Winter Edition Base Game

The city of Carcassonne in southern France is famous for its unique Roman and Medieval fortifications. The players take their chances with their followers in the cities, cloisters, farms and on the roads around Carcassonne. The development of the land is in their hands, and the skillful deployment of the followers as thieves, knights, monks and farmers is the path to success.

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If your tiles look like this, you have regular Carcassonne tiles.

If your tiles have a different design, then choose a game from Spin-offs.

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The city of Carcassonne in southern France is famous for its unique Roman and Medieval fortifications. The players take their chances with their followers in the cities, cloisters, farms and on the roads around Carcassonne. The development of the land is in their hands, and the skillful deployment of the followers as thieves, knights, monks and farmers is the path to success.

General info and comments

Game C Logo

Carcassonne: Winter Edition was originally released by Hans im Glück in 2012.

A clever tile-laying game, in a winter coat, for 2 to 5 players, aged 8 and above, by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede.

Contents

• 72 land tiles (including one with a dark reverse) which depict road, city and field segments, as well as cloisters and crossings.
• 12 land tiles with winter animals on them.

Tile description and features:
A. Reverse of the starting tile B. A cloister C. City segments D. Pennant	E. Farm segments F. Road segments G. Crossings

Regular tile back

• 40 followers in five colors:

Followers in 5 colors

Each follower can be deployed as a knight, monk, thief, or farmer. One follower of each color is used as a scoring marker.

• One scoreboard. This is used to track players' scores
• One rule booklet.

Rules

Overview

The players place the land tiles turn by turn. This leads to the growth of roads, cities, cloisters and farms, to which the players may deploy their followers in order to earn points. As points can be won during the game as well as at the end, the winner will only emerge during the final scoring.

The rules for the winter edition are identical to the normal rules of the game Carcassonne. The 12 additional tiles with animal illustrations are played by the usual rules.

Preparation

The starting tile is placed in the middle of the table. The remaining tiles are mixed and placed face-down on the table in several stacks, so that each player can access them easily. The scoreboard should be placed at the edge of the table if possible.

Scoreboard

Each player chooses a color and receives all eight followers of that color, placing one on the '0' field of the scoreboard as a scoring marker. The remaining seven followers stay with the player for the moment, as his or her supply.

The youngest player decides who starts the game.

Playing the game

Play progresses in a clockwise fashion. The player whose turn it is carries out the following actions in the order given:

1. The player must draw one new land tile and place it.
2. The player may take one follower from his or her supply and deploy it to the tile just placed.
3. If any roads, cities, or cloisters are completed through the placement of the tile, they must be scored now.

Then it is the next player's turn.

1. Place a tile

As their first action, the player must draw a tile from one of the stacks. The tile is then shown to the other players (so they can “advise” the player about where to place it) and placed on the table. The player must take care to observe the following:

• At least one side of the new tile (with a red border in the examples below) must touch one or more tiles already in play. Corner-to-corner placement is not permitted.

• Any city, road, and field segments must continue segments already in play.

In the rare case that a tile cannot legally be placed anywhere, and all players agree, it is removed from the game, and the player draws another.

Road and field segments continue previous segments.

The city is continued.

On one edge, the city is continued. On the other edge, the field is continued.

An example of incorrect placement

2. Deploy a follower

When the player has placed the tile, he or she may deploy a follower. In doing so the following points must be observed:

• Only one follower may be deployed each turn.
• The follower must come from the player's supply.
• The follower may only be deployed to the tile just placed.
• The player must decide which part of the tile the follower is deployed to as either:

thief		knight		monk		farmer
	or		or		or		here or there
on a road segment		in a city segment		on a cloister		in a field.	Lay down your farmers!

Note: For your first game, it is best to play without the farmers.

• There must be no other follower (not even one belonging to the same player) on the road, city, or field segments connected to the tile just placed. It does not matter how far away the follower is. The following two examples may help to explain:

BLUE may not place a thief, as the road is already occupied. He may play a monk or place a follower on the field.

BLUE may not place a knight in the city, as the city is already claimed. He may place a thief on the road or place a follower on the field.

