If it retails well under £650 then I am interested
Merit for that, once I stop chortling.
The rumor is that there will be two versions. First, a deluxe one offered exclusively at the annual convention of the German Paint Manufacturers' Association for €19.95, which will include a small, 250-mL can of Yellow Satin Exterior signed by KJW and the Association president. Then of course the usual €4.95 basic set on Cundco.
How does it work?
Don't quote me on this until kettlefish double-checks my translation, but here's what I got from Babelfish.
City edges with "art" circles are distinct from those without for the purposes of tile placement. In other words, edges
with the yellow lines can only be connected to other edges that also have the lines, and edges
without can only be connected to those without. Naturally, this makes cities that have been defaced with "art" circles somewhat more difficult to complete and score.
Each time you place an "art" circle tile, if you expand (or create) a city that did not already have any "art" circles then you immediately lose 5 points for defacing that city. This penalty applies only when each city is defaced for the first time. Thus, connecting a new "art" circle tile to another "art" circle tile already on the map does not get you any bonus points, but it is a good way to avoid defacing yet another city and thereby losing another 5 points.
If you are also using the
City of Carcassonne, tourism is diminished. When the active player places a tile that scores points for someone else but not for himself, if the tile being placed has "art" circles
and/or if the scoring depends on any city with "art" circles, then the active player is not allowed to send a follower to any quarter of the City of Carcassonne. However, "art" circles never prevent followers from
leaving the City of Carcassonne.
At the end of the game, the official exhibition period ends and all "art" circle tiles are removed from the map, along with all figures and tokens resting fully or partially on those tiles. Then the final scoring takes place. (A consequence of this is that completed cities with "art" circles will not score for farms, as they will have been partly or wholly removed from the map. Also, some farms may get broken up into smaller farms.) Afterwards, players may behold the completed map without any offending yellow lines.