Six games to replace Carcassonne
It's not easy to replace one of the best games of all time.
There’s something that feels quite wrong to me about Carcassonne not being a top-100 game on Board Game Geek. I mean, I don’t feel personally offended, but Carcassonne was one of the first hobby board games I really got into after being introduced to the hobby, and it holds up incredibly well.
All that is a lousy introduction to this post, in which I claim to be giving you some recommendations on games to replace Carcassonne. I’ll own that. I love Carcassonne, though I understand if you don’t. Recommending games to replace one of my favorites is new ground for me, so you’ll excuse my not being quite sure how to proceed.
If we’re to aim to replace Carcassonne, we ought first start with understanding what it is about Carcassonne we’re trying to replace. The game provides some key characteristics with which we might start. It’s a tile-laying classic. You’re collectively — and sometimes collaboratively, depending on the group — building out a map of the French countryside. We’ll start our list with games that have you building a map, though we’ll struggle to find too many great games that have you building out a single map.
We will look for games that are either competitive or cooperative, and we will look for games that have you building out maps. We could expand to games that don’t involve a literal map but do involve an abstract representation of a map, but this might expand the search a bit too far. A question that guided me here: “Is Azul a good Carcassonne replacement?” I think the answer is no, but you might disagree. That’s alright!
Alright. Now that we’ve established the criteria, as slim as it is, let’s get to the games.
Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King
There was a time when this was described as a “Carcassonne killer.” It hasn’t proven to be that, but it has proven to be a great game you might like if you also like Carcassonne. You might like it if you don’t like Carcassonne, too, but I can’t really speak from experience there.
Isle of Skye dropped in 2015 (wait, this game is nearly a decade old? I’m starting to feel like I might be aging!) with tiles that are reminiscent of the green of Carcassonne. Based on the Isle of Skye off the coast of mainland Scotland, the big idea here is that you’re building a personal map, and you’re doing so by buying tiles from other players. Each player sets prices for tiles they draw, and other players may buy those tiles; any tiles that aren’t bought by other players go into a player’s tiles to place for a round, but they must pay the prices they set — but to the bank.
Beyond the nice mechanic around selling the tiles you draw, Isle of Skye features variable scoring tiles, with four of the game’s 16 being used on any given play. That gives each game its own twist. I generally enjoy that, but I also enjoy the simplicity of Carcassonne’s scoring rules, as well as how much individual players influence things. Good game! Carcassonne killer? Perhaps not. But you can be the judge of that.
Designed by Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister. Published by Lookout Games.
Cacao
Aha, here we have a global map (and by that, I mean a map all players play to, not a map of the world), and we have one of my favorite things: cacao. (I’m a big fan of bean-to-bar chocolate, but also, if you ever get a chance to try fresh cacao pulp, do it.) This is an interesting tile-placement game, as the tiles you place and the orientation of those tiles dictate the actions you get to perform.
In Cacao, you’re collecting (you guessed it!) cacao, selling it, and otherwise gathering points. You have two types of tiles with which you’ll be dealing: worker tiles and jungle tiles. Your worker tiles feature from zero to three workers on each side. Each turn, you’ll be placing worker tiles and performing the action on adjacent jungle tiles, then filling any empty spaces you’ve now created with your placement with jungle tiles. Some will allow you to harvest cacao, others will let you sell it. You might also instead find an opportunity to gain game-end points from temples, gain gold from mines, or gain other game-end points.
Cacao is a neat game, and there are parts of it that feel truly Carcassonne-inspired. That’s a good thing! Balancing in-game points and end-game points is where the game shines. It’s of course interesting that your workers are on tiles, not separate tokens you place, and that distinction is what makes Cacao an interesting game.
Designed by Phil Walker-Harding, published by Z-Man Games in the U.S.
Cascadia
If you thought I was going to stick to square-shaped tiles here, think again. Cascadia is a hex-tile-placement game, but don’t hold that against it. (I don’t know why you would. Hexagons are neat.) This is where we do start to drift away from Carcassonne a bit more, though it’s not about that shape. We’re again dealing with a local map to which only you contribute. Each turn, you’ll be selecting one pair of a habitat tile and wildlife token, and you’ll place each in your map. Wildlife tokens can only be placed on matching tiles, but the rules around tile placement are significantly reduced.
This is another game with variable scoring. Each type of wildlife will score in their own way, as drawn from a deck. It lends each game a distinct feeling, and it’ll force you to focus on your scoring opportunities as they arise throughout the game. Unlike Carcassonne, you’re going to feel like you have a lot of choices as you go, but your ability to plan more or less well might mean your options either grow or shrink.
Cascadia is a smart game that treads novel ground. It’s also a runaway success, with the 2022 Spiel des Jahres prize being perhaps the best indicator of that. It also won the American Tabletop Awards prize for best strategy game in 2022. It’s a lovely game, and I think I should play it more.
