[pygame] learning pygame: what to focus for a board game?

["massimo s." <devicerandom@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I have this fixed idea of writing a clone of Carcassonne (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne_(board_game) ) with Python,
playable under Linux. Basically, it's made of square tiles that must
match together forming a map, and one gets points if manages to complete
cities, roads etc... Simple but fun, quite strategic.

I'm having a look at pygame for its development and it looks promising.
However most pygame tutorials etc. are aimed at arcade-like games, as
far as I can see. That's cool, but that's pretty far from my aims.

So I'd like to know:
- Should I learn sprites or can I just learn surfaces? I'd like to have
(or at least plan to support in the future) some (very simple)
animation, like the tile rotation when asked to rotate it, or a fast
movement of the tile into the board. Can I make it just with rectangles
or do I need sprites?
- Where are the "widgets" needed for a configuration panel and/or a
menu? Things like tick box, menus etc.?
- Any other basic advice in building a board game with pygame?

Thanks a lot,

M.