How to Play Carcassonne: Tile Placement, Meeples & Scoring
Carcassonne is a tile-placement game built one tile at a time. On your turn, place a land tile so all touching edges match, optionally place one meeple on the tile you just added, then score every feature completed by that placement. The player with the most points after final scoring wins.
Researched rules guide. Checked September 15, 2026 against Z-Man Games’ current English base-game rules and supplemental sheet. This guide covers the current 2–5 player base game. Farmers, The River and The Abbot are identified separately where relevant. No hands-on testing is claimed. Editorial standards.
On this page: Set up the landscape · Follow the three steps of a turn · Place tiles legally · Place meeples correctly · Score roads · Score cities · Score monasteries · Use farmers · Resolve final scoring
Set up the starting landscape
Place the standard starting tile in the center of the table and shuffle the remaining land tiles into face-down stacks within reach. Put the scoreboard nearby and give each player the meeples of one color.
The standard rules begin from the printed start tile. If you use The River, follow the separate River setup instead of the ordinary start. Keep expansion modules separate while teaching the basic game.
Choose a starting player according to your group’s preferred method or the rulebook’s guidance, then play clockwise.
Every turn follows three steps
- 1. Place a land tile. Draw exactly one tile and connect it legally to the existing landscape.
- 2. Optionally place one meeple. It must be placed on the tile you just added and on an eligible feature.
- 3. Score completed features. Resolve every road, city or monastery completed by that tile placement, even if the feature belongs to another player.
You cannot skip the tile-placement step. Placing a meeple is optional. Scoring a completed feature is not optional.
All touching tile edges must match
A land tile must touch at least one existing tile edge-to-edge. Every touching side must continue the landscape correctly: road to road, city to city and field to field.
Corner contact alone does not connect a tile to the board. Rotate the drawn tile as needed before placing it.
The legal shape matters later. A placement can merge two previously separate roads, cities or fields into one connected feature, which can change which players share or control that feature.
A new meeple must go on the tile you just placed
After placing the land tile, you may place one meeple from your supply on one eligible feature shown on that new tile.
You may place it as a traveler on a road, a knight in a city, a monk on a monastery, or—when using the supplemental farmer rules—as a farmer in a field.
You cannot place a meeple on a connected road, city or field that already contains another meeple anywhere along that feature. However, two separately claimed features may later be joined by another tile. That is how several players can legally end up on one completed feature.
You may never place a meeple on an older tile just because a feature becomes attractive later.
Completed roads score 1 point per tile
A road is complete when both ends are closed—for example by a village, city, monastery or by looping back into itself.
Count the number of land tiles making up the road. Each tile contributes 1 point. The player with the most meeples on the road scores the full amount.
If multiple players tie for the most meeples, every tied player scores the full road value. The points are not divided.
After scoring, return all meeples from that completed road to their owners’ supplies.
Completed cities score tiles and coats of arms
A city is complete when its walls form a fully closed boundary with no open city edges.
During the game, each tile in the completed city is worth 2 points, and each coat of arms in that city is worth another 2 points. Majority works the same way as roads: the player with the most knights scores the full value, and tied leaders each receive the full score.
Return the scoring meeples after the city is scored.
A surrounded monastery scores 9 points
A monastery is complete when its tile is completely surrounded by eight neighboring land tiles.
When completed, the monastery scores 9 points: 1 for the monastery tile itself and 1 for each of the eight surrounding tiles. Return the monk after scoring.
The tile that completes a monastery may simultaneously complete a road or city, so score every completed feature created by the placement.
Farmers stay in fields until the end of the game
Z-Man places farmers in the supplemental rules rather than the introductory base rules. If your group uses them, place a farmer lying down on an eligible field on the tile you just placed.
A farmer remains on that field for the rest of the game. It does not return to your supply during normal play.
At final scoring, each field scores 3 points for every completed city touching that field. The player with the most farmers in the field receives the full score; tied leaders each score the full amount.
Incomplete cities do not count for farmer scoring.
Separate features can merge later
You cannot place a meeple directly onto a feature that is already occupied. But you can claim a separate unoccupied feature and later connect it to another player’s feature.
Once joined, count all meeples on the combined feature when it scores. This makes majority management one of Carcassonne’s central tactical systems.
For example, if you have one knight in a separate city and later connect it to an opponent’s one-knight city, both players are tied for control. If the combined city is then completed, both receive the full city score.
Final scoring includes unfinished features
After the last land tile is placed and any features completed by that tile are scored normally, resolve final scoring.
- Incomplete road: 1 point per road tile.
- Incomplete city: 1 point per city tile plus 1 point per coat of arms.
- Incomplete monastery: 1 point for the monastery tile plus 1 for each surrounding tile.
- Fields: if using farmers, 3 points per completed city touching the field.
Apply the same majority and tie rules when scoring incomplete roads and cities. The player with the highest total score wins.
Common Carcassonne rules mistakes
- Placing a meeple on an old tile: a new meeple must go on the tile just placed.
- Claiming an occupied connected feature: the full connected road, city or field must be empty of meeples at placement time.
- Splitting tied points: tied leaders each receive the full value.
- Returning farmers during the game: farmers stay in their fields until final scoring.
- Scoring incomplete cities at the completed-city rate: incomplete cities score only 1 per tile and coat of arms at game end.
Continue learning Carcassonne
- Carcassonne game guide and edition notes
- Carcassonne strategy: meeple efficiency, feature merging and farmer timing
- Kingdomino for another tile-placement game with a personal map.
- Cascadia for a personal habitat-building tile puzzle.
Sources and scope
- Z-Man Games: Carcassonne
- Z-Man Games: English base-game rules
- Z-Man Games: supplemental rules for farmers, The River and The Abbot
Checked September 15, 2026. This page covers the current English Z-Man base game. Big Box modules and standalone Carcassonne titles can add different components and rules.