Tag Archives: Carcassonne

Creating a City in Carcassonne

Because my group decided not to continue playing T.I.M.E Stories, we decided to play Carcassonne this week. Carcassonne is modeled after a real French city, and you play the game by building a puzzle and claiming cities, roads, land, rivers, and monasteries. As one person lays down a tile on the game, it will have different aspects of the game on it and you must place it strategically so that you can build in ways that will create the most points for yourself because the person with the most points at the end of the game wins. It’s a very simple game and I found it almost relaxing to play because it’s slightly strategic but doesn’t really require a lot of skill or concentration. I feel like this game would be nice to play on a rainy day with music or a movie on in the background and with a nice hot cup of tea in hand. This was Claudia’s game so she was the most familiar with it and she won both times we played, unsurprisingly. 

I like that this game can be played with just 2 people or up to 5 players. I feel like it’s hard to find fun 2 player games but this game would definitely be fun with just a few people, but I really enjoyed the dynamic of playing the game with 4 players. The most challenging part of the game was trying to figure out how to build rivers because they’re a little less common in the game and hard to workaround. I really enjoyed the challenge of building large cities, it can be tough because there’s not a guarantee you’ll be able to find the right pieces to complete the city but it’s a nice challenge. Roads can be interesting to build as well because they are tough to make really long but you never really know where the roads will lead next. I also thought the artwork in the game is very pretty, I think the artist did such a great job creating a nice scene to play with.

My mom is very particular about which types of games she likes to play, but I think she might actually really enjoy this game. I can see us sitting at the kitchen table playing this on a chill Sunday afternoon. Out of all the games we’ve played this semester, I think this one I would be most likely to buy for that reason. I think this game is so simple that it’s almost difficult to relate to leadership but I do think it can vaguely relate. In Carcassonne, you need to take ownership of the progress you’ve made and things you are building, and this is true in leadership as well. It’s important to give yourself some grace and give credit where credit is due. Sometimes the tiles you get in the game aren’t really beneficial for what you’re working towards, so you might not have a choice but to help someone else’s mission and use your tile for their benefit. In leadership, it’s important to be supportive of other people, even if it doesn’t directly benefit you because you can still take something valuable from that interaction. 

Game of the Week Blog Reflection Week 12-Free Play

For week 12 I played Carcassonne as my group’s free play game. I had never played this game before, but I really enjoyed it. The hardest part about this game was forming a strategy. It is a pretty simple game, however there was a level of strategy to it. Having never played, I was unsure of what my strategy should be. 

I think this game could be tied to leadership because you have to make decisions on where to put your pieces. A good leader I believe is someone who can form a plan, make decisions, and execute their idea. I think my family would like to play this game because it is played pretty quickly and casually. My brother especially would like this game because it is quick, but still strategic and fun. 

The first time we played I did really well and came in second place which I was happy about considering two out of the four of us playing had played before. However, the second game I tried a new strategy and lost by a lot. We all had a lot of fun making our towns and trying to block others. I liked the game a lot and plan to play again! There is nothing about it that I would change.