If a player runs out of followers during the course of play, he or she may only place tiles. But don't panic: you can also get followers back.

Now the player’s turn is over, and it is the turn of the next player on the left.

Exception: If a road, city, or cloister was completed through the placement of the tile, it must now be scored.

3. Score completed roads, cities or cloisters

A completed road

A road is completed when the road segments on both sides end in a crossing, a city segment, or a cloister, or when the road forms a closed circle. There is no limit to the number of road segments which can lie between these endings.

RED scores 4 points

RED scores 3 points

A player who has a thief on this completed road scores as many points as the road is long, determined by counting the number of tiles.

Whenever points are scored, they are immediately recorded on the scoreboard (more on this in the section about the scoreboard).

A completed city

A city is completed when its segments are fully encompassed by a city wall and there are no gaps within the city. There is no limit to how many segments a city may contain.

A player who has a knight in a completed city scores 2 points for every city segment. Every pennant (shield symbol) scores an extra 2 points.

RED scores 8 points (three city segments and one pennant)

RED scores 8 points (four city segments, no pennants).

When both city segments on a tile are in a single city (marked with A), they only count as one segment.

What happens if there are several followers on a completed road or in a completed city?

Through the wily placement of land tiles it is quite possible for several thieves to be on a road, or for several knights to occupy a city.

The points are then scored by the player with the most thieves or knights. In the case of a draw, all players involved score the full number of points.

The new tile joins the previously unconnected city segments, forming a single completed city.

BLUE and RED both score the full 10 points, as they both have one knight in the city—a draw!

A completed cloister (monastery)

A cloister is completed when it is surrounded by eight land tiles. The player who has a monk in the cloister immediately scores 9 points—1 point for each land tile, including the cloister itself.

RED scores 9 points (for 8 surrounding tiles and the cloister itself.)

Returning followers to their owners

After a road, city, or cloister has been completed and scored – and only then – any thieves, knights, or monks involved are returned to their owner. From the next turn onwards, the player can then use them again in whatever role he or she chooses.

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It is possible to deploy a follower, score immediately, and have the follower returned, all in the same turn. In this case, you must use the following order:

1. Complete a road, city, or cloister with the new tile.
2. Deploy a thief, knight, or monk.
3. Score the completed road, city, or cloister.
4. Return the thief, knight, or monk to your supply.

RED scores 4 points

RED scores 3 points

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Farms

Reminder: for your first game, we recommend playing without farmers and fields.

Several connected field segments form a farm. Farms and field segments are not scored. They serve only as places to deploy farmers; the owner of the farm only scores points at the end of the game. As such, farmers remain on the farm for the duration of the game and are never returned to their owner! In order to make that clear, the farmers should be laid on their backs.

Farms are separated from each other by roads, cities, and the edge of the playing field – this is important during the final scoring.

All three farmers are on their own farms. The road segment and the city separate the farms from each other.

After the placement of the new tile, the farms of the three farmers are joined to form one.

Be careful: The player who placed the new tile may not deploy a farmer, since the (now connected) farm is already occupied by farmers.

The scoreboard

Any points scored should be recorded on the scoreboard immediately. The board is a track of fifty fields that can be lapped many times. When the ‘0’ field is reached or passed, the counting figure should be laid down to indicate that the player has already earned 50 or more points.

BLUE scores 3 points. He moved his figure that started on 48. To indicate that the score is greater than 50, he lays the figure down.

The End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the turn in which the last land tile is placed. Any roads, cities, and cloisters completed in this round are scored as usual. This is followed by the final scoring, where unfinished roads, cities, and cloisters, as well as the farmers, will be scored.

Final Scoring

Scoring incomplete roads, cities and cloisters

The first things to be scored during the final scoring are the incomplete roads, cities and cloisters. For every incomplete road, city, and cloister the owner scores 1 point for each segment. Pennants also now score only 1 point. As soon as the feature in question has been scored, the followers involved are removed.

• RED scores 3 points for the incomplete road.
• YELLOW scores 5 points for the incomplete cloister.
• BLUE scores 3 points for the incomplete city on the bottom right.
• GREEN scores 8 points for the large incomplete city.
• BLACK scores nothing, since GREEN has more knights in the city.

