Do not understand fields and strategy overall

[LVEGDHT12]

Hi fellow Carcassone players:

I just finished a game where I had a farmer in a field adjacent to TWO complete cities with no roads between the farmer and the city walls. But I somehow got 0--yes, ZERO--points for fields! My opponent had 30! There were three or four meeples of that color down, so that explains it partially. But I do not understand how to score for fields in this game! What are the rules for fields?? How can I make good strategic decisions about fields, since those meeples are unavailable the rest of the game?

Also, I just do not understand how to do well in this game in general. 33 games and only 4 victories. How can someone make a strategy for Carcassone when there is no telling what tile will come out next, let alone the rest of the game? I understand finishing cities and roads in the game but also had a good deal of trouble tonight with monasteries. To make a contrast with another game here on BGA, in Alhambra, you know how many of each color building the game has and thus can track how many tiles of each color are left. You can plan better in Alhambra than Carcassone.

Thank you in advance for answers.

[euklid314]

First of all, the 72 tiles of Carcassonne are known and experienced players know very well how many tiles there exist from each type. Since all the already played tiles are visible you know what is left. Thus, quite similar to Alhambra... But this is rather advanced - you do not need to bother about it, yet.

The most important strategic element is to learn how and when to invade "enemy" cities, roads and fields. As you know, you can never place a meeple in a structure that already contains a meeple (own or enemy). But you can start your own small city besides a big enemy city and then connect both. Then you share points for this city. If you manage to achieve a meeple majority (say 2 vs 1), you alone get the points. Same for roads and fields.

Your opponent obviously managed to get 2 meeples in the field where you had 1 meeple. Thus, only he got the points for this field. Replay your game and watch how he managed to do so. Replay games of good players and observe how they "steal" other cities/roads/fields.

There are many more strategical and tactical elements to this game (esp. in 2-player) but the one above is the most fundamental one...

[FriendlyButTired]

Thank you for this helpful response! I'm new to the game and was similarly confused. You've explained it nicely for us newbies!

[CraftyRaf]

Here are some excellent carcassonne channels where you can learn a lot about the game:
https://www.youtube.com/@craftyraf (4th place at the MindSportsOlympiad of 2023, top-rating of 750)
https://www.youtube.com/@AlexeysCarcassonneChannel (2nd place at the World Championship 2023, former best player on BGA)
https://www.youtube.com/@nallerheim (Current best player on BGA with a rating of 830)

[Robarkson]

I realize this thread is a couple months old but to the questioning reference on monasteries. Monasteries can be very useful but they are also prime targets for mischief by your opponent. In general early in the game I won't put a meeple on a monastery unless I can tuck it into a spot where there are already 5/6 or more adjacent pieces and I feel fairly confident that I can complete it. 9 is a good chunk of points but if instead it gets trapped, and even if you get, for example, 8 points at the end, you have also been down a meeple the entire game which is a heavy cost to consider.

[viv-]

Monastries are very good tiles to get a lot of points and you should meeple it most of the time. Don't be afraid if it gets blocked, 8 points is still good.

Monastries can't be stolen, it's a really safe way to score. Opponent will have to build big roads/cities or many of them. Common strategy to fight vs monastries is to create a big field with a lot of cities and score it alone.

So, if you are lucky getting many monastries in the early game, try to keep the fields small.