How to play Carcassonne with kids

How do you set up Carcassonne?

Checked against the Z-Man Games English rulebook, version 3 (2021 copyright).

1. Put the 12 river tiles back in the box for your first game. They have a river on them.
2. Put the start tile (the one with the dark back) in the middle of the table.
3. Shuffle the rest of the tiles and set them face down in a few stacks, so everyone can reach at least one stack.
4. Put the scoreboard near the play area.
5. Each player picks a color and takes 7 meeples of that color. This is your supply.
6. Put each player's 8th meeple on the 0 space of the scoreboard. It tracks your points.
7. Put the meeples of any unused colors back in the box.
8. Put the 5 abbots back in the box for your first game.
9. The youngest player goes first, then play passes clockwise.

How do you teach Carcassonne to kids?

Start by playing, not explaining. Lay the start tile, draw one tile together and talk through it. The rules are short enough to learn as you go.

Say this

1. We are building a map together, one tile at a time.
2. On your turn, draw a tile and put it down so every edge matches its neighbors: city to city, road to road, grass to grass.
3. Then you can put one meeple on the tile you just placed. Only that tile, and only if nobody already has a meeple on that road or city.
4. When a road, city or monastery is finished, you score it and your meeple comes home.
5. Your meeples are limited, so getting them back is how you keep playing.
6. Most points when the tiles run out wins.

First-game simplifications

• Official variant Leave out the farmers. The rulebook says you can ignore fields and farmers at first and add them after a few games (rulebook page 6). This rulebook leaves farmers for later, so skipping them gives you the simpler first game.
• Official variant Keep the 12 river tiles and the 5 abbots in the box for your first game (rulebook page 2).
• House rule Let a younger player draw two tiles and pick the one they like better. Put the other one back on the bottom of a stack.
• House rule Make one grown-up the scorekeeper who moves the scoreboard meeples, so kids can focus on building.

Watch-outs for ages 6 to 11

• Matching edges is the main skill. If a kid is stuck, point at one edge at a time and ask what is next to it.
• Younger kids often want a meeple on every tile. Remind them that meeples are limited and only come back when the feature is finished.
• Kids sometimes feel upset when a rival finishes the city they were building. Remind them that they still score, because the points go to whoever has a meeple on it, not to whoever placed the last tile.
• House rule Try a team game for the first round: a grown-up and a younger kid share one color and talk through each move.

Back for another game?

• Your turn: draw a tile, place it so every edge matches, then you may put one meeple on that tile, then score anything that finished.
• If a tile cannot go anywhere, put it back in the box and draw another.
• Finished road: 1 point per tile. Finished city: 2 points per tile and 2 per coat of arms. Finished monastery: 9 points.
• After scoring, the meeple goes back to its owner's supply.
• The game ends when the tiles run out. Then unfinished roads score 1 per tile, unfinished cities 1 per tile and per coat of arms, and unfinished monasteries 1 plus 1 per tile around them.
• Rules people forget: you cannot put a meeple on a road or city that already has one anywhere on it, even far away.
• Rules people forget: a tile that joins two claimed pieces is allowed. The player with more meeples scores it all, and a tie means everyone tied scores in full.
• Rules people forget: you score a finished feature even when another player's tile finished it.

How do you score Carcassonne?

Score each road, city, monastery or field as it finishes, then everything left over at the end. Enter what the feature looks like and who has how many meeples on it, and the scorer adds the points to each player's total.