Placing a Barn without having a Farmer in the field.

[GingerBear]

Can a player place a Barn if he has no Farmers in the field?

In the rules, it states that "The barn may be placed instead of a follower. It may only be placed on the point of intersection of four land tiles, one of which has just been placed by the player."

My thought is that since the Barn is a Special Figure (like the Builder and the Pig) and tied to a specific player (unlike the Fairy) it can only be placed if the player already has a Farmer in the field. Since the Builder and Pig can only be played on a segment already containing that players merson, doesn't the Barn fall under those same rules? Also, with the rules saying "instead of a follower" my thinking is that a player has to be able to place a follower to place the Barn. If that farm already has another player's Farmer, than no Farmer can be placed.

I know the rules state, "The player may place his Barn even if there are Farmers on field segments connected to the place where he places the Barn." but I assume that comes into play when farms with different players Farmers are connected.

Please help. Am I completely off target here?

[CKorfmann]

No, you do not have to have a follower in a field as a farmer to place the barn.  In fact, doing so is a bonus since you score for that farmer.  The Barn replaces all the farmers in that farm and they all score as if it were the end of the game and then they come off. 

[GingerBear]

Is this a common knowledge thing, or is it actually spelled out in the rules somewhere?

[Scott]

The portion of the rules that you originally quoted seems to spell it out to me. The phrase "even if" indicates that a barn can be placed on an empty farm or a farm with followers.

[Carcking]

Is this a common knowledge thing, or is it actually spelled out in the rules somewhere?

My English version of the rules is clear that the barn can be placed on another farmer's farm. It shows an illustrated example of it.

[GingerBear]

Thank you Carcking!

That version of the rules clearly states, "It matters not whether the owner of the Barn has Farmer on the Farm or not." and provides the official answer that I was looking for.