The Tower – Building Upwards in the Carcassonne Board Game

Posted on Posted in Board Game Expansion Packs

The 4th expansion pack for Carcassonne

The Tower will allow players to build upwards allowing them to strengthen and fortify their position of power and influence. It brings new tactical elements to the gameplay to help spice things up for fans of Carcassonne, where you can capture opponents’ meeples! (Remember to be friends afterwards!) Otherwise the gameplay still follows the normal rules. There are new tiles to intermix, where these will have a tower base on them. Each player receives Tower segments along with their meeples.

Carcassonne The Tower ContentsOnce a tower base tile has been drawn, a player can either place a meeple on it or instead place a tower segment on that tile or any other tower base tile (providing it doesn’t already have a meeple on it). If there is already a tower segment on a tile but no meeple claiming it, then they can also place a tower segment on this to further build it upwards. When placing tower segments you then have the option to claim opponents’ meeples that are in range. The range is determined by how many segments there are, one segment per tile range. For example if 1 segment high then only those within range of 1 tile can be captured, if 2 segments high then only those in range of 2 tiles. Note the range doesn’t cross over empty places on the board (unfortunately!)

In capturing opponent’s meeples, if someone else has one of yours you can do a swap or they can purchase that meeple back for 3 victory points on their next turn. You can protect your own meeples that are in play by claiming a tower with one of your own meeples at any stage of building it upwards, whether say 1 or 5 segments. However this meeple is then out of play for the rest of the game! In doing so you can no longer build the tower upwards as it’s now considered completed.

It certainly adds new fun to the gameplay that may make things a bit heated at times! The expansion includes a tower to store and distribute the tiles during the game, which is a nice touch!

Are you ready to build upwards in Carcassonne? Available here

 

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