Carcassonne
Board Games · 9 specs
Direct Answer
Carcassonne is a tile-placement modern board game designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede. Players draw and place 72 square land tiles depicting roads, cities, monasteries, and fields, deploying 'Meeples' as highwaymen, knights, monks, or farmers to score points as features are completed, concluding with end-game field agricultural scoring (3 points per completed city).
Source: Hans im Glück / Z-Man Games Official Carcassonne Rules · Last reviewed Aug 28, 2026
Specs
| Governing Publisher | Hans im Glück / Z-Man Games |
| Total Tiles in Base Game | 72 tiles (including 1 starter tile with dark back) |
| Meeples Per Player | 8 wooden meeples (7 active + 1 score tracker) |
| Tile Dimensions | 45 × 45 mm (1.77 × 1.77 inches) |
| Completed Road Score | 1 point per tile scored during game |
| Completed City Score | 2 points per tile + 2 per coat of arms scored during game |
| Completed Monastery Score | 9 points monastery tile + 8 surrounding tiles |
| End-Game Farmer Score | 3 points per completed city touching the continuous farm field |
| Incomplete City Score | 1 point per tile + 1 per pennant end-game scoring |
Turn Procedure: Tile Placement & Meeple Deployment
On each turn, a player draws 1 face-down land tile:
- Place Tile: Must connect edge-to-edge with existing tiles such that all touching borders match perfectly (roads connect to roads, cities to cities, fields to fields).
- Deploy Meeple (Optional): The player may place 1 Meeple from their supply onto a feature of the JUST-PLACED tile (as a Highwayman on a road, Knight in a city, Monk in a monastery, or Farmer laying down in a field). - Strict Placement Limit: You CANNOT place a Meeple on a feature if that feature is already connected to another player's (or your own) Meeple.
Feature Scoring During the Game
- Road: Closed at both ends (by villages, crossroads, or city walls) -> Scores 1 point per tile.
- City: Completely surrounded by continuous outer walls with no open gaps -> Scores 2 points per tile plus 2 extra points for each shield/coat-of-arms.
- Monastery: Completely surrounded by 8 adjacent tiles (3×3 grid of 9 tiles total) -> Scores 9 points. (When a feature completes, the Meeple is returned to the player's supply).
End-Game Farmer Scoring (Fields)
Farmers remain on the board laying down for the entire game and are only scored after the last tile is placed:
- Farm boundaries are defined by roads and city walls.
- Each completed city supplied by a continuous green field awards 3 points to the player holding the majority of farmers in that field.
- Multiple farmers in the same field share points on ties.