La Porxada (1st edition)
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La Porxada gives the player who places this tile two options: swap his/her meeple with any other player's meeple placed on board, OR receive a scoring bonus at the end of the game when each player's cities count as finished.
General info and comments
La Porxada (The Columned Hall) was originally released at Jugar X Jugar in 2010 by Oriol Comas i Coma (BGG).
La Porxada is a historical edification in Granollers. It was built in the mid-16th Century by order of the town council. It is located in the historic quarter of the city, in front of the city hall. In its time it was an agricultural market and a place to trade products from the land. In the civil war it was destroyed by the Italian air force and was rebuilt afterwards.
La Porxada is a self-proclaimed mini-mini-expansion, containing only a single tile. Its place in the Carcassonne universe is debated and disputed – some consider this a completely unofficial expansion, as it was never sanctioned by Hans im Glück. Those who argue this side note that the tiles were simply stickers placed on other tiles. However, the expansion was sanctioned by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede himself (there is even an image of a signed tile on BoardGameGeek.com), so this is more than just a fan expansion. Ultimately, La Porxada exists in semi-official limbo, and individual players must use their own judgement as to the nature of the expansion.
Contents
- 1 new land tile displaying La Porxada
Tile with La Porxada
- In addition, you need [1]:
- 6 tokens: It is recommended to use wooden cubes, paper balls or even plasticized photocopies of La Porxada tile, as some players do.
Rules
Preparation
The tile is mixed with all the other tiles being used for the game.
Placing a tile
The tile with La Porxada can be used in two different ways. The player who places this tile may choose one of the following:
- Swap followers in the current player's turn
- A scoring bonus at the end of the game
If the player chose to swap followers after placing this tile, the player may [2] exchange one of his own followers with a follower of another player. [3] Both followers must be currently in play. [4] The chosen player can negate the exchange, but if so, he or she must eliminate one of his or her followers for the remainder of the game. If the player who places La Porxada does not have any followers in play, he or she cannot choose this option.
Scoring
If the city with La Porxada is completed and the player chose the scoring bonus, all players with followers in the city at that moment (no matter the majority) will get a token as a reminder of their presence. [5]
The city with La Porxada will be scored as usual if completed.
Final scoring
If the player chose the scoring bonus at the end of the game, all players who had a knight in the city containing La Porxada when it was completed, [6] and therefore got a token, will score all their unfinished cities containing followers as if they were finished. [7] This scoring bonus will only occur if the city containing La Porxada is finished.
Other expansions
Note: There are no explicit rules on how the final scoring should be conducted when combining La Porxada with other expansions. Here you can find some notes on how incomplete cities should be scored based on the interpretation of the existing rules and the limitations imposed during final scoring.
The bonus provided by La Porxada affects all players who were present in the city with La Porxada when completed. During final scoring, it will allow those players to score their incomplete cities as if completed during the game. So the cities will still be incomplete to all effects but they are scored like completed cities as an exception.
In order to make this possible, we should score each incomplete city as in a bubble: they should be considered as completed for all its occupiers for scoring purposes, but no one else would notice. As a consequence, farms touching those incomplete cities will not consider them in their scoring even if the city itself was scored as completed.
This would affect the number of points per tile and pennant, cathedrals, and other bonuses applied during the game to the city itself. Two cases should be considered:
- Points and scoring modifiers applicable during the game and after the game but may differ: In this case, you apply them as if during the game:
Base Game Basic points for city tiles and pennants: 2 points per tile, 2 points per pennant (applied as if during the game).
Exp. 1 - Inns & Cathedrals Cathedral: +1 point per tile, +1 point per coat of arms (applied as if during the game).
Exp. 3 - The Princess & the Dragon Fairy: +3 points (no change).
Exp. 10 - Under the Big Top Ringmaster: 2 points per neighboring acrobat space and circus space (no change).
Mini #5 - Mage & Witch Mage: +1 point per tile (no change).- Mini #5 - Mage & Witch Witch: 1/2 points before applying other feature-level bonuses (no change).
The Cathars / Siege / The Besiegers -1 point per tile, - 1 point per pennant (no change).
Little Buildings +1 point (basic rules) or +1/2/3 points (variant rules) per little building (no change).
- Scoring modifiers and bonuses applied during the game only:
The Gingerbread Man 1 point per tile for each follower the player has in the city. The Gingerbread Man shouldn't move from the city in order to avoid any chain reaction (applied as if during the game but without side effects).
