Carcassonne by Asmodee - $39.99 Base Game

Carcassonne – Lege-Strategiespiel Grundspiel is the classic tile-laying board game sold in the United States as Carcassonne. Players build a shared medieval landscape with tiles, then place followers to claim roads, cities, monasteries, and fields.

Core Game Details

The US catalog identifies Carcassonne with SKU ZM7810 and lists a manufacturer suggested retail price of $39.99. The same catalog identifies Hans im Glück as the studio associated with the title.

Carcassonne belongs to the tile-laying strategy category. Its central system uses landscape tiles that extend roads, cities, cloisters, and fields across a growing shared map. Followers act as limited scoring pieces, so placement choices affect both immediate points and later opportunities.

How The Base Game Plays

The base game is built around sequential turns. A player draws a landscape tile, connects it legally to the existing map, and may place a follower on the feature created or extended by that tile.

Completed roads and cities score points, while monasteries reward surrounding tiles. Fields are scored at the end, making early decisions matter across the entire board rather than only during the current turn.

The design creates direct interaction without requiring a large campaign system or a digital companion. Players compete for completed features, weigh when to commit followers, and decide when a contested area is worth pursuing.

US Edition And Pricing

Asmodee's US active catalog lists Carcassonne under the Hans im Glück studio with SKU ZM7810 and an MSRP of $39.99. The catalog is dated September 17, 2026, placing the listed price in the current US assortment at that date.

The catalog also lists Carcassonne expansions separately, including expansion entries with their own SKUs and prices. That separation distinguishes the ZM7810 base game from add-on content and keeps the $39.99 figure tied to the core box.

Who It Fits Best

Carcassonne fits players who want a strategy game with a shared board that develops during play. The tile system keeps the map changing, while follower placement supplies the main tactical pressure.

Compared with a fixed board game, Carcassonne produces a different landscape every session because tiles determine the map's shape. Compared with a large campaign title, the base game concentrates its play around one repeatable scoring system rather than a sequence of scenarios.

The verdict is straightforward: Carcassonne is a strong fit for groups seeking accessible tile placement with meaningful competition. Players looking for extensive miniatures, narrative progression, or a digital application will need a different category of game.