The Book of Carcassonne: Strategy, Tips and Tactics (The Book of Board Games)

Enjoyed reading about Carcassonne.

Muy bien explicado y con buen humor

Leuk spel

Good ideas how to play the game.

Well, what can I say - within a day of reading this book my Elo climbed to over 500! (admittedly I was only 2 points short of this target before reading it, but let's not split hairs).This book is a gem and it deserves to be on every Carcassonne player's bookshelf. On second thoughts, no, that should not happen - it should be kept by the bedside or armchair and actually read because it will help your game.Eagerly anticipated, after a quick flick through the book, I dived straight into the base game strategy. I didn't find a great deal there that I didn't already know about, but that is not surprising since I am in the GB Carcassonne Team after all! A beginner or intermediate player will find a huge amount here to improve their game. Although a lot of how I play is intuition, rather than following rules, it was good to read the theory that underlay that intuition. An example of this is in road building, where the book points out that there are many more tiles that can close a road loop than a road end, so it's often handy to have an unfinished loop ready to close for a quick few points. I had also not considered the possibility of forcing an opponent to close a gap to my benefit, such as leaving no position to play the four-sided city tile other than where you want it to go to allow you to take ownership of a juicy city.For those of you interested in real-world tournament play, an area I am interested in but have not yet tried, there are useful tips on following your opponent's gaze and getting into their mind, and - an essential element of high-level play - tile counting.I also enjoyed reading about the history of the game and the interviews with assorted world champions as well as the game's creator, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, but the unexpected highlight for me was the description of the expansions and some of the strategies that could be used with those. Although I have played a lot of Inns and Cathedrals, Builders and Traders, and Abbey and Mayor with my family, having now read about The Tower I can see that is an expansion I will have to purchase. A book that delights the mind and then stirs you up enough to make you want to go and buy something deserves credit. Well done, Steve and Dan.In the spirit of full disclosure, I would like to point out that I know one of the authors, Dan, who is the captain of the GB Carcassonne Team, but this review is entirely unbiased, except for my love of playing Carcassonne.

Excellent impulse buy - no regrets. Written in a terrifically fluid interview style, humour isn't forced, and tips are legitimately valuable. Even if you know your stuff, this really helps consolidate and label your tactics