Welcome to the site! Glad you like it.
In simple terms, 1st edition farmer scoring is what comes in the box with the American Rio Grande Games (RGG) edition, whereas 3rd edition farmer scoring is what comes the original publishers of the game, Hans-im-Glück (HiG) use. and now for the detail (please, anyone should feel free to correct me…)
1st edition rules are scored from the perspective of the cities themselves: that is, you pick a city, and count the number of farmers on all the farms touching that city. Then the player with the most of those farmers scores 4 points. Then move on to the next city.
2nd edition rules followed almost immediately - after Carcassonne won Game of the Year (GotY), in fact. The original farmer rules were considered to be too difficult by the jury and they were changed, although after the change there were called for the game to be stripped of the award, since the game that won was not actually the game subsequently sold as the GotY.
The 2nd edition rules changed to scoring farms from the perspective of the farms - pick a farm, count the farmers on it, and the player with the most farms scores 3 points for every city touching the farm.
But each city could only be scored once, meaning you still had to keep track of which cities had scored 3 points and which not. 3rd edition rules came swiftly and removed that qualification, so that each city can be scored multiple times.
The great virtue of the 3rd edition rules is that you don't have to keep track of which cities have been scored, only which farms - and since you should remove the farmers after a farm has been scored, it isn't overly difficult. Also, in the 1st edition rules, the farms aren't actually scored directly, but only indirectly, making the notion of 'farmer' scoring slightly misleading and difficult to grasp for younger players (this, essentially, was the jury's objection).
But whereas 3rd edition rules have been used in Germany for the last five years or so, RGG chose to stick with the first edition rules. Why, no-one is quite sure, but the usual arguments revolve around consistency (it would confuse people to change the rules) and authenticity (1st edition rules are the one that won GotY, after all).
Of course, another advantage for American players is that the 1st edition rules are the ones that come in the box - if you don't start looking around sites like this one or BGG, you probably won't even be aware of the alternative. Being aware is a good thing, though, as most of the arguments over rules were, until recently, almost always over farmer scoring. The people at BGG are very nice on the whole, but if you want to start a flame war over there, just start a thread saying that either 1st or 3rd edition rules suck.
We're much to civilised for that over here ;-)
Actually, when Gantry and I were discussing collaborating on the site, one of the things I specified as essential was that the site would not promote 1st edition rules. I'll explain why.
First of all, most of the community in-fighting was over which edition to use, and so I thought we needed a policy. But secondly, and this is the most important advantage next to ease of use, every single expansion to the game, and every single FAQ translated on the site has 3rd edition rules in mind. As you're probably aware, there are currently 11 expansions to Carcassonne. Only one of those - the
GQ mini-expansion - was authored by RGG. So, for example, when the RGG edition of
Traders and Builders talks about the pig giving a bonus point and bringing the total to 5, that's an adaptation of the original German rules, in which the total is 4. Sticking to 1st edition rules has meant that RGG needed to adapt every subsequent expansion to fit - so even if 1st edition rules are more 'authentic' for the basic game, the become less 'authentic' the moment you add an expansion into the mix.
Now, none of this was really a problem, so long as players are informed about the two possibilities and agreed upon which to use. As you'll have noticed in the Annotated Rules, which are based on the latest HiG rules, I've sign-posted every point at which the RGG and HiG rules diverge - because although I couldn't work with a site which promoted 1st edition rules as the default, it's extremely important to give everyone enough information to choose. Unfortunately, that can also lead to too much detail…
But with the release of the latest expansion -
Abbey and Mayor - the situation may have changed. It was inevitable that at some point HiG would release an expansion which would simply be incompatible with 1st edition farmer scoring; and now we have an expansion that potentially simplifies farmer scoring at the end of the game if you're using 3rd edition rules, but will easily double the complexity if you're still using 1st edition rules. I'll explain.
The new expansion features a barn - one for each player - which can only be placed at the intersection of four farm segments. Any farmers currently on that farm are immediately scored (3 points per adjacent city) and removed. Any farmers which, later in the game, join the farm through connecting tiles are also scored (1 point per adjacent city) and removed. At the end of the game, the barn scored 4 points per adjacent city.
When I first read the German rules, I wondered how RGG would adapt that. Potentially, the farmer removal and scoring could go ahead as usual, although it would be odd - after all, if only the farmers on one farm need to be removed, why should a city count all the other adjacent farms to produce a score? Possible, but weird. The real problem would come at the end, though - if you score farms from the perspectives of the cites, how would you judge the value or strength of the barn? Clearly, it trumps farmers - is it worth two of them? Hmm.
Well, the RGG rules (available
here, in what looks like a draft) did something I didn't expect - they stick precisely to the German rules. That is, the farmers being removed score 3 points (or 1 point) per adjacent city, and the barn scores 4 points per adjacent city at the end. The barn, in both HiG and RGG rules, uses 3rd edition scoring.
But there is no indication anywhere in the rules that RGG farmer scoring in general should now follow 3rd edition rules. In other words, at the end of the game, it seems you're meant to calculate the two elements separately, using 1st edition for farmers and 3rd edition for barns. Twice as complicated, as I said.
Compare that with the effect of the barn if you're using 3rd edition rules for everything: the mechanic is consistent, there should be fewer farmers in play (and so less counting) and fewer wars for the majority. The barn should actually simplify the game…
How this will play out in the long run I don't know. The Big Box allowed both HiG and RGG to streamline the rules considerably in order to take account of unforeseen developments in later expansions - builders and pigs are no longer followers, for example. RGG chose not to use the opportunity to update farmer scoring, and the very next expansion released breaks 1st edition scoring utterly. I could imagine that they might have to officially change the rules now; on the other hand, they might decide that it's only one expansion after all, and so it isn't worth it. Only time will tell.
My advice to players has always to move to 3rd edition rules - they're simpler, and allow you to play the expansions as intended. And if you're planning to get hold of Abbey and Mayor (which you should do, since
I think it's the best expansion since Traders and Builders), then now is the time to take the plunge.
Well, I'm sorry if that went on for a bit long, but I hope it helped answer your questions nevertheless!
Maybe I should edit this down and use it as an introduction to the Annotated Rules…
