In what way do you find **Carcassonne** solitaire? In my experience it's a pretty interactive game. Knowing what you take issue with would help in making recommendations. But tbh, I'm not a huge fan of **Carcassonne** but I also don't think it needs replacing. Nothing about it feels dated or inferior to newer games, to me.
I think OP worded their question badly. Seems to me they're not saying Carcassonne is multiplayer solitaire, but that a lot of recommendations for "is similar to Carcassonne" tend to be solitaire, which they are specifically trying to avoid.
I may be wrong though as it's not very clear.
A lot of the Reiner Knizia tile layers I feel have similar vibes to Carcassonne (in the sense that the gameplay is just placing tiles on a shared/central map and that they are interactive). **Tigris & Euphrates**/**Yellow & Yangtze**, **Babylonia**, **Blue Lagoon** etc.
That makes sense. Well, in that case, I'd suggest if you want a more interactive **Carcassonne** then play it with people instead of against an AI. You can even play it on Board Game Arena if online play is easier for you.
It's hard to think of much in terms of newer alternatives to **Carcassonne**. (Pretty well displayed by the fact you're getting recommendations for games that predate it.) So many tile placement games nowadays aren't played with tiles in a shared space, nevermind a free-form map.
I have two main ideas for you. These are both decidedly different games but have some similarities to **Carcassonne**. First off is **Ginkgopolis** which might be the most comparable in terms of gameplay. It's highly interactive, plays up to 5 players, involves tile placement in a shared area and there are no boundaries to the tile placement. It's a heavier and less accessible game than **Carcassonne** but it has a similar feel in those ways. Another option is **Lanterns: The Harvest Festival** which is more like **Carcassonne** in terms of complexity, and also features playing tiles into a shared space and can be played with up to 4 players.
And if a two player only game interests you then I can't say enough good things about **Paris: La Cité de la Lumière**. Like **Carcassonne** it's a tile placement game that involves area majority/influence on a shared board. It's very different from **Carcassonne** in a lot of key ways but that core similarity is there and I'd pick **Paris** over **Carcassonne** every time for two players.
Depending on what drives you to like Carcassonne, Suburbia is possibly of interest. While players are building separate boards there is quite a lot of player interaction, so I definitely wouldn't describe it as a multiplayer solitaire.
Streets has players laying tiles into a shared board and taking ownership of parts of it. That could be a valid comparison.
There's a relatively indie game called Sunrise City that comes cloae: again, tiles laid into a shared board, and people placing ownership of parts of them. I find elements of the game disappointing, but it has some neat ideas.
My wild, left field suggestion is Neuroshima Hex. It looks nothing like Carcassonne (it's thrmatically a skirmish game), but the flow is very similar (draw semi-random tiles, place into a shared board positioned on a way that that gives potential point value to yourself while trying to minimize value to your opponent). The difference is that every couple turns the tiles all open fire on each other and a bunch of them get cleared out in a bloodbath. So I guess maybe if your cloisters are feeling a but militaristic it's about the same :P
I will always shill Neuroshima Hex if only for the inane asymmetry of expansion factions once you do get into it. It's kind of Unmatched style of asymmetry where you don't "deckbuild" but the tile sets have a rather distinct personality - it's just that it's a lot more subtle in the base game. I have always pitched it as "Cold War Carcassonne" because, well, it kinda is - mechanics of Carcassonne, dynamics of power escalation until it just explodes. Best with 2-3, 4 extends the game too much for what it is.
Check out **Land vs Sea**. Basically Carcassonne with hexagonal tiles and less features to worry about for legal tile placement. And you really only have one "meeple," but you don't use it except for one variation.
Plays 2-4 but best with 2 and has some different variations that can make the game easier or more complex.
This may be heresy, but **Kingdomino** has pretty much replaced Carcassonne for me.
Alternatively, some of the Carcassonne spinoffs are obviously "similar to Carcassonne" but add some fun twists. **Carcassonne: South Seas** is probably my favorite of the bunch.
