Carcassonne is a German-style board game, invented by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede. The game board is a medieval landscape built by the players as the game progresses

The southern French city of Carcassonne was founded on an important trade route between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Because of ite strategic location, the city was often conquered and has known many rulers.

The players develop the area around Carcassonne by placing land tiles. Each turn the area becomes larger as the players expand and add roads, fields, cities and cloisters. the palyer may also deploy their followers as thieves, farmers, knights and monks to control and score points fro the roads, farms, cities and cloisters.

As the players only have a few followers, the wise player will plan his moves carefully and deploy followers when and where he can earn the most points

Carcassonne is an excellent family game, because the rules are simple, no one is eliminated, and the play is fast. A typical game takes only 45 minutes to play.

Awards
Winner Spiel des Jahres 2001
Winner Deutscher SpielePre 2001
Finalist Best Family Game Games Magazine 2002
Finalist Best General Strategy Gamers Choice awards 2002