may be priceless to construct onto an opponent’s unfinished construction to forestall them from scoring massive. Additionally, the brand new large meeples are price two meeples, permitting you to dominate options. The Abbot meeple additionally will be pulled again early on Monastery tiles to attain early, which means your common meeples received’t get caught up.

Alongside the brand new tiles and meeples, the Inns and Cathedrals enlargement provides compatibility for a sixth participant and level tokens to maintain observe of scores higher. Most Carcassonne gamers can have this enlargement due to the easy and easy-to-implement additions.

The Tower Carcassonne enlargement provides some wonderful battle and participant interplay with an insidious tower that grows bigger and extra highly effective as gamers construct upon it.

As gamers develop and management the towers on their turns, they’ll get to seize one other participant’s meeple in a spread proportional to the dimensions of the tower. To free an imprisoned meeple, a participant should both spend three victory factors or carry out a prisoner alternate.

This enlargement provides actually a brand new dimension to Carcassonne, as gamers will cut price with one another and have interaction within the gambit of increasing or claiming a tower. The Tower additionally comes with an adjunct that makes it simpler to retailer land tiles, simply to sweeten the deal.

The Princess and the Dragon enlargement for Carcassonne turns the sport right into a fantastical story that basically modifications how gamers strategy the sport. Though it provides loads of new mechanics and taste, it’s a kind of expansions that appears quite faraway from the others, and a few might not benefit from the route it takes the sport in. Nevertheless, it’s extremely enjoyable, ought to or not it’s for you.

Many new tiles get thrown into the combo alongside the Dragon, Princess, and Fairy. If the Dragon ought to get summoned by way of a volcano tile, then it’ll start a rampage because it consumes any followers in its path. Nevertheless, gamers can summon Fairies to guard their followers from its wrath. The Princess can be utilized to take away any meeple from a characteristic she’s part of.

All of those options mixed, together with the opposite smaller guidelines, in the end let you disrupt your opponents in new and thrilling methods. Nevertheless, different gamers might be utilizing the identical Dragon to try to eat up your individual meeples, so watch out!

Underneath the Large High provides the circus to Carcassonne, which in flip provides one other manner of incomes an enormous quantity of factors. Including the Ringmaster, animal tokens, and ringmaster meeples, you’ll discover thrilling and attention-grabbing methods to attain factors.

Ought to a circus tile be performed, the massive prime is positioned on it and each participant will need an excuse to put a meeple on an adjoining tile. If one other circus tile is performed, the massive prime will transfer, and gamers with adjoining meeples will rating factors based mostly on the randomly chosen worth of the circus. Acrobat tiles enable gamers to repurpose their meeples and kind literal pyramids for bonus factors round a circus.

Lastly, the ringmaster meeples in Underneath the Large High rating gamers’ bonus factors ought to they be related to any circus-related tiles however are in any other case regular staff. The touring side of the massive prime creates a enjoyable and dynamic characteristic that gamers will maintain making an attempt to flock to to allow them to win massive. The push and pleasure of this Carcassonne enlargement make it a reasonably viable contender on this record.

Merchants and Builders is a lighter but simply basic enlargement that provides builders, pigs, and items (in addition to a beautiful linen bag) due to it being so easy. Any recreation will be complemented by Merchants and Builders with solely a pair sentences of rationalization.

The chef-shaped builders are common meeples; nonetheless, if you happen to broaden a characteristic they’re occupying, then you definitely get to go once more. Moreover, the pigs will enhance the rating of a farm they’re current in. They’re easy additions that add some taste to Carcassonne.

Additionally, cities can have items {that a} participant will scoop up ought to they full the characteristic, and a participant who owns probably the most of a specific good will rating further factors, which means it might be worthwhile to finish one other participant’s characteristic to disclaim them items and web extra factors within the end-game.

Hills and Sheep is a smaller enlargement however enhances the bottom recreation and provides new mechanics. With the shepherds and sheep including a luck-based level system and hills and vineyards enhancing your odds of scoring increased for base-game methods, Hill and Sheep is a light-weight but enjoyable addition.

The hills are basically over-glorified tie-breakers with a view, and the vineyards present bonus factors for monasteries if you happen to full one. These two additions are minor and fewer impactful however nonetheless add selection.

The true pleasure comes with the sheep system. Upon inserting a discipline, you may place a shepherd and draw a sheep tile from the bag at random. On future turns, you may pull from the bag to develop your flock earlier than bringing them into the secure for factors. Nevertheless, if you happen to draw a wolf token, your flock will scatter, losing your efforts.

Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars provides quite distinctive additions to Carcassonne, however they do fall a little bit flat in comparison with different expansions. They’re both straightforward to counter or just aren’t too attention-grabbing in observe, though they do add a little bit wrinkle if you happen to’re after one thing new.

Bridges are massive wood tokens that may be performed to attach roads to make them extra priceless. It’s simply that they’re quite obtrusive and remedy a specific drawback that, more often than not, isn’t actually an issue. The castles will be inbuilt cities to attain extra factors and let you get further factors from the subsequent adjoining characteristic to be accomplished. Nevertheless, savvy gamers can thwart your bonus by finishing minuscule options, making the fort extra of an inconvenience to all.

The Bazaars are attention-grabbing, as they open up auctions the place gamers can spend victory factors for tiles to meticulously plan their options. That is attention-grabbing and perhaps even thrilling in idea, however it hasn’t gelled properly with each playgroup. Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars might fail to supply explosive new Carcassonne content material, however it’s a largely innocent enlargement nonetheless.

The Competition is a mini-expansion for Carcassonne that was made to have fun its tenth anniversary and provides a handful of recent pageant tiles with a brand new image.

These tiles aren’t something too attention-grabbing; nonetheless, if you happen to place one, you’ve got the choice of both inserting a meeple usually or withdrawing one other meeple from one other tile. This uncommon flexibility is merely a cherry on prime of an everyday recreation, therefore why it’s ranked so low.

There have been different mini-expansions out there prior to now, however solely The Competition is commercially out there for the latest Carcassonne version.

Now that you understand of all these unbelievable Carcassonne expansions, you may enhance your medieval panorama with dozens of recent tiles, meeples, and guidelines.