How to play Carcassonne

Rotate the city cap, connect it to the starting city, then place a knight to score 4.

Place the tile, optionally deploy a meeple, then score connected features.

Close an occupied city: no extra knight may be deployed. Confirm to score 4 and return the original knight.

Place the tile, optionally deploy a meeple, then score connected features.

Rotate the road-ending monastery to close the road, then confirm for 2.

Place the tile, optionally deploy a meeple, then score connected features.

Fill the last surrounding space to score 9 and return the monk.

Place the tile, optionally deploy a meeple, then score connected features.

Complete the city with the final tile; the farmer scores 3 for this distinct completed city.

Place the tile, optionally deploy a meeple, then score connected features.

Merge three cities; no new meeple may enter the occupied city. Confirm for 8 each.

Tied majorities each receive the full value, without splitting it; all knights return.

Red already has two knights in one city. Join blue’s city and resolve 10 versus 0; all knights return.

Count meeples in the merged city: red 2 versus blue 1 scores 10 to red and 0 to blue, but blue also recovers its knight. Red’s two knights came from an earlier legal merge of separate cities, not direct deployment into an occupied city.

Complete a three-tile city with one coat of arms to score 8.

A complete city scores 2 per tile and 2 per coat of arms: 3×2+2=8.

Place the final tile and score unfinished city, road and monastery: 3+1+4=8.

Unfinished city tiles and coats of arms score 1 each; road tiles score 1; a monastery scores itself plus existing neighbors.

Place the last tile: repeated contact with one city counts once; unfinished cities do not count.

This field touches two distinct completed cities more than once, but scores only 2×3=6.

With 0 in supply, complete your city: skip deployment first, then score 4 and recover 1 meeple.

Deployment precedes scoring and return: you cannot deploy a meeple that returns later this turn.

Rotate the starting-pattern tile into the gap, matching both city and road. Try 180° to see why it is rejected.

Every touching edge must match; matching just one neighbor is insufficient.

Public fixed sequence: place the monastery; the four-sided city has no legal position, so remove it and draw a city cap.

Check all positions and all rotations; a tile that fits may not be discarded voluntarily.

After all land tiles are used and the last turn is completed, carry out final scoring. The highest total wins; tied leaders share victory.

Conditions: Include completed features during play, plus unfinished features and fields at the end.

Example: If the last tile completes a city, score that city before unfinished features and fields.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.6

Take 8 meeples in one color: put 1 on score-track space 0 and keep 7 in your supply.

Conditions: Base game: 2–5 players. Place the starting tile face up; shuffle the other 71 face down and the youngest player starts.

Example: The scoring meeple is not an eighth deployable meeple.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.2

Draw and place 1 land tile; optionally deploy at most 1 meeple from your supply on that tile; then score completed features and return their meeples.

Conditions: Deployment precedes scoring. A meeple returned later this turn cannot be deployed earlier in the same turn.

Example: With no meeples in supply, skip deployment even if scoring will return one this turn.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.3

A new tile must share an edge with an existing tile, and every touching edge must match.

Conditions: Road meets road, city meets city, field meets field. Corner contact alone is insufficient. Rotate freely; if no position or rotation fits anywhere, remove the tile and draw another.

Example: A gap touching two neighbors must match both edges.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.5

You cannot deploy directly into a connected feature that already contains any meeple, including your own.

Conditions: Check the entire connected feature, not only the new tile. Deploy only on the new tile; deployment is optional.

Example: If an opponent occupies the far end of a road, extending it does not let you deploy onto that road.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.5

A road is complete when its ends reach cities, monasteries or junctions, or form a loop. Score 1 per tile and return its meeples.

Conditions: Count each tile once in that road. A junction separates roads.

Example: Two road-ending monastery tiles facing one another form a completed two-tile road worth 2 points.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.3

A city is complete when fully enclosed without gaps. Score 2 per tile plus 2 per coat of arms.

Conditions: Count a tile only once in the same city. Return all meeples after scoring, including a player who lost the majority.

Example: A complete city across 3 tiles with 1 coat of arms scores 3×2+2=8.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.4

A monastery is complete when all 8 surrounding spaces contain tiles. Score 9 and return the monk.

Conditions: Include diagonal spaces. Surrounding tiles need not share a feature or be placed by the monk’s owner.

Example: With 7 surrounding tiles, filling the last space completes it for 9.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.4

Existing meeples may remain when separate features merge. The player with the most meeples scores the full value; every tied majority scores the full value.

Conditions: Do not divide the points. Minority players score 0. Return all meeples after a completed road, city or monastery scores.

Example: An 8-point city with red 1, blue 1 scores 8 each; red 2, blue 1 scores red 8, blue 0.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.5

Lay a farmer down in an unoccupied connected field on the new tile. It stays until final scoring.

Conditions: Roads, cities and map edges divide fields; follow printed connectivity. Farmers are the advanced base-game rule and may be omitted in an introductory game.

Example: Committing the last available meeple as a farmer leaves no supply until another feature returns a meeple.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.1

At the end, each field scores 3 per distinct adjacent completed city.

Conditions: Ignore unfinished cities and repeated contact with the same city. Use farmer majorities and full points for tied majorities.

Example: A field touching one complete city twice and one incomplete city still scores 3.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.1

At the end, an unfinished road scores 1 per tile; city 1 per tile plus 1 per coat of arms; monastery 1 plus the number of surrounding tiles.

Conditions: Completed cities score 2 per tile and coat of arms instead. Roads use 1 per tile whether finished or unfinished.

Example: An unfinished 3-tile city with 1 coat of arms scores 4; a monastery with 5 neighbors scores 6.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.6

These lessons use the 72 base land tiles, without The River or The Abbot.

Conditions: Some newer boxes include 12 River tiles and 5 abbots; these do not change the base counts of 72 land tiles and 40 regular meeples. Check the full demo’s settings for its River option.

Example: A garden is not a monastery for a regular monk; The Abbot has separate rules.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.2

Check every location and rotation. If none is legal, remove that tile and draw another.

Conditions: Disliking a tile, a poor score, or a wrong current rotation is not a reason to redraw.

Example: In the public teaching sequence, two monasteries expose only field edges, so the four-sided city cannot fit; remove it and draw a city cap.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.5

A closed road loop is complete. A junction separates the roads meeting it; they do not automatically connect.

Conditions: Cities and monasteries can also end a road. Count each tile only once in the same road.

Example: The three arms of a junction are three separate roads; a meeple on one arm does not occupy the other two.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.3

Keep accumulating the total after a lap; completing the score track does not end the game. Players tied for the highest final total share victory.

Conditions: The game ends when tiles run out and final scoring is complete, not at a track position.

Example: A player with 58 is 10 ahead of a player with 48; do not compare only their marker positions.

Source: Modern base rules, rulebook p.6