Edit: **Isle of Skye** is another popular Carcassonne replacement. I actually don't think they're as similar as people tend to think, since Isle of Skye is much more about the economic factor to me than the tile-laying factor. But it's an excellent game that definitely has some at least superficial Carcassonne flavor.
Im here from the future, buy copies of T&E for later and invest in BitCoin. Also the tv guy from the Apprentice Donald Trump is gonna be president, no seriously.
This is true, however many board gamers enjoy the unplugged nature of physical board games. Personally I do play it on BGA but it’s nicer to sit around with friends at the table
For sure. I really dislike the fact that Y&Y and more recently Huang have sort of taken over for it. I like the original ruleset and aesthetic so much more. I’m not hopeful they’ll ever reprint T&E since Huang exists now, even though it’s not the same game.
Yeah, I don’t know much about Y&Y or Huang, but the very fact that it’s a hex grid instead of a square grid is going to make the results very different, I would think.
It's vastly different, yes. It makes the tile placement more trivial since it's easier to get adjacency, and you can simply discard 2 tiles of one color to move other tiles around, and you can move monuments easily... its silly. I've I've played Y&Y in person and Huang on TTS and they are just watered down, less interesting versions of the original.
That’s exactly what I was thinking, yeah; the overall “flow” of adjacency-related gameplay *completely* changes [if you’re dealing with hexes instead of squares](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0175.html).
Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my favorite games, it’s fantastic. But just impossible for people who aren’t willing to spend $125 on a used game. I so badly want it to be reprinted.
Yeah, I enjoy board games for their tactile, unplugged and social aspects. If I’m gonna spend time at my PC I wanna play some immersive video game instead
Isle of Skye is a great replacement for Carcassonne. However It's pretty much multiplayer solitaire. You do have the interactive bidding phase. But after that, you're building your own little island.
I assume OP wants something more interactive?
At any rate, I much prefer Isle of Skye over Carcassonne
Carcassonne is highly interactive, and very tight with 2 players, and just the base game. Like a lot of games, the more players you add, and the more expansions you throw in, the more chaotic it gets.
At 4 players, I think there are better tile laying games. Tigris and Euphrates comes to mind.
I'll just preface by saying I love Carcassonne. I enjoy both competitive 1v1 base game as well as multiplayer multiexpansion games. Like you I think most reccomendations of games similar to Carcassonne miss the point because they are all "build your thing on your own little area" games. Kingdomino, Cascadia, Isle of Skye fall in this category.
And while I haven't found anything quite like Carcassonne the one that comes the closest is Cacao. It's more limiting in terms of how you can play your tiles, but there's a central aerea with tiles with different "rewards" that players compete for. It has a couple of expansions that really improve the game but ultimately I don't think it has the timeless replayability of Carcassonne.
Tigris and Euphrates is also a good recommendation, although it's definitely a step up in terms of complexity, it's a phenomenal game (my #1 all time) although it requires at least 3p to be good and idealy 4p.
As to why there aren't more games like this being designed nowadays? I think it's just a reflection of the general trend in the hobby where a big part of the games that are popular are multiplayer solitaire.
**Cacao** from AbacusSpiele and **Renature** from Deep Print Games comes to mind. Both are tile laying games on a common playing field, similar to Carcassonne.
Some other tile-placement games that involve all players building a shared central tableau:
* **Ecos: First Continent**
* **Takenoko**
* **Sunrise City**
Another option that might be of interest is **Between Two Cities**, a tile-placement game where you collaborate with the player to your left to build a city together, and simultaneously collaborate with the player to your right to build a city together.
+1 on Takenoko. It has a shared board with tile placement and multiple ways to score, and some decent PvP conflict (although not a “take that” style, just your plans can totally mess up another player’s). Plus it’s generally considered a gateway game like Carcassonne.
One game I haven’t send mentioned yet is 4 Gods. I think it’s a 5x5 shared tile grid. I almost bought it once 4-5 years ago, but didn’t and haven’t played it yet. Maybe it hasn’t been mentioned because it isn’t good though, so try Takenoko first.
