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Retro Game Walkthroughs For
"Carcassonne"
(Xbox 360)

Retro Game Walkthroughs for Carcassonne (Xbox 360)
Submitted By: eyesonjason
CARCASSONNE WALKTHROUGH

CONTENTS

[CC01] Introduction
[CC02] History
[CC03] Controls
[CC04] Game Basics and using them in the game
[CC05] Scoring
[CC06] Hints and tips
[CC07] Achievement guide
[CC08] IMPORTANT LEGAL STUFF

[CC01] Introduction

Hello again and welcome to another guide written by freeola’s hippyman. I’ve been hard at work this week writing a guide for the popular Xbox Live Arcade game, Carcassonne. Set in France, it’s based on a type of board game with the same name. The game can be bought from the XBL Marketplace for 800 points (which is about £6.80) and the River Expansion Pack, an extra set of cards for a slightly different styled game, can be downloaded for free. Bargain!

[CC02] History

I always like to give a little history behind why I bought a given game and why I have decided to write a walkthrough for it. Initially I was browsing the XBL Marketplace looking at what games were around and stumbled across Carcassonne. First of all I thought it was a world builder simulation, very much like SimCity, as it used words like “farms”, “cities” and “roads” in its description. I downloaded the trial version and found it to be quite a different style game to what I first thought. But I enjoyed the trial game, so I paid up the 800 points and unlocked the full version.

So why did I write a walkthrough on it? Well initially it was going to be a walkthrough on how to get the achievements, but since it is a good game and I consider myself to be somewhat good at it (yes, my ego is huge!) I decided to pass on my knowledge of how to score highly on it and make you enjoy the game a little better.

[CC03] Controls

The controls in this game are quite simple. They can also be learnt in the tutorial.

The LB and RB buttons zoom you in and out
The LT and RT rotate your tile before placement
The Left Thumbstick moves your tile between legal places before you place it
The Right Thumbstick controls the camera
The A button places a the tile and then can be used to place a follower
The X button ends your current turn
The B button allows you to undo placements before you end your turn
The Start button pauses the game

[CC04] Game Basics and using them in a game

The aim of the game is to have the most points at the end of the game by building and claiming roads, farms, cities and monasteries. The more you claim, the more you score. The bigger they are the more points you score.

When you load up Carcassonne, make a beeline for the “Help and Options” heading and play through the tutorial. This will allow you to visual see what I am writing about and will give you a good feel on how the game plays, what methods you may want to use and form a basis on what kind of player you will become.

The basic idea of the game is to place your tiles down in the game and place a follower on the part of the tile you wish to claim somewhere along the game timeframe. To claim the tiles and score from them, you will need to use your followers in a certain way (explained below). Once the tiles have been claimed you can retrieve your follower. The more things you claim, the bigger your score and the more likely you are to beat your opponent.

Whilst in the tutorial, you will learn the types of tiles, although I have given a brief overview of them below. Most tiles will contain some grass, some will have city walls, others roads and intersection and a few will contain monasteries.

Road tiles – roads are the tiles with white lines on them. They are either curved, straight, form a T-junction, a crossroad or have an ending in either a monastery or a city. The road will start on one side of the tile and, depending on the piece, comes out of another side. You will have to connect these pieces together so that a trail forms across the faces of the tiles. Roads are completed when there is an ending on both sides (meaning, the trail cannot go any further, or in the case of intersections, another route is available. To claim these tiles, place a follower somewhere along the white line.

City tiles – these come in a few shapes and sizes. The first, and most common, is a semi-circle in the tile. Others include a half-city-half-grass tile, a bow shaped piece, one that covers over three quarters of the tile and a completely-city tile. The idea of these pieces is to form a continuous solid block of city tiles, outlined by city walls (i.e. grass on the outside). The tutorial explains this much better than words can. To claim a city, place a follower within the city walls early on and complete the city.

Monastery tiles – these are quite rare and a nice tile to place. These tiles are usually surrounded by grass, so they are easy to place. Put these down on the grid with a follower inside and surround the tile with a tile around all adjacent sides (yes, that’s 8 tiles) to form this piece into a monastery and claim it for your score.

As I said previously, playing the tutorial will explain this much clearer as it is a very difficult thing to explain in words. Just playing through will give you a fair idea on how things work and what is possible. Don’t worry when playing the real game – if a tile cannot be placed, there will be no mark for it when it comes to placing it on the grid!

