Clarification of rules (The Watchtowers/Big Top) - with HiG - 02-28 04 2025

[Meepledrone]

I sent a few questions about The Watchtowers to HiG during April 2025 and we got the following clarifications.

Following Kettlefish's tradition...

Question in BLUE

Answer in GREEN

Still open in RED

My own comments in MAROON

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6847.0

[Meepledrone]

[Q1] Do watchtowers scoring for roads or cities consider each half of an adjacent double-sized tile separately? If so, the red meeple in the following examples would score 4 points for each watchtower.

[A1] Yes, each half is considered separately.


Example 1: The red meeple scores 4 points for this watchtower. Each half of the German castle is counted separately.


Example 2: The red meeple scores 4 points for this watchtower. Each half of the Leipzig tiles is counted separately, and each quarter of the city of Leipzig counts as a city segment, although it is a special area.

[Meepledrone]

[Q2] Several meeples in the following example are placed on roads on the watchtower tile. Does each meeple on this tile score 5 points for the watchtower?



[A2] Yes, there is no majority rule for the watchtowers, so each meeple gets the points.

[Meepledrone]

[Q3] Which meeples placed in the city of Carcassonne will score points for the big top?
a) None, because they are placed in a special feature not located on a particular tile.
b) All of them since the city of Carcassonne is on tiles adjacent to the big top and the inside of the city is one big connected feature.
c) The yellow meeple only, since it is in a square adjacent to the big top



Since the white lines are only available on the outer part of the city of Carcassonne, we have always interpreted the inner part as a special area conforming one single blob out of the grid. As such, the dragon could not visit the inner part of the city for example.

We were thinking that these special areas with special placement rules for meeples would not be affected by the big top. These special areas would also include:
* The inner part of the Wheel of Fortune: any meeples placed on its crown are not placed on regular tiles and should not get big top points.
* The inner part of the city of Leipzig: any meeples placed in the city quarters  should not get big top points.
* Wonders on Wonder tiles: any meeple (or any marker instead) placed on the wonder should not get big top points.

[A3] These are all special areas which are "separate" from the normal game.
So you were right, the dragon or also the big top don't work here.

The answer would be a)

The same conclusion should apply to watchtowers. Meeples placed in th city of Carcassonne, the city of Leipzig, wonders, or the Wheel of Fortune do not count for watchtowers scoring for meples.