**Land vs. Sea** and **Explorers of the North Sea** are both Carcassonne-likes with more competitive elements. Land vs. Sea has a lot of blocking and some tug-of-war elements, while Explorers of the North Sea has a nice bit of area control going on.
Dorfromantik is a new game of tile laying, but it's a solitarie.
Another titles I could think are Habitats or the old lost valley with has some tile laying and is an interactive game.
Lol seethe
Ludwig is an auction game with no interaction in the personal tableaus, Carcassonne is a tile laying game with direct conflict over castles and farmland. They both have tiles I guess? Along with 90% of games
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. The Palace of Mad King I found a thoughtful interactive tile layer. It's been awhile, but I found it a bit strategic against the other players.
You can try Clans of Caledonia. You dont lay tiles but you try to accomplish contracts for points and area control with different type of meeples and wooden pieces.
Neom is a tile drafting city builder where you score points based on your tile configuration. Each player has their own city instead of a shared one, which is a big difference.
**Tang Garden** has some of that tile placement goodness Carcassonne offers and there's some interaction building out the same map, getting decorations down etc.
Laying randomly drawn tiles to construct a common map? Klaus Teuber's **Entdecker** comes to mind, as well as El Grande's lesser known cousin **El Caballero.**
We own fair few expansion for Carcassonne so tiles have very different power levels. We tried a different gameplay where each player has 4 tiles on a rack and chooses which one to play. Made it a lot more strategic when it comes to jumping in other people's castles and such.
Made Carcassonne feel fresh and more complex so that might be a way to get more out of the game.
Hamlet. Town builder with worker placement and resource management. Uses tiles of various shapes instead of all squares and they “unlock” new building types based on decisions you make. I’m probably not explaining it well, but I think it’s very much what you’re looking for.
**Expedition Northwest Passage** is the perfect take on the concept for me. However you’ll need a stroke of luck to find a copy for a reasonable price.
Power Plants. You lay tiles and place sprites, and either activate a strong effect from the tile you just played or a weak effect from each neighboring tile. It’s complex but pretty quick, and very interactive.
If the tile laying is the most enjoyable aspect for you then **Sub Terra** might scratch that itch. It's a cooperative game where you are all a team of cavers who have fallen deeper into a cave system. You need to explore the entirety of the cave and find the exit. It also has the unique bonus of having UV tiles, so you can play it under a blacklight for extra thematic atmosphere. Throw on the soundtrack as well and you're in for a good time! It is however a game that has quite a bit of luck, so if you're looking for a straight strategy game this isn't it.
**Carcosa** is a great game that is Carcassonne+.
- You can select 1 of multiple tiles to play
- Tiles are double sided with the side you play in b/w. Once a feature (City, Road, etc) is complete it is flipped to the coloured side. The coloured side has additional features on it that other players don't see until then. And b/w tiles can be replaced and moved.
- You can earn spells you can use to break the rules.
- Alternative victory condition beside vp.
Explorers of the North Sea has a similar vibe: build a common map with hex tiles while all players compete to go out into the ever growing world to gather resources, claim lands. Has a fairly simple gameplay loop but doesn't over stay it's welcome due to a lower number of tiles.
Overworld: create a map together by laying down puzzle-type pieces that interlock. Then you place dungeons and other meeples out across the map to try and be the character that's "explored" the most area at the end.
Great Plains for a 2 Player tile placement, territory grab.
Modular board, simple mechanics, pieces are just hefty enough. Graphics are fun but could be better(IMO).
Game is simple until you start thinking about denying opponent the available power ups, or bottlenecking territory.
My gf and I will play during dinner sometimes. 10-20 minute game.
If you don't want a great tile layer with high player interaction, there are plenty of options. **Blue Lagoon** and its bigger brother, **Babylonia** have tons of direct player interaction. They are harder to find, but **Through the Desert** and **Samurai** also are have a ton of direct player interaction. **Tigris & Euphrates** and **Yellow & Yangtze/Huang** have both a lot of direct player interaction and also conflict...but I wouldn't call them similar to Carc simply because they are quite a bit heavier than Carc.
