Boardgames are always welcome :)

Neat, I hope it will contain all the expansions :)

Pretty good board game, hoping for a decent implementation!

It's been out for about 3 years, so there is quite a few reviews already -
https://store.steampowered.com/app/598810/Carcassonne__Tiles__Tactics/

The problem is that none of these reviews compare the game to the implementaion from 2002 developed by Meridian93. Both games have nothing to do with esch other. The retail version from 2002 is still available (with 4 DLCs) on amazon:
https://www.amazon.de/Deep-Silver-Carcassonne-inklusive-Erweiterungen/dp/B005I7TYQ6/
(The Collector's Box contained 4 DLCs and the sequel "Jäger und Sammler", but seems to be out of stock:
https://www.amazon.de/Koch-Carcassonne-Collectors-Box/dp/3853230512)

The question now is how the AI of the newer version performs in comparison to the retail release.

No thanks. Carcassonne is probably the worst board game I ever played. Hard pass.

Edit: Seriously? For this? Lol.

ummm.... is it not better to compare it with the source material? i.e. the board game? And the old (2002) version is a bit obscure, and not many people are aware it exists and have played both, especiallyt as it is not availabe to buy digitally. I am not sure about the value of comparing them outside a very niche segment of players.

edit- you may as well have asked to compare it with "age of thives" which is the Amiga OS 4.1 version of the game... there are other versions as well

edit 2 - and if I am not mistaken, the 2002 version was only available in Germany, and in german language. So anyone not playing german games would not know about it

Is this a different game from the Epic giveaway?

No, it is the same one

The 2002 version was a good implementaion of an excellent board game. The player could adjust the AI similar to the Elo value known from chess. From a certain value it was really difficult to beat the AI. And there was no slowing down of the game in complex situations. Exactly this, the slowing down, is mentioned in some of the Steam reviews. Which could be an indication for a bad AI. Some other reviews claim cheating of the AI. Which would be an indication for a bad AI.

Hence I am still convinced that it makes a lot of sense to compare the AIs of both games. Is the new AI on par with the old one? Or is the new game just a quickie mobile thing hastily and superficially ported to PC?

Do you really want to buy the new version, if the old one was better? You would prefer to play a boring game, just because the superior version is in german? (Even german can be translated via deepl.) You are wrong. All versions of all games are compared all the time And if something's missing in some version, the relevant files get exchanged by the community. In this way censored games are converted to uncut ones, low graphic versions are changed to better ones, subtitles get swapped etc. And the reason for that is easily to understand: we want always the best result.

I have the old version installed on my old computer. Wouldn't mind a newer version for the newer one. Wishlisted.

I find Carcassonne to be a great game, but it's one that's better to play as a digital board game where it can highlight contiguous zones and calculate scoring for you. Playing on tabletop, that's the problem for me. End game scoring is a pain, and people grumble because of missed borders merging zones that had become competitive.

Anyway, there's a FLOSS Java implementation of Carcasonne called JCloisterZone that even has abstracted art that can make it easier to play. I'll probably grab this here because I do want to encourage Asmodee Borg Empire (the EA of tabletop games...) to release their whole library here.

I don't find that to be true at all. There's a lot of strategy. I consistently beat my husband and friends through careful placement.