Wagon moves

[dwhitworth]

If I complete a road or city when laying my tile, I may use a follower from my hand to score that feature, and then immediately remove it again. If I do this then it means that I have "moved the wood" for that turn and can't play any other follower (or take any other action in lieu of follower placement (eg. tower piece) that turn.

The rules do not mention what happens when a player chooses their wagon from their hand in this situation, scores the feature, and then immediately moves the wagon to an adjacent feature as in a regular wagon move - quite possibly on the same tile just played. This kind of move might appear to be moving the wood twice, but then the wagon has special powers. It can often be quite a useful move if you have your wagon among your hand pieces, and we have decided to allow it because we think placing the wagon (and using its moving capability) constitutes "placing a single follower" as per the basic rules - albeit a special follower.

But I would like to hear if anyone else has different interpretation of this. Is moving the wagon a move taken "in lieu of placing a follower", and therefore not allowed after scoring the feature. In normal play if you move the wagon after completing a feature (and scoring it) you can't play another follower as well . . . or can you??

We have played Abbeys&Mayors quite a bit now and agree with Matt and others that this is the best expansion since the first two.

D

[Joff]

One of the questions I have to do with the wagon is: The rules say that you can move the wagon to an unoccupied adjacent road, cloister or city. Does the new location have to be connected? We had this in our game this afternoon, where an unoccupied road was not connected to the road the wagon was on but was on the same tile, therefore 'adjacent' to it.

[dwhitworth]

Interestring point! "adjacent" or "connected"?

The CAR says "adjacent" but all examples given are also connected. In the left hand example in the CAR there is a road that is adjacent but not connected and the example does not show a move to that road as one of the allowed (or disallowed) moves. So the point is open.

We have always assumed that the feature had to be connected - mostly based onthe examples given for allowd moves.

D

[mjharper]

The difference between connected and adjacent is important, but unresolved—John Sweeney sent me that one a while ago (sorry John). Must send to HiG… next weekend after I finish the damned essay.

As for dwhitworth's original question, I'd say you can deploy, score and move in a single turn. Alternatively you can deploy a follower, score, and if the wagon is in the scored feature, you can move it.

Under no circumstances can you score and then deploy; but since the 'special power' of a wagon is precisely that it can move after scoring, it wouldn't make much sense if it couldn't be deployed and moved in the same turn. Then it would be no better than a normal follower in that situation. We could ask for clarification, though…

On that note, I'll set up a new thread for collecting questions for HiG…