Carcassonne Central

when playing with expansion packs that include bridges that link cities together, do you count the cities as seperate features or does the bridge connect the cities together?  furthermore, does a bridge in a field 'cut off' the field for farmers or can a farmer 'go under' a bridge and continue their farm when figuring who supplies a city.  Please note, i'm not referring to the tiles that have bridges on the roads, just those one or two tiles that connect cities together via a bridge. ???

raberjr.

#1.  I believe that you are referring to the Town Bridge over the river tile and the Town Bridge over another town tile.  They both connect other town tiles at either end to become one contiguous city as small as three tiles if immediately capped on each end or as large and intricate as there are tiles to add to it.  Keep in mind that the Over-Under Town Bridge tile MAY or MAY NOT wind around to connect the upper section to the lower portion and must be carefully viewed when determining which player has the most Meeples in a wrap around town...YET it still only counts once as ONE tile for scoring purposes.

#2.  YES...the town bridge(s) cut off fields into separate features.  Even though the graphic appears to be high enough to allow farmers to walk underneath the structure to continue their journey from green to green, this Rule has been clarified somewhere in that Town Bridges function in the same manner as Road Bridges to define the boundaries of farmed fields.  Note:  Our group was playing incorrectly for quite awhile before someone brought it to our attention, so it must be a fairly common mistake and an easily overlooked section of the Rules. 

Where abouts is it stated that that particular bridge does not allow farming underneath it ? I would love to know as I have been arguing that point (against it) for a while but always get shouted down and couldnt be bothered to fight it. :)

Here is a <Link> to a full debate of the features on this tile that occured on BGG...

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/130829 

...you can read it and decide for yourself if you want to go with the flow or make it a House Rule for your own games.  We have 12 couples that game together and whomever's house we are in gets to determine which if any House Rules are going to be utilized that session.  This is to minimize arguments later on in the game because no one can then say, "You never told me that!"  We endeavor to keep this Family Oriented Board Game in it's proper perspective by playing casually (making: "nice-nice") instead of going all out in a competitively Cut-Throat fashion.  This is "Carcassonne" NOT "Trivial Pursuit" or Monopoly."  Keep it light hearted and play often, so you can enjoy the Meta-Game of interacting with other people. 

Sorry about late post entry but I think that bridges do not cut what's underneath it. That's logical, isn't it?