Last year Microsoft celebrated their five year anniversary of Live by giving away “Carcassonne” for free. I had never heard of “Carcassonne” before this unveiling so I was a bit skeptical but I did download it. After playing it for a few minute I wrote it off as free advertising for Microsoft and continued playing whatever else i was playing at the time. Last week I wanted to try something different so I gave “Carcassonne” another try and my God I am so glad I did.

First let me tell you a little about Carcassonne.   “Carcassonne” is tile based video game on the Microsoft marketplace. It is named after the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France, known for its city walls. In the game points are scored by using your tile pieces to build towns, roads and farms.  You can have up to 5 players in one game with each player using random pieces to build certain structures.  Place followers in an area and build structure to gain points and territories.  As you build bigger towns, roads and amass land your opponent is using his pieces to doing the exact same thing.  Structures are often unfinished due to the map having a limit amount of pieces and your opponent handicapping you at will. There is a substantial luck component to the game.  You have to get certain tiles to finish a structure and it is not guaranteed that you will get the piece you desire.  However, good tactics greatly improve one’s chances of winning.

Here are a few tactic that’ll help with you game-play:

• Conserving followers. Since each player has only seven followers, it can be easy to run out. This is especially important with fewer players, because then each player will play more tiles during the game.
• Joining in on other players’ features. Often it is possible to add a separate road or castle segment near a big road or castle and join them up. This allows a player to gain points from their opponents’ work.
• Avoiding sharing. An advantage can be gained by preventing other players from getting points. This is more important with fewer players, or if the sharing player is doing well.
• Judicious farmer placement. Farmers in the right location can be worth a lot of points. However, once placed, they are there for the whole game.
• Trapping opponents’ followers. If a player knows which tiles exist or are more common, they can create situations where it is hard or impossible for an opponent to complete some feature. The result is their follower is stuck in something half-completed.

This is a must download and it is good family fun.

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