Carcassonne Central

Initially, small cities were also scored differently than they are now. With the original release of the game, completed small cities (defined as a city made up of only 2 tiles) scored only 1 point per tile and pennant instead of the usual 2 points per tile and pennant. Thus, a small city would score only 2 points total. The intent was to penalize players for completing such an easy feature and to decrease the number of cities that would produce farming points at the end of the game. However, more exceptions to rules makes for a more complicated game, and in 2002 (the same time as the switch to 3rd-edition farm scoring), the special rule for small cities was eliminated. From this time on, all cities were worth 2 points per tile and pennant (plus or minus the effects of other features such as Cathedrals and Sieges). This notably changed some of the strategy of the game, as a small city now produces a reasonable number of points for minimal potential effort, and this can accelerate the number of cities on a farm, which can lead to very high-scoring farms at the end of the game.