Carcassonne's quiet, endgame-defining mechanic is the farmer. Meeples placed in fields don't score during the game — they sit there waiting. At game end, every farmer scores 3 points per completed city adjacent to their field. New players almost universally underestimate fields on first play.
Two players who both understand farming will fight a brutal endgame for a 20+ point swing. The math is simple: a farmer adjacent to 5 completed cities scores 15 points. A road meeple scoring 4 points across 4 tiles scores 4. Fields just outscale every other feature once you understand them.
The community consensus is to play base + Inns & Cathedrals for the first 10 games. The River expansion (in most modern editions) prevents the awkward "two players race in opposite directions" opening. Avoid mixing too many expansions; 2–3 max is the practical limit.
