Can you place a meeple on a city that already has one in Carcassonne?
Not on the same connected city. You can only place a meeple on a feature with no meeple anywhere on it. But you can place a meeple on a separate city piece and connect the two later, which is how players share or take over cities.
The rule:
Not directly: in Carcassonne you can’t place a meeple on a city that already has one anywhere on it, but you can claim a separate city piece and connect the two later, which is how players share or take over cities.
When you place a meeple, the feature you choose (road, city, monastery or field) must have no meeple anywhere on it, counting every connected tile.
The trick is that this is only checked when you place the meeple:
- Place a tile with a separate piece of road or city that doesn’t connect to the occupied one yet.
- Put your meeple on that separate piece.
- On a later turn, place a tile that joins the two pieces.
Now the feature has meeples from more than one player. Who scores it depends on who has the most meeples there.
Example:
Yellow has a knight in a city. You draw a city tile that could join it, so instead you place it nearby, unconnected, and put your knight on it. Two turns later you place a tile that joins both pieces into one city. Now it has a meeple from each of you.
Why players argue about it:
It looks like a loophole, but the rulebook shows this exact move as a legal way to compete for a city. The rule only checks the feature at the moment you place your meeple.