Last month we reviewed the game that reinvented the strategy game industry.

This month we look at Carcassonne, the highest selling game of all time, in the strategy genre at least.

Carcassonne is a tile-laying game and each tile may contain one or more of the following features: city, road, farmland or cloister. At each turn, one player draws a tile and adds it to the playing surface (it must build off at least one other existing tile). The newly placed tile must connect logically to all adjacent tiles and the player can then end their turn by placing one of their followers on to any of the tile's features. By placing a follower, a player can claim control over a city, road, farm or cloister.

The aim is then very simple. A player can score points by placing tiles that complete a city, road or cloister that they control. As soon as they complete one of these features they score the relevant points and their follower is returned to their supply.

Of course the game is not as simple as all that. Other players may try to sneak one of their followers into your cities or road networks in order to share in the points. The trick is they cannot simply add a follower to a feature you already control.

Instead they must cleverly place a tile so that it does not yet connect to your hard work and place a follower.

If they can then draw another tile to connect the two seperate features, they will become one.

The game is then open for round after round of sneak and counter sneak tactics. If one player can place enough followers to outnumber their opponents followers, they will earn the points alone.

The final twist to Carcassonne is the farmland I mentioned earlier. Any follower placed on the grassy regions are never returned (buyer beware) but at the end of the game a player will earn a whopping four points for evry completed city that is connected to their farms.

I couldn't recommend another game more highly for Christmas.