Unbelievably, April had never played the actual board game version of Carcassonne. Instead, her only experience was playing online at games.asobrain.com. We aimed to rectify that grievous wrong with a version that included the expansion and Cities & Builders.

For the record, I prefer to use the spelling "meople" instead of "meeple." I'm not sure which is "right" but, honestly, I don't "care." What I do know is that they are the best board game bits of all time--they're not gender specific or pretentious. They are instead quiet, dignified homunculi ready to colonize a city or walk a lonely road simply to score points for the common good.

With luck, vision and whole lot of persuasion, I managed to marshall my red meople to victory over the blue forces of April and the green hordes of Mike. My most significant move may have been convincing April to all but bone Mike's gargantuan city, which had the potential to net him 74 points, but instead earned nothing, owing to the presence of cathedrals.

In the end, it was something like:
Brian - 172
April - 154
Mike - 103

One interesting thing that came up was this peculiar tile:

The middle isn't exactly an intersection since it has a little cluster of houses instead. We argued about whether or not the grass on that tile was all one piece of farm land. I think it is. Anyone else?

A Carcassonne game is one of my favorite pastimes. It's simple, strategic, different every time, encourages interaction and allows for a fair amount of diplomacy, cooperation and treachery.

Game: Carcassonne
Biggest Winner: Brian's farm
Biggest Loser: Mike's big, unfinished city
Session Grade: A
Overall Game Grade: A