Official Hans im Glück FAQ Thread

[Whaleyland]

Okay everyone, this is where you post your questions for Matt regarding the Carcassonne Complete Annotated Rules (CAR). I've tried to search through old threads and pull out some of the FAQs from there, but there are still many more questions we want answered by Hans im Glück!


Old FAQ Threads:
FAQ for the Wheel of Fate

Note: This thread has been moved from Another round of Questions to HiG... to become the primary FAQ thread.

[Whaleyland]

Questions I have thus far:

• Can mayors be used as regular followers on other features or can they only be used in cities?
• Can any type of follower be placed using a Crop Circle, or only a basic follower?
• Can any type of figure be removed using a Crop Circle, or only a basic follower?
• Can the Party tiles be used to remove a builder, pig, or barn?

Edit: Fixed "farm" to "barn".

[The Broox]

Can 2 tile cities under siege (under attack from Cathars) be turned into Castles, and if so how does it affect the scoring of the castle and the castle in relation to the field?

[Carcking]

Questions I have thus far:

• Can mayors be used as regular followers on other features or can they only be used in cities?
• Can any type of follower be placed using a Crop Circle, or only a basic follower?
• Can any type of figure be removed using a Crop Circle, or only a basic follower?
• Can the Party tiles be used to remove a builder, pig, or barn?

Edit: Fixed "farm" to "barn".

The post by Hester on March 23, 2009, in this thread, may answer the questions regarding the Mayor. Here is an excerpt:

"Q: Is it allowed to place a wagon or mayor on a tower?
A: Yes, but it may be assumed that it is not worth "sacrificing" such a valuable piece.

Q: May the mayor be placed on a cloister?
A: Yes, and the cloister would then be occupied. However, cloisters have no pennants, so the mayor would have a strength of zero and the player would score no points.

Q: May the mayor be placed into a city that already contains a wagon?
A: No. Both are "followers" (according to the definition in the rules), so the city is already occupied by the wagon.

Q: May the mayor and wagon be placed into the city of Carcassonne (Count)?
A: Yes, both are followers.

Q: Can the mayor and wagon be removed from a city by a princess?
A: Yes (see above)."

[CKorfmann]

Can 2 tile cities under siege (under attack from Cathars) be turned into Castles, and if so how does it affect the scoring of the castle and the castle in relation to the field?

That's an intriguing thought.  I hadn't considered that before.  I would assume that like the city, the points for the castle would be double for farms, but I'm not sure what it would do or the castle scoring.  An excellent question for the FAQs.

The post by Hester on March 23, 2009, in this thread, may answer the questions regarding the Mayor. Here is an excerpt:

"Q: Is it allowed to place a wagon or mayor on a tower?
A: Yes, but it may be assumed that it is not worth "sacrificing" such a valuable piece.

Q: May the mayor be placed on a cloister?
A: Yes, and the cloister would then be occupied. However, cloisters have no pennants, so the mayor would have a strength of zero and the player would score no points.

Q: May the mayor be placed into a city that already contains a wagon?
A: No. Both are "followers" (according to the definition in the rules), so the city is already occupied by the wagon.

Q: May the mayor and wagon be placed into the city of Carcassonne (Count)?
A: Yes, both are followers.

Q: Can the mayor and wagon be removed from a city by a princess?
A: Yes (see above)."

These, along with the rest of hester's list, are probably worth adding straight to the CAR.

[Whaleyland]

More questions:
• Does a Pig Farm (River II) add an extra point to a Castle (BC&B) or does only a pig and barn?
• Does a follower on a Castle remain a Knight?
• Does a follower on a Castle stay on the tile he was deployed or sit between tiles?
• Is a follower on a Castle immune to dragons, towers, or the plague? (If it does not remain on one of the two tiles.)
• Can a follower in the City of Carcassonne (Count) be deployed to a Castle?
• Can a wagon (A&M) move from a Castle to another feature via a road connected to the original city when a Castle is completed?

[mjharper]

Some of these have been answered in the Big Box thread I'll have to check through, but the follower in the castle is definitely a knight, and cannot be eaten by the dragon. You can deploy wagons and mayors to it as well.

[mjharper]

Going through hester's FAQ; references refer to footnotes in v5.0b10.

Q: Is it allowed to place a wagon or mayor on a tower?
A: Yes, but it may be assumed that it is not worth "sacrificing" such a valuable piece.

A good start! This one directly contradicts a previous FAQ (#159). Not included, though maybe we should ask again, informing HiG about the contradictory answers.

Q: May the mayor be placed on a cloister?
A: Yes, and the cloister would then be occupied. However, cloisters have no pennants, so the mayor would have a strength of zero and the player would score no points.

Q: May the mayor be placed into a city that already contains a wagon?
A: No. Both are "followers" (according to the definition in the rules), so the city is already occupied by the wagon.

Added.

Q: May the mayor and wagon be placed into the city of Carcassonne (Count)?
A: Yes, both are followers.

Already included (#157)

Q: Can the mayor and wagon be removed from a city by a princess?
A: Yes (see above).

Already included (#156)

Q: What exactly constitutes a "connected feature" for movement of the wagon?
A: A DIRECTLY adjoining feature, e.g. a road which ends at a city is connected, if a farm (or other feature) is between them the features are not connected.

Q: May a wagon be placed on an abbey, and if yes, can the wagon drive onto a directly connected city or road after scoring (and the other way round, from city/road to abbey)?
A: Yes, if the target feature has not yet been completed.

Not included as seemingly controversial; need clarification?

Q: When I move a wagon to a new feature, can I choose which tile to set it on? For example, if I move it from a city to a road which so far consists of five tiles, do I have to place the wagon on the first tile (counting from the city) or can I place it e.g. on the third tile? For scoring it doesn't matter, but if a dragon happens to come by the exact placement might make a big difference.
A: Yes, you may.

