The Crop Circles (3rd edition)
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Mysterious shapes appear in the fields of Carcassonne, holding a strange power over the knights, travelers, and farmers of the realm.
General info and comments
Crop Circles (Mini #7) was released by HiG for the third revised edition, known as C3.1 for short, in 2025, bundled as part of 
Big Box 8. It includes more detailed graphics, cities with clipped buildings.
It is almost identical to the previous versions. It was released for the second edition, known as C2 for short, in 2017, only available as part of 
Big Box 6. A third edition, known as C3 for short, was released in 2021, only available as part of 
Big Box 7 and the same graphics as the C3.1 version.
This expansion was originally released for the first edition, known as C1 for short, in 2012.
Contents
- 6 landscape tiles with crop circles.
Tile with crop circle
Rules
Preparation
Shuffle the new land tiles into the other land tiles.
Gameplay
1. Placing a tile
If you draw a tile with a crop circle, place it and resolve your turn as usual. Crop circles separate roads and fields. [1]
After your turn, you must resolve the corresponding effect of the crop circle depicted on the tile just placed.
2. Placing a meeple
If you placed a tile with a crop circle, you may place a meeple as usual. You may not place a meeple on the crop circle.
3. Scoring a feature
If you complete a feature with a crop circle tile, score it as usual. Crop circles do not affect scoring during the game.
Final Scoring
At the end of the game, incomplete features with crop circle tiles are scored as usual. Crop circles do not affect final scoring.
4. Crop circle action
Resolving a crop circle
After your turn, choose 1 of the following 2 actions:
|
A |
Based on the crop circle, place 1 meeple on a feature where you already have a meeple. |
or |
B |
Based on the crop circle, return 1 of your meeples from a feature to your supply. |
Then, all players, starting with the player to your left and proceeding clockwise, must resolve the action you chose. As the last player, you resolve that action too.
The type of meeples that are added or removed is determined by the type of crop circle you have placed:
Rake crop circle
Affects farmers in fields
Club crop circle
Affects travelers on roads
Shield crop circle
Affects knights in cities
If action A was chosen, you may place a meeple only on a feature where at least one of your corresponding meeples is already present (farmer to farmer, traveler to traveler, knight to knight). Place it on any tile of that feature. If you do not have any meeples of the corresponding type in play, you do not resolve the chosen action.
Once all players have resolved the chosen action, gameplay proceeds in clockwise order.
Note: Even if you do not have any meeples of the corresponding type, you must still choose action A or B when placing a crop circle tile.
- 1 You placed a tile with the shield crop circle and placed one of your meeples in the city as a knight.
After your turn, you choose action A. - 2 Green adds a knight to their city.
- 3 Blue has no knights in play, and ignores the action.
- 4 You place another knight in the city you just placed a knight in. You could not choose another city, because you do not have a knight in any other city.
- 1 Green placed a tile with the rake crop circle, and placed a meeple on it as a knight. Green scored 4 points for this city. Now, Green chooses action B.
- 2 Blue removes a farmer.
- 3 You remove a farmer.
- 4 Green has no farmers and ignores the action.
Other expansions
If playing with other expansions, please take the following notes into consideration:
Crop circle actions will allow you to choose the following meeple types on a feature to be added a meeple to the same feature (action A) or to be removed (action B):
- Normal meeple on a feature (
Base Game) - Large meeple on a feature (
Exp. 1 - Inns & Cathedrals) - Scarecrow lying down in a field (
Exp. 5 - Messengers & Mayors)
Crop circle action A will allow you to add the following meeple types to a feature:
- Normal meeple on a feature ( Base Game)
- Large meeple on a feature ( Exp. 1 - Inns & Cathedrals)
Crop circles will allow you to choose (actions A and B), add (action A) and remove (action B) these meeple types if adopting C3.1 rules, but it is not fully official (03/2026):
Crop circles do not affect these meeples:
- Abbot (Base Game -
The Abbot) - Mayor ( Exp. 5 - Messengers & Mayors)
- Messenger ( Exp. 5 - Messengers & Mayors)
- Scarecrow standing up ( Exp. 5 - Messengers & Mayors)
- Shepherd (
Exp. 9 - Sheep & Shepherds) - Ringmistress (
Exp. 10 - Circus & Artists)
Crop circles do not affect these meeples if adopting C3.1 rules:
After the crop circle action, the active player should continue with any actions pending as part of their turn, such as removing a knight from a sieged city through a monastery (see 
Besiegers - Cathars - Siege) or performing the second part of a double turn (see 
Exp. 2 - Traders & Builders). After all pending actions are performed, the next player's turn can proceed. We consider the double turn as two normal turns back to back, so each turn may activate one crop circle action. Question: If you are playing a double turn and you place one crop circle tile on each turn, do you perform the crop circle action at the end of each turn as usual?
Answer: Yes, you activate both. (4/2026)
Tile distribution
Footnotes
For Icons explanation and licensing please visit Icons page.
- ↑
Crop fields (the yellow areas) are distinct features and thus separate road segments and field segments. (1/2013)