o.m.*

the really interesting thing about trying to do something like 30 games in 30 days is the amount of excitement it's generated among my friends who i had no idea liked board games. so for everyone that's helped out this month:  thank you from the depths of my geek-driven heart!

now onto the next game!

this one is a classic from way back in 2000! carcassonne!

playing this one with me are jacob and addam!

for those who are unfamiliar with carcassonne, it is a tile-laying and area control game inspired by the roman and medieval influenced city/fortresses of carcassonne in the french region of languedoc-roussillon. each player takes a turn selecting a random face down tile and putting it into play. the only limitations are that it must be placed so that features remain contiguous (i.e. a road can't just run into a wall, field or city section, nor can an internal city section be played next to a field). my copy of carcassonne has "the river" expansion which is used to begin the game.

above you can see the first tile played off the river is a road tile that matches up with the bridge crossing the river. as the game progresses, the cities and fields begin to take shape, and players vie for points by placing their meeples.

here i've claimed 2 road sections and a monastery (i'm playing yellow). jacob (green) has a farmer in a field and a knight in a city, and addam (black) has a robber claiming a road and a farmer as well.

each player scores points during the game for completing a city, a road section on which they have a robber, or place 8 legal tiles around a monastery. here is the scoring track about mid-game:

addam is in the lead, with jacob and i hot on his heels!

eventually, we completed the game and here's what the end board looked like:

thanks to several farmers and completing a monastery, I was able to leapfrong past jacob and addam (who were tied for second place) and claim victory.

with its simple tile laying mechanic and scoring, carcassonne is another great eurogame that can be used to introduce folks to truly intelligent and skill based boardgames. thanks to jacob and addam for playing!

*original meeple

box photo property of rio grande games.  all other photos property of little mens!