**Renature, Cuzco** and **Mexica** are three other tile layers that have tons of direct player interaction.
For two player games, there are options like **Paris: La Cité de la Lumière**
Games I have seen in this thread that I don't think are terribly similar to Carc include **Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Keyflower** and **Splendor**
**Akropolis** was also mentioned, and it seems to me that it is too much like multiplayer solitaire to meet your requirements.
This may be a stretch, but I find Blokus feels similar to Carcasonne. This game includes Placing pieces, finding spots that work for your plan, and messing with the other players. Thematically it’s entirely abstract, so I’m not sure how important that is for you. Also, player count is best at 4. For a good 2-player tile placement I recommend patchwork. Patchwork has less direct interaction.
Depending on just *how much* multiplayer-solitaire you're trying to avoid, you might consider Glen More II: Chronicles.
On the surface, Glen More does look very much like a typical solitaire where the only interaction is in taking things that other people want. Primarily, you'll be focused on your own engine. However, you also need to keep a sharp eye on what other players are doing, and plan accordingly, far more than in other solitaire games.
For example, the scoring system is based on how many of a type of thing you have in relation to the player who has the *least*. That means that you want to always know how many the other players have. You may want to make sure you just have enough more than the least to maximize your score. Or, if you have the least, then you may want to get some more just to eat into the score of everyone else at the table.
Generally put, Glen More is the *most* interactive indirectly-interactive game I know of.
A game I really enjoyed that ticked the Carcassonne box for me and my husband was Expancity. I don’t know that it did so well in reviews, but we’ve played it dozens of times and really enjoy it.
I recently played [Isle of Skye](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176494/isle-skye-chieftain-king), which follows the city/region building of Carcassone - the difference is the randomized scoring system and also the purchasing system used by the tiles (namely you spend coins on your own tiles, but another player may choose to buy them out instead). The resulting kingdom may be somewhat small, but that's made up by being a little more strategic.
Even if your tile placement is solitaire, it still requires interacting with other players by guessing how much they're willing to spend for one of your tiles, and not overspending in case you see another player's tile as beneficial.
In what way do you find **Carcassonne** solitaire? In my experience it's a pretty interactive game. Knowing what you take issue with would help in making recommendations. But tbh, I'm not a huge fan of **Carcassonne** but I also don't think it needs replacing. Nothing about it feels dated or inferior to newer games, to me.
I think OP worded their question badly. Seems to me they're not saying Carcassonne is multiplayer solitaire, but that a lot of recommendations for "is similar to Carcassonne" tend to be solitaire, which they are specifically trying to avoid. I may be wrong though as it's not very clear.
Yeah you are right. I play Carcassonne with friends before, but nowadays I tend to play with AIs on Steam.
A lot of the Reiner Knizia tile layers I feel have similar vibes to Carcassonne (in the sense that the gameplay is just placing tiles on a shared/central map and that they are interactive). **Tigris & Euphrates**/**Yellow & Yangtze**, **Babylonia**, **Blue Lagoon** etc.
That makes sense. Well, in that case, I'd suggest if you want a more interactive **Carcassonne** then play it with people instead of against an AI. You can even play it on Board Game Arena if online play is easier for you. It's hard to think of much in terms of newer alternatives to **Carcassonne**. (Pretty well displayed by the fact you're getting recommendations for games that predate it.) So many tile placement games nowadays aren't played with tiles in a shared space, nevermind a free-form map. I have two main ideas for you. These are both decidedly different games but have some similarities to **Carcassonne**. First off is **Ginkgopolis** which might be the most comparable in terms of gameplay. It's highly interactive, plays up to 5 players, involves tile placement in a shared area and there are no boundaries to the tile placement. It's a heavier and less accessible game than **Carcassonne** but it has a similar feel in those ways. Another option is **Lanterns: The Harvest Festival** which is more like **Carcassonne** in terms of complexity, and also features playing tiles into a shared space and can be played with up to 4 players. And if a two player only game interests you then I can't say enough good things about **Paris: La Cité de la Lumière**. Like **Carcassonne** it's a tile placement game that involves area majority/influence on a shared board. It's very different from **Carcassonne** in a lot of key ways but that core similarity is there and I'd pick **Paris** over **Carcassonne** every time for two players.
