Positioned along vital trade routes across southern France, the countryside surrounding the fortified city of Carcassonne is a hub of activity. Noble knights patrol the city streets keeping the peace as merchants peddle their wares in the market. Outside of town, robbers prey on unsuspecting travelers while monks and farmers live a seemingly idyllic life in the country.

With the Carcassonne base game and first two expansions as a foundation, the Carcassonne Big Box adds even more diversity with nine mini-expansions, include the The Abbot, The River, The Flying Machines, The Ferries, The Messengers, The Gold Mines, Mage & Witch, The Robbers, and The Crop Circles.

With Inns & Cathedrals, players will discover new building types. Cathedrals will increase the value of a player's cities and inns make claiming roads even more lucrative. But placing meeples on these features can also be riskier than other tiles. Meeples remaining on tiles that use inn or cathedrals don’t score any points at the end of the game, making this an all-or-nothing proposition. Also included are giant-sized meeples that count as two meeples on whichever feature they occupy. By strategically placing one of these, a player can quickly gain control of a feature.

For its part, Traders & Builders creates entirely new goals beyond placing tiles and meeples. This expansion focuses on the humming commerce in the cities and countryside of Southern France. By completing cities with Goods icons and collecting the Goods tokens included with this expansion, players can earn themselves bonus points, possibly giving them the edge they need in final scoring. This process is helped by the builder meeple, who allows players to place a second tile immediately after adding one to the road or city the builder occupies. Finally, the farms of the Carcassonne countryside have begun raising pigs, and with the placement of these pig meeples they will increase their point values as well.