It is named after the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France, famed for its city walls. The game has spawned many expansions and spin-offs , and several PC, console, and mobile versions. A new edition, with updated artwork on the tiles and the box, was released in The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses.
The game starts with a single specific terrain tile face up and 71 others shuffled face down for the players to draw from. Each player's turn consists of three distinct phases:. To start each turn, a player draws a new terrain tile and places it adjacent to tiles that are already face up. A cloister tile may be placed adjacent to another cloister tile, as there are no connecting features. If the newly drawn tile cannot be placed anywhere legally, the players may choose to remove the tile from the game, or return it to the draw pile.
After placing each newly drawn tile, the placing player may opt to station a marker called a "follower" or " meeple " on a terrain feature i. However, if the feature is connected to a feature already claimed by another player, the follower cannot be stationed on that feature. It is possible for terrain features to become "shared" by opposing players when tile s are placed in subsequent turns that connect previously unconnected features.
If any feature except a field is completed during a player's turn, the score for the completed feature is counted for the player that controls that feature; after scoring, the controlling "meeple" is removed from the board and returned to the player's stock.
Each player has eight followers; since one is used to keep track of the player's score, only seven can be in play at any moment. The game ends when the last tile has been placed. At that time, all incomplete features including fields score points for the players with the most followers on them. The player with the most points wins the game. During each player's turn, completed cities, cloisters, and roads but not fields are scored before that player's turn ends.
