Carcassonne is one of the best-known board games of all time. It’s easy to teach, fairly quick to play, and provides you with plenty of strategic depth. Today, we will talk not just Carcassonne the board game, but also Carcassonne expansions. While at it, we will also touch on the best Carcassonne expansions and why may add even more fun to the core gameplay. From saving the princess from the fire-breathing dragon to elbowing other meeples out of your castle, these expansion add a distinct spice to your Carcassonne board game session.
List of Best Carcassonne Expansions
- Inns & Cathedrals
- Traders & Builders
- The Princess & The Dragon
- The Tower
- Abbey & Mayor
- Under the Big Top
- Count, King & Robber
- The Festival
- Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
- Hills & Sheep
1. Inns & Cathedrals
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
Medieval city-building enthusiasts will fondly remember the first-ever major Carcassonne expansions – Inns & Cathedrals. It follows much of the original Carcassonne ruleset but adds new elements to the game for extra variety. The additions come in the form of two new tile types – the inns and the cathedrals – which helped the game feel more balanced by eliminating some major power moves from the original, in addition to adding to gameplay variety. Inns & Cathedrals also introduced players to a new meeple type – the so-called Bullies. They act like regular followers, with the exception that they count as two followers. Finally, the expansion added new scoring cards to help players with the score – an issue that was noted in the original game. All these improvements helped establish Inns & Cathedrals as one of the best Carcassonne expansions.
Buy Inns and Cathedrals on Amazon US OR Amazon UK
2. Traders & Builders
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
The second major Carcassonne expansion, Traders & Builders mimics Inns & Cathedrals in terms of adding content, like the addition of Trade Goods on the city tiles, which adds a new way to score points in the game. How does one obtain them? That’s simple – whichever player adds a land tile that completes a city will gain a trade token for any of the symbols of the good in that city. There are three trade goods players can choose to obtain – Wine, Grain, and Cloth. Whoever gets the most of each at the end of the game will receive 10 points, and in the case of a tie – all players involved in the tie will receive 10 points. There are also pig meeples, which also add points to the game. They can only be placed on a farmland title with a farmer on it. Each player only gets one pig. These further additions to strategy make Traders & Builders one of the more complex, but also one of the best Carcassonne expansions ever made.
Buy Traders & Builders on Amazon US OR Amazon UK
3. The Princess & The Dragon
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
This expansion puts Carcassonne in a wondrous fantasy setting, where players are introduced to a number of new additions: The Dragon, The Fairy, The Princess, and Magic Portals. The Dragon is a large meeple that can absolutely devastate opponents. It must lie on a special volcano tile, and can only move once a player adds one of the twelve tiles that show the picture of a dragon on them. The Dragon can then move six spaces (with a few restrictions), but everything it passes over instantly dies and is returned to the player. The Fairy acts as a natural protection against The Dragon, as when placed on a tile with nothing on it, it protects all nearby meeples from The Dragon’s deadly flight. The Princess removes knight meeples from cities once her tile is placed on a city, which raises the question if she’s actually good or evil. The Magic Portals make meeples teleport across the board when certain conditions are met, adding a whole new layer of potential chaos to the base game. It is this exact chaos that makes The Princess & The Dragon one of the best Carcassonne expansions ever made.
Buy The Princess & The Dragon on Amazon US OR Amazon UK
4. The Tower
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
The addition of the infamous three-piece cardboard Tower put this expansion in the best Carcassonne expansions list. While that may not seem much compared to The Princess & The Dragon, it changes the game just as drastically. Apart from the three cardboard pieces, the box also includes 30 wooden tower floors and 18 new tower foundation land tiles. In short – the Tower is massive, potentially storing up to 180 tiles. What does it do? It allows for direct confrontation between players in the form of capturing meeples. When a tower piece is placed, it captures meeples one or more tiles away in all four directions (not diagonally) based on the number of floors it currently has. Depending on player number, the Tower can have 10 floors in total (in the case of 2 players) or 5 (in the case of 6). The tower is indiscriminate, so all meeples are at risk. They can be returned, however, for a Victory Point sum. Still, players need to be very careful when playing around it.
Buy The Tower on Amazon US or Amazon UK
5. Abbey & Mayor
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
While being widely considered the most dynamic of all Carcassonne expansions, Abbey & Mayor just might be the most complex of all the game’s many expansions, earning it a place on the best Carcassonne expansions list. The addition of the Mayors, Abbeys, Barns, and Wagons adds a ton of strategic options and a psychological element to the game. Barns can only be placed on junctions of four tiles with nothing but fields around them, and once a farm is placed returns all meeples to their owners. Additionally, each city bordering a field with a barn scores four points per city touching it (must be finished) at the end of the game. Abbeys can be used to fill any empty space on the map and are scored like monasteries. Mayors can only be placed in cities without any other Mayors or knights, and while he has strength equal to the number of coats of arms in the city, he does not count toward the final scoring of the game. If there are no coats of arms, the mayor has 0 strength.
