How to Play

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

2-5 players 35-40 min 7.1 Board Game Geek Rating

This stone age Carcassonne variant involves placing tiles to build landscapes with forests, rivers, and meadows. Players deploy meeples as hunters, gatherers, or fishermen to score points from completed features. Special mechanics include bonus menhir tiles from gold nuggets, animal scoring in meadows, and fishing huts that collect points from connected waterways. Highest score wins.

Published 2002

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Place the starting tile

Put the starting tile (with dark "C" back) face up in the center of the table

Separate the tile stacks

Sort normal terrain tiles from menhir tiles into different piles

Prepare menhir tiles

Shuffle menhir tiles and place them face down in a single stack to the side

Prepare normal tiles

Shuffle normal terrain tiles and place them face down in multiple stacks so all players can easily reach at least one stack

Position the scoreboard

Place the scoreboard away from the starting tile, near the edge of the table

Distribute meeples

Give each player 5 meeples of their chosen color

Distribute huts

Give each player 3 huts of their chosen color

Place scoring meeples

Put the 6th meeple of each used color on the "0" space of the scoreboard

Set aside covering markers

Place the 24 covering markers nearby for end-game scoring

Return unused components

Put any unused meeples and huts back in the box

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Draw a terrain tile

Take 1 terrain tile from any face-down stack

Place the tile

Position the tile to continue the existing landscape (rivers, meadows, and forests must connect to matching features)

Optional: Place a meeple as fisherman

Place one of your meeples on a river on the tile you just placed, but only if no other meeple occupies that same river

Optional: Place a meeple as gatherer

Place one of your meeples on a forest on the tile you just placed, but only if no other meeple occupies that same forest

Optional: Place a meeple as hunter

Place one of your meeples lying down on a meadow on the tile you just placed, but only if no other hunter occupies that same meadow

Optional: Place a hut

Place a hut on a river or lake on the tile you just placed, but only if no other hut exists in that connected river system

Score completed rivers

When a river is closed at both ends by lakes or forests (or loops back on itself), score 1 point per tile plus 1 point per fish in the river and capping lakes, then return the fisherman to your supply

Score completed forests

When a forest is completely surrounded by meadows with no gaps, score 2 points per tile, then return the gatherer to your supply

Trigger menhir bonus

If you complete a forest containing one or more menhirs, take an extra turn by drawing and placing a menhir tile after scoring

Handle menhir tile special actions

When placing certain menhir tiles, immediately resolve their special effect (boat scores 2 points per lake in river system; hunting trap scores surrounding animals; shaman returns one of your meeples)

Track your score

Move your scoring meeple along the scoreboard equal to points earned

Pass play

After completing all actions, the next player clockwise takes their turn

Winning

How to claim victory.

End the game

The game ends when the last normal terrain tile is placed (not menhir tiles)

Keep hunters and huts

Leave all hunters and huts on the tiles for final scoring

Remove other meeples

Return all fishermen and gatherers without scoring incomplete features

Score river systems with huts

The player with the most huts in each river system scores 1 point per fish shown in that entire system; ties award full points to all tied players

Score meadows with hunters

Each hunter scores based on animals in their meadow: 3 points per mammoth, 2 points per aurochs, 1 point per deer

Apply saber-toothed tigers

Each tiger in a meadow cancels out one deer (use covering markers to track eliminated deer)

Apply meadow modifiers

Pit traps double animal values for the surrounding 8 tiles; wildfire ignores all tigers in that meadow; raft adds 1 point per lake to river system scoring

Resolve tied hunters

If multiple players tie for most hunters in a meadow, each tied player receives full points; if one player has the most, only they score

Determine the winner

The player with the highest total score wins

Break ties

If tied for highest score, the tied players share the victory