Carcasonne is your typical German European game. Easy rules, short playing time (45-60 minutes), family-friendly. Besides luck due to tile-drawing tactical decisions by the players and a bit of strategic resource management determine the victor.
Munchkin is an American game to boot. The game itself is rather lacklustre, the fun comes in with the cards. Players' decisions are more concerned with whether and which risks you want to take; it's a gambling game at heart.
If you like games like Settlers you should find Carcassone enjoyable.
So, before somebody starts to yell at me: I'm a German boardgamer and Eurogamer. The German school of game design, where a game is a mathematical model you extend and manipulate to reach the victory condition, is right up my alley.
Carcassone is quite easy to play, and allows for both cooperation and competition between players. Scoring is a bit complicated at first, but after a couple games, you'll have it down pat. The real fun of this game is in placing the tiles and building a countryside, and the gameplay itself is so simple that I can play this game with my 5-year-old cousins (minus the scoring, of course). Additionally, there's a metric buttload of expansions for this game available, each of which adds new tiles and new rules elements. Personally, I recommend this game more often than I do Settlers of Catan, (which I find to be too easy to become unfair and unfun when players vary widely in skill-level).
As for Munchkin (the card game, not the boardgame or RPG spinoffs, which I've never played) is a fun game, especially if you're familiar with the tropes of D&D -- Munchkin is a game that satirizes various genres, but especially fantasy gaming. There's also tons of different thematic "versions" and expansions of this game, all of which are compatible with the rest. That said, the rules are dirt-simple to learn and use, and in four years of playing it I've never came across a major "rules dispute". The downside to Munchkin is that there's a strong air of informality to the rules of the game, which actively encourages cheating, in the spirit of humourous gaming. This game is a lot of fun to play with your gaming friends, although a lot of the humour is lost on non-gamers, and overly serious and over-competitive folks might not enjoy it. Overall, Munchkin is a great game, as long as your players aren't wound too tight.
Ok, a bit hyperbolic... But generally people who prefer games for the gaming dislike munchkin, and people who prefer it for the social aspect like munchkin. Suffice to say Munchkin is a lackluster game which succeeds solely due to the humor and theme. I do recommend playing it at least once, though, and making up your mind for yourself. As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan, so my opinion is pretty biased.
Carcassonne is a light euro game, and a great introduction to the genre for someone not already familiar. The expansions add a bit of complexity to it, but it never really becomes too heavy. I'd definitely recommend it.
Ok, a bit hyperbolic... But generally people who prefer games for the gaming dislike munchkin, and people who prefer it for the social aspect like munchkin. Suffice to say Munchkin is a lackluster game which succeeds solely due to the humor and theme. I do recommend playing it at least once, though, and making up your mind for yourself. As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan, so my opinion is pretty biased.
You won't be ducking anything thrown by me that's for sure - I totally agree. Munchkin is fun. Once, maybe twice but the replayability really drops after that as you have seen most of the cards and the humor begins to grow stale. Hence the seemingly unending supply of expansions. I stopped buying (and playing) after the second expansion. Oh and the wrong group of people playing this, that is a mix of 'social gamers' and 'gaming gamers' can lead quickly to some bad feelings and annoying drama. This is, of course, my opinion based upon my own experiences. If you love Munchkin just keep playing it, please!
As far as Carcassone goes I do like it as a light, 'quickie' game to break out if someone is late to D&D or if there are only 2 or 3 of us (it is a very enjoyable 2 player game which is a rarity ime). Easy to learn, fun and quick to play - that's a 3 star game in my book!
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Carcassone I like better because of the replayability and the lesser mentality of purposely trying to screw over the other players. Also, even with lots of expansions it never became a 5 hour game like I've seen Munchkin do.
Reading the Munchkin cards is highly entertaining. Playing the game is fun a few times, but I agree that it doesn't have the long term replay value of other games.
Carcassone is also a good game. We bring that to the gaming parties our friends hold, where we play a variety of board games and card games, ranging from Settlers of Catan, Scrabble, Mah Jongg, Settlers of Catan, Great Dalmuti, Carcassone, Apples to Apples, Royalty, etc. etc.
Apples to Apples is a great party game. It's easy for people to drop out of the game without affecting anyone else's score or play. Good for any number of people, but more than 5 or 6 is best. The Great Dalmuti is another fun and easy to play card game. Again it's better with more people.
Munchkin degenerates into "I try to win" "I stop you" "Now I try to win" "I stop you" "It's my turn to win" "Oops - we're all out of cards to stop you".
Funny cards, but as a game there are many better. Carcassonne is one of them; I was playing it today. I'm sure I've played it over 100 times - that's not the case with Munchkin.
Munchkin is....not even really as fun a Hearts or President played with a normal deck of cards.
Carcassonne is okay as a time waster but (to me) boils down to either tile counting (which I am not interested in) or crossing your fingers and hoping you get that one magic tile that gives you the big payoff. I never feel like I have many options in the way of strategy when playing it.
If I had to vote for one or the other I would pick Carcassonne because it's fun for two players, which Munchkin isn't.
I'm not a big fan of Carcassone; it's a decent "entry-level" game, but I prefer a lot of other, deeper, more complicated games. In a sense, it's like Risk: a low level of minimum skill to master, then it's all luck.
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