How to Play Carcassonne: Castles in Germany

Game Objective

In this mini-expansion, players become lords and ladies, seeking to earn extra points for their famous properties, which are German castles. The objective is to accumulate more points than other players by completing terrain features and the castles themselves.

Preparation (Setup)

1. Each player chooses 1 Castle. (With 2 or 3 players, each player may take 2 Castles.) Alternatively, shuffle the Castle tiles and deal them randomly.
2. Players then place their Castle(s) in their playing area in front of them.
3. This expansion is designed for the basic Carcassonne game, and with the exception of the new rules shown below, all basic Carcassonne rules remain unchanged.

Game Flow

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Actions and How to Play

1. Placing Terrain Tiles

On a player's turn, they may place one of their Castle tiles instead of drawing a normal tile. A Castle tile cannot touch any other previously placed Castle tile, neither orthogonally nor diagonally. Otherwise, the usual rules for placing terrain tiles still apply.

2. Positioning a Follower

After placing a Castle tile, a player may position one of their followers on the tile (as usual). The follower can be placed on a road, city, or field, following the usual placement rules. If the follower is positioned on the Castle itself, they become a Lord or Lady of the Castle.

3. Scoring Completed Features with a Castle Tile

Scoring a Completed Castle:

A Castle is considered complete when the tile is completely surrounded by tiles, like a Monastery, and is scored in the same way. Once a Castle is completed, the player with a Lord/Lady in the Castle receives 12 points and then takes their follower back to their supply.

Scoring Completed Roads and Cities Around a Castle Tile:

If a road or a city is completed and ends (and/or begins) on a Castle tile, players (who participate in scoring the completed feature) receive a bonus of 3 points (per participating Castle) in addition to their usual points. It does not matter whether the Castles themselves are occupied or not.

End of Game and Scoring

At the end of the game, each tile surrounding an incomplete Castle is worth 1 point, and the Castle tile itself is worth 2 points.

Example of end-game scoring:

• The Black player receives 8 points for their Castle (2 for the Castle tile and 6 for the surrounding tiles).
• The Black player places the Castle tile in the bottom left corner and positions a follower on the Castle.
• The placement of this tile completes 2 roads and 1 city.
• Red and Blue each receive 16 points for the completed city (10 points for the city itself, and 2x3 points for the 2 Castles).
• Black receives 5 points for their completed road (2 points for the road itself, and 3 points for the Castle).
• Blue receives 10 points for their completed road (4 points for the road itself, and 2x3 points for the 2 Castles).

Tips for Winning

Refer to the manual for details on this section.