With the new three-way tile, is the length of the road the longest distance between two ends, or the total number of tiles in the road? (For example, when deciding who gets the Robber Baron.)
Answer: Every tile which is part of the road counts (similarly to the Castle). The road has three ends which have to be closed, but the result is that it’s likely to be bigger.
If I have an Abbey left and I pick the very last tile up and play it to an feature where I have a Builder, then is the game over because the last tile (apart from Abbeys) has been played? Or am I allowed to play my Abbey on my extra turn from the Builder?
Answer: The abbey may still be played. The builder-turn is not an extra turn, but a part of the regular turn (the double-turn). Both parts of the double-turn are identical, although the fairy (3rd expansion), for example, only gives bonus points at the start of the player’s turn, and a figure can also only be moved to Carcassonne (Count) once.
If the player on my right plays the last tile has the game finished? Or, if I have an Abbey left, can I say, "No I want my turn. I choose not to take a tile, but to play my Abbey"?
Answer: Strictly speaking, all abbeys can be played. As such, players who don’t have an abbey left can be passed by… not nice.
But the abbey is definitely a land tile, and according to the basic rules the game is over when all land tiles have been played. I’m not keen on that, but we did write it…
Wait! I’ve just spoken with the boss, and he also thinks it isn’t very nice, and not in the spirit of the game.
So we agreed on a new definition: “The game is over when the last upturned land tile has been played.”
If a player hasn’t played their abbey by the time that the last ‘regular’ land tile is played, it’s tough luck.
What is the definition of "connected" for the Wagon? If two city walls are touching (maybe even only at a point), can I drive my Wagon from one to another?
Answer: ‘Connected’ means roads which lead to crossings and roads which head directly ‘into’ a city or a cloister. Two cities never connect to each other (in the current land tiles). So the wagon has to use the roads to move—it’s a wagon, after all.
Can you deploy a wagon to a city, score it, and then move the wagon to another feature, all in one turn? Or can you only move the wagon instead of deploying a normal follower?
Answer: That isn’t a contradiction, is it?
The wagon can be deployed instead of a normal follower. If the city is immediately completed, then it’s scored (wagon or ‘normal’ follower). After scoring, the wagon can be moved. All of that is possible in a single turn.
Blue has a mayor in a city with no pennants. Does the city count as occupied? And if so, when the city is scored, will blue score points?
Answer: The city is occupied. The mayor has no ‘strength’, so he counts as if there is no follower, and scores no points.
If a player completes a feature with an Abbey tile and their builder is on the feature, does the feature get 'extended" by the Abbey, and if so does the player get another tile?
Answer: No, the abbey is a separate feature.
If cities with trade goods are completed by placement of an Abbey tile, are the goods tokens awarded as usual to the player placing the Abbey tile?
Answer: Yes, as the player completed the city.
If an Abbey tile completes a road/city that is unoccupied can the player use a follower from their hand to complete and score that feature in that turn - as they could with placement of a road or city tile?
Answer: No, the follower can only be deployed to the tile just placed, so only to the abbey.
Can the wagon move to an incomplete, empty, Abbey when the road/city it is on is completed? That is: is the road/city "adjacent" to the Abbey even though the Abbey tile has no city/road segment?
Answer: No. Just like in the first question, connections are made via roads.
Can I place a builder in a city in which the only other follower is a wagon?
Answer: Yes. A little definition may help: we distinguished between ‘followers’ and ‘special figures’ in the Big Box.
Followers are deployed according to the normal rules and score the normal points. At the moment, that’s the small and big followers, the mayor, and the wagon.
Special figures are deployed differently and have a variable or even no score. At the moment, that’s the builder, the pig, and the barn.
If I place a barn on a farm on which another player has farmers, causing him/her to score while I score nothing, can I move a follower to the City of Carcassonne? (While there is no immediate score to me now, the barn is certain to score at the end of the game).
Answer: Yes, that’s allowed. Only immediately scored points matter.
A similar question arises with regard to trade goods, which may lead to points at the end of the game.
Does the placing of a barn, and the subsequent scoring of the farm, count as an opportunity to REMOVE a meeple from the City of Carcassonne? The rules currently say that a meeple may only be removed to a farm "at the end of the game", but that was created before A&M and the barn.
Answer: Yes: now that farms cannot only be scored at the end of the game, followers from the market can be moved to farms earlier in the game. That occurs immediately after the placement of the barn, and before the farmers are scored.
