I recently got Carcassonne (really a very good purchase!) and started playing with a few friends. However, we do not completely understand how to figure out points for the farmers.
This is what I got: there are 4 points available for each city, and they go with the player owning the most farms supplying the city. If there is a tie, 4 points for each involved player. Ok, that’s clear, but what if many fields with different farmers are joined up?
We have been experimenting with a number of house rules, such as going by majority (and once again arguing about ties) or giving a city’s four points to the player owning the farmer that is placed closer to that city, but we’re not really satisfied.
So, is there an official rule? If not, what’s your personal take?
From what I can recall, a farmer can only supply one specific city, and once scored you remove him… Must admit I found in rather confusing. Recommend checking boardgamegeek.com when it comes back up.
With my friends, we play such that the player with the largest number of farmers in the field controls the field outright, and ties count equally for both. This adds quite a strategic element in terms of joining up fields so that you control the whole thing. I’d thought this was in the actual rules, but clearly not.
THe person with the most farmers scores 4 points for all the cities in the field. If the farmers in the field breaks down as follows.
Blue: 1
Red: 1
Green: 2
Yellow: 2
Black: 3
Black wins the pot and he scores 4pts. for EVERY city in the field. Sometimes making sure fields, roads, or cities join up is part of my strategy. Actually, come to think of it, it’s almost always part of my strategy. I like to think of it as poaching.
This is the official rules, actually. I just got this game for my birthday, and it’s a wonderful game; positioning farmers seems to be the most complex strategic choice in the game, one that I’ve come nowhere close to figuring out.
It takes time to figure out when to put Farmers down. When I was new to the game people could lay down their farmer first thing and score quite a bit. Now that I’ve been playing for a while I know how to cut other people off or at least share the score. Unfortunately my other opponents have also been playing for a while and they know the same tricks I do.
Actually, the four different editions of the game (Hans im Glück editions 1-3) have different rules for scoring farmers, while the Rio Grande edition goes back to the first edition scoring.
Obviously you can play with whatever rule you like, but it’s very important that all the players know what version is being used, especially if you’re playing with someone who’s played the game before with other people.
FTR, I fricken hate farmers. It’s too fricken easy for some dipwad to connect up two fields—not even on purpose—and suddenly you’ve got four farmers lying there on the board scoring dick for you. Shakes fists at heaven So I try not to have anything to do with 'em. But if you’re playing with someone experienced, they can really make a killing with farmers, so I end up getting sucked into a damned farmer war, which inevitably ends in tears.
And I’m sure part of my problem with farmer strategy is an inability to count. That would be three versions of farmer rules, as the Rio Grande rules are the same as the original.
Wow, I thought I understood how the rules worked, but after reading these responses, either I’m confused or we’re playing by a different set.
The rules I played with (Rio Grande version) are that each city is worth 4 points. Whoever has the most farmers touching that city gets the points (handle ties with all tied players getting points, like any other tie in Carcassonne). Is that what the above post is saying?
It seems like you can’t consider the farmers getting control of a field, you have to consider how many touch a city. Consider a city touched by three fields. Green has one farmer in each field. Red has two farmers in one field. Black has three farmers in another. I would say that Black and Green both get 4 points because they each have 3 farmers on the city. Using the “control a field” theory, Each of Black, Red and Green controls one of the fields. Would they then each get 4 points?
I’ve got a lot of friends who like the 3pt. variant and some who think the game becomes a farmer race. I disagree, mainly because though good strategy you don’t have to rely on having the most farmers to win. I’ve won many games with one or two farmers on the board because I scored a lot for large cities, long roads, and some cloisters. The days where my opponents make an incredible comeback because he gets 48+ farmer points is pretty much in the past. Well, mostly in the past.
Poach. Someone’s building a city, place a city tile adjacent-but-not-connected to the city and get a knight there, then connect your portion of the city to theirs before they complete to share in the points.
Ditto for a field. Get a farmer down, then try to connect his isolated field to the large field that grows and wraps around the board. Do this two or three times, and you’ve pretty much ensured that you’ve got the majority of the farmers in the large field, and thus the majority of the cities on the board.
