Carcassonne: Two-tile Cities are Four Points!

Okay, I don't normally do this, but I have to settle a controversy, specifically related to Carcassonne, which happens to be both a wonderful gateway Euro game and one of my favorite games. Several months ago, I entered a discussion with a friend of mine about how much two-tile cities are worth in Carcassonne. He was convinced that they were worth a total of two points, even though each tile in a city is worth two points. I countered that two-tile cities were four points in accordance to third-edition Rio Grande rules. In the end, I acquiesced to my friend's interpretation only because we were playing with his Big Box of Carcassonne and I don't like to cause conflict with good friends.

However, I have to resolve this conflict right now. I was reading a Comments section regarding Carcassonne and someone smugly pointed out that two-tile cities are two points. Quite separately, another commenter quipped that this rule made sense because the rule encouraged others to build larger cities. Well, their knowledge of current rulings is actually wrong and I'll tell you why.

In the first edition of Carcassonne as published by Hans im Glück and Rio Grande Games, two-tile cities were counted as two points. However, with the advent of third-edition Carcassonne, the rule changed to make two-tile cities worth four points. Here is the evidence in the rules of the Wheel of Fortune version of Carcassonne published by Rio Grande:

And here's evidence in the manual published by the current publisher of Carcassonne, Z-Man Games:

In both the last version of Rio Grande's Carcassonne and Z-Man Games' current Carcassonne, two-tile cities are four points, as illustrated in both manuals. Granted, if people want to play with the first edition rules, adhering to how the game was played when it won the Spiel des Jahres, they are entitled to do so, but remember that this ruling is out-of-date.

I should comment on the point that rendering a two-tile city two points encourages players to build larger cities. This may be true, but in my opinion making two-tile cities four points not only gives a player a little bit more control over the destiny of their own cities, but this rule also strengthens the farming strategy; I both score four points for the two-tile city and I get three points if it is on a farm I control at the end of the game. Furthermore, a four-point, two-tile city may entice a player away from invading a growing city (by placing the tile near an opening into the city, hoping that he or she will play a subsequent tile that connects his or her once-tiny city segment into the greater metropolis that one or more opponents is constructing). I'd rather finish off a two-tile city (maybe a second one, as well) and add to my burgeoning farm than try to horn in on one of the mega-cities that may or may not get completed by game's end.

Thank you for indulging me.