Carcassonne: The Grass Connection

Question

Been looking into the rules a bit but can't find all the answers I want and it's possible this is more of a house rule with no definitive answer, but what I'm looking for is some official ruling if it exists.

Do grass continue under bridges? i.e. is the grass connected? I'm thinking of the bridges from for example River 2 that cross the river.

Source

Also does the grass go around the well/pond from River expansions? Usually even if no other tiles connect the grass we do play as if the grass does connect on well/pond. source

Do grass continue around the monastery from Catapult (that has the yellow fair thing stretching from one end to another)?

Source

Finally Bridges, Castles and Bazaars I'm assuming grass under the wooden bridges does connect? Source

There are a lot more pieces in the expansions that basically asks the same question about farmer grass. If there is no official ruling I'm still interested in what is most common out there.

Answer 1

The rule in all cases is the same.

A field is contiguous only if there is an unbroken path of green on the tile(s).

The large wooden bridge does not interrupt the green so it does not break the field. Everything else you mentioned does except for the path around the well/pond.

Answer 2

I have a Carcassonne Big Box (containing The Tower, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, and The Princess & the Dragon). I consulted those rules.

1. Fields do not continue past bridges. This is shown on page 7, using a tile that looks like a + of roads, one of them containing a bridge that looks like it could feasibly not split the field.

   [emphasis theirs] The bridge is not a crossing! One road rune [sic] from left to right across the tile and the other runs from top to bottom across the tile. The field segments are all separated.

2. Fields do wrap around the edges of the River. This is stated on page 11.

   The field space on the lake and spring tiles wraps around those features.

I cannot answer the Catapult question or the Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars question with authority. I would guess the Catapult ones are divided while the Castles ones are not.

Answer 3

Sometimes these rules can be confusing, but the iOS edition of Carcassonne has answered a lot of rule grey areas for me, including the River II city-bridge one. The Carcassonne app makes it clear that this city-bridge over the river is, in fact, high enough to keep the fields connected.

While I still find this visually confusing sometimes, the app rules and application within games are clear. This large bridge, as opposed to all small bridges, does not separate fields.

The pond end to the river also continues fields.

I can't answer your other questions with the same certainty, but I can say that my group and I have always played it that the wooden bridges you place over the tiles do not block fields. But that's just my group.

(Since this post is years after you asked the question, you may all know those rules already, but I thought I'd add this just in case anyone's doing a search.)

Answer 4

A city cuts a field in two, as does a road, even if it appears elevated in the drawing. So that tile from River 2 has four fields on it.

However, if the field wraps around a feature on the tile--such as the lake at the end of the river, a cloister at the end of a road, or the river source--then the field is connected.

I haven't played with Catapult, but judging from the picture, it looks to me like that Cloister and the stuff connected to it do divide the field. I'm sure the rules that came with that expansion address it.