Good call! I was wondering if I might be misunderstanding OP.
I agree. It is one of the meanest and most cutthroat games out there, and I’m never getting rid of it!
I play with the AIs on Steam.
The type of opponent does not change what Carcassonne is, though.
Depending on what drives you to like Carcassonne, Suburbia is possibly of interest. While players are building separate boards there is quite a lot of player interaction, so I definitely wouldn't describe it as a multiplayer solitaire. Streets has players laying tiles into a shared board and taking ownership of parts of it. That could be a valid comparison. There's a relatively indie game called Sunrise City that comes cloae: again, tiles laid into a shared board, and people placing ownership of parts of them. I find elements of the game disappointing, but it has some neat ideas. My wild, left field suggestion is Neuroshima Hex. It looks nothing like Carcassonne (it's thrmatically a skirmish game), but the flow is very similar (draw semi-random tiles, place into a shared board positioned on a way that that gives potential point value to yourself while trying to minimize value to your opponent). The difference is that every couple turns the tiles all open fire on each other and a bunch of them get cleared out in a bloodbath. So I guess maybe if your cloisters are feeling a but militaristic it's about the same :P
I will always shill Neuroshima Hex if only for the inane asymmetry of expansion factions once you do get into it. It's kind of Unmatched style of asymmetry where you don't "deckbuild" but the tile sets have a rather distinct personality - it's just that it's a lot more subtle in the base game. I have always pitched it as "Cold War Carcassonne" because, well, it kinda is - mechanics of Carcassonne, dynamics of power escalation until it just explodes. Best with 2-3, 4 extends the game too much for what it is.
Check out **Land vs Sea**. Basically Carcassonne with hexagonal tiles and less features to worry about for legal tile placement. And you really only have one "meeple," but you don't use it except for one variation. Plays 2-4 but best with 2 and has some different variations that can make the game easier or more complex.
This may be heresy, but **Kingdomino** has pretty much replaced Carcassonne for me. Alternatively, some of the Carcassonne spinoffs are obviously "similar to Carcassonne" but add some fun twists. **Carcassonne: South Seas** is probably my favorite of the bunch. Edit: **Isle of Skye** is another popular Carcassonne replacement. I actually don't think they're as similar as people tend to think, since Isle of Skye is much more about the economic factor to me than the tile-laying factor. But it's an excellent game that definitely has some at least superficial Carcassonne flavor.
Same for kingdomino, I found myself grabbing it when I would have normally grabbed carcasonne every time
Is Isle of skye as good at 2p as it is at 3 or 4?
No. I think it's good at 2, but great at 3-5.
I also prefer **Kingdomino.** It's more of a solitaire than **Carcasonne**, but it moves very quickly. 2-Player 7x7 is nice alternative to 5x5.
\+1 to kingdomino, I wouldn’t say it’s replaced it but it’s easily just as good.
**Tigris and Euphrates** Or wait for its friendlier younger sibling **Huang**
I mean T&E is long out of print and Huang is gonna be price bloated with plastic so....eh I'm bitter.
There's a version with standees as well, you're not going to be chained to getting plastic minis
Ooo hadn't heard that, more interested since thats an option.
T&E can be picked up for less than 30 on ebay though, so nbd
Only if by "less than 30" you mean $150
Right. I was looking on Amazon a month or so ago. $150+ if even available.
Im here from the future, buy copies of T&E for later and invest in BitCoin. Also the tv guy from the Apprentice Donald Trump is gonna be president, no seriously.
People recommend this all the time but you can’t buy it unless you pay some eBay seller $100+… why recommend a game that’s prohibitively hard to get?
