The River; Carcassonne Expansion - Review

The river expansion for Carcassonne is the first expansion for Carcassonne, and many of the base games – mine included – contain a copy of this expansion. This expansion is incredibly simple to add to the game, although it works better when more people are playing.

Check out my review of the base game, or click here to see the full series review of Carcassonne.

The river winds its way through Carcassonne.

Set-up: 10/10

Setting this up couldn’t be easier; each river tile has a different coloured back to the other tiles, and on the front has, surprisingly, a section of the river. Separate these out from the rest of the tiles, place the spring tile on the board, and shuffle the rest of the river, placing the lake on the bottom of the pile. That’s it!

Mechanics: 10/10

The mechanics are identical to the base game are identical, place a tile, and then, if you wish, place a meeple on the tile. The only difference with river tiles is they cannot be placed to form a ‘U-turn’.

Scoring: 7/10

The scoring is identical to the base game; the river makes no impact on how the game is scored.

The various river tiles that come in the base game.

Speed: 8/10

The river expansion makes the base game slightly longer, adding 12 additional tiles to the game. However, due to how they must be placed, tile placement and turns are incredibly quick, and it doesn’t have a huge impact on the speed of the game.

Replayability: 3/10

As a lot of my games have been 2-player, the river doesn’t add a lot to the game. I feel it’s something that benefits groups with more players, as it gives you more turns and more opportunities to play. With fewer players, the river expansion feels like it’s being used for the sake of being used, without really adding anything to the game.

Players fight over various parts of the river as the game begins.

Final thoughts:

Overall, I don’t feel the river expansions adds a lot to the base game. I think it’s a good expansion to start with, as it doesn’t add any new mechanics, but gives players a little bit more time to play the game and score a few more points. It doesn’t add a lot for a two-player game, I often find players run out of meeples anyway, and the river just compounds the problem. However, it may play better with more players, giving players two or three more turns to place their meeples and score a few more points, as well as spreading players’ meeples out a bit more.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you agree with me in the comments below!

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Chris