Buy Abbey & Mayor on Amazon US or Amazon UK
6. Under the Big Top
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
This expansion brings the circus to the world of Carcassonne. Widely considered as the most colorful and flamboyant expansion, Under the Big Top is praised for its fun mechanics. Perhaps the most fun one is considered the Acrobat meeples, which can stack as a pyramid on top of one another. Each pyramid can be multi-colored, which means anyone can join in the fun. Any circus must have a ringmaster, and this is where the Ringmaster meeples come to play. They can be used as a standard meeple for other tile effects from other expansions (rules overlap), but generally, they score an additional 2 points for each Circus or Acrobat adjacent to them. Afterward, the Ringmaster Meeple returns to your meeple supply. Finally, the Circus introduces animal tokens into the game, which are a new fun way to score points. It’s no wonder why Under the Big Top is a fan-favorite among the best Carcassonne expansions.
Buy Under the Big Top on Amazon US or Amazon UK.
7. Count, King, and Robber
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
Essentially a collection of expansions that had been released in 2004 and 2005, Count King and Robber can be described as an extreme value package. Unlike the single tile of the base game, this expansion enlarges the map, providing a new 12-tile starting point. Furthermore, some expansions can be combined together, potentially resulting in a 24-tile starting point. Centered around the Count, Kind, and Robber meeples, the game combines the large board with new innovative mechanics players can try, ensuring value and replayability. This value package is centered around city and road control more than anything else, allowing for greater player versus-player interactions. While being criticized for lacking originality (due to it being a collection of expansions), its sheer vastness ensures its place among the best Carcassonne expansions to date.
Buy Count, King, and Robber on Amazon US OR Amazon UK
8. The Festival
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
The only mini expansion on the list, Carcassonne: The Festival allows players to easily withdraw a meeple from the game board by placing a Festival tile. Originally a part of Carcassonne: 10-Year Special Edition, this expansion was sold separately by some retailers. The addition of the withdrawal mechanic adds a layer of strategic complexity that wasn’t offered often in the world of Carcassonne. Players need to decide whether or not the current meeple’s current location is valuable, or if its efforts are best redirected elsewhere. Simple and elegant, this mechanic alone earns The Festival a place among the best Carcassonne expansions.
Buy Carcassonne: The Festival on Amazon US.
9. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
As the name suggests, this expansion is centered around three core elements. The wooden bridges are twelve in total and allow for great flexibility on the board, as they allow roads to continue over a river or town and are widely considered as one of the best additions to Carcassonne. Castles are, in essence, a push-your-luck mechanic that deals with the annoyance of small two-tile cities (we all know the pain) at the same time. Players can forego such cities and the points they yield to build a castle instead. This is done by placing one of the limited castle tiles on top of the existing two-tile city. The castle does however score points the first time a feature is completed nearby. The Bazaars consist of 12 new land tiles and are widely considered to be the most significant part of the game. When played, players are suddenly “teleported” to the bazaar and have to bid their victory points for tiles. The flexibility of the bridges, the elegant solution of the castles, and the chaos of the bazaars make the expansion one of the best Carcassonne expansions.
Buy Bridges, Castles & Bazaars on Amazon US OR Amazon UK
10. Hills & Sheep
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
Focused on gathering sheep, this expansion adds shepherd meeples, sheep and wolves tokens, hills and vineyards, and 18 new expansion-themed Land tiles. The Shepherd meeple can be placed on any green field, provided he is not occupied with a sheep herd anywhere else on the board. Once placed, the player must draw a token from a special cloth bag. If it happens to be a sheep, that player places up to four sheep tokens on the field based on the result. If it’s a wolf, however, the Shepherd must be returned to the player, and the wolf – placed back in the bag. With each turn (if the Shepherd survives), players can choose to either grow their flock or collect their sheep for points. Growing the flock means drawing tokens from the cloth bag. A sheep means more tokens, a wolf means that all the sheep are lost, along with the Shepherd. Players need to collect the flock before the game ends or the points will be lost. The elegant light-hearted mechanics are the reason why Hills & Sheep is one of the best Carcassonne expansions ever.
Buy on Hills & Sheep on Amazon US OR Amazon UK
Carcassonne Big Box
- Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
- Players: 2-6 players
- Play Time: 60 minutes
- Age: 8+
- Complexity: 2/5
If you want to pick a whole bunch of expansions, some of which have not been listed on our list of the best Carcassonne expansions, you will definitely want to check out the Big Box. This legendary box has been reprinted for several years now and has proven one of the best entries into the hobby. The box brings 11 expansions, including Taverns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, The Abbot, The River, The Flying Machine, The Messengers, The Ferries, The Gold Mines, The Robbers, and the Crop Circles.
The Abbot will give you a new meeple that will camp out the monastery and let the rest of your meeples claim other titles. The Flying Machine adds a lot of variety, but is also a bit unpredictable, and then there is the Mage & Witch, which will spread good and bad magic all across the land. This box offers a great value for its money and if you are looking to claim a whole bunch of Carcassonne expansions in one swoop, this is a must consider purchase.