Designed by Randy Flynn, published by Flatout Games.
Cartographers
I love the global map you’re building in Carcassonne, but there’s something really charming about a game like Cartographers, where you’re drawing your own map on your own paper, and you can easily play with a large number of players — and you can even play remotely with little effort.
In Cartographers, each player will be drawing the same shapes on their map at the same time, with each turn being played simultaneously from a card drawn and shared with all players. Each card depicts one or two shapes to choose from, as well as one or more terrain types to choose from. You’ll draw that shape in some orientation on your map, aiming to meet one of four goals that are dealt at the beginning of the game.
The game is played over four seasons; in the first season, you’ll evaluate the first and second goals; in the second, the second and third; and so on, with the final season evaluating the final and first goals. That seems like a quirk of the system, but each round, you’re drawing polyomino regions on your map while thinking about each of the goals in the game. That’s the case until the late game, at least, when you’ll really start honing in on your goals.
Designed by Jordy Adan, published by Thunderworks Games.
Between Two Cities
While Between Two Cities doesn’t feature a global map you’re collectively building upon, it does feature collective map-building among you and the players on either side of you. The game itself is pretty straightforward — earn points for different types of tiles and their placement in your city. Parks earn increasing points based on the size of the connected parks, factories earn points if you have more than other players, shops earn points in a line — that sort of thing. It’s fun, but that’s not where Between Two Cities shines.
See, in Between Two Cities, you’re building those cities with your neighbors on either side, right? So you’re literally placed between two cities. You’ll allocate one tile to each on your turn. But if you favor either city too much, you’ll find yourself hurting at game end, because your final score is the lower score between your two cities. Aha! That’s the game. Balancing that out, figuring out with your neighbors what you should play to increase your score, and hoping that your neighbors’ neighbors aren’t as in-tune as you. That’s the game.
Designed by Matthew O’Malley and Ben Rosset, published by Stonemaier Games.
Kingdomino
If you’re looking to replace Carcassonne with something a bit simpler — something you could play with younger family members, maybe — Kingdomino could be just the game for you. See, Carcassonne thrives with its entire ruleset, but the length of the game means inexperienced players might end up committing their meeples far too early in the game.
Kingdomino is a tile-laying game with dominos, and as a result, you’re always laying two squares in your five-by-five grid. The premise is simple: Connect terrain types, earn points equal to the crowns on tiles multiplied by the size of the terrain. It’s quick and simple, and it’ll delight new gamers.
Designed by Bruno Cathala, published by Blue Orange Games.
Six more tile-laying games
Castles of Mad King Ludwig has you placing tiles to build out your very own strange castle. Nice price-setting mechanic, too. Designed by Ted Alspach. (Alternately, try Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, which combines this one and Between Two Cities. I think it’s great!)
My City is (as you’d readily imagine) a local-map building game that plays out over a campaign. I’ve only played the first game of the campaign, though, so the game drops to the “more options” section here. I’d quite like to play it, though. Designed by Reiner Knizia.
Sprawlopolis doesn’t have chunky tiles, it has cards, but it’s a tiling sort of thing, so I think it counts. This is a cooperative puzzle and I quite like it, but it’s a little tough. Designed by Steven Aramini, Danny Devine and Paul Kluka.
Bärenpark is a game about building a park for bears. It’s pretty great. It didn’t make the list because it really is more about the po
lyominoes than building that map. (I dunno. It was close. Cartographers really pushes the line here.) Designed by Phil Walker-Harding.
Tang Dynasty is a beautiful tile-laying game, and I’ve played it several times, but I just can’t think of a good way to describe it. You’re trying to make panoramic views, I guess? Also, there a bunch of miniatures, because this game came from the realm of late-2010s Kickstarter. Designed by Francesco Testini and Pierluca Zizzi.
Habitats just misses out as I’ve only played it once, but I like the way you get new tiles — there’s a little puzzle in there. Nice game. Designed by Corné van Moorsel.
Hey, thanks for reading, as always! I hope you’re doing well. I want to hear from you this week — what games have you been playing? Anything standing out? Anything you’d like me to write about?
Next week: Great polyomino games. That’s right — we’re sticking with tiles. And paper. And … well, you get the idea. See you next week!
Those are a lot of good games. A couple of others worth playing that we have played for years are Fjords and Okanagan: Valley of the Lakes. Both make up maps with the tile placements and are simple to play but have held up well. I think Okanagan is woefully underappreciated.
Tipperary is a great tile laying game similar to carcassonne (though with individual maps). I love the mechanics to getting rows of ruins, pairs of bogs and distillery plus field combos. Plus the art is cute (and there are sheep). You a building an Irish county rather than the French countryside. I think of it as the love child of carcassonne and kingdomino.