Carcassonne is a strategy board game. Step by step, players build their map of the medieval kingdom with castles, fields, monasteries and roads. During the game, each player needs to occupy the constructed objects with his chips and count points for each occupied object. The winner is the one with more points in the final count.
We count correctly
Until the player understands the intricacies of scoring, he cannot determine the winning tactics for himself in this board game.
A move has three stages. The player places a new square on the field. Places his chip on a new or previously laid out square. If the new square has completed the construction of the object, the player counts his points and takes his tokens to the supply.
The squares that make up the Carcassonne map are called tiles, and the player tokens are meeples.
A road is considered complete when both ends hit something. The player whose meeple is on the road gets 1 point for each square of the road. Therefore, it is profitable to either occupy long roads or build many short ones without putting a lot of chips on them.
A city is complete if it is surrounded by walls. The player who occupies the city receives 2 points from each square and an additional two points for each shield drawn on the tile. Obviously, cities are worth a lot of points, so you should always have a free token to place in a new city.
The monastery is worth 9 points when it is surrounded by other squares on all sides. This means that you need to place eight tiles around the monastery, otherwise it will be impossible to get points and take the token from the monastery. So the square of the monastery must be placed so that it was initially surrounded as much as possible. A good solution would be to place monasteries next to each other.
Field points are counted at the very end. Therefore, players are in no hurry to place meeples on the fields in order to save them for other objects. And in vain - the fields bring a lot of points with a successful placement of chips, three points from each completed city. Moreover, the same city will give three points on each field with which it comes into contact. Obviously, the player who starts to occupy the fields first will hit the biggest jackpot here. You can first take the field, and then finish building the city. In this case, it is worth completing the cities of rivals.
Thinking over strategy and tactics
You cannot place meeples on objects occupied by another player. However, often two different cities with different chips can merge into one. In this case, the points will be won by the one who bet more chips.
This situation is fraught with competition. Players place chip after chip, and the city grows and grows, taking on bizarre shapes. It is better not to engage in such a battle, there is a risk of getting stuck until the end of the game. But if other players are struggling, it is worth helping them get bogged down even deeper by substituting squares to the city that make it difficult to complete construction.
If the new square does not fit perfectly into the player's plans, it is useful to spend it to interfere with the plans of others. Another tactic will be mutual aid and unification against the player who has taken the lead.
Interaction with other players makes this game very interesting and emotional.
By the end of the game, you should put all your meeples on the map, remembering that even unfinished objects bring points: it is quite possible that this advantage will bring the coveted victory.