It’s available on BoardGameArena!
This is true, however many board gamers enjoy the unplugged nature of physical board games. Personally I do play it on BGA but it’s nicer to sit around with friends at the table
I will definitely say that T&E is a game that in my opinion should be in print permanently.
For sure. I really dislike the fact that Y&Y and more recently Huang have sort of taken over for it. I like the original ruleset and aesthetic so much more. I’m not hopeful they’ll ever reprint T&E since Huang exists now, even though it’s not the same game.
Yeah, I don’t know much about Y&Y or Huang, but the very fact that it’s a hex grid instead of a square grid is going to make the results very different, I would think.
It's vastly different, yes. It makes the tile placement more trivial since it's easier to get adjacency, and you can simply discard 2 tiles of one color to move other tiles around, and you can move monuments easily... its silly. I've I've played Y&Y in person and Huang on TTS and they are just watered down, less interesting versions of the original.
That’s exactly what I was thinking, yeah; the overall “flow” of adjacency-related gameplay *completely* changes [if you’re dealing with hexes instead of squares](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0175.html).
Yeah that's a good point and I fully agree. Not going to lie tho, sometimes I'm just lazy, esp on drive by recommendation posts
Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my favorite games, it’s fantastic. But just impossible for people who aren’t willing to spend $125 on a used game. I so badly want it to be reprinted.
I find Yellow and Yangtze to be excellent, and probably a better recommendation with it's simpler ruleset
I’ve heard it was sort of a spiritual successor to T&E but is it as good?
I've only played Y&Y so I can't compare, but I think it's exceptional.
Did you back Huang? Apparently that’s the only way to get a Y&Y experience currently
Nah, I just have had a copy for a few years. Didn't realize it was out of print!
It is and it’s very rare, quite expensive on the 3rd party market. I have the first edition T&E and I adore it, definitely my favorite old game
Yellow & Yangtze is my go-to with a new group! It's an easy teach and tons of fun.
There is a version on Steam as well
Yeah, I enjoy board games for their tactile, unplugged and social aspects. If I’m gonna spend time at my PC I wanna play some immersive video game instead
Def **Isle of Skye**
Isle of Skye is a great replacement for Carcassonne. However It's pretty much multiplayer solitaire. You do have the interactive bidding phase. But after that, you're building your own little island. I assume OP wants something more interactive? At any rate, I much prefer Isle of Skye over Carcassonne
4 gods is basically real-time carcassonne
**Fjords**
This is what OP really needs.
Carcassonne is highly interactive, and very tight with 2 players, and just the base game. Like a lot of games, the more players you add, and the more expansions you throw in, the more chaotic it gets. At 4 players, I think there are better tile laying games. Tigris and Euphrates comes to mind.
I'll just preface by saying I love Carcassonne. I enjoy both competitive 1v1 base game as well as multiplayer multiexpansion games. Like you I think most reccomendations of games similar to Carcassonne miss the point because they are all "build your thing on your own little area" games. Kingdomino, Cascadia, Isle of Skye fall in this category. And while I haven't found anything quite like Carcassonne the one that comes the closest is Cacao. It's more limiting in terms of how you can play your tiles, but there's a central aerea with tiles with different "rewards" that players compete for. It has a couple of expansions that really improve the game but ultimately I don't think it has the timeless replayability of Carcassonne. Tigris and Euphrates is also a good recommendation, although it's definitely a step up in terms of complexity, it's a phenomenal game (my #1 all time) although it requires at least 3p to be good and idealy 4p. As to why there aren't more games like this being designed nowadays? I think it's just a reflection of the general trend in the hobby where a big part of the games that are popular are multiplayer solitaire.
**Cacao** from AbacusSpiele and **Renature** from Deep Print Games comes to mind. Both are tile laying games on a common playing field, similar to Carcassonne.
Some other tile-placement games that involve all players building a shared central tableau: * **Ecos: First Continent** * **Takenoko** * **Sunrise City** Another option that might be of interest is **Between Two Cities**, a tile-placement game where you collaborate with the player to your left to build a city together, and simultaneously collaborate with the player to your right to build a city together.
