Center Scoreboard with Feature Bonus
When we learned about the Bards Fan Expansion in a recent
Carcassonne
Central Forum Thread, it sparked our interest!
Each Bards fan expansion tile allows a player to tag a single unoccupied
feature with a bonus similar to the Inns and Cathedrals expansion, plus
1 point bonus per tile when the feature is scored, but, the tag has to
be placed for the next player. The player who places the tag can not
also place their own meeple on that feature!
Over 60% of all Carcassonne games are played with only two players, so there is a reasonable chance that the tagging player could get the bonus. In a four player game, the chances will be close to zero!
So, we decided to make up our own house rules for the four or more player games that we play each week. Since we play with four or more players, we always use one of the Center Scoreboards that we created. And we made up our own house rules for creating the Bards bonus features. We do not use the bards tiles, but we start off each game with a scoreboard with 2, 3, or 4 Rivers, and combine all of the River 1 and River 2 tiles into a random stack. As each player plays a random river tile, if the tile they are playing does NOT contain a feature on which they can place a meeple, the player is allowed to select any unoccupied feature on the rivers or the center scoreboard and place a 1 point bonus marker on it. If we are not playing that game with Gold Ingots or Ferries, that is the token we use for plus 1 point markers. When a random player selects and plays the River Tile that closes the last river, if that closing tile does not also have the River 2 city feature, they can place another 1 point marker if they want, and then the next player is the first player who can choose to expand one of the 1 point bonus features.
| River | Tiles with City or Road |
Empty
Tiles | Source
Lake |
Maybe |
|---|
| 1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 2 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
There are 5 standard River 1 and 2 tiles that do not have cities or roads on them, plus 4 source or lake river tile without features, and, if house rules allow it, 3 tiles with only a Monastery or Garden in the center of the tile. When the last river is closed, there will be a random number of river tiles still unplaced, so, depending on that day's house rules there could be up to 9 or 12 bonus features available as each player begins their random normal tile game.
Almost all of our games include the Inns and Cathedrals expansion, so having additional features with 1 point bonuses during the game that are worth zero if unfinished at the end of the game is something we are already used to. And, the original Bards rule that multiple 1 point bonus can be added to the same feature makes the scoring even more interesting!
Cities
- Completed cities with note token(s) score 1 more point per token per
tile than usual. E.g.:
- A completed city with 1 note token earns the player 3 points per tile
(or 4 when a cathedral is involved).
- A completed city with 2 note tokens earns the player 4 points per tile
(or 5 when a cathedral is involved).
- Note: more tokens: more points (+ 1)
Roads
- Completed roads with note token(s) 1 more point per token per tile than usual. E.g.:
- A completed road with 1 note token earns the player 2 points per tile (or 3 when an inn is involved).
- A completed road with 2 note tokens earns the player 3 points per tile (or 4 when an inn is involved).
- Note: more tokens: more points (+ 1)
The tokens are taken out of the game as soon as a feature is completed. The field tokens remain on the field until the game
ends.
Final Scoring
Completed cities bordering a field with a note token on it score 1 extra point per token per city than as per normal rules.
When playing with pigs and farms the extra point is to be added to the total.
Note: more tokens: more points (+ 1).
Unfinished cities and roads with a note token on one of the tiles score no points at the end of the game (Like cathedrals and
inns). The tokens themselves earn no points.
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