Carcassonne: Expansion 4 – Towers & Thieves

Description

--- **The Tower**, Carcassonne's fourth major expansion, introduces tower segments and new actions for capturing opponents' Meeples based on tower height. Key mechanics include: - *Tower construction* Players place segments on suitable tiles or add to existing towers instead of standard Meeple placement. - *Meeple capture* Towers seize orthogonally visible opponents' Meeples within range equal to tower height (1 segment = 1 tile, etc.). - *Tower completion* Placing a Meeple atop a tower finishes it. - *Capture penalties* Owners lose the Meeple's scored points and pay 3 victory points to free it. The Tower, the fourth major expansion for the Carcassonne series, integrates tower segments and alternative actions into gameplay. Players forgo traditional Meeple placement to either initiate a tower on compatible tiles, extend standing towers, or cap them with a Meeple to finalize construction. Tower segments enable capturing adversaries' Meeples visible orthogonally from the tower, with capture range scaling directly with height— one segment reaches one tile away, two segments two tiles, and so forth. Captured Meeples forfeit any prior scoring, and owners must pay 3 victory points for retrieval, adding strategic depth through territorial control and punitive mechanics. ---