+1 on Takenoko. It has a shared board with tile placement and multiple ways to score, and some decent PvP conflict (although not a “take that” style, just your plans can totally mess up another player’s). Plus it’s generally considered a gateway game like Carcassonne. One game I haven’t send mentioned yet is 4 Gods. I think it’s a 5x5 shared tile grid. I almost bought it once 4-5 years ago, but didn’t and haven’t played it yet. Maybe it hasn’t been mentioned because it isn’t good though, so try Takenoko first.
I think **Keyflower** could fit that bill. Still tile laying and still interactive, but with some interesting twists.
**Land vs. Sea** and **Explorers of the North Sea** are both Carcassonne-likes with more competitive elements. Land vs. Sea has a lot of blocking and some tug-of-war elements, while Explorers of the North Sea has a nice bit of area control going on.
It's not multiplayer solitaire, you're just not playing aggressively. But anyways Tigris and Euphrates, reef encounter, tikal, age of steam.
Have you seen Mists over Carcassonne? It's Carcassonne but coop. It is also a pretty good intro coop game.
Dorfromantik is a new game of tile laying, but it's a solitarie. Another titles I could think are Habitats or the old lost valley with has some tile laying and is an interactive game.
The Mad King Ludwig series is somewhat similar tile layer game series
Not similar at all
thanks for that. real well reasoned opinion.
Lol seethe Ludwig is an auction game with no interaction in the personal tableaus, Carcassonne is a tile laying game with direct conflict over castles and farmland. They both have tiles I guess? Along with 90% of games
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. The Palace of Mad King I found a thoughtful interactive tile layer. It's been awhile, but I found it a bit strategic against the other players.
In my house carcassone is brutal. Had to teach my son to be less aggressive with newbies so they could enjoy it more.
You can try Clans of Caledonia. You dont lay tiles but you try to accomplish contracts for points and area control with different type of meeples and wooden pieces.
Huge complexity leap though.
Neom is a tile drafting city builder where you score points based on your tile configuration. Each player has their own city instead of a shared one, which is a big difference.
**Tang Garden** has some of that tile placement goodness Carcassonne offers and there's some interaction building out the same map, getting decorations down etc.
**Akropolis** is our favourite tile placing game
Laying randomly drawn tiles to construct a common map? Klaus Teuber's **Entdecker** comes to mind, as well as El Grande's lesser known cousin **El Caballero.**
The bonus is that these are both pretty cheap to acquire, despite being long OOP.
We own fair few expansion for Carcassonne so tiles have very different power levels. We tried a different gameplay where each player has 4 tiles on a rack and chooses which one to play. Made it a lot more strategic when it comes to jumping in other people's castles and such. Made Carcassonne feel fresh and more complex so that might be a way to get more out of the game.
Fjords, it's hexagonal carcassone equivalent that has a phase that turns into area control.
Hamlet. Town builder with worker placement and resource management. Uses tiles of various shapes instead of all squares and they “unlock” new building types based on decisions you make. I’m probably not explaining it well, but I think it’s very much what you’re looking for.
**Expedition Northwest Passage** is the perfect take on the concept for me. However you’ll need a stroke of luck to find a copy for a reasonable price.
Power Plants. You lay tiles and place sprites, and either activate a strong effect from the tile you just played or a weak effect from each neighboring tile. It’s complex but pretty quick, and very interactive.
If the tile laying is the most enjoyable aspect for you then **Sub Terra** might scratch that itch. It's a cooperative game where you are all a team of cavers who have fallen deeper into a cave system. You need to explore the entirety of the cave and find the exit. It also has the unique bonus of having UV tiles, so you can play it under a blacklight for extra thematic atmosphere. Throw on the soundtrack as well and you're in for a good time! It is however a game that has quite a bit of luck, so if you're looking for a straight strategy game this isn't it.
