Carcassonne: The Tower

Carcassonne is a fun and gorgeous tile-laying game by Klaus Jurgen Wrede (Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, Mesopotamia and many more). After the huge success of the original game Carcassonne Wrede has followed up with a veritable mountain expansions, there is Inns and Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, Princess and Dragon, King and Scout, The River II, as well as these there are a bunch of variant games including The Castle (a clever two player designed with Reiner Knizia), Ark of the Covenant, The City, The Discovery, & Hunters and Gatherers.

The key question for people who own Carcassonne is, do I need Carcassonne: The Tower? If you enjoy Carcassonne, or like the game, but would appreciate it more if it were more tactical, then The Tower is for you. This is one of the best expansions for Carcassonne that money can buy.

The Tower adds a new flavour to a well-used game and just as importantly, it is great fun. The Tower increases the choices that a player can make on their turn; a player may now place a tile and perform one of four actions. These four actions are: place a meeple as usual, place a tower segment, add a tower segment to an already extant tower, and place a meeple on top of a tower to prevent it from getting any higher.

When a player places a tower segment, either beginning or extending a tower, they may also take any meeple prisoner that is within range of the tower. For example: if the player adds the second tower piece they may take a meeple from any tile within two tiles (orthogonally), if the third piece the captured meeple could be from any tile within three tiles.

The fun, and amusing, aspect to the capturing of other player’s meeples are the two ways the meeple can be returned to it’s fellows. A meeple can be repatriated by paying a bounty to the capturing player, the player attempting to get their meeple back must pay three points, reducing their score by three and increasing that of the capturer by three. The second way to have a meeple returned to the fold is by capturing a meeple belonging to the player who took yours, if this is the case the two players neatly arrange a prisoner exchange and both get their meeples back.

The Tower adds in a ton of tactical thought when it comes to placing tiles and meeples, running out of meeples is now a very serious problem, and placing tower tiles, normal tiles, and the meeples you do have is often the subject of much thought and some anxiety.

In addition to the tower pieces and rules Carcassonne: The Tower also comes with a neat and very strong cardboard tower, in which all the game tiles can be placed and drawn from. The tower adds nothing to the way the game plays, but does look nice, and in combination with the rules and tower pieces makes The Tower even better value.

The Tower is a great addition to the Carcassonne set. The Tower adds a whole set of thought processes the game really benefits from, for those who love Carcassonne, for those who would like to add more tactic and thought to the game, for those who like the idea of taking meeples prisoner, Carcassonne: The Tower is an expansion well worth the cost.

Towers are much destructive than the evil dragon, making the game very cut throat!

The tile tower is pretty, also brings convenience to the game.

The idea of capturing opponents' meeple is a great, create much tenseness and fun, but we experienced some problem while playing as the rulebook is too simple!

The main problem is about the geeple (giant followers), the rule book haven't mention the arrangement for prisoner's exchage or ransome of geeple...

Carcassonne is a fantastic game, and one that balances strategy with randomness very, very, well. All of the expansions I have tried so far (Inns and Cathedrals, the Count, Builders and Traders) have added to the strategy of the game and been very well balanced. Not so The Tower! A lucky draw of a tower square can allow you to quickly undo turns of planning and forethought. When I have played with the tower very quickly the game descends into a battle of who-got-the-lucky-draw, either for the tower piece that beats an opponent or the exact piece needed to play on a tower corner to take a city and still be immune to the tower.

The extra tiles are great, and my friends and I have come up with several alternative uses for the tower. But the cardboard tower isn't nearly as useful at the bag from Builders and Traders, and the Tower rules as they stand make the game much, much less enjoyable.