Carcassonne: River I - Tips & Strategies

Be careful if you are planning on buying this expansion as you may already own it. Most recent copies of Carcassonne already come with the River expansion in the box.

Check your copy before making your purchase!

Different groups I’ve played with have had different mindsets when it comes to farming around the river. I have been in games where one or two players were quite passionate in their belief that the start and end tiles do NOT allow one continuous farm all the way around the tile. More than once, arguments between players spoiled the enjoyment of the game.

The majority of games I’ve played with the river have been done assuming one farm goes around the river start and/or end tiles. I have not noticed this rule giving an “automatic win” to the first person farming. This is the rule I would recommend playing with; for me, it’s easier to keep track of who is farming what if there is not an assumed break on the start/end tiles.

Due to it having come up a few times, I would highly recommend verifying with our opponents BEFORE a game to ensure everyone is happy with the river farming rules to be used.

When using both river sets, and all the expansions, you’ll end up with too many river endings. We handle it this way.

1) Place one Spring (start of the river) tile on the table. Put the other away. It won’t be used.
2) Remove all the river endings, and make a pile of them. Shuffle this pile and put it aside.
3) Shuffle the rest of the river tiles, including the T junction.
4) Play starts, and players take turns placing the river tiles, per the instructions.
5) When the T junction is placed, draw one river end tile and shuffle it into the rest of the unused river tiles.
6) Continue playing river tiles. When the river end tile is drawn, play it on one of the ends.
7) Continue building the rest of the other branch until you run out of river tiles, then draw another river end tile and cap the river off.
8) Put the unused river ends away, and continue play normally.