Doubt about Wheel of Fortune Pestilence event...

[carca82]

...and more generally, about the concept of "follower".

The Wheel of Fortune Pestilence event is described as such: "Every player must return 1 follower from a land tile to his or her supply". There were two shepherds on the map and we discussed whether they could be removed or not. I objected, because I've always treated the word "follower" as a 1-to-1 synonym of "meeple" and I've always defined meeples as figures that are able to close features.

According to this definition, the extended meeple/follower family includes normal meeples, big meeples, abbots, mayors, wagons and ringmasters. Conversely, it does not include builders, pigs and shepherd.

This interpretation was satisfying enough to us and we decided that shepherd cannot be removed by pestilence (not very logical, since shepherds can get sick too but anyway...). Is this correct?

Also, while discussing, we ended up in the Game Figures page of the wiki. Here, a very strict distinction between what's a follower/meeple and what not seems to be made. According to the summary, only the basic pieces are considered "followers" or "meeples" and everything else is not. According to this, wagons and mayors are not followers, so they cannot be removed by pestilence.

This felt weird. So in the end, we were confused.



Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6134.0

[corinthiens13]

Your interpretation is correct, followers are those that may take control of a feature by being placed on a tile (this last specification excludes the barn).

The summary picture of the WICA page you mentionned isn't intended to make a distinction between meeples and other figures. But if you select expansions on this page, then you have a distinction between meeples and other figures that aren't meeples

[carca82]

Your interpretation is correct, followers are those that may take control of a feature by being placed on a tile (this last specification excludes the barn).

The summary picture of the WICA page you mentionned isn't intended to make a distinction between meeples and other figures. But if you select expansions on this page, then you have a distinction between meeples and other figures that aren't meeples

Thank you. I think the main issue here was the fact that in English we use the same word "meeple" for the single basic wooden figure ( ) and also for the whole class of figures.
In our games (in italian!) we use different words instead: "meeples" are all the figures that can close a feature, while we use something that can be translated as "little man" and "big guy" for the two specific basic figures

[Meepledrone]

As comented earlier, the main issue in the rules is the use of the word meeple in the rules:

In the base game, there are normal meeples only, simply referred to as meeples interchangeably in this context. However, the addition of other types of meeples in some expansions leads to use the word meeple to represent any figure assigned to players that allow them to claim a feature. This includes the normal meeple. Whenever you see in the rules a reference to meeple, it will apply to any of the figures in the category. Different meeple types have different properties to be considered during the game:
* Placement restrictions
* Strength (majority votes)
* Additional abilities