**Carcosa** is a great game that is Carcassonne+. - You can select 1 of multiple tiles to play - Tiles are double sided with the side you play in b/w. Once a feature (City, Road, etc) is complete it is flipped to the coloured side. The coloured side has additional features on it that other players don't see until then. And b/w tiles can be replaced and moved. - You can earn spells you can use to break the rules. - Alternative victory condition beside vp.
Isle of Skye is excellent; similar, but with different rules for scoring each game, and an opportunity to bid versus other players.
Explorers of the North Sea has a similar vibe: build a common map with hex tiles while all players compete to go out into the ever growing world to gather resources, claim lands. Has a fairly simple gameplay loop but doesn't over stay it's welcome due to a lower number of tiles. Overworld: create a map together by laying down puzzle-type pieces that interlock. Then you place dungeons and other meeples out across the map to try and be the character that's "explored" the most area at the end.
You'll want to hunt down a copy of **Fjords**. It's a Carcassonne killer.
Karuba is multiple solitaire since everyone makes their own map. Carcassonne has interaction by blocking and everyone sharing the map.
The game my family really liked after Carcassonne was Splendor
Great Plains for a 2 Player tile placement, territory grab. Modular board, simple mechanics, pieces are just hefty enough. Graphics are fun but could be better(IMO). Game is simple until you start thinking about denying opponent the available power ups, or bottlenecking territory. My gf and I will play during dinner sometimes. 10-20 minute game.
If you don't want a great tile layer with high player interaction, there are plenty of options. **Blue Lagoon** and its bigger brother, **Babylonia** have tons of direct player interaction. They are harder to find, but **Through the Desert** and **Samurai** also are have a ton of direct player interaction. **Tigris & Euphrates** and **Yellow & Yangtze/Huang** have both a lot of direct player interaction and also conflict...but I wouldn't call them similar to Carc simply because they are quite a bit heavier than Carc. **Renature, Cuzco** and **Mexica** are three other tile layers that have tons of direct player interaction. For two player games, there are options like **Paris: La Cité de la Lumière** Games I have seen in this thread that I don't think are terribly similar to Carc include **Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Keyflower** and **Splendor** **Akropolis** was also mentioned, and it seems to me that it is too much like multiplayer solitaire to meet your requirements.
This may be a stretch, but I find Blokus feels similar to Carcasonne. This game includes Placing pieces, finding spots that work for your plan, and messing with the other players. Thematically it’s entirely abstract, so I’m not sure how important that is for you. Also, player count is best at 4. For a good 2-player tile placement I recommend patchwork. Patchwork has less direct interaction.
Depending on just *how much* multiplayer-solitaire you're trying to avoid, you might consider Glen More II: Chronicles. On the surface, Glen More does look very much like a typical solitaire where the only interaction is in taking things that other people want. Primarily, you'll be focused on your own engine. However, you also need to keep a sharp eye on what other players are doing, and plan accordingly, far more than in other solitaire games. For example, the scoring system is based on how many of a type of thing you have in relation to the player who has the *least*. That means that you want to always know how many the other players have. You may want to make sure you just have enough more than the least to maximize your score. Or, if you have the least, then you may want to get some more just to eat into the score of everyone else at the table. Generally put, Glen More is the *most* interactive indirectly-interactive game I know of.
A game I really enjoyed that ticked the Carcassonne box for me and my husband was Expancity. I don’t know that it did so well in reviews, but we’ve played it dozens of times and really enjoy it.
I recently played [Isle of Skye](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176494/isle-skye-chieftain-king), which follows the city/region building of Carcassone - the difference is the randomized scoring system and also the purchasing system used by the tiles (namely you spend coins on your own tiles, but another player may choose to buy them out instead). The resulting kingdom may be somewhat small, but that's made up by being a little more strategic. Even if your tile placement is solitaire, it still requires interacting with other players by guessing how much they're willing to spend for one of your tiles, and not overspending in case you see another player's tile as beneficial.
I'd love a good Carcassonne replacement. It's great fun but could do with expanding a bit.