Carcassonne: Star Wars board game review
On Star Wars Day a few days ago we highlighted a number of fun Star Wars themed board games. We also teased another Star Wars board game in our queue to review this week.
Well, that day has come.
We’re happy to introduce you to another great Star Wars family board game — Carcassonne: Star Wars!
That’s right — someone took the super popular Carcassonne game, about building a quaint French countryside, and blasted it into space.
The big question is, did the fun get blasted away with it or has it remained?
In our opinion, the force is still strong with this one.
How to play Carcassonne: Star Wars
Carcassonne: Star Wars is as simple to understand how to play as the original game.
Players take turns drawing and placing tiles to create a growing, central landscape. When they place a tile, they can also place one of their meeples on a feature that will score them points once the feature is complete. The player with the highest score at the end wins the game.
However, as you might expect, in Carcassonne: Star Wars you’re not building a landscape in the French countryside. Instead, you’re building the galaxy!
The Differences between Carcassonne and Carcassonne: Star Wars
Since Carcassonne is such a popular modern board game and has been on our Top 10 Must Have Family Board Games list for years, you’re most likely already familiar with the original Carcassonne game. So let’s just dive into what makes the game unique.
Factions:
Each player in the game belongs to a Faction in Carcassonne: Star Wars.
When players pick their colors, they also take the associated character card which also indicates their faction in the upper right corner.
You’ll find out more about the importance of faction symbols on the galaxy tiles shortly…
Tile Features:
In a galaxy far, far away there aren’t cities, roads, cloisters and farms. Instead, the tiles include asteroid fields, trade routes, and planets.
The asteroid fields work like cities do in the original game, trade routes work like roads, and the planets are like cloisters. And there aren’t any farms in space.
Each tile in a completed asteroid field scores 2 points. In addition, each Faction symbol in the completed area counts as 2 additional points (regardless of the faction type).
Each tile in a completed trade route scores 1 point with 2 additional points for each faction symbol along the route.
As soon as a planet is completely surrounds by tiles, the planet tile plus all surround tiles score 1 point each. A faction symbol on the planet tile scores an additional 2 points.
No Sharing – Battle Instead:
In the original Carcassonne game, it’s possible for multiple players to share an area such as a city and road. This occurs when separate areas with different colored meeples are joined by a newly placed tile. However, in Carcassonne: Star Wars, when areas combine in such a fashion, a space battle takes place!
As soon as meeples from different players stand in the same area, the battle is on.
Each player in the battle gets 1 dice per meeple they have in the area. If a player’s large meeple is in the area, they get 2 dice for it. Also, if one or more symbols of a player’s faction is in the contested area, they get 1 additional die.
All players in the battle roll their dice and each player’s highest die result is compared. The player who rolled highest wins the battle and their meeple stays in the area. The losing player removes their meeple and receives 1 point for each die they rolled in the battle.
If there’s a tie in the battle result, each player receives 1 point and the battle continues until there’s a clear winner.
Landing on Planets:
Battling for asteroid fields and trade routes is a big change in a game of Carcassonne. However, the biggest change between the original and Carcassonne: Star Wars are the planets!
First of all, there are a ton more planets in this game than there are cloisters in the original. There are 12 planets to be exact.
Just like in the original, when a player draws a places a tile with a planet on it, they can place their meeple on the planet as a Conqueror. However, that’s not the only way to get a meeple on the planet.
Whenever a player places a tile adjacent to a planet, they can choose to place their meeple on the planet instead of on the tile just placed!
If there’s already another meeple on the planet (which there most always will be), they battle!
The winning conqueror remains and the losing meeple heads back to that player’s reserve like in all battles.
Team Variations:
In Carcassonne: Star Wars, players can also choose to play in teams.
Two players will be part of the Rebel Alliance faction (Luke and Yoda) and the other two players will be the Empire (Darth Vader and Stormtrooper).
Players on a team collection points jointly and can never battle each other. A battle will only take place when meeple from different factions are in the same area.
Can the whole family enjoy playing Carcassonne: Star Wars?
This is a big, galactic Yes!
Like the original, Caracassonne: Star Wars is a fantastic family board game. It’s easy to learn, simple to play, and only lasts about 30 minutes.
Plus, there’s a good mix of strategy and luck throughout the game – which means the game will play out differently each time and kids have a great chance at beating their parents.
Like the original game, players are beholden to the luck of their tile draw each turn. Yet strategic choices comes in to play when they determine where they’ll place the tile and how to place their meeple.
With the dice rolling though, an added element of luck is mixed into the game play. And this can have a big impact on how the game plays out.
Because of this opportunity to claim areas (especially planets) through battles, in our games players constantly look for ways to start space battles.
And in our minds, that’s what makes Carcassonne: Star Wars so fun!
This isn’t a deep strategic game. Instead, it’s a light family board game of building the galaxy in different and unique ways every time with plenty of space battles to keep us cheering.
Our funny acquisition story
Ok, so now I’ve got to tell my story of how we got our copy of Carcassonne: Star Wars.
When Carcassonne: Star Wars was first published in 2015, I quickly put it on my game wish list. However, I couldn’t find it available in the United States.
Then last year (2017) I saw a copy pop up in the SaltCon Math Trade!
Since I knew it was such a rare game, I was willing to part with bigger games on my trade list for it. And I was super happy when I got the notice that I’d gotten lucky in the trade and the game would be mine!
It wasn’t until I got home with the game and opened it that I realized the error of my ways…
The game was “Carcassonne: Star Wars – Erweiterung 1”.
Yep, that’s right. I hadn’t noticed the “Erweiterung 1” portion in the game name. I had just traded away a big game for the Expansion to Carcassonne: Star Wars. Oops.
So I licked my wounds and bit the bullet. Since I now had the expansion without the original, I went ahead and purchased the base game from an international online retailer and paid for the international shipping from Germany.
The great news is that I’m not one bit disappointed!
Carcassonne: Star Wars is a lot of fun to play. And it feels even more fun for me when I play it because I’m always reminded of the funny way in which I got our copy.
May the force be with you!
