When comparing Carcassonne @ Elite Games vs Stratego, the Slant community recommends Stratego for most people. In the question“What are the best free online versions of board games?” Stratego is ranked 2nd while Carcassonne @ Elite Games is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Stratego is:
Stratego's rules are pretty easy to learn but the beauty is there is so much strategy involved that each game can have wildly different outcomes. Being that there is so much choice in how to strategize every game there is truly a limitless amount of fun to be had.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro AI Opponents
Pro Easy to learn for beginners
The rules are pretty basic for Carcassonne, with first time players being able to grasp its concepts quite quickly, making Carcassonne a great gateway game.
Every turn the player draws one tile from the pile. They then must place the tile adjacent to a tile that has already been placed in a way that the edges match. There are four types of terrain on the tiles – roads, cities, monasteries, and grassland. After the tile is placed the player can choose to put a player figure, a.k.a. a meeple, on the tile to potentially score points.
If a meeple is placed on a road, then the player will score one point for every road tile until the road ends in an intersection or a city. If the meeple is placed on a city, the player will receive two points for every city tile until the city is fully walled off. If the player chooses to place the meeple in a monastery, then they will receive one point per tile until the monastery is fully surrounded by tiles. Lastly, if the meeple is placed on grassland, then it’ll only score points at the very end of the game, giving three points for every city in the field. The player with the most points wins.
Pro Simple, but allows for lots of thinking if you want
The game is very accessible to beginners, but it allows for quite a bit of strategic play when you get more familiar with the concept. You can either go for long-term strategies with farms, or for quick point-grabs; you can build your own cities in peace or try to mess with your opponent whenever possible. A lot of tactics come in the form of cutthroat play – trapping other players’ meeples, stealing cities, and getting to share points.
Moreover, the last turns of the game can also influence the outcome a lot – players receive some points for unfinished creations as well.
Pro Near-endless replayability
Carcassonne will pretty much never feel dull, there are so many possibilities and variables in the game not only because of the randomness, but also because of the simplicity and the variation count.
Carcassonne is going to be a different game every time because of the tiles you and your opponents draw and where you choose to place them. There are over 70 tiles in the base set, which amounts to a lot of possible combinations.
Pro Accessible
Because of the simple rules Carcassonne is very easy to get back into even after big breaks and it’s great to teach to other people. This means that the people you play with can change without any problems and you can play the game with anyone – children, your parents, your friends, or your partner.
Pro Engaging
The gameplay is dynamic, and everyone’s constantly engaged, managing their meeples and calculating which part of the board is worth fighting over.
Pro Quick to play
In a regular expansion-less game of Carcassonne it can take 30 – 45 minutes to blast through the approximately 70 tiles.
Pro Simple to learn but utilizes much strategy
Stratego's rules are pretty easy to learn but the beauty is there is so much strategy involved that each game can have wildly different outcomes. Being that there is so much choice in how to strategize every game there is truly a limitless amount of fun to be had.
Pro Creative thinking and playing the other player take a large role
Players can arrange their troops however they like which begins a game of strategy but also a game of playing your opponent. By trying to trick or manipulate the other player the game becomes more in depth as a match of will.
Cons
Con Low difficulty AI
Though the game allows you to play against an AI opponent, the AI doesn't offer much of a challenge.
Con Highly random
As is typical for a game with a drawing mechanic, almost every action in the game is influenced by whatever tile is drawn and where a player has chosen to place it, so it’ll benefit him the most. The randomness is enhanced by the fact that the players only draw one tile at a time, so you must take what you get.
Con May be a little light for hardcore boardgame players
The game itself is not very deep in design or play, which may be a turn off for the more hardcore of boardgame players though can be good for newcomers.
Con Character pictures have to be manually placed
The character pictures have to be manually placed on each individual plastic board piece, which is time consuming and really should have just been done at the factory.