Carcassonne Central
Carc Central Community => Official Rules => Topic started by: koschei on May 05, 2013, 11:29:08 AM
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We played a game yesterday and found an issue that the standard rule set didn't cover.
In a combination that included Wheel of Fortune and the Abbey & Mayor with the barn a question arose:
The big pink pig has landed on Famine within the Wheel of Fortune.
The rule says for Famine:
For each of his or her farmers, every player receives 1 point for every completed city adjacent to the farm (in the same way as farms are scored during final scoring).
The Annotations for the rule are:
• 290 Castles are also counted in this determination, and actually give 2 points per farmer.
• 291 The text outside the parentheses is correct – each farmer scores 1 point for each completed city adjacent to the farm. The portion inside parentheses indicates that only a player with a majority on the farm is allowed to score the points. Additionally, additional bonus points for pig, pig herd, or castle are also given, as at the end of the game.
At that moment in the game there were no farmers in the game but there were two barns in play.
Red player had 9 completed cities and 1 scored castle in his farm.
Grey player had 5 completed cities and 2 castle in his farm. One scored and one unscored.
The rules and guidance above did not enlighten us in how to handle the situation.
As we saw it we had had 3 choices:
1. The barn is not a farmer so no points are given.
Red gets 0 points
Green gets 0 points
2. The barn has the same function as the farmer and is therefore entitled to the same points as a farmer.
Red gets 11 points (9 for completed cities and 2 for the completed castle).
Green gets 7 points (5 for completed cities and 2 for the completed castle).
3. The barn is better than a farmer so it gets it’s +1 point on top of the farmer points
Red gets 21 points (18 for completed cities and 3 for the completed castle).
Green gets 13 points (10 for completed cities and 3 for the completed castle).
Since we didn’t know and could not find an answer we decided to go for the quick and easy answer with 0 points.
BUT
Since it’s a significant difference in the amount of points that would be given depending on what option we would take I now wonder:
Is there any existing guidance that I have missed?
If not what do you think is the proper way of handling this situation?
I personally favor option 3 since I love points and this one gives the largest payout.
Looking forward to your input
Koschei/Håkan Lagerström
P.S Big thanks for this great fansite
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Famine does not apply to Barns, only Farmers. There is a clear distinction between Barns and Farmers.
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I was leaning towards option 3 (because barn's normally get +1) until I read Carcking's post. It actually makes a lot of sense that famine would not apply to a barn, because food would be stockpiled inside it.
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My interpretation of famine was that the famine caused higher prices of food in the cities and the farmers and/or the barn is "rewarded" by getting these points. Just as the Knight is rewarded by a tax and the Monk by the inquisition. The people of Carcassonne pays and my meeples gets richer...
The fact that the food comes from a barn instead of a farmer does not matter except that the greedy big farm that owns the barns raised the prices even more, i.e. the third option should be the rule.
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House rules are always an option but IMO the distinction between Barns and Farmers should not be missed. That distinction plays into many other aspects of the game and expansions.
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Only a follower is able to act as a "farmer".
A barn isn't a follower. A barn is a special figure.
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At this link you can find some more clarification about "Famine" from the Wheel of Fortune:
Some Questions from obervet03 and my Answers about the Minis (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=98.msg766#msg766)
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Thanks for the link.
I had seen that information already but it was only concerned if farmers had to be in majority or not in to be able to score points.
The common however ruling seems to be option 1 with 0 Points for the barn.
A barn is not a follower and therefore not a farmer so zero Point it is :-(
Could perhaps a note be inserted in the next version of the CAR rules 6.3 stating that a barn is not a farmer.
And is possible to get option 3 mentioned as a houserule.
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The CAR already states that builders, pigs, barns, etc. are not followers, and only followers can be farmers.