The Watchtowers Points according to watchtower (applied as if during the game).
The Land Surveyors The scoring tiles are not considered after the game. It may be agreed to apply the active scoring tile for cities after the last scoring during the game. This means that scoring tiles should be left as is when the game ends but they are not taken into consideration during final scoring, except when scoring the La Porxada bonus for any incomplete city.
Castles in Germany +3 points (applied as if during the game).
The Barber-Surgeons +bathhouse points (applied as if during the game but without side effects). Sending followers to a free bathhouse during final scoring makes no sense.
Darmstadt Promo Darmstadtium: +3 points (applied as if during the game).
The Markets of Leipzig Coiners quarter: +3 points per coat of arms (applied as if during the game). This bonus is not applied after the game but this may be an exception. The followers in the city Leipzig should not be removed until the end of the final scoring, not only for the Tanners quarter bonus affecting farms in this case.
What happens to other scorings and bonuses triggered by the scoring of a completed feature?
We would need some additional considerations at this point, since we are performing the scoring once the game has ended. There are some actions related to scoring during the game that cannot happen anymore:
The School Teacher: Does not apply during final scoring since no actual features were completed by a tile placement and no specific order for scoring features, so it should be ignored even if the player with the teacher is scoring a city affected by La Porxada bonus (See this clarification: The School)
Exp. 8 - Bridges, Castles & Bazaars Castles: They are not considered during final scoring except for farms and barns. Their occupiers are removed before final scoring, so no castle scoring can be triggered. In any case, no actual completed city is being scored so no castle could receive any points for them.
Mini #2 - The Messages Do not apply after the game. There is no active player during final scoring so no player may receive messages.
Mini #6 - The Robbers Do not apply after the game. They are removed before the final scoring starts.
As a conclusion, we should apply the bubble principle to the scoring of those incomplete cities belonging to players affected by La Porxada bonus. For the sake of consistency, no side effects should be triggered by the tweaked scoring of these "fortunate" cities.
House rules
Note: This house rule was a consequence of the gaps in the original rules prior to the clarifications from 4/2019. It is included here for information purposes only.
For option #2 (scoring bonus), a player can only get the bonus if he or she has a follower in the city at the end of the game. If the city is completed during the game, it is not scored and is still considered “incomplete” – each player with followers in the city has the option to remove any or all of his or her followers at that time. Any followers left in the city remain until the end of the game unless removed by other game mechanics. Thus there is a sacrifice required to get the end-game bonus, as a follower must be invested until the end of the game. Because the city with La Porxada is always considered incomplete, though, mechanics including the dragon, tower, plague, crop circles, flier, and magic portal are all relevant, as the city could be entered as an incomplete (and potentially unoccupied) feature throughout the game.
- Note #1: The city with La Porxada is scored using normal ownership rules at the end of the game after all other cities are scored.
- Note #2: A completed city with La Porxada is considered complete for the purposes of scoring farms at the end.
- Note #3: When playing with the City of Carcassonne, followers can be deployed from the City of Carcassonne to a feature when that feature scores. Because the La Porxada city does not score until the final bonus is counted at the end of the game, players may not move followers into the city with La Porxada from the City of Carcassonne until that time.
- (Thanks to Carcking.)
Tile distribution
External links
- Image of La Porxada tile signed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede on BoardGameGeek
Footnotes
For Icons explanation and licensing please visit Icons page.
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The use of tokens, and suggestions on what to use, were provided in the clarifications by the author of La Porxada. (4/2019)
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The use of the term “may” sets up an interesting situation – conceivably, the player could
choose option 1 (as long as he has at least one follower in play), but then select not to swap followers, effectively negating all effects of the tile.
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The use of the term “follower” here suggests that non-follower figures (such as the pig and builder) cannot be traded. However, it would seem that any type of follower could be swapped with any other (e.g. the large follower with the mayor), which has notable strategic implications. The only restriction to take into consideration is that both followers are swapped to a valid feature according to their types.
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The rules indicate that both followers must be already placed on the board. The players may not choose a follower from their supply.
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This action was omitted in the original rules but detailed in a clarification by the author of La Porxada. Additionally he confirmed the conditions to be met so players can benefit from the final scoring bonus. (4/2019)
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The updated rules state "all players who had a knight in the city containing La Porxada", but the original rules used present tense instead: "all players who have a knight in the city containing La Porxada." This change can be confirmed after the clarifications provided by the author of La Porxada. (4/2019)
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This would take all of the stress out of having a late-game cathedral city.