"Carcassonne: Big Box" is a new edition of the well-known strategy game that won the Spiel des Jahres award in 2001 and has since captured the hearts of the entire board gaming community. Inside this large box, you’ll find the base game along with a whopping 11 expansions, all fully compatible with one another. You can try them one by one, mix your favorites, or even play them all at once if the mood strikes!

About the Game

The board game "Carcassonne" is renowned as one of the best tabletop games in the world. What makes "Carcassonne" stand out? Its simple rules, varied gameplay, short sessions, and lack of direct confrontation between players—it’s a classic example of a "German-style" game. The theme revolves around developing the territories surrounding Carcassonne, one of France’s largest castles and later a thriving city. Players take on the roles of feudal lords, scouting and claiming the surrounding lands, controlling roads, seizing farmland, and building cities and monasteries. Included with the base game (even in the Big Box version) are the mini-expansions "The River" (adding a new landscape type) and "The Abbot" (note: the "The Abbot" mini-expansion is distinct from the "Abbey & Mayor" expansion).

About the Expansions

Inns & Cathedrals: Now you can play with up to six players, thanks to an extra set of meeples. Scoring becomes easier with special 50-point tiles. A new large meeple counts as two regular ones! Inns appear along roads and cathedrals rise in cities, boosting points for completed features—but if you fail to finish them, they yield nothing.

Traders & Builders: This expansion adds new meeples: a pig that increases field income where your farmer stands, and a builder who can be placed on a road with your robber or a city with your knight, granting an extra turn later. Plus, city tiles now feature resources—completing such a city lets you claim wine, cloth, or grain tokens, aiming to become the wealthiest trader!

The Flying Machines: Humanity has long dreamed of conquering the skies, envying birds their freedom. Medieval minds, starting with Leonardo da Vinci, began defying gravity. Now your subjects take flight too—let aeronauts test their newly built machines over your lands. The question is, where will they land? If one succeeds, they’ll bring fame to their lord and extra victory points.

The Ferries: The fields around Carcassonne are crisscrossed with roads and lakes that disrupt trade routes. Ferries—cargo ships shuttling between shores—connect roads split by water. You can adjust their path: a lake might end three roads, and while you initially link two, it might later benefit you to connect one to the third instead. Be cautious—linked roads favor robbers, yours and your rivals’ alike.

The Messengers: In ancient Greece, bearers of bad news faced execution. Luckily, milord, you live in more enlightened times, and His Majesty the King rewards messengers who spread his decrees and glorify the kingdom. Send your subjects to deliver royal messages—and reap victory points as your reward.

Gold Mines: Gold isn’t just a shiny metal. Its rarity and durability made it a universal measure of value—money, simply put. Gold mines have been discovered near Carcassonne, and nobles vie for these natural riches. The prize goes to the lord with the most followers near the mine.

The Mage & Witch: Magic and supernatural forces are obvious to any educated person (despite what rebellious university scholars claim). Dark forces tempt the weak, offering power in exchange for souls. A witch sold to Satan has arrived in Carcassonne, halving the points of any completed feature she occupies. Fortunately, a legendary mage counters her, inspiring the populace and adding one point per tile in a completed feature he graces.

The Robbers: Robbers plague our society, milord. They hinder trade and rob honest merchants. Lately, these scoundrels have overrun our lands—rumors say they’re not just hungry peasants but saboteurs sent by rivals. Such dishonor can’t be tolerated! Strike back by sending your own robber to enemy territory, claiming their ill-gotten victory points!

Crop Circles: As if medieval life weren’t strange enough! Milord, odd circles have appeared in our wheat fields—flattened patches with no tracks leading to or from them. Their perfect shapes suggest intelligent design, and whispers claim they hold eerie mystical power over your subjects. Time to harness these properties, weakening foes and bolstering your position!

Gameplay

In "Carcassonne," player actions are straightforward. On your turn, you draw a cardboard tile depicting medieval terrain and place it on the table, connecting it to existing tiles like dominoes. The new tile must extend the world’s layout—roads link to roads, fields to fields, city walls to walls. When a new feature (like a road branching from a crossroad) forms due to your tile, you can claim it by placing a wooden meeple from your reserve onto it.

It’s now in your interest to develop and complete that feature (e.g., closing the road with another crossroad). Build carefully—if it’s unfinished by game’s end, it scores nothing. Once completed, you remove your meeple and earn points.

The key strategic moment is deciding where to place each tile. With multiple placement options, you weigh what’s best—extending your feature or blocking an opponent’s monastery, city, or road? A sly move might irk one rival, or your success could annoy everyone!

This simple choice shapes not just victory or defeat but the group’s mood. And it happens every turn!

As the game nears its end, the stakes rise. With fewer tiles in reserve and more placement options, completing features or countering sabotage gets trickier. Tension builds, resistance intensifies, and emotions peak—as they should in a great game. Experience it yourself; reading about others’ thrills can’t compare to your own.

Who Wins?

It’s simple—the player with the most victory points is declared the winner. If multiple players tie for the highest score, they all share the victory.