[CC05] Scoring

The fun part! Unfortunately for me there are many types of scoring (based on where people played the original board game). The options on what scoring system is used can be found in the Options section on the main menu and will affect the Custom game. You may want o skip a little further down the page if you only plan on the basic version of Carcassonne.

In the options the following things are available to you:

Road Scoring – If this is turned off, you cannot get points from claiming roads

City Scoring – If this is turned off, you cannot get points for claiming cities. If it is set to International, cities made up of 2 tiles are worth 4 points. If this option is set to US, cities of 2 tiles are worth 2 points.

Monastery Scoring – If this is turned off, you cannot get any points for claiming monasteries.

Farm Scoring – If this is turned off, you cannot get any points for claiming farms. If it is set to International, you will receive 3 points for every completed city the farm is touching. If this is set to US, the largest farm owned that is touching a city would award you 4 points.

Apart from these options in the way the game is scored, the basic scoring is as follows:

Cities – Cities can be as large as you like, but make sure you finish them! They are finished when the brown area is sealed in and the walls rise up. 2 points are awarded for each tile that make up a complete city. 2 extra points are also up for grabs with every pennant (blue and white shield) the city contains). If at the end of the game the city is incomplete, the player who has the most followers (they are called knights when in a city) will score 1 point for each tile in the incomplete city and an addition point for each pennant.

Roads- Roads can be as long as you like – but do your best to finish building them. They are finished when both ends reach a crossroad, T-junction, monastery or a city. When finished and contain a thief (your followers are known as thieves when placed on a road), you will score 1 point for each tile that makes up the road. Unfinished roads at the end of the game are also worth 1 point.

Monasteries – These tiles are nice ones as they allow quite a lot of scoring to take place. They are finished when the tile they are on is surrounded completely with other tiles. Make sure you place a follower (called a monk in this instance) as it is easily forgotten. When scored they are worth 9 points. Unfinished monasteries at the end of the game are worth 1 point for the monastery and one point for every tile that surrounds it.

Farms – farms are the large grassy areas on the tiles. They can only be scored when the game is over and there is no way of completing them. The grassy areas that are claimed are called farms. Every city that a farm touches will score the player 3 points. One farm can support many cities and many farms can support one city – so the opportunity of getting some points at the end of the game is there!


[CC06] Hints and Tips

There are a few things I have noticed whilst playing the game – areas that will help you win and things that will help you not lose. They may sound like the same thing, but what I am try to say is there are things you SHOULD do and things that you SHOULD NOT do. In this section I will pass on my knowledge on how to score well.

Watch what your opponents are doing. Sometimes they have placed a claim on a road or city and continue to build it up. If you can nip it in the bud, do so. Don’t be afraid of giving them a few points if it can stop them getting loads.

Following on from the last tip, position a road piece or city tile about one block away from an opponent’s piece. Quite often there will be a chance to join the two together and you can both claim the piece. Likewise, if you are sharing a claim on a city, try and use this tactic to include another one of your followers so your opponent won’t score when the structure is finished.

Be wary on how many followers you use. It’s easy to get drawn into claiming everything early on, but you don’t want to run out of them when a quick claim is available or you have a monastery tile. Be conservative and focus on what you can get before trying to grab more and be greedy. Remember, you get your follower back once the structure is finished and claimed.

Look for quick points as well as long term ones. If you see a crossroad and have a crossroad tile, place the two next to one another and put a follower in the gap. This will instantly transform into a road and you will gain a quick two points. This will let you get your follower back instantly as well.

Similar to the last tip, this can be done with cities. Place two common semi-circular city pieces together and place a follower in between. This will let you claim a small city and will often award you a quick 4 points (depending on scoring system). You will also get your follower back immediately if you use this tactic on a tile already placed.

Monasteries can often be difficult to surround with other tiles, so rather than place on the outermost of the grid, try and place it with 3 or 4 tiles already surrounding (the more the better). This means it’ll be quicker and often easier to score more points from a monastery than doing it from scratch.

The farms shouldn’t be claimed until late in the game (well, when there are about 8 tiles left). This is because you can actually see how many cities your farm will score and have a better idea on how many points you will get.

If you have five followers and only four turns left, use them. Use them on anything (preferably farms) and you can gain some after game scoring points. Remember, farms are easier to score near the end, so it’s a prime time to use your followers. Likewise, roads, monasteries and cities will also award you points if you place a follower on them even if they are incomplete.