Scoring farms

Note: For your first game, if playing without farmers and fields, you will not need to score them.

Only the farmers and their farms are left, and these will be scored now. The owner of each farm must be established. If several players have farmers on a given farm, then the player with the most farmers is the owner. In the case of a draw, all the players with the most farmers are considered to be owners of the farm. The owner (or owners) of the farm score 3 points for every completed city which borders the farm, or lies within it.

If a city borders more than one farm, the owner(s) of each farm score(s) 3 points for the city.

BLUE scores 9 points (6 points for the upper farmer and 3 points for the lower one).

BLUE scores 6 points. RED scores 3 points. The incomplete city generates no points.

The order in which the tiles were placed.

Having the majority of farmers, RED owns the large farm, and scores 6 points: 3 each for the cities A and B. BLUE owns the small farm, scoring 3 points for city A. YELLOW does not have a majority, so earns no points.

On the large farm RED and YELLOW both have two farmers, and so both score 6 points: 3 each for the cities A and B. BLUE owns the small farm, scoring 3 points for city A.

Every farm scores the bordering cities in the same way. When this has been done, the game is over.

The player with the most points wins.

Example of farmer scoring

Here is a more detailed example of how farmers and their farms are scored. “Wiese” is translated as “farm”.

Farm 1: BLUE owns farm 1. Two completed cities (A and B) border the farm. For each completed city BLUE scores 3 points (irrespective of their size), or a total of 6 points. Farm 2: RED and BLUE own farm 2. There are three completed cities (A, B and C) bordering or lying within this farm. RED and BLUE therefore score 9 points each. Notice that cities A and B score points for BLUE on farm 1 as well as RED and BLUE on farm 2, since these cities border both farms. The city on the bottom left is incomplete, and so generates no points. Farm 3: YELLOW owns farm 3, since YELLOW has more farmers on it than BLACK. There are four completed cities bordering or lying within farm 3, so YELLOW scores 12 points. Be careful with the edges of the farm: farms are separated from each other by roads, cities (if they don’t lie within the farm), and the edge of the playing field.

How can multiple followers stand on one feature?

     = last tile placed

Turn 1: BLUE places a follower on the field.

Turn 2: RED places the tile at the upper right and places a farmer on the field. He may do this because the fields are not yet connected.

After the placement of the new tile, the fields are not connected at the corners!

Turn 3: Now the two field segments are connected as part of a larger field. In this way it is possible for several followers to be on one farm.

In this same way, several thieves can stand on one road or several knights can be in one city.

House Rules

The players decide who starts the game by any method they choose—such as by rolling three followers. The first player to ‘roll’ a standing follower decides who plays first. (Thanks to Joff.)

To determine the first player; each player draws a tile from the bag, the player that drew the tile with the most roads (0 to 4) plays first, if there is a tie for most roads, a draw-off takes place. This is repeated until someone wins. (Thanks to michael.)

Take your next tile at the end of your turn, to give you time to think about placement and avoid analysis paralysis.

Play with a three-tile hand. The abbey counts as part of your hand. Play your turn. including the builder, and then draw back up to three tiles. These tiles could be visible to all or hidden to the other players (Thanks to DavidP and youtch.)

When playing with a bag for the tiles, the original starting tile may be put into the bag, and unplayable tiles can be put back into the bag rather than set to one side. (Thanks to dwhitworth.)

Trees (bushes) on roads do not end the road—only houses do (when the road forks.) This makes road building a lot more dynamic. (Thanks to Tobias.)

When a tile is the only tile which can currently complete a structure, other players can offer to ‘buy’ it by offering points, trades counter, abbey, and so on. (Thanks to Deatheux.)

If you place a tile that fills a hole in the playing field by touching something on all four adjacent sides, you get another turn. This helps motivate people to finish the board even if they do not get an advantage from the placement. (Does not apply to the abbey tile.) (Thanks to viberunner.)

Incomplete features at the end of the game do not score points at the end of the game. (Thanks to metoth.)