If you get a monastery, place it where other people will complete it for you, such as near their cities or roads.
Thieves if you’ve got nothing else available, but I generally keep one follower in reserve unless I’m confident I’ll free up a follower with my next move, or certain that I won’t need to place another follower (such as near the endgame).
Poach, try to actually steal all the points but be sure to get a tie.
Place cloisters in areas where other people have an incentive to place tiles.
Roads are a good place to pick up some points so don’t forget.
Some of the expansions add some depth to the strategy. I don’t recommend them all unless you’re a Carcassonne freak (like me). Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders are the best expansions and make the game a little more fun. You actually find yourself with incentives to help other people complete whatever they’re working on.
Cool! Most of those are things I’m already doing, except that I’ve been possibly overvaluing thieves, and I’ve not gotten very many cloisters so my strategy with them was to put them in the place that was already closest to completing.
What about things like this:
-Is it better to finish your cities off ASAP, or to build them as large as possible? I’m thinking that early you want to expand, and later to contract, but that’s very general, and I’ve not gotten a rhythm down yet.
-Do you ever want to have multiple cities going on at once? I’ve done this in games, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea.
-If your opponent is determined to control the fields, is it ever a good idea to cede field-control to them?
-I often use a crossroads piece to grab myself some immediate points by placing it adjacent to another crossroads, putting a thief on the road between them, and immediately removing the thief. Is this kosher?
It depends on how many tiles are left, what your tiles are, and what the other people are doing. In the beginning I try to make the biggest city possible so I can score some points. I also try to fend off any poaching attempts though I’m not always successful.
Yes, you’ve got 6 meeples so put them to good use. I try to keep at least one or two in my hand at all times though.
Only if you can block the field off to prevent him from getting to many points. A field with 1-2 cities isn’t a big deal but I’ve seen maps built where a farmer had more than 10 cities in the field.
I use that strategy as on two tile cities as well as crossroads. Sure, it’s a legitimate tactic especially when you’re low on meeple.
I’ve only played a handful of games, but what I’ve realized about Carcasonne–and, please, more experienced players can correct my observation–is that the bulk of the strategy of Carcassonne lies in land control. The person controlling the most fields invariably wins. Farmers seem to be, essentially, the heart of the game.
I’ve played a TON of Carcassonne, and score cities as 3 points each, using what I believe is the original Rio Grande rules, which is that each city is going to generate exactly 3 points, and will generate those points for whoever has the most combined farmers in all fields bordering that city.
So if there’s one huge field with 3 red and 2 blue farmers, and then another huge field with 3 white and 2 blue farmers, any city bordering both fields will give points only to blue, and not to red or white at all, even though there is no field in which blue has the most farmers.
On another Carcassonne topic, my friends and I quickly became disenchanted with the randomness of the pick-one-tile-and-play it gameplay, but didn’t want to go to some really complex bidding or hand-having system, which would have been too complicatd. So we came up with what has been a VERY successful compromise: on a player’s turn, she flips over n+1 tiles, where n is the number of players. That player then chooses and plays one of those tiles, the next player plays one of them, the next plays one, etc., until all n+1 are exhausted. Then the next player flips over n+1 tiles, and so forth. This adds quite a bit of strategy, as you have some information about what tiles are available, without removing a healthy element of luck and excitement. Also, this rules makes finishing large cities much more likely, as you’re far more likely to have dependable access to the type of tile you need.
I play with a two tile hand. Everyone starts with two tiles. Then play one, pick one, etc (until no tiles are left to draw then you have to play the tile in hand)
My only advice: Whilke it is good to keep meeples in reserve, meeples in hand score nothing. So towards the end, play all your meeples. remember an uncompleted raod is worth the same (1pt / tile) as a completed one.
I play with a two tile hand. Everyone starts with two tiles. Then play one, pick one, etc (until no tiles are left to draw then you have to play the tile in hand)
My only advice: Whilke it is good to keep meeples in reserve, meeples in hand score nothing. So towards the end, play all your meeples. remember an uncompleted raod is worth the same (1pt / tile) as a completed one.