If a player completes a city that contains resources, but scores no points for the city, does the acquisition of resources count as (potential) scoring and forbid the player moving a meeple to the City of Carcassonne? What if the resources acquired secure a monopoly and therefore make later scoring certain?
Answer: As mentioned above, only immediately scored points matter.
Can I place a follower on a tower foundation to prevent a tower being built?
Answer: No. Only tower blocks can be placed on tower foundations. The tower can only be blocked when it already exists.
If your city is besieged with a tile from the Cathars expansion, and there is no Abbey or Cloister adjoining, can the mayor or wagon escape? [oops, mistranslation there… meant to be ‘is an Abbey etc’- Matt]
Answer: No, escape is only possible in connection with a cloister or abbey. If a besieged city is completed, it is scored and the followers are returned to the play as usual (the wagon can naturally be moved as well).
If you have one knight in a besieged city, and another knight in another besieged city, and both besieged cities are adjacent to cloisters, can both knights escape at the end of your turn, or can you only choose to evacuate one per turn?
Answer: I haven’t got the rules in front of me, but I seem to remember that only one knight can escape per turn. It’s irrelevant whether the followers are in the same city or different cities.
Can a knight in a besieged city from the Cathars escape via a shrine, or only via a cloister?
Answer: The shrines are, for the most part, identical to cloisters. That goes for escape as well.
The rules say that you may not place a shrine in such a way that it neighbours several cloisters, and vice versa. But can I place a shrine in such a way that it forces a cloister neighbour several shrines? What effect does that have?
Answer: It leads to enormous problems when multiple cloisters and shrines neighbour each other. I also don’t know how a player can be forced to place a tile in a particular place.
If the fairy is on the same tile as the losing heretic or monk in a challenge, does the player still score the bonus 3 points?
Answer: When a challenge is resolved (that is, when someone has won), both followers are returned to the player, so no-one is stood next to the fairy.
Can a shrine challenge an abbey, and vice versa?
Answer: Yes, because the abbey is also a cloister.
Do the rules that restrict the placement of cloisters next to already placed shrines also restrict the placement of Abbeys?
Answer: Yes.
If you combine Count, King and Consorts with The River II, you will now have two forks. Obviously one of those gets placed immediately, but should the other one be mixed in with the rest of the river tiles, or put to one side?
Answer: In fact, that means using The River II twice. We didn’t plan that, and I think that it will lead to problems with placement. Whoever wants to do it should go ahead, but there’s no rules for it. Sorry!
What if the tile placed completes both the shrine and the cloister—who scores?
Answer: Then no-one completed the building first, and both receive the points.
Does it ever make a difference if I have a big meeple in a cloister or the shrine?
Answer: It can make a difference in combination with the Count, but he never leads to more points, or anything like that.
Can I move followers from the City of Carcassonne (from the cathedral?) into a shrine during scoring?
Answer: Yes, Shrines and cloisters are treated in the same way.
Imagine I have an unoccupied cloister next to an occupied shrine. I place a tile with a magic portal which completes both buildings, and choose to use the magic portal to deploy a monk to the cloister. Does this declare a challenge, if so, and who wins?
Answer: Then it’s a challenge which ends in a draw (see question 24).
Similar question: Imagine I have an unoccupied cloister next to an occupied shrine. I place a tile which completes both buildings, and choose to move a follower into the cloister from the City of Carcassonne. Does this declare a challenge, and if so, who wins?
Answer: That’s not possible, since the unoccupied cloister is not scored (only occupied features are scored, while unoccupied ones are simply completed). So no follower can be moved there.
Say I have a heretic engaged in a challenge with a monk, and I place the tile which completes the monk's cloister, so that the monk scores 9 points and I score 0. Can I still move a follower to CC in this case?
Answer: Yes, triggered scoring, received no points: conditions fulfilled.
When a challenge is resolved, both the monk and heretic are removed from play. What if that leaves one of the buildings incomplete? Can I reoccupy it using a magic portal or a follower from the City of Carcassonne?
Answer: Gnnnn… (damn!)
Yes, that’s allowed (if unforeseen).
In the new rules for The River II, it says ‘Der Fluss wird zu Beginn der Partie ausgelegt.’ Does the word ‘Partie’ have any special meaning? I haven’t seen it in the rules before…
Answer: No, that’s just someone getting creative. It doesn’t have any particular meaning.
Can a shorter tower capture the follower from a taller tower, or does the tower need to be equal or greater in height?
Answer: The height of the tower only determines the range of the ‘attack’ and has no other function.