Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Carcassonne 2.0

1714Carcassonne 2.0
By Z-Man Games

About the game

The classic award-winning game is back with a whole new look!

In Carcassonne, players build the area surrounding this impressive city, one tile at a time. They then place a follower on fields, cities, roads or monasteries in order to score as many points as possible. These followers will become knights, monks, farmers and thieves, depending on where they are placed. No matter their function, the player who will most cleverly use their followers will win the game.

Entirely redesigned and modernized, this edition includes two expansions:   The River and the Abbot.

My Thoughts

We never played Carcassonne though I have heard great things about this game.  So I was delighted to receive the newest edition of an already popular game.  This game will allow 2 to 5 players to play for approximately 35 minutes.  What I find interesting about this game and that it is set during the Medieval Times which an era of time that we have studied as part of our curriculum this year.  So having a game based on the Middle Ages is not only fun but educative for us.

The box contains two expansions – the river and the abbot.   In it, you will find 72 Land tiles, 12 River tiles, 1 scoreboard, 40 followers in 5 colors, 5 abbots in 5 colors, 1 rulebook, and 1 supplementary rule sheet.  I find the little wooden pieces adorable and sturdy.   The cardboard pieces are made of very strong cardboard and you can’t easily bend them.   The images on these cardboard pieces are very colorful and illustrate either a village, a monastery, a path or the river.  

1714_2581

The game seems easy to play.  You select a start tile and one after the other, players will place tiles one at a time.   As you advance in the game roads, cities, monasteries and fields are created and expanded.  You can place your meeples on the tiles which allow them to become highwaymen, knights, monks, and formers.   Doing so you score points during the game as well as at the end of the game.  There are various rules depending if you deal with a road, a city, or a monastery.   But essentially, you place a tile, then a meeple, then you count your points.   As mentioned, this specific edition of the game of Carcassonne contains two mini expansion – The River and The Abbot.   The River will embellish the landscape and can add variation when starting a game.    With The River, you will have to set the source and the lake on the table and slowly create the river.   But beware, the river cannot turn twice in the same direction because this would create a u-turn…   The Abbot will introduce gardens and abbots.      The goal of Carcassonne is to score the highest score to be proclaimed a winner.

My only disappointment with this pack is that the maximum of players is five.  With a family of six that is somewhat complicated.  But nevertheless I think I could get some fun time in our week-end with this game. Maybe there is a way of getting a few more meeples on ebay as well…   I suspect that I will get quickly hook on this game and that more expansions might find their way to our house as the years go on. 

Price is 34.99$ on the Z-Man Games

Carcassone 2.0 (New Edition) is available at your favourite game store.

I couldn’t find the edition I have received on amazon.ca or amazon.com.  Instead I have found a set that includes two more players, including the expansions The River, Inn & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, Hills & Sheep as well as the Wheel of Fortune.  

Disclaimer: Thanks to Z-Man Games for sending me the above mentioned products for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

1 comment: