Carcassonne – Board game

We play a lot of card and board games here in the L&A HQ and one of our all-time favourites is a cute, little game called Carcassonne.

The game is super simple to play. On your turn, you simply draw a random square tile and place it on the table to form an ever-growing map of the landscape surrounding Carcassonne (which is actually a real place in Southern France and on the must-visit list).
Each tile will feature part of the landscape – a city, a road, a church or farmland and must be placed next to existing tiles which continue the same pattern. For example, a road next to a road or a city next to a city. When you place the tile, you have the opportunity to place an adorable little wooden person on the tile which will help you score points when the feature is completed. These little people spawned the famous boardgaming term — Meeple — short for My People.

You only have a limited number of Meeple to place on the board and they will only return to you when the feature is completed so its always a hard decision about when to send them off to earn you some tasty points.
Carcassonne has proven to be extremely popular and is without a doubt one of the most popular modern board games. It won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) Award in 2001 in Germany which helped rocket the game into its current popularity. Carcassonne has spawned almost countless expansions and spin-offs which add all-new elements to the game. Now you can find anything from dragons to catapults to expand the game.
I’m very happy to tell you that the copy of Carcassonne that we have here is now completely and utterly unique to us. Vanessa woke up yesterday morning feeling inspired and crafty and got straight to work on making THIS.

It’s a homemade pull-string bag to store and draw random tiles from! Not only that, it features a giant meeple on the front! It makes the game SUPER easy to play now with any number of expansions. Simply toss the tiles in the bag, give it a shake and off you go! The bag has been featured on Reddit and Leather and Abel. It’s getting FAMOUS! =)
Anyway, whether you’re a new or veteran board gamer, I can only give Carcassone my most heartfelt recommendation. It’s a simple game to learn and play but can be approached with both casual or competitive play styles!
If you’re interested, check out this episode of the fantastic boardgaming YouTube series, Tabletop, where you can see the game in action. If you’re STILL interested after that, stop delaying and get yourself a copy!