Carcassonne Central

Hi all

A few questions regarding using the River 1:

1. Do all the River tiles need to be laid, or just those drawn until both the spring and the lake have bookended the river?

2. If the River tiles are played before the base game tiles, is the original start tile with the darkened underside placed into the draw bag with the rest, or does it have to be the first one laid after the river has been completed?


Thanks

1. All River tiles are laid. The starting tile is the Spring. The Lake is kept to one side. Players then each place a River tile, extending the River. The River must not flow back on itself (no 180 degree turns (U-turns): see CAR for further explanation). When all River tiles have been laid, the Lake tile is placed (no followers can be deployed to the Lake tile at this stage of the game), finishing the River. Play now continues as normal with the base tiles, but see the answer to your second question, below.

2. According to the current CAR, "the original starting tile can either be mixed into the stack of river tiles, or placed as soon as the river has been completed, and is treated like a normal tile."

The current CAR can be downloaded from this thread: http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=587.0 (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=587.0)

Thanks. Greatly appreciated  :)

I always include the starting tile in with the river tiles when I play.  I don't like to leave any tiles out.  :)

I actually just mix it in. Sure that means there is one obvious tile in the stack (if you are playing using the Tower) but it rarely causes a problem. I also always shuffle the river tiles, then place the spring at the top and the lake at the bottom of the stack. That way, all the tiles can be used normally instead of the rather awkward "place Lake tile then resume play" mechanic. Claim the field around the lake if you want!

That seems like an interesting way to do it.  I can see it being a problem though if you draw a river tile and it can't play on the end of the river because of the tiles around it.  Have you noticed that?

What do you mean? The River tiles are still placed first just like the normal rules, the Lake just gets put at the end of the river tiles from the start, rather than a special phase just to place the Lake. Sorry if I made it sound like I mix in the entire batch with the regular tiles. I didn't mean that, I meant I mix in the lake with the rest of the tiles (although I place it at the bottom of the river stack). I guess I didn't make that very clear at all. My bad.

Interestingly, when playing with the River II, the starting tile is not used.

I play with River I and II and the City of Carcassonne. Despite what any rules say, I start with a spring on both the east and west sides of the City of Carcassonne.  I leave the lake with the volcano set aside until the very last piece, that way you don't know what side the dragon is going to come up until you draw the other lake piece that is mixed with the rest of the river tiles.

That sounds like a good method.  I've always combined both into one river and left out one spring and one lake.  I'll have to try playing with two rivers next time.

I forgot. I've also done the two-rivers method, placing the two back to back (or side-by-side if using the GQ11 spring), and find it a very acceptable use of the tiles. With that method, only one spring goes unused in the entire game. If playing with the Count, just place the springs on opposite sides of the city.