Hunters & Gatherers
2002 / 2020
Instead of building roads, cities and monasteries; Hunters & Gatherers has us explore forests, rivers and fields to create a new landscape during the Stone Age.
A mini-expansion, Scout, was released in 2003 together with the King mini-expansion for the original Carcassonne.
In 2020, an updated version of Hunters & Gatherers was published with new artwork.
The Castle
2003 / 2020
This two-player game features a very unique score track, which outlines the walls of The Castle. Tiles are laid within the walls, while the scoring meeples travel along the wall to keep track of points and get bonus tokens. Different rooftops can be laid together, and different bonuses can greatly affect scoring.
An expansion, Falcon, was supposed to be released in 2009, but this was cancelled. The designer, Reiner Knizia, released the artwork as a print-and-play expansion on his website in 2015.
An updated version of The Castle with completely new artwork was published in Poland in 2020, followed by an updated version of the Falcon expansion in 2022.
The Ark of the Covenant
2003-2005
The Ark of the Covenant was a religiously themed Carcassonne spin-off by Inspiration Games and set in Ancient Israel. The German edition by Diehl Medien followed in 2004. A revised English edition with rules clarifications and a wooden ark token was released in 2005. A Nordic version was also released by Lautepelit.
This is a tricky one to find, but a very nice little addition to the franchise.
The City
2004 / 2010
During the game, players will build the city of Carcassonne, and surround it with its well-known wall and towers. The first edition came in a beautiful wooden box, while a second edition from Rio Grande Games in 2010 came in a standard cardboard box.
The Discovery
2005
The Discovery saw new land elements and a different way of scoring. Also, there was the opportunity to score and take back a meeple if you didn’t place one on your turn, even if your feature was incomplete.
This game saw the widest variety of names from the different publishers, as the original title didn’t translate too well into other languages.
Travel Carcassonne
2007
Smaller tiles, smaller meeple, but the same full 72-tile base game, in a travel bag ready to go! The bag it came with could double as storage, and had the score track printed on it, for easy scorekeeping. With these smaller tiles, it was easier to play the game anywhere!
Mayflower / New World
2008
Carcassonne Mayflower has a theme of pioneering through North America, from East to West. The massive score track doubles as the starting point for the game, in which players will explore and build further and further west. Towns are established, and animals are discovered! But don’t stay behind too much, because the Surveyors are there to keep the migration going, ever further west.
In North America, this was sold as Carcassonne: New World.
The Kids of Carcassonne /
My First Carcassonne
2009 / 2020
Carcassonne is a game for all ages, but it can be a bit tricky to learn for our youngest players. This version of the game brings the mechanic of tile-laying in a playful way. The tiles are a bit bigger, and all tiles match the edges of each other. The aim is to complete roads that show your colour, after which you can place your pawn on that road. Get all your pawns on the playing field to win!
A second edition was released in 2020 with updated artwork, and the purple meeples were changed to green.
Outside of English-speaking countries, this spin-off is known as Carcassonne Junior.
Cardcassonne
2009
In this Carcassonne-themed card game, all players have cards across 4 different colours. Every turn, you lay a card in the row of the corresponding colour. Sounds simple enough right? It gets trickier though. You score points depending on what’s on the cards, and which row you can claim. But you can only claim 1 row per round. Claim too early, and some better cards might come up.
The Dice Game
2011
This little box contained a whole new stand-alone game. You are allowed to roll the 3 times during your turn. Any city segments or knights, you can put aside to build your city with. But if you roll a catapult, your turn ends and you have to pass the force to the next player.
Winter Edition
2012 / 2020 / 2022
A new art, filled with snow, ice and many animals spread out over the tiles! The rules remained the same for this, but it was a very cute edition of our beloved classic game.
The artwork was slightly revised in 2020 by Marcel Gröber, and then more extensively in 2022.
This spin-off has also seen winterized versions of The River, The Abbot, Crop Circles, and a winter-exclusive mini-expansion The Gingerbread Man.
South Seas
2013
In this first installment from the “Around the World” series, you build features not to directly score points, but to collect bananas, shells and fish! These goods are then used to buy a trade ship, which will give you well deserved points!
This mechanism makes it so you have to collect some of each trade good. You can’t disregard the shells, or focus only on bananas! Beware of fishing, as every time you fish, the amount of available fish goes down!
A mini-expansion for South Seas was released at the same time: Friday, which adds a neutral figure and a bonus system.
Gold Rush
2014
This second spin-off in the “Around the World” series was set in the old west! The mechanic of tile-laying remains the same, but now players are building Mountains, Railways and Villages.
A mini-expansion for Gold Rush was released at the same time: The Sheriff, which adds a neutral figure to make gold mining a bit more challenging.
Star Wars Edition
2015
This spin-off did a great job of combining the well-known elements of Carcassonne, with the amazing space opera that is Star Wars! Players build trade routes, discover asteroid fields, and battle for the control of planets! There is no sharing allowed in this game!
An expansion was released in 2016 which added a sixth player to the game and made combat more interesting.
Over Hill and Dale
2015
This game was all about life on a farm. Building roads to wander on, fields to grow crops and collecting animals.
Tokens for crops are collected when completing fields, which will give lots of extra points at the end of the game. Make sure to make sets of different ones though!
When working on roads, you can go for a wander! When you expand a road you are one, your meeple may hike along the path and score points for it!
Place your stable in a field and try to surround it with animals. You get 2 stables each, so you get a few options to find a good place to place them.
Amazonas
2016
The “Around the World” series continued in 2016, with a game set around the Amazon river. Players build the forest area, with villages and small streams that branch off from the main river. Even the main river joins the fun, as there are tiles that will extend the river further down.
Players also have boats, which will travel down the river. When placing a tile, players can choose to play a meeple as per usual, or move their boat forward.
In 2017, two additional river tiles were published together with the Markets of Leipzig expansion for regular Carcassonne.
Carcassonne for 2
2017
The box contains 48 tiles, which are smaller than the usual Carcassonne tiles. These are the same size as the Travel Edition tiles that we’ve seen in the C1 art. It is a game specifically for 2 people, as it contains 2 colours of meeples, red and blue. These meeples are slightly taller but slimmer than the Travel Edition meeples.
Safari
2018
In this fourth installment in the “Around the World” series, players go on an exploring adventure on the savannah! The tiles show animal trails, bushes, and baobab trees, where players work on building these and getting to see the Big Five!
Two additional tiles were released in the 2/2018 issue of Spiel Doch! magazine, and were later sold separately on the Cundco website in 2021.
Mists over Carcassonne
2022
This game is unique in being both a stand-alone spin-off game, as well as the 11th major expansion to the Carcassonne base game! The game follows the theme of ghosts covering the landscape, and people needing to keep an eye on them!
The stand-alone version is cooperative! Players must work together to meet the goals of 6 different levels, trying to drive out the ghosts and keep their Guardian Meeple busy!
As an expansion, the game can be played competitively. There are separate rules available that explain how to use the different new elements against your opponents!
