Abbey and Mayor


Released in 2007.
  • Mayor, wagon, barn: status as followers
  • What is the status of the mayor, the barn and the wagon? Are they followers or 'special figures' like the builder and the pig?
    Ah… that old chestnut!

    The mayor is a follower, subject to the usual rules of deployment and affects the majority.

    The barn is a special figure, although it can also be counted as a follower.

    As far as the wagon is concerned, I'm a little uncertain, but I'd nevertheless count it as a follower.

    In principle all followers can be eaten or captured, while the special figures cannot.
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  • Can the mayor and the wagon be eaten by the dragon, captured by the tower, or seduced by a princess?
    Yes (at which point the question of what the princess does with the wagon arises…)
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  • Can the mayor and the wagon (or the barn) be placed in the appropriate quarter of Carcassonne City?
    Mayor and wagon: Yes; barn: no.
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  • Can the mayor, the wagon and the barn use a magic portal?
    Mayor and wagon: Yes; barn: no.
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  • Can the mayor, the wagon, or the barn be placed on top of a tower?
    No, the deployment of these figures is limited to the features described in the rules.
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  • If your city is besieged with a tile from the Cathars expansion, and there is an abbey adjoining, can the mayor or wagon escape?
    Mayors and wagons can also escape via cloisters and abbeys. (Although I'd find it quite amusing if the mayor went down with the ship, like an honourable captain :-)
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  • Wagon
  • 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?
    ‘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.
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  • 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?
    No. Just like in the last question, connections are made via roads.
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  • 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?
    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.
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  • According to the rules, "no other figure" may be in same feature as the wagon - does that include the fairy, the dragon and tower pieces (because they're all figures)?
    We didn't pay enough attention here (damn!): instead of "figure" it should read "follower". As such the question shouldn't arise. The fairy normally stands next to a follower (except when the follower is taken prisoner) and so the feature would already be occupied. The dragon would eat the immediately and the tower is always on its own feature (the tower foundation).
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  • Can I place a builder in a city in which the only other follower is a wagon?
    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.
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  • Mayor
  • 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?
    The city is occupied. The mayor has no ‘strength’, so he counts as if there is no follower, and scores no points.
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  • Barn
  • Can the fairy be placed next to the barn and if so, does the player score a bonus point each turn and 3 extra points during scoring?
    No, because the barn is not a follower.
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  • Does a player still score double points for a besieged city if it lies on a farm with a barn?
    Yes.
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  • Does the pig-herd tile still score an extra point (barn = 4 points, barn+pig-herd = 5 points per city)?
    The pig-herd tile only counts in connection with farmers, not the barn.
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  • Can a follower be moved from Carcassonne City to a farm with a barn - and if so, how many points does a player earn (1 or 3)?
    Yes, that is allowed: the farmer will then be scored immediately, and so scores only 1 point per city and is (importantly) not on the farm during the final scoring proper.
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  • 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).
    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.
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  • 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.
    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.
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  • Abbey
  • When an abbey tile is placed, can a follower be deployed next to the abbey (as a knight, for example), as it is possible to do with a cloister? Or does the whole tile count as the abbey and so only monks can be deployed to it?
    No, the abbey covers the whole tile. The surroundings are not a city.
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  • 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"?
    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 face-down 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.
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  • 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?
    No, the follower can only be deployed to the tile just placed, so only to the abbey.
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  • Can a knight in a besieged city escape via an abbey, or only via a cloister?
    Yes: the abbey has all the characteristics of a cloister. In this respect more is on its way - in the next expansion (really just a collection of the mini-expansions) there will also be 'places of worship' which have a close connection to cloisters. We have to rule out various problems here…
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  • 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?
    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.
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  • 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?
    No, the abbey is a separate feature.
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  • 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?
    Yes, as the player completed the city.
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  • Can a shrine challenge an abbey, and vice versa?
    Yes, because the abbey is also a cloister.
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  • Do the rules that restrict the placement of cloisters next to already placed shrines also restrict the placement of abbeys?
    Yes.
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  • Odd tiles
  • In the case of the tile with the well and three 'roads': do all the 'roads' have to be completed before scoring?
    Yes.
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  • 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.)
    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.
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