Winter Edition

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

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, roads, and snowy fields 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.

In 2011, this was made available for download, for personal "print and play", from the Hans im Glück web site. The intent was for the files to be printed onto stickers and then stuck to regular Carcassonne tiles. Style-wise it was based on the First Edition artwork by Doris Matthäus, with a covering of snow. This edition contained the standard set of 72 tiles and standard rules. The download version was withdrawn when the physical edition was published the following year.

In 2012, a physical edition was published with new artwork by Anne Pätzke, who would later take over as principal illustrator for the series. This is referred to by the community as the "Winter Edition" (WE), or more specifically, WE1 to distinguish it from its successors. In 2013, JEM Magazine, in partnership with the Hungarian publisher Piatnik, released a print-and-play Christmas Present expansion, though the card artwork was in the non-winter C1 style. A winterized version of the Crop Circles expansion arrived in 2015.

The game was published again in 2020, which included a winterized version of The River. Anne was still credited as the illustrator, but Marcel Gröber had added a few embellishments and reduced the size of the animals on the tiles to make them more realistic. This re-release is distinguished by the community as "WE2". Up to this point, the game had been sold exclusively through Müller, but in 2022 it was announced that other retailers would now be permitted to sell the Winter Edition, and the "WE2" edition was reprinted in greater quantities.

Not long after, Asmodee France and Asmodee Canada started showing off designs for another revision of the Winter Edition, to which had been added The Abbot figure and a winterized version of the garden feature. Marcel also added more buildings into the cities, which was consistent with his contribution to the revision of the base game artwork. This new edition, distinguished as "WE3" by the community, was released in 2023.