The edge of the table limits the playing area. Thus, a player may not place a tile past the edge of the table or move the playing area to place a tile that would have been past the edge of the table. (Thanks to metoth for prompting this one, and to SkullOne for pointing out that this is an official rule from Hunters and Gatherers.)

Table borders COMPLETE features as an abbey would. (Thanks to PreGy.)

Use colored dice instead of meeples on the scoring track. Start out with the 6 showing on top. When the marker completes one lap, turn it to the number 1 to indicate it has completed one lap. This shows at a glance which player is on what lap and who's ahead. On the 100 space track it’s even easier to determine someone’s score at a glance. (Thanks to Carcking.)

Tile Distribution

2022 Edition (WE3)

Total tiles: 84

72 tiles as in the original Carcassonne:

 ×2

(H;–) - Monastery

 ×4

(F;D;2×–) - Monastery

 ×1

(W)

 ×4

(F;P;2×–) + (S)

 ×5

(G;F;3×–)

 ×2

 ×1

 ×3

(G;W;–)

 ×2

(G;–)

 ×3

(H;F;C)

 ×3

(H;F;P)

 ×3

Crossroad

 ×2

(G;–)

 ×3

(G;W;–)

 ×2

(F;C)

 ×3

(H;W;–)

 ×1

 ×3

(G;W;–)

 ×2

(W;–)

 ×1

 ×8

(G;2×H;F;P;3×–)

 ×9

(G;H;F;P;C;4×–)

 ×4

Village

 ×1

Village

One of the tiles marked with "(S)" is the starting tile (with a dark back).

Several tiles have a small illustration on them. The letters in brackets show which illustration is on each tile:

 

G | Garden

 

F | Farmhouse

 

C | Cowshed

 

W | Water Tower

 

H | Highwaymen

 

P | Pigsty

 

D | Donkey Stable

Note: The small illustrations of a cowshed, a pigsty and a donkey stable are collectively referred to as sheds or stables.

12 tiles with animals:

 ×1

Village

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

Monastery

 ×1

Monastery

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

2020 Edition (WE2)

Total tiles: 84

72 tiles as in the original Carcassonne:

 ×2

Monastery

 ×4

Monastery

 ×1

 ×4

(S)

 ×5

(*)

 ×2

 ×1

 ×3

 ×2

 ×3

 ×3

 ×3

Crossroad

 ×2

 ×3

 ×2

 ×3

 ×1

 ×3

 ×2

 ×1

 ×8

(*)

 ×9

(*)

 ×4

Village + (*)

 ×1

Village

One of the tiles marked with "(S)" is the starting tile (with a dark back).

Tiles marked with a star (*) have graphically different versions included in the game (trees, houses, etc).

12 tiles with animals:

 ×1

Village

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

Monastery

 ×1

Monastery

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

2012 and 2015 Editions (WE1)

Total tiles: 84

72 tiles as in the original Carcassonne:

 ×2

Monastery

 ×4

Monastery

 ×1

 ×4

(S)

 ×5

(*)

 ×2

 ×1

 ×3

 ×2

 ×3

 ×3

 ×3

Crossroad

 ×2

 ×3

 ×2

 ×3

 ×1

 ×3

 ×2

 ×1

 ×8

(*)

 ×9

(*)

 ×4

Village + (*)

 ×1

Village

One of the tiles marked with "(S)" is the starting tile (with a dark back).

Tiles marked with a star (*) have graphically different versions included in the game (trees, houses, etc).

12 tiles with animals:

 ×1

Village

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

Monastery

 ×1

Monastery

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

 ×1

2011 Edition (WD)

Total tiles: 72

 ×2

Cloister

 ×4

Cloister

 ×1

 ×4

(S)

 ×5

(*)

 ×2

 ×1

 ×3

 ×2

 ×3

 ×3

 ×3

Crossroad

 ×2

 ×3

 ×2

 ×3

 ×1

 ×3

 ×2

 ×1

 ×8

(*)

 ×9

(*)

 ×4

Crossroad + (*)

 ×1

Village

One of the tiles marked with "(S)" is the starting tile (with a dark back).

Tiles marked with a star (*) have graphically different versions included in the game (trees, houses, etc).

Footnotes

For Icons explanation and licensing please visit Icons page.