I have found though that very rarely we draw a tile that cannot be placed in the games that I play.
That's weird. It's happened to me twice... Anyway, it was mostly just a little collection of tiles for use in fan expansions
since with the addition of a new feature, the starting tile
should be able to accommodate all situations.
What if there was a start tile that was equal in size to four tiles fit together in a square?
I've also thought of this one, but was rather worried that it may provide too much. I mean, with four tiles, I'd have to choose ones that still gave only a single castle, road, river, mountain, and forest, otherwise it would be worth double points, which could unbalance the start of the game. But it is possible. It would require good tile selection, to be sure, and perhaps one tiered field (like I arranged for these starting tiles) to make sure the starting field isn't getting too big. But first, I want to work on...
the city of Carcassonne with a moat thing that you were talking about
This little project is still on my list but not a priority, but it is a priority over any other Carcassonne project. Speaking of a "single tile" City of Carcassonne, where can I get that thing? I'd love to just use that for my moat, so then I don't have to worry about the borders of the tiles (except when I hit the edges).