How to Play Carcassonne: Tiles, Meeples, and Scoring
Carcassonne, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, is a tile-laying game where the map is built one square at a time and nobody knows what it will look like until the last tile goes down. Z-Man Games publishes the English edition, and its rulebook is short on purpose: the authors say that after reading it "you will be able to explain the rules to your fellow players and immediately start playing."
Here is that core game with the scoring worked out, taken from the official rulebook and its supplemental sheet, which also covers the River and the Abbot mini-expansions.
1. What is in the box and what to leave out
The rulebook counts 84 land tiles, 12 of which show a river. For a first game, it recommends returning the river tiles and the 5 abbots to the box. You also leave fields and farmers out at first; the rulebook suggests adding them after 2 or 3 games.
There are 40 meeple, 8 in each of 5 colors. Each player takes 7 of their color as a personal supply and puts the 8th on the "0" space of the scoreboard to track points.
2. Setup
- Put the start tile (the one with a dark back) in the middle of the table.
- Shuffle the remaining tiles facedown into several stacks everyone can reach.
- Place the scoreboard nearby.
The youngest player goes first, and play continues clockwise.
3. A turn has three steps, always in this order
1. Place a land tile. Draw exactly one tile and place it face up next to a tile already on the table, so that roads continue roads, cities continue cities, and fields continue fields. In the rare case your tile fits nowhere, return it to the box and draw another.
2. Place a meeple (optional). You may put one meeple from your supply on the tile you just placed, on one of its features: a road (as a traveler), a city segment (as a knight), or a monastery (as a monk). You can only do this if no other meeple is already anywhere on that connected feature.
3. Score points. Score every feature that your tile just completed. Any player with a meeple on that feature might score, not only you. After scoring, the meeple on that feature go back to their owners' supplies.
4. How completed features score
| Feature | When it is complete | Points during the game |
|---|---|---|
| Road | Both ends are closed (a village, city, monastery, or a loop) | 1 per tile |
| City | Fully walled with no gaps inside | 2 per tile, plus 2 per coat of arms |
| Monastery | Surrounded by 8 tiles | 9 (8 neighbors plus itself) |
Worked examples from the rulebook's own illustrations:
- A finished road that spans 3 tiles scores 3 points.
- A finished city of 3 tiles with 1 coat of arms scores 3 times 2 plus 2, which is 8 points.
- A monastery with all 8 neighbors placed scores 9 points.
5. Sharing and stealing features
You cannot place a meeple on a feature that already has one. But two separate roads or city pieces, each with its own meeple, can later be joined by a tile. When that combined feature is completed:
- The player with the most meeple on it scores all the points.
- If players tie for the most, each tied player scores the full points.
This is the main way to muscle into someone else's big city: start your own piece nearby and connect it later with more meeple than they have.
6. How the game ends
The game ends when the last land tile has been placed. Then comes final scoring for everything still on the board. Completed features were already scored, so only incomplete ones remain:
| Incomplete feature | Final scoring |
|---|---|
| Road | 1 per tile, same as during the game |
| City | 1 per tile and 1 per coat of arms, half the usual rate |
| Monastery | 1 for itself plus 1 per surrounding tile |
| Field (only if playing with farmers) | 3 per completed city touching the field |
The rulebook's examples: an unfinished city with 5 tiles and 3 coats of arms scores 8 points; an unfinished monastery with 3 neighbors scores 4. The highest total wins, and ties produce multiple winners.
7. Adding farmers after a few games
The supplemental sheet explains fields. Farmers are placed lying down on a field, as a reminder that fields only score at the very end. Roads, cities, and the river split fields into separate areas. During final scoring, each field earns 3 points for every completed city it touches, and the usual majority rule decides who collects.
The sheet's example: a field touching 3 completed cities is worth 9 points, and if two players tie with one farmer each, both score 9. Because farmers never return during the game, placing one locks that meeple away until the end, which is the real cost.
8. Common mistakes
- Placing a meeple on an older tile. Meeple can only go on the tile you placed this turn.
- Forgetting to return meeple. Every scored meeple goes back to its owner, which is what keeps your supply alive.
- Scoring only the active player. A tile can complete someone else's feature, and they score it.
- Counting coats of arms at full value at the end. Incomplete cities score half rate.
9. Key takeaways
- Each turn is place a tile, optionally place one meeple on that tile, then score anything completed.
- Completed roads score 1 per tile, cities 2 per tile and coat of arms, and monasteries 9.
- The player with the most meeple on a completed feature scores it, and ties share the full points.
- At game end, incomplete roads and monasteries score normally, while incomplete cities score at half rate.
- Leave the river, abbots, and farmers out of a first game, then add farmers, which score 3 per completed city they touch.