Carcassonne’s next expansion brings circuses, animals and acrobats to the beloved tile-layer

Its lustre may have faded among the more hardcore gamers out there in the 17 years since it debuted, but we’ll proudly admit that we still love a good game of Carcassonne.

So, it seems, do plenty of other fans out there, as Z-Man has just announced the 10th (tenth!) expansion for the tile-laying modern classic.

As you might guess from its name, Under the Big Top introduces a host of cricus-themed additions to the game, from acrobats and ringmasters to performing animals and the massive tent itself.

In the box will be 20 new land tiles, including 12 circus tiles that reward players for crowding their meeples around the wooden big top figure.

Placing a circus also means laying a facedown animal token under the big top; when another circus is placed, players in or around the first tile score points equal to their number of meeples multiplied by the hidden figure – up to seven times, in the case of the elephant!

The remaining eight tiles are acrobats, which allow a pyramid to be formed of three meeples when placing adjacent tiles. The pyramid can then be scored instead of placing a meeple, racking up five points per figure.

Joining the new big top figure is a ringmaster meeple, which is used like a normal meeple but receives bonus points for being part of a scored circus or acrobat tile.

If you want to get in on the action, Carcassonne: Under the Big Top will apparently be released ‘soon’. You’ll obviously need the original game to play it.