Canvis visuals de la 2a edició
The Second and Third Editions of Carcassonne share a similar visual style. These editions represent different milestones since the visual restyling of the game 14 years after its release. This new graphic style has also varied through the years, as you can see below.
Darker cities
The Second Edition of Carcassonne (or C2 for short) has undergone a few changes in style since its release in 2014. These minor graphic changes do not affect the playability of the game but the visual appearance of the board when combining tiles from different editions or styles.

The first printed versions of the Second Edition of Carcassonne (2014-2016) featured a darker brown colour to the base for the cities. This was also used for the first two major expansions (
Exp. 1 ‒ Fondes i catedrals, and
Exp. 2 ‒ Comerciants i constructors) as well as some of the promotional items available at that time. [According to several posts on Carcassonne Central Forum] KJW requested that this be lightened, and since then all new releases (from
Exp. 3 ‒ La princesa i el drac onwards), and subsequent re-printing of the base game and the first two expansions, have featured the lighter coloured cities.
In the example on the right, the two different printings are shown for one of the Cathedral tiles and a couple of adjacent tiles. (Image combined from different versions of PDF of rules for Fondes i catedrals)
Within the fan community, the darker city version is referred to as Carc 2.0 (C2.0 for short), the lighter city version as Carc 2.1 (C2.1 for short).
Throughout its production history there have been some issues of colour consistency between different expansions and it is something that, as players, we have to try to live with. A few may have aesthetic issues with combining expansions from the two different printings, but the tiles are topologically identical.
Items known to have been produced with darker cities
Joc base
El riu (included with Base Game)
Fondes i catedrals
Comerciants i constructors
Promos de l'Spiel tiles (2014-2017)
TallaCassonne
Carcassonne Demo-Spiel
Cities with clipped buildings

Since 2020, the new releases kicked-off the Third Edition of Carcassonne (or C3 for short) with a few exceptions. This new edition changed its graphic style, affecting cities most noticeably:
- The artwork style tends to show more detailed graphics and textured buildings.
- Cities feature some buildings overflowing the tile and therefore clipped at the tile edges. This causes a discontinuity at the city edges, since the illustration is interrupted abruptly.
- Cities include some distinctive features: buildings with black roofs, squares with a well and a new type of water towers.
- Monasteries show no crosses on top of their belfries.
Previously, the Second Edition artwork style featured buildings distributed more sparsely in cities. They would be near the edge of the tile but never overflowing it.
Items known to have been produced with this new style:
La sublevació dels pagesos
Edició del 20è aniversari (it follows the C3 style, although it is considered a separate edition)
Els regals (cards showing cities in the new style)
Els pals indicadors
El festival C3
Castells alemanys C3
Fantasmes, castells i cementiris
Les apostes
Els monestirs alemanys C3
Els peatges C3
Els mercats de Leipzig C3
Catedrals alemanyes C3
Meravelles de la humanitat I
Els cercles màgics
Els ponts llevadissos
Els arbres fruiters C3
Les talaies C3
La primavera
Meravelles de la humanitat II
La tardor
Trianglets C3
L'estiu
Exp. 1 ‒ Fondes i catedrals
Exp. 2 ‒ Comerciants i constructors
Exp. 3 ‒ El drac i la fada
Exp. 4 ‒ Torres i lladres
Exp. 5 ‒ Emissaris i alcaldes
Exp. 6 ‒ Tornejos i blasons
Exp. 7 ‒ Setges i fortaleses
Exp. 8 ‒ Castells i ponts
Exp. 9 ‒ Vinyes i ovelles
Exp. 10 ‒ Circs i artistes
Mini #3 ‒ Els transbordadors
Mini #4 ‒ Les mines d'or
Mini #5 ‒ Els mags
Mini #6 ‒ Els assaltadors
Mini #7 ‒ Els cercles dels cultius
Meravelles de la humanitat III
Els barbers cirurgians C3
L'hivern
Esglésies fortificades de Romania
Rounder corners

Some of the latest print runs of C2 and some of the C3 print runs feature tiles with rounder corners. It hasn't been reported the reason for this, and there is no consistency for the time being. The place of printing seems an indicator, however this is also not always consistent for a publisher.
Most of the latest C2 releases have fairly square corners, and most C3 releases have more rounded corners (e.g. all the mini expansions released by HiG), but, for example, the C2 base game (second printing) by ZMG from 2019 has tiles with rounded corners, and C3
Big Box 7 by ZMG or Mindok released later (2021-2022) with squarer corners.
Some items released with rounder corners:
Trianglets C2
Catedrals alemanyes
La sublevació dels pagesos
Edició del 20è aniversari
Els pals indicadors
El festival C3
Castells alemanys C3
Fantasmes, castells i cementiris
Les apostes
Els monestirs alemanys C3
Els peatges C3
Els mercats de Leipzig C3
Catedrals alemanyes C3
Meravelles de la humanitat I
Els cercles màgics
Els ponts llevadissos
Els arbres fruiters C3
Les talaies C3
La primavera
Meravelles de la humanitat II
Promo de l'Spiel 2024
La tardor
Trianglets C3
L'estiu
Exp. 1 ‒ Fondes i catedrals
Exp. 2 ‒ Comerciants i constructors
Exp. 3 ‒ El drac i la fada
Exp. 4 ‒ Torres i lladres
Exp. 5 ‒ Emissaris i alcaldes
Exp. 6 ‒ Tornejos i blasons
Exp. 7 ‒ Setges i fortaleses
Exp. 8 ‒ Castells i ponts
Exp. 9 ‒ Vinyes i ovelles
Exp. 10 ‒ Circs i artistes
Mini #3 ‒ Els transbordadors
Mini #4 ‒ Les mines d'or
Mini #5 ‒ Els mags
Mini #6 ‒ Els assaltadors
Mini #7 ‒ Els cercles dels cultius
Meravelles de la humanitat III
Els barbers cirurgians C3
L'hivern
Esglésies fortificades de Romania