Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals
2-6
8+
30+
This expansion offers all fans of Carcassonne new challenges: The Cathedral triples the value of a city, and the Inn doubles the value of a road - but only when they are completed. Players may use the new large follower to double their chances of controlling a city, road, or field. Also included is all necessary material to allow a sixth player to join in the fun. Finally, there are 6 point tiles to make scoring easier when players score more than 50 points.
Inns and Cathedrals is not a complete game, but must be played with Carcassonne.
User Reviews (13)
Add a Review for "Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals"
You must be logged in to add a review.
There is nothing complicated about this expansion to the excellent Carcassonne as it only has 2 new rules, but it adds a lot to the original game.
OK, so I’ve played Carcassonne, why do I need this?
Because it makes Carcassonne better!
But Carcassonne is already a great game, surely this is just going to make things needlessly complicated?
How little you know my friend. Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals adds a few extra tiles to the game. Some are simply variations of the existing tiles, but some have one of two new features.
What are they?
Err… inns and cathedrals?
Oh, I see. Clever. I suppose you’re going to tell me that they have some new rules as well?
Yes. Basically Inns and Cathedrals are like “double or quits” tiles. If you complete a road and it has an inn next to it, you score two points for each tile it contains instead of just one. However, if an incomplete road has an inn next to it at the end of the game, that road doesn’t score anything. Similarly, if you complete a city and it has a cathedral in it, you score three points for each tile (plus three points for each shield), but if that city is incomplete at the end of the game is scores nothing.
So what does this do to the gameplay?
If you pick up a tile with an inn or a cathedral you can take a chance and try and gain yourself some extra points if you think you can complete a feature, or you can try and scupper an opponent if you think they’re not going to finish a feature. Either way it will focus gameplay on those features as players either try to finish them for their own benefit or stop someone else completing it.
Sounds interesting!
It is. The best thing about it is that the new rules are simple enough that even new players who’ve never played Carcassonne can jump right in and play with inns and cathedrals as well, you don’t need to get the hang of the base game on its own first. It really does make an already fun game even better.
This expansion comes with four components-
– 8 gray meeples
– 6 point tiles
– 6 large meeples (one in each color)
– New tiles
Gray Meeples
These are the same as the meeples in the base game- they’re just a different color which allows you to play with up to 6 people instead of just 5.
Point Tiles
The point tiles are extra tiles that have 50 printed on one side and 100 printed on the other. They are used to help keep track of points if you score more points than the score board allows (the board only goes up to 50). I actually keep these tiles in my base game box in case I’m not playing this expansion and need to keep track of more points.
Large Meeples
Each player will receive one large meeple (he’s slightly larger than the regular ones). During scoring this meeple counts like two regular meeples when deciding who has the most followers. For example- player A has two followers (regular size) and player B has one follower (large size). Since player B’s large meeple counts as two regular followers, they would share the points with player A. If player B had also had a regular size follower, they would have then scored all the points and not had to share with player A.
New Tiles
There are 18 new tiles with this expansion. All the tiles have tiny little meeples printed on them to differentiate them from the base tile set and other expansions. Some of them are just different configurations that add extra variety to the game play. But some tiles have roads with an inn on them, and there are two city tiles with a cathedral. If you finish a road with an inn, you get two points per road tile (instead of the usual one). If you complete a city with a cathedral, you score three points per tile and three points per pennant (instead of the usual two). However, if you do not complete a road that has an inn or a city that has a cathedral by the end of the game, you do not score any points at all.
I think this expansion adds a little more strategy and competition to the game. Normally, you can just place tiles and followers anywhere and you’ll still score something at the end even if you don’t finish. This provides an incentive to finish certain roads and cities you have started, and it also provides other players an incentive to try and stop you from finishing them.
This is the first expansion for Carcassonne. It adds 18 new land tiles to the mix, which is good because the base game is somewhat too short. It also adds one new player color (gray); that makes a 6-player game possible.
There are of course some additions to the game mechanics too. First of all: the inns (6 tiles) and cathedrals (2 tiles) make finished roads and cities more valuable while making unfinished ones worthless. Then the “big follower” makes the game more competitive as it counts as two followers when it comes to resolve structure ownership. The remaining 10 tiles add nothing more to the mechanics of the game but they have new patterns of cities, roads and meadows that are not present in the core set.
Personally I like the new tweaks added by the presence of cathedral and inn tiles. At the beginning of the game they are used to increase the owner’s score, towards the end of the game they change to malicious tiles that spoil opponents’ structures. I am not a fan of the big meeples however: I usually play using them just as score markers or give them only to newbies to balance the game (a simple handicap).
To sum up: “Inns and cathedrals” along with “Traders & Builders” are two must have expansions for every Carcassonne fan. If you like the base game you will like I&C.
In this expansion you get:
1. All the pieces for a sixth player, in fetching pink.
2. A big meeple for each player.
3. Extra tiles, some of which have an Inn or a Cathedral on them.
You also get a 50/100 point token for each player to help keep track when you make a loop of the scoring track. I haven’t really considered this as it’s a nice to have and doesn’t change game play. Still, it’s a nice to have!
