This was my first Carcassonne game and I really like it. The artwork is very good and the components of excellent quality.
The main mechanic is laying tiles in turn each trying to complete various scoring patterns, each tile must be placed so that side of the tile that touches another tile must match in terms of terrain type (Plain, forest, river etc.)
Players put meeples on the board to score or claim in order to score later, hunters are laid down and only score at the end of the game. There are also special tiles which can be claimed by scoring tiles with special symbols on, these tiles are placed straight away but are usually more valuable then the normal tiles you can play. The mechanics are simple but the strategies to win are what makes this very interesting and very replayable.
This is a very nice game and scales well for however many players, 2-5, you have. This is a valuable addition to anyones collection and I will always be willing to have a game of this.