Play a Game Like Carcassonne Online for Free, With Friends or Bots

Carcassonne is one of the best loved tile laying games ever made. You draw a tile, add it to a growing map of cities, roads and fields, and drop a follower on something you want to score. It is simple to learn and hard to put down.

The trouble starts when your friends live far away, or it is midnight and nobody wants to set up a table. This guide shows how to play Seizer, a free online tile placement game, right in your browser. If you enjoy Carcassonne, you will feel at home.

What you need

• A browser on a laptop, tablet or phone. Nothing to download.
• No account. You can play as a guest from the first second.
• Optional: the free Seizer app for iPhone or Android if you want a turn alert on your phone.

Play right now against bots

The fastest way in is a bot game. Open seizer.io, start a bot game and pick a level. There are five, from Easy to Master. Easy is perfect for learning, because tiles only snap where they are allowed and the spots where a follower can go light up after you place a tile. You cannot make an illegal move by accident.

Once Easy feels comfortable, move up a level. Master plays tight and will punish a lonely farmer, so it is a good test before you face real people.

Play online with friends

To play with people you know, create a private game and share the link. Friends open it on any device and join your table, no account needed. You can seat from 2 up to 10 players, and if someone drops out or you are one short, add a bot to fill the seat.

If you want to play again later, make a free account and add each other as friends. Then you can invite them straight from your friends list, and you can see your record against each other on their profile.

Play over days with daily games

Not everyone can sit down for a full game at once. Daily games fix that. Each player takes a turn whenever they have a minute, and the app tells you when it is your move. It is the closest thing to a game on the kitchen table that everyone walks past during the week.

Find a match with strangers

Want a real opponent right now? Press play and the queue pairs you with another player, usually within seconds. Ranked games move your rating on the leaderboard, and there are regular tournaments if you like a bracket.

How close is it to the board game?

Seizer is its own game with its own tiles and art, and it is not affiliated with Carcassonne or its publisher. The rules will feel familiar though. You build cities, roads and monasteries, you claim them with followers, and scoring works the way you expect: 2 points per tile for a finished city, 1 per road tile, 9 for a finished monastery, and farmers score 3 for every finished city their field touches at the end.

There are a few extras. You can play with 1 tile in hand like the classic game, or hold 3 tiles and pick the best one each turn, which makes planning a lot more interesting. There are also four free expansions: The River Path, Taverns & Temples, Merchants & Makers and Abbot. The expansion rules page explains each one.

New to the game?

Read the short how to play page, then start a bot game on Easy. When you are ready to win more, our 10 strategy tips cover the habits that separate good players from great ones.