Carcassonne: Traders and Builders - Tips & Strategies

Complete cities with goods, even if you have no claim to the city. You’ll get the goods for the city. It’s best to do this before the city gets too large because a) it could give another player more points than you want and b) it may get too complex to complete.

The bonuses for having the most goods at the end might not be worth the hassle if you’re playing with a lot of the expansions.

The builder is great. he lets you make two turns in a row if only the first turn adds a tile to the structure he is standing on. But if he gets stuck on a structure you can not develop you are doomed. Well, at least if other players’ builders aren’t stuck.

So before you place the builder somewhere think if it’s (relatively) easy to add new tiles there. If so: OK, the worst that can happen is premature finishing the structure by your opponents to let your builder go back… But it’s you who get points! But if you think it’s hard to find proper tiles – don’t place your builder there!

Oh, and look where the other builders are! If you can place your tile so it narrows the possibilities of development there – do it; it may be your winning move.

If you’re playing the 3 tile house rule (you have a hand of 3 tiles and choose one to play on your turn) this makes your builder much more powerful than when drawing tiles at random. Make sure that if you’re using this rule and get an extra turn thanks to the builder that you have to play your next tile from your two remaining tiles, then draw an extra two tiles when play moves to the next player.