Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a turn-based strategy game for 2 to 5 players based on the German board game of the same name. By playing land tiles one by one, players build up a landscape of cities, roads, farms, and monasteries. Players compete to claim control of the features they build with a limited supply of follower pieces. Judging where to play the tiles and when to use a follower or not is a deceptively simple process - yet the depth of the game stems from judging when and where to use the followers to gain the most points.

Since the land tiles are random for each game, it has infinite replayability. Knowing which tiles are still left in the "deck" is a bit like counting cards in blackjack - the skilled player will beat the luck of the draw every time. Therefore one-to-one games play quite differently than with 4 or 5 players.

The game is playable with 4 players on the same console on one TV in roughly 15 minutes and also with 5 players via Xbox Live. Next to the base game it also includes the "The River" expansion by default. It builds a river of 12 extra tiles before each game, dividing the land in halves.