This great game sees up to 5 players via for supremacy as they attempt to re-create the Southern French city of Carcassonne and its surrounding farmland. The game is made up of tiles and each tile can contain any combination of the following features: city sections, roads, farmland and cloisters (medieval French churches). Play revolves clockwise and each turn a player must select a tile and place it onto the playing surface adjacent to at least one other tile and the join must be logical. Once a player has selected and placed their tile they can choose to assign one of their followers (each player only has 7) to one of the regions on the tile. As a single tile may contain sections of city, road and farmland, players are faced with numerous choices. The game revolves around a series of point scoring situations for completing cities, roads, cloisters and farms. In all scoring situations, it is the controlling player of the region being scored that earns the points. This sounds simple enough and it is, but it is the term 'controlling player' that opens up the strategic options. A follower can only be placed if the region the player wants to control does not already have another follower present. For example, if a player links one piece of city to another and the existing city already had a follower present, then a new follower cannot be placed. This rule also stands for roads, farms and cloisters. Therefore players are required to place tiles and followers legally and then they need to find a way to connect their controlled regions to other controlled regions that would allow both players to share a region. Once a region is completed, it is the player with the most followers present that is declared the 'controlling player' and scores the points. Of course players will attempt to find ways to out manoeuvre their competitors but this comes at a price. Once followers are placed on tiles, they cannot be removed until the region they are in is completed. If players get too greedy and attempt to build a huge city they may find it difficult to complete and in doing so find themselves short of followers which could have been used to score points elsewhere. If a player has no followers left on their turn they must still place a tile and their opponent's can benefit from this placement. Play continues until the last tile is placed and the game ends. At games end there is a series of final scoring scenarios and this is where farms are scored. Farms score more points than any other region but once a follower is placed on a farm it cannot be removed until the end of the game. Hence players are likely to place followers on farms as late into the game as possible or risk being left without followers. But waiting to long may see opponent's snare that prime land first!

This is a great game that plays as well with 2 players as it does with 5. Being able to finish a game in under an hour is a major plus and every turn forces a player to evaluate and select one choice from the many available. It can be learned by almost anyone in under 15 minutes! It also has a number of expansions that are well priced and add value. A multi-award winner to boot - Carcassonne is a game for the whole family.