[CC07] Achievement Guide

There are 12 achievements available for this Xbox Live Arcade game, totalling 200 GamerScore points. I will now list the achievements, their relevant scores and a guide on how to obtain the achievements. Hopefully with this guide you will be able to obtain the full 200 points from the game.

BIG CITY (5 Points)

Score a city with 3+ tiles in single player. One of the easiest achievements. Link together three city tile pieces and make sure you finish it off with a follower inside. You’ll get this one very quickly!

KING OF THE ROAD (5 points)

Score a road with 5+ tiles in Single Player. The way to score a road is to join the white line pieces together and have both ends sealed in with either an entrance to a city piece, crossroad piece, T-junction piece or a monastery piece and make sure you place a follower on the road somewhere. Make sure you have 5 road pieces in between these two end pieces and you’ll unlock this achievement.

FARM BOY (10 points)

Score a Farm supplying 4+ Cities in Single Player. A farm is scored by placing a follower on a piece of grass and have the grass touch a city. Place four cities around the farm to unlock the achievement. (Quick note, do not allow a road to pass between a follower on the grass and a city as it will not count as supplying the city).

RACKING UP THE POINTS (10 points)

Score 50+ points in a single player game. The way to get this one is to start a game with one AI opponent set to easy. Keep building cities and roads. Near the end of the game (when the tile counts is low), place a few followers to create farms. These will rack up your score and unlock the achievement.

KING FOR A DAY (15 points)

Win one ranked game. Play online in a ranked match and win. As this game is rarely played online, it may be difficult to obtain. My gamertag is JASON BRFC, so message me and I will arrange for a time to play you to help try unlock this achievement, although it is a nice easy one to get.

TOP SCORE (15 points)

Score 2000+ points across all of your Carcassonne games. Keep playing the game and have fun whilst dong so. An average easy game with one AI opponent will score you roughly 130 points a round. Keep aiming for the other achievements and you may unlock this one along the way.

THE COUNT OF CARCASSONNE (20 points)

Score 150+ points in a single player game. Quite difficult to achieve this, but remember to score as often as possible and make full use of my hints and tips section of this guide. Play aggressively and play to win!

TOP OF THE HEAP (20 points)

Win a player match with 3+ players. Start up a player match and select to include two easy AI players. If you win or tie for first, you unlock the achievement. Again, if needs be try and arrange a game with JASON BRFC (please message me beforehand).

LORD OF CARCASSONNE (25 points)

Beat a player by 50+ points in a player match. May be helpful to do this online with a friend, but the more you play the game, the better you will become. Look to build large cities, claim a few farms towards the end of the game and use every opportunity to score. Make use to the tips I’ve given in the hints and tips section of this guide.

METROPOLIS (25 points)

Score a City with 9+ tiles in a Player Match vs. 2 or more opponents. Play online in a player match with a friend and AI. Keep building a city up (place a follower early on to claim it) and encourage an online partner to assist you. When it is over 9 tiles, make sure you finish the city off and you will unlock the achievement.

MIRROR MONK (25 points)

Score 2 adjacent Monasteries in Single Player. This is of medium difficulty to obtain, as it is down to luck of what tiles you get. When you get a monastery tile place it down in an area adjacent to as many tiles as possible. Place a follower inside. Now, leave room for another monastery tile and when you get one, place it adjacent to the monastery you have just scored. Place a follower inside. Now, place tiles around all the adjacent edges of these monasteries to score them and get the achievement.

ULTIMATE SCORE (25 points)

Score 5000+ points across all your Carcassonne games. Similar to the TOP SCORE achievement. Keep playing the game and aiming for the other achievements. It can be repetitive, but some achievements are like that. This will be the toughest in the game, but stick at it and it will unlock eventually.

[CC08] IMPORTANT LEGAL STUFF

There is none by my recognition, although I spent some time making this guide I am not copywriting this guide. If you want to plagiarise my hard work for your personal use, you are welcome to it. The website I have written this for is www.freeola.com. Any legality that surrounds their walkthroughs guards this one as well. I don’t mind as long as you put my name (Jason Searle) or handle (hippyman) on somewhere in this guide. If you find this guide elsewhere without accreditation, please inform me on the freeola forum or e-mail me at [email protected].

Thank-you for using the hippyman guide to Carcassonne on the Xbox 360.

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