Carcassonne: The City
Carcassonne: The City Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 70 walls
- 2 short walls (Use these next to the city gate when normal walls are too long.)
- 12 towers
- 1 city gate
- 32 followers in 4 colors
- 2 bags to hold the city tiles and the wooden pieces
- 1 scoring track
- 75 city tiles (later called tiles). They show different street segments, residential areas, markets, and buildings.
- 1 of 32 public buildings
- 1 of 7 historic buildings. All 7 historic buildings are named with a label: Petit Puits, Grand Puits, Tour Carrée, Bâtiment, Saint Sernin, Saint Nazaire, Chateau Comtal.
- Markets: grain market, fish market, livestock market
- Residential area (brown background)
- Some tiles show 3 residential areas, separated from each other by streets.
- Some tiles show 3 street segments, separated from each other by the crossing.
The Goal
The players work together to build the city of Carcassonne with residential areas, markets (fish, grain, and livestock), streets, and walls.
Through the clever placement of their followers, they score points during and at the end of the game.
Preparation
- Each player takes 8 followers in his color, places one on space 0 of the scoring track, and puts the rest as his supply on the table before him (his play area).
- The players divide the 12 towers equally among themselves.
- Shuffle the tiles face down and place them in 3 stacks: 1st stack with 30 cards, 2nd stack with 25 cards, and 3rd stack with 20 cards. Perhaps the fastest way to do this is to first create 3 equal stacks (with 25 tiles) and then move 5 tiles from the 3rd stack to the 1st stack. Place the 1st stack in easy reach of all players.
- Place the 2nd and 3rd stacks, the 70 walls, the 2 short walls, and the city gate aside for now. They will be used later in the game.
The Game Begins
The players choose a starting player, who begins by drawing the top-most tile from the 1st stack and placing it face up in the middle of the table. Then, he may place one of his followers on one of the features (street, market, or residential area) of the tile. The rules for placing followers are described later.
Playing the Game
The players take turns in clockwise order, following the starting player. A player, on his turn, takes the following actions in the order shown:
- the player must draw a new tile and add it to the city.
- the player may place a follower from his supply on the just added tile.
- if the just added tile completed a street or a market, the players must now score it.
Adding Tiles to the City
As his first action, the player must draw the top-most tile from the 1st stack and add it to the city as follows:
- The player must place the added tile with at least one side directly adjacent to one or more already placed tiles. A player may not place a tile so that the only other tile it touches is at a corner.
- The player must place added tiles such that streets are continued (when present). All other tile features may be placed next to each other without regard for matching the features.
Street segments must be continued.
A residential area may be placed next to a market.
This is not allowed as the added tile does not continue the street from the previous tile.
Placing Followers
After adding a tile, the player may place one of his followers as follows:
- He may only place 1 follower.
- He must take the follower placed from his supply.
- He may only place the follower on the tile he just added.
- He must carefully place the follower on one of the segments on the tile. Either as a citizen (on a street segment), a seller (on a market), or a steward (on a residential area).
Place citizens and sellers standing, but stewards lying down!
Placement Restrictions
If the added tile continues a street, market, or residential area from previous tiles with a follower, the player may not place a follower on that feature (even if the other follower is his own). It matters not how far away the other follower is as long as it is on a continuation of the feature. When a player adds a tile that completes a market or a street that has no previous follower, the player may not place a follower on that feature. The three examples below should help to make these rules clear.
Red may only place a steward. In the continued market there is already a blue seller.
Blue may place a follower as a seller or a citizen, but as a steward only on the small residential area, as he already has a steward on the larger residential area.
Blue may not place a follower on the empty market as he just completed it.
When a player has no more followers in his supply, he continues to play tiles (but no followers). This lack of followers is usually short-lived, as players get followers back when they score them.
If, through the placement of the tile, a street or a market was completed, the players now score the completed feature. Residential areas are not scored at this time.
Now the player's turn is over and the next player, in clockwise order, takes his turn.
Scoring Completed Streets and Markets
A Completed Street
A street is complete when the street segments on each end of the street terminate in a crossing, another feature, or, later in the game, against a wall. A street is also complete when it forms a closed loop. Between the end-points, a street can have any number of street segments, but the player's score is based on the number of tiles in the street.
