Carcassonne

Carcassonne is the game we hand to people who say they do not like board games, and the success rate is embarrassingly high. Tiles come out one at a time, the map grows into something nobody planned, and then the farms decide the whole thing and somebody takes it personally. We gave it 5/5 Bamboo Plants and 4/5 Pandas, and we still call it the best gateway game for two. Everything we have written about it lives here.

Start with the honest review if you are deciding whether to buy it, or with Carcassonne at two players if it is mostly you and one other person, because that is where the game is at its best and the post covers what changes. When you want to stop losing, How to Win at Carcassonne lays out five principles beginners miss, and the meeple guide goes deeper on the seven wooden figures that are your most limited resource in the game.

Already own the base box? Every expansion ranked is what to read before you spend anything else on it. There are more than a dozen, most of them are not essential, and that post gives you an order to buy in so you do not end up with a shelf of boxes you never open.