Added.

Q: Can the wagon "drive by" a fair, or rather does a fair split a road at all?
A: The fair is not a "feature", it should be seen like the small houses at crossroads.

Added, though changed "fair" to "fête" (assuming that's what is meant here).

Q: Can the pig herd from River2 be used in conjunction with a barn, i.e. can you score up to 5 points per city (during the game for barn with pig and pig herd, at game end for barn and pig herd)?
A: Yes.

Not included; contradicts #119. Need clarification?

Q: May the barn be placed on a tile with a volcano?
A: Yes.

Q: May the pig be placed on a farm that was just connected to a farm with a barn, i.e. on the newly placed tile (immediately before scoring)?
A: Yes, the pig may be placed in already occupied features.

Added.

Q: Catapult: Do the yellow areas split the (green) farm in two (tile with cloister and tile with two opposing city segments)?
A: If the (green) farm is disconnected, the fair does split it.

I don't understand this one enough to include it. Doesn't it contradict the other question about fêtes above?

[Boondocker]

I don't understand this one enough to include it. Doesn't it contradict the other question about fêtes above?

Not to my understanding. The previous question asked whether a fair separating two roads ( =F= ) did, in fact, separate the two roads (it does, of course). The last question refers specifically to the tile with the cloister, fair, and some brown 'ground' area that extends to the ends of the tile.

(Personally, I think you should be able to attach field or road to that tile, but I've never seen anyone else with that opinion.)

[mjharper]

I don't understand this one enough to include it. Doesn't it contradict the other question about fêtes above?

Not to my understanding. The previous question asked whether a fair separating two roads ( =F= ) did, in fact, separate the two roads (it does, of course). The last question refers specifically to the tile with the cloister, fair, and some brown 'ground' area that extends to the ends of the tile.

(Personally, I think you should be able to attach field or road to that tile, but I've never seen anyone else with that opinion.)

Okay. Seems I actually misunderstood the other one  :

[mjharper]

Okay, here goes. I have made a list of questions, based on those suggested above, seemingly contradictory answers, and anything else I could think of based on what I've added to the CAR recently. Here's the list:

1. Can any type of follower (mayors, wagons etc) be placed using a Crop Circle, or only a basic follower?

2. Can any type of follower (mayors, wagons etc) be removed using a Crop Circle, or only a basic follower?

3. Can the Party tiles be used to remove a builder, pig, or barn?

4. Can 2 tile cities under siege (under attack from Cathars) be turned into Castles, and if so how does it affect the scoring of the castle and the castle in relation to the field?

5. Does a pig-herd (River II) add an extra point to a Castle (BC&B) or does only a pig and barn?

6. Does a follower on a Castle stay on the tile he was deployed to or sit between tiles?

7. (Might be answered by the previous question) When you place a fairy on a castle, does it protect both tiles?

8. A follower in a castle is protected from the dragon. Does that work like the City of Carcassonne, so that the both tiles on which a castle lies are protected, and the dragon may not be moved to them at all?

9. Can a follower in the City of Carcassonne (Count) be deployed to a Castle?

10. Can a wagon (A&M) move from a Castle to another feature via a road connected to the original city when a Castle is completed?

11. Can a mayor or wagon be placed on a tower? (We received two answers to this: 'yes' once and 'no' once. Please explain!)

12. Does a wagon have to use a road to travel to a connected feature?

13. Can the pig herd from River2 be used in conjunction with a barn? (Again, we've a received contradictory answers for this one).

14. Precisely when does a bazaar take place? Before or after scoring?

15. If a tunnel entrance and exit are both on the same tile, how may points do they score for the road? (One point, like two segments of a city on the same tile?)

16. What happens if, towards the end of the game, a bazaar tile is drawn and there are not enough land tiles remaining for an auction?

17. What happens if a bazaar tile is drawn and there is nowhere to place the tile? Does a bazaar still take place even if the tile has to be discarded?

18. Must a castle be built on an 'American football'-shaped city, or is any small city of just two segments acceptable?

19. Seeming inconsistency: the rules for Crop Circles say that a player A) may deploy a follower or B) must remove one. Are 'may' and 'must' really correct here?

20. (Might be answered by the previous question) What happens if you don't have a follower in your supply when a player chooses option A) when placing a crop circle? Should you don nothing, or move one of your followers which is in play?

21. Are followers on towers, in castles, or in the City of Carcassonne protected from the plague?

22. If you are playing with several expansions, at what point should you introduce plague tiles. For example, I'm using both river expansions, which is more than 18 tiles: should I still set aside an extra 17 tiles, or can the plague tiles be mixed in with the rest immediately?

23. Can any follower (anywhere on the playing field) take flight from the plague, or only those occupying features which have been affected by it?

I'd like to send these off over the next couple of days, so if you have any other suggestions or corrections, please let me know.

[McJazz]

This is a great list of questions.

Are numbers 3 and 24 redundant?

[mjharper]

Are numbers 3 and 24 redundant?

You're right. I'll delete #24.

Thanks 

[The Broox]

I'd like to send these off over the next couple of days, so if you have any other suggestions or corrections, please let me know.

How long does a reply usually take?

[mjharper]

I'd like to send these off over the next couple of days, so if you have any other suggestions or corrections, please let me know.

How long does a reply usually take?

Anything from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks.

Thought of a couple more:

24. Can followers be deployed to the tiles around the Wheel of Fate (for example, via a magic portal or a crop circle?

25. Are the tiles around the Wheel of Fate safe from the dragon, like the ones around the City of Carcassonne?

26. Can plague tokens be placed on the tiles around the City of Carcassonne, or on those around the Wheel of Fate?