For a completed street with 1-3 tiles, the player with the citizen on the street scores 1 point for each tile along the length of the street (number of tiles in the street, not number of segments!).
For a completed street with 4 or more tiles, the player with the citizen on the street scores double the points described above (number of tiles x 2).
Red scores 3 points (3 tiles).
Red scores 8 points (4 tiles).
Players immediately record their points by moving their followers on the scoring track a number of spaces forward equal to the amount scored. When a player's marker passes 0 (50 points), he should place it on its side to indicate he has scored 50+ points.
A Completed Market
A market is complete when it cannot be further continued (it is bordered on all sides) and has no empty spaces within it. A market can have any number of tiles.
For a completed market, the player with the seller on the market scores the following points: he multiplies the tiles in the market by the number of different kinds of markets (fish, grain, livestock) in the market. Only the first occurrence of a kind of market counts toward the score of the market. Multiple occurrences of the same kind of market add nothing to the score of the market.
Blue scores 9 points (3 different kinds x 3 tiles = 9 points).
Blue scores 8 points (2 different kinds x 4 tiles = 8 points).
What Happens When Several Followers Stand on a Completed Street or Market?
Through clever tile and follower placement, it is possible for a completed street or market to have several followers. This happens when separated features are connected. In this case, the player with the most followers on the feature scores all the points. When players tie with the most followers on a feature, each scores the full points. Players not tied for the most score nothing.
Red and blue both score the full points, in this case 18 points (3 kinds x 6 cards), as each ties with the most sellers (1) on the market.
The new tile connects two separate markets and completes the combined market. Only in this way can several followers be in a feature.
Returning Followers to Their Owners
After a street or a market is complete and scored – and only then – the follower (citizen or seller) on the scored feature is returned to its owner's supply. As the player has already passed the part of his turn for placing a follower, the player may first place a returned follower in any role that is allowed on his next turn.
The Residential Areas
Residential areas are scored at game end and not when they are completed. Thus, the followers placed on them must stay until the end of the game. Residential areas are bordered by streets, markets, and walls (this is important for the game end scoring of them).
All 3 stewards have their own residential area. The streets and markets separate them from each other.
After placing this tile, the 3 residential areas are connected. Note: the player who placed this tile may not place a follower on the residential area as there are already followers on the continued residential area.
Players earn points for their stewards only at game end. Stewards remain on the residential areas, once placed. They are not returned to their owners until game end! To reinforce this visually, players place them lying down instead of standing on the tiles!
With the 2nd Stack of Tiles, the Walls Enter the Game
After the player's turn when the last tile was drawn from the 1st stack, the player brings forth the 2nd stack, which players will now draw tiles from. The walls and towers now come into play as well. And, players may place followers on walls as guards.
Walls, Towers, and the City Gate
From now on, when a player places a tile that completes a street or market, causing the feature(s) to be scored, the game is interrupted after all scoring (more than one feature may be completed by a single tile placement) for wall building.
With the first scoring after players start drawing from the 2nd stack, the player who played the tile that caused the scoring takes the city gate. Each other player takes 1 wall. The player with the city gate places it next to the tile (in the city) of his choice. In clockwise order, the other players place their walls adjacent to the gate (or to other walls) to the right or left of the city gate. In this way, they build the city wall around the city. The wall acts as a barrier to future tile additions - tiles cannot be placed beyond the walls (or city gate).
With each further scoring, each player takes 1 wall. Beginning with the player who placed the tile causing the scoring, each adds their wall to the previously started city wall, placing his wall adjacent to a previous wall or the city gate.
Whenever a player adds a wall to the city wall, he may immediately place a follower from his supply on the wall he just placed as a guard.
Restriction: if there is already a guard on the wall directly opposite the wall he placed, he may not place a guard on the wall.
A player may place a guard on a just placed wall.
Blue may not place a guard as there is a red guard on the opposite wall.
Use short walls next to the city gate when normal walls do not fit and put a normal wall back into the box.
Blue may place a guard on the wall as there is an empty space in the city between the walls.
Guards are scored at the end of the game and remain on the walls, once placed, until then.
