How to Play Carcassonne: Circus & Artists

Game Objective

To play this expansion, you need a copy of the base game Carcassonne. The overall objective of the game is to integrate the new expansion components, such as the Circus and Acrobat Land Tiles, the Animal Tokens, the Big Top, and the Ringmasters, to score additional points. Players compete to have the majority in completed features and to score with the new elements, such as acrobat pyramids and circuses, in order to accumulate more points than their opponents.

Preparation (Setup)

To set up the game with the Under the Big Top expansion, follow the steps below:

1. Shuffle the 20 new Land Tiles (marked with a circus icon) with the Land Tiles from the base game (and any other expansions you wish to use).
2. Shuffle the 16 Animal Tokens and place them in a face-down pile, within reach of all players.
3. Place the Big Top near the pile of Animal Tokens.
4. Finally, each player adds their colored Ringmaster to their supply of meeples.

Gameplay Flow

The game progresses in turns, and each player's turn generally follows this structure:

1. Place a Land Tile: The player draws and places a Land Tile.
   • Special case for the first Circus Tile: When the first Circus Tile is placed, take the top Animal Token from the pile, place it face down on the circus space, and place the Big Top on top of it. From this point on, the Big Top only moves when a player places a new Circus Tile (after the Score a Feature phase).
   • After placing a Circus Tile, you can place a meeple on it as a robber, knight, or farmer, as usual. However, you cannot place a meeple on the circus space.
   • Acrobat Tiles are placed like normal Land Tiles.
2. Place a Meeple: The player may choose to place one of their meeples on the newly placed Land Tile.
   • You can place your Ringmaster (instead of a normal meeple) on a road, in a city, or a monastery, or lay it down in a field. The Ringmaster counts as a normal meeple in all cases, except that it cannot be used as an acrobat.
   • Place a meeple as an acrobat: After placing an Acrobat Tile, you can place your meeple on the road or in the field, as usual. You also have another option: you can place your meeple as an acrobat on one of the two acrobat spaces. In a later turn, if you place a Land Tile adjacent to one or more Acrobat Tiles (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), you can place a meeple as an acrobat on one of those Acrobat Tiles.
   • If both acrobat spaces are already occupied, you can add a third meeple on the shoulders of the other two meeples. At this point, the pyramid is complete, and no other meeple can be added to it. The color of the meeples in the pyramid does not matter. Pyramids can have meeples of one, two, or three colors. If you place an Acrobat Tile adjacent to one or more Acrobat Tiles and wish to place a meeple as an acrobat, choose which of those Acrobat Tiles to place your acrobat on.
   • When there are three acrobats in a pyramid, it is ready to be scored. However, pyramids are not scored immediately upon completion. Instead of placing a meeple or any other figure during the Place a meeple phase, you can score a completed pyramid.
3. Score a Feature: If the placed Land Tile completes a feature (such as a road, city, or monastery), it is scored.
   • Ringmaster Scoring: If the feature with your Ringmaster is completed, first score the completed feature. Then, for each Circus and Acrobat Tile your Ringmaster is on or adjacent to, score 2 points. You also score these Ringmaster points even if your Ringmaster did not score any points from the completed feature (e.g., someone else had the majority). The Big Top and acrobats in a pyramid do not affect Ringmaster points. After scoring, return the Ringmaster to your supply.
   • Circus Scoring: Whenever you place another Circus Tile during the game:
     1. Score any features that were completed when the Circus Tile was placed.
     2. Then, score the circus on the Big Top's current Land Tile: First, reveal the Animal Token the Big Top is on. Then, for each of your meeples on the Circus Tile itself and the eight surrounding Land Tiles, score points equal to the value on the revealed Animal Token. Ringmasters also count as meeples, so if they occupied a space around the Big Top when scoring the circus, they would score points.
     3. After scoring the circus, remove the Animal Token from the game, placing it face up next to the scoreboard. Finally, take the top Animal Token from the pile, place it face down on the new circus space, and place the Big Top on top of it.

Actions and How to Play

The actions available to players are:

• Place a Land Tile: The player must place a Land Tile adjacent to an existing one, following the feature connection rules.
• Place a Meeple: After placing a Land Tile, the player can place one of their meeples on a newly placed or extended feature (city, road, monastery, field).
  • Ringmaster: Can be placed as a normal meeple on roads, cities, monasteries, or fields. It counts as a normal meeple, but cannot be used as an acrobat.
  • Place an Acrobat: On an Acrobat Tile, you can place a meeple on one of the two acrobat spaces. If both spaces are already occupied, you can add a third meeple to form a complete pyramid. You can also place an acrobat on an Acrobat Tile adjacent to a Land Tile you just placed.
• Score an Acrobat Pyramid: Instead of placing a meeple or any other figure during the Place a meeple phase, you can score a completed pyramid (with three acrobats). Each acrobat in the completed pyramid scores 5 points for its owner and then returns to their supply. You can score a completed pyramid even if you have no acrobats in it. After a pyramid has been scored, players can start a new pyramid on the same Land Tile by placing a meeple as an acrobat on it.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends when the pile of Land Tiles runs out and the last tile is placed and scored.

Final scoring occurs as follows:

• Circus Scoring at End of Game: At the end of the game, before final scoring, score the circus one last time.
• Ringmaster Scoring at End of Game: At the end of the game, Ringmasters in fields or on incomplete features score Ringmaster points.
• Acrobat Scoring at End of Game: During final scoring, each of your acrobats scores 5 points, regardless of the pyramid's size.
• Incomplete Feature Scoring: Refer to the manual for details on this section.

The player with the highest total number of points is the winner.

Tips for Winning

• Carefully consider the placement of your Ringmaster, as it can generate additional points for each adjacent Circus and Acrobat Tile or in the same completed feature, even if you don't have the majority in the main feature.
• Pay attention to Circus Tiles and Animal Tokens. Trying to have meeples (including Ringmasters) on the Land Tiles around the Big Top when a circus is scored can yield many points, especially if the revealed Animal Token has a high value.
• Take advantage of the flexibility of scoring acrobat pyramids. You can score a complete pyramid even if you have no acrobats in it, which can be a tactic to deny points to an opponent or to free up your meeples.