Mists over Carcassonne

Not so long ago, we started the Guild Classics series here with the game Carcassonne. To coincide with Spiel 2022 in Essen, a new version of the classic has been released in which we enter the world of Carcassonne cooperatively for the first time. In addition to the stand-alone game Mists over Carcassonne, the box also contains the expansion Ghosts, Castles and Cemeteries for the basic game.

Those who already know Carcassonne, or have read our article Guild Classics #1, will have no problem getting into the game. Mists over Carcassonne expands the well-known tiles with - who would have thought it? Fog fields. Ghosts are placed on these tiles when they are created. When a fog field is completed, the ghosts are returned to the supply. If a fog field is placed and the supply of ghosts is exhausted, the game is lost.

Fog rolls in from the coast

To set up the game, the tiles are shuffled and placed face down. Each player receives five meeples of one colour. One meeple of a colour that does not take part in the game is placed on square zero of the scoreboard. The starting tile is placed in the middle and filled with three ghosts. Finally, the players choose one of six possible levels and place the target tile according to the points on the scoring board. From the second level onwards, additional tiles are shuffled under the draw pile.

Now tiles are drawn in turn and placed until the game is won or lost. The tiles are placed according to the usual rules (street to street, meadow to meadow, city to city). Fog tiles may be placed directly on a fog. In this case, one ghost less than the one shown on the drawn tile is placed on the fog. The ultimate goal is, of course, to completely close a fog field. In this case, all the ghosts positioned on it are put back into the supply.

Scoring is also done according to the classic Carcassonne rules, but without the meadows. Whenever a tile is placed, the player decides whether to place one of his meeple. If a city or a road is completed, it is scored accordingly. Alternatively, instead of scoring, the player can decide to put up to three ghosts from exactly one tile back into the supply.

Streets and cities that can be scored together score particularly well. However, this is only possible indirectly and requires a lucky hand when drawing the tiles.

Guardians over the Fog

If you have already played through the six levels of the cooperative game or basically prefer the classic Carcassonne, you should take a closer look at the expansion Ghosts, Castles and Cemeteries. The game material (tiles and guardian meeples) from Mists over Carcassonne is mixed with the basic game and the gameplay is expanded:

The drawn fog tiles must expand an existing fog if possible. If this is the case, you may place a ghost next to an opposing meeple. For each ghost that stands next to a meeple, you receive one minus point in the scoring. If there are three ghosts next to a meeple, it must be removed from the game without scoring. If it is not possible to expand a fog field with the drawn fog tile, a ghost must be placed next to one of your own meeples on the playing field. The guardian meeples of the expansion protect when the ghosts are placed.

The fog is lifting

Admittedly, I was quite sceptical when I first heard about the new cooperative variant of Carcassonne. I simply couldn't imagine how a new game principle could be imposed on the classic that would work at least as well. After the first rounds, however, I quickly realised - great, why not sooner? With Mists over Carcassonne, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede has created a completely new type of game that has nevertheless retained the charm of the original Carcassonne.

Nevertheless, the game has to accept one point of criticism. The drawing of tiles is of course extremely luck-heavy, which can sometimes lead to having to abandon the attempt to complete a level in frustration - especially if there are no options for a strong common score. Also, like many cooperative games, it is prone to alpha players. Those who don't have a problem with this will have a lot of fun with Mists over Carcassonne in the right group and with the family (at least up to level 4).

For expert players and Carcassonne junkies, the six cooperative levels are probably too little game, but they can alternatively compete against each other in the original Carcassonne with the expansion Ghosts, Castles and Cemeteries. In any case, Mists over Carcassonne is a lot of fun for me, although I'm still having a hard time with the sixth level :-)

UPDATE 12.04.2023: After many discussions in the boardgame community about level 6, which was de facto impossible to win, the publisher has made a rule change. You can find this as a PDF document at the following address: cundco.de/media/pdf/46/3a/2b/FAQ_03-2023_DE.pdf