Conquering Carcassonne

Video games are one of the most popular forms of entertainment in modern-day America, but board games have recently entered a renaissance thanks to the huge success of games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, and Carcassonne. These two forms of entertainment have intertwined as board game creators quickly realized the huge potential for electronic versions of their games. Due to the fact most board games require multiple players, developers have been forced to include computer-controlled “players” in their games. This project focuses on the development of an electronic version of the modern-day board game, Carcassonne, and an artificial intelligence (AI) that is capable of playing Carcassonne at a competitive level. The rules of Carcassonne are detailed, and a variety of gameplay strategies are discussed. The basics of the mathematical field of game theory are also investigated. The implementation of the game, and its two bots, “beginner” and “advanced,” are also discussed. Finally, the statistics from hundreds of bot vs. bot game simulations, and a moderate amount of human vs. bot games, are analyzed. By the end of this paper, the reader should have a fundamental understanding of the gameplay mechanics and common strategies of Carcassonne, the basics of game theory, and the thought process that went into developing two different bots that can play Carcassonne at a competitive level