After all players have placed their walls, the player whose tile placement caused the scoring may place one of his towers at either end of the city wall. He then scores 1 point for each wall between the tower he just placed and the previous tower (or city gate) along the city wall.
Red places a tower and scores 4 points.
Building Walls May Cause Markets or Streets to Be Complete
When a wall causes a street or market to be complete, the completed street or market is immediately scored.
The wall completes the adjacent market. Red scores 4 points (2 kinds x 2 tiles) and returns the follower to his supply.
This wall completes the street. Red scores 1 point and takes back his follower.
Scoring caused by wall building does not create a new round of wall building.
After the player's turn when the last tile is drawn from the 2nd stack, the player brings forth the 3rd stack, which players will now draw tiles from. Play then continues as before with one small change: after each scoring, each player will build 2 walls. As before, the player, whose tile placement caused the scoring places the first wall with the others following in clockwise order twice around the table until all have placed 2 walls. Also as before, after a player places a wall he may immediately place one follower from his supply on the wall using the rules described above. After the walls are built, the player whose tile placement caused the scoring may place a tower as described above.
If there are not enough walls in the supply for all players to build 2 walls, each builds as many as he can starting with the player whose tile placement caused the scoring and continuing clockwise around the table up to twice until the walls are exhausted.
Game End
The game ends in on one of the following ways:
- either … the last wall piece is built
- or … the last tile is placed (complete any scoring caused by it and the following wall building)
- or … the two ends of the city wall are within 5 walls of each other.
The rest of the city is enclosed by walls.
After the last round of wall building, there are only spaces for 4 wall pieces. The game ends.
In every case, the city wall is completed, enclosing the city. If there are enough walls, simply place them around the last un-walled tiles. If there are not enough walls, just assume they are there and that they completely enclose the city. Streets and markets completed by the placement of these last walls are now scored. In the previous example, red scores 1 point for the thus completed street.
Now, remove all followers from incomplete streets and markets. For these, players will score no points. Incomplete streets and markets at game end are caused by empty tile spaces within the city.
Then the players perform the final scoring.
Final Scoring
In the final scoring, players score their stewards and guards.
The Stewards Score Points for Markets
Residential areas are scored whether complete or not. If only one player has a steward in a residential area, he is the owner of the residential area. If several players have stewards in a residential area, the player with the most stewards in the residential area is the owner. If players tie for most stewards in the residential area, those tied with most are the owners of the residential area. The owner(s) of a residential area score 2 points for each market that is adjacent to the residential area. It matters not whether the market is complete or not nor how large the market is.
Red scores 6 points (3 adjacent markets).
The Guards on the Walls Score Points
Each guard watches over the row (or column) of city tiles that lay before him.
For each public building on the tiles in the row (or column), the owner of the guard scores 2 points.
For each historic building on the tiles in the row (or column), the owner of the guard scores 3 points.
Red scores 9 points for 3 public and 1 historic building.
Red scores 5 points. Blue scores 4 points. Each scores points only on their side of the row - up to the empty space.
When the empty space is filled after the guards are placed, each scores 9 points.
The player with the most points wins.
Special Rules for 2 Players
With 2 players, the number of walls built is doubled:
- After scoring during the 2nd stack: each player builds 2 walls.
- After scoring during the 3rd stack: each player builds 4 walls.
The players take turns building 1 wall each until they have built 2 or 4 walls.
In the first wall building round in the 2nd stack, the player whose tile placement caused the scoring builds the city gate first, then the other player builds 1 wall, then the tile placing player builds 1 wall, and finally, the other player builds 1 wall.
Credits
© 2004 Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH
If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, please write us at [email protected] or Rio Grande Games, PO Box 45715, Rio Rancho, NM 87174.
For many test rounds, comments, and suggestions, the author and publisher thank Matthias Esken, Dagmar Joseph, Dieter Hornung, Karl-Heinz Schmiel, Udo Schmitz, Vera Schwingenheuer, Nina & Willi Weber, Alex Weiß, and Hannes Wildner. The author sends his special thanks for countless test games and understanding to Andrea.
For more information on this and other games from Rio Grande Games, please visit our website: www.riograndegames.com