So let’s run through the three parts to the expansion. Three parts because – and this is key – you don’t have to play with them together. Want a 6 player game? This expansion is for you! Want another way of stealing a field / city / road? The big meeple is for you! Want to add a more direct way to let players thwart each other’s moves? The Inns and Cathedral tiles are for you!
1. Extra pieces for a sixth player game
This works as you would expect. Carcassonne is still a great 6 player game, although do consider playing with some extra tiles. These don’t have to be Inns and Cathedrals and could be another (mini) expansion. Even just adding the River helps no end.
2. Big meeple
The big meeple counts as two when considering ties between players as to who gets the points from a road / city / field. It doesn’t double the score. Brilliant therefore, for stealing a field from another player (or a city).
3. Inns and Cathedrals
The title to the whole expansion, within the 16 extra tiles you get with the expansion (some of which are themselves really interesting in game play terms – the four single edges of cities on one tile is a personal favourite), there are two Cathedrals and a handful of Inns. Cathedrals are a full city piece – in itself an annoying piece to finish – that makes every city tile worth 3 points, but only if the city is completed. If not completed, the city is worth nothing. Inns work similarly on roads to make every tile of a completed road worth 2 points, and an incomplete road worth nothing. The city difference is staggering – complete a city with a Cathedral and you are likely to win. In reality you won’t win because other players will make sure that you never finish the city. Much better for adding to your opponent’s city than yours. Inns similarly are better for nerfing other player’s roads (although some of these might be played on completeable roads).
TL;DR – Great expansion, loads of gameplay options
Inns and Cathedrals adds more player interaction and increases the values of your roads and cities if they are completed. The Inns double the value of any road they are on as long as the road is completed. The Cathedrals are interesting because they can both help and hinder. If you complete a city with a Cathedral in it then you get three points per tile and shield. But you can also use it as a weapon against your opponent by placing it in one of his cities, thus making it a bit harder (especially toward the end of the game) to complete the city and denying him any points for that city if he does not complete it. I like that this expansion creates even more player interaction. Worth the price!
I got this expansion, so we could play with six people instead of five. This is nice. I think Carcassonne plays better with more people, because it brings more interaction as people are competing for space.
The Cathedrals and Inns add a nice twist to the game by adding more “risk” to the game. If you don’t complete a city with a Cathedral or a road with an “Inn”, then you don’t get any points. So, if you’re confident that a you can complete it, then you’re okay. However, if you play the 3 Tile hand variant, this can be a killer way to hose another player over. You can hang onto an Inn or Cathedral and slap it on opponent’s city or road near the end of the game, knowing that they can never finish it.
A worthy expansion!
This expansion offers all the material for a 6th player. If you are just a casual gaming family then you could argue that this is unnecessary.
Once you have played the original a few times then adding Cathedrals (which triple the value of a city) and adding Inns (which double the value of a road) makes the game slightly more interesting – but it doesn’t add enough value to want to use them all the time. In fact, as a gaming family we have reverted back to just playing with the original. And the best use we find for the ‘large followers’ is to use them as ‘scorers’ to keep track of the score!
To summarise, if you want a sixth player option then this is great and it does spice up the game if you are going to play Carcassonne a lot.
This is in my opinion the best expansion (see my reviews of the other expansions).
The rules are very simple and follow the theme of the original game. You can use cathedrals and inns to either (1) score more yourself or (2) put it in your opponent’s field as an attack. I do not know of any other expansion that allows that in just one rule.
The big meeple is a nice idea, but I recommend you play with one less small one (otherwise the meeple shortage problem disappears).
Finally, adding a sixth player is cool, but I do not recommend it. The game gets too long and you have little influence on the size of the city.
If you’re buying Carcassonne for a friend and you’d like her to start with a good expansion, this is the one. It adds a bunch a nifty new tile variations. The Inns and Cathedrals in the title are interesting, adding 1pt per tile to cities and roads, but ONLY if you finish them.
The big win is the big meeple. It’s played like any other meeple, but counts as 2 for purposes of determining who owns a feature.
Really like this expansion. It adds a few more tactical decisions without changing the feel of Carcassonne. Some of the other expansions (Princess and the Dragon comes to mind) change the game in that they allow you to destroy what others have done. This one doesn’t have that type of “take that” element… it is just straight up investment of meeples, which is what Carc is all about.
If you are going to play more Carcassonne then this is a must have expansion. It adds that one additional player bringing up the player count to six max. This expansion then adds on very few extra rules that you have to keep track of but rather just build and expand the game play of the base game. The expansion has additional connections that aren’t seen in the base game and give players the variety to expand the countryside and especially your cities.
This expansion is just a great expansion to include in every game of Carcassonne. How you enjoy it as much as I do.
It allows for a sixth player, adds more tiles to expand the possibilities of building and doesn’t include too many new rules. Even teaching new players we leave this expansion in now, because it adds a lot without any complex rules.
This is a great expansion. It adds some more strategy without overcomplicating things.