Carcassonne Strategy Guide

A simple but comprehensive guide to beating your friends at Carcassonne.

The Basics

Cities

Closed: 2 points/tile

Opened: 1 point/tile

Build small cities (2-4 tiles only)

Other players will try to merge into large cities

You might not be able to complete (close) large cities

See point 1 - don't build large cities

Roads

Closed: 1 point/tile

Opened: 1 point/tile

Use roads to block enemy cities

Build short roads so other players don't merge into them

Build max 1 road at a time

Use road tiles to merge fields

Monasteries

Put monasteries near many tiles

Put them near WIP features, so you benefit from their completion

Monastery with 1 road can be used to join fields separated by a road

Fields

Start thinking about the fields around the mid-game

Big fields can almost always be merged into

Because of point above, you might want to have 2 farmers on a big field

Strategies (Intermediate)

Merging (Joining)

When someone builds a larger city, try to merge with it. This lets you share points (or even steal them).

Merge your smaller cities (single-tile) into their larger ones

Connect roads to share or steal points

Blocking Enemy Features

If you can't score points, mess up their plans. Put tiles that make it impossible for them to finish their cities or roads. This traps their followers and stops them from scoring.

Block city openings with grass or road tiles

Place roads to prevent city completion

Trap their followers to reduce their options

Trapping

One step after blocking is trapping - making it impossible for them to finish their feature.

In base game deck, there are no tiles that would fit (road on the opposite side of a castle)

Trapping a follower (or other figures) early in a game can be very bad

Follower trapped when no fitting tile exists in base deck

Sabotaging

Use a 3-edge or 4-edge city tiles to sabotage an opponent's city, so it has more open edges.

City with more open edges is harder to complete (close) and it's easier for enemies to merge into it

Especially effective in late-game, so enemies can't close their city

Tiles for sabotaging:

Follower Management

Followers are limited, you only get 7 of them. Use them wisely.

Don't have more than 3 WIP cities

Don't have more than 1 WIP road

Be conservative with them when you don't have many left

At the end, place remaining followers anywhere for points (eg. near a city for 3 points)

*WIP = Work in Progress

Running out of followers in the middle of the game usually means you lose.

Advanced Gameplay

Tile Counting

Carcassonne base game has 72 tiles. Some tiles are rare, some are more common. Knowing tile distribution and tiles left in the deck helps you win.

If you know certain tiles are gone, you can safely give up on things that can't be finished. You can also block things that are impossible to complete.

Carcassonne tile distribution chart showing the count of each tile type in the base game

Playing With Different Numbers of People

Two Players

It's just you vs them. Every point you stop them from getting is same as getting a point yourself.

Three or More Players

Sometimes it's good to work together, especially if it's a player who's not winning. But be careful not to help them too much!

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