Carcassonne Central

Copied over from http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/5342976#5342976:

From my crude translation, it seems that the expansion is a re-imagining of The River with the river tiles being replaced with a large (double wide) road that connects two cities and divides the board at the beginning of the game (seems to be the exact same starting mechanics as the River):

"The trade route is a wide road that connects two major cities, played at the beginning just like the expansion: "The River". It consists of 12 tiles high quality tiles!

"The beginning and end are tiles with 3 edges of city so that both cities will have the potential to be large. The normal roads branching out of the trade route are worth an extra point for each segment; however, only if they are completed. Otherwise, the roads do not earn any points."

So, just like the River, it seems the Trade Route is not worth any points in itself. Instead, it acts like a giant Inn from Inns & Cathedrals, adding a point to each road segment that is linked to the Trade Route and negating any points that would be earned from incomplete roads. A rather interesting concept that may or may not prove useful or aesthetically pleasing. Unlike Inns & Cathedrals, the benefit of this Trade Route is that it is placed first and so players have the entire game to try and finish their +1 point routes. Again, interesting concept and good find. I do not doubt that this expansion is legitimate and will have more information available in the near future.

It will be interesting to see if this is legit.

That site was last updated in Feb 2006. I wonder why it never surfaced before  ???

Enough with the expansions already!

I hope this is a "hoax".

According to a post on the Czech Carcassonne Forum (http://forum.carcassonne.cz/viewtopic.php?t=7&highlight=&sid=1169a1bdc88c327be45a77f47510c54c) it's not an official expansion. I haven't been able to find anything else about it, other than a few more forum sites asking whether it's official or not. I'd have to say, based on the images I've seen, it's probably a fan-made expansion made from scans of The River.

This is absolute not an official expansion. Some German guys are making their own UNofficial expansions and sells them on E-bay. This is one of them. I bought it some time ago.
On this site: http://www.carcassonne.nl/onoff_handelsstraat.html you will find the rules. Sorry only in Dutch. The Traderoad has to be build totally in the beginning of the game, like the River. No follower is allowed ON the Traderoad, but only on the small roads. If one finished a road that will end on the Traderoad, the road is worth 1 point more than original. If the road in UNfinished at the end of the game, it is worthless. And just like the River, an U-turn in the Traderoad is not allowed. Let me know if you want some more information on this expansion or others of the German guys.

Thanks for the link and info.  ;)
Too bad the pictures are not on the site anymore though  :'(    Wayback Machine doesn't have them either.

Pictures here: http://boardgamegeek.com/article/5349350#5349350 (http://boardgamegeek.com/article/5349350#5349350)

Yes, I saw those .... but what I ment were the picture on the dutch website.
I guess that was a tile overview (which could have been used for PnP purposes  ;) )

Isnt the hack more to avoid the tickets youd get from just not paying or running out of time? One might say OUTATIME

Huh?

That's what I was thinking  ;D

And congrats for the first post  8)