Carcassonne is a tile-laying game where you try to place limited meeples to control resources that are revealed as the tiles are laid out. You have to balance playing the long game (risking losing access to meeples) against the short game (getting sparse resources but keeping meeple flexibility).
I've only ever played the base game or used "The River" expansion. Both are good, though I actually think the river does a good job of keeping things localised.
Two of the best games ever made, in my view.
(For the first, I like the Europe version best.)
I've only ever played the base game or used "The River" expansion. Both are good, though I actually think the river does a good job of keeping things localised.