The question: When it comes to Scout Gathering, can they do it in the outskirts of the city?

My guess is "no," though it's not specified in the rule book. The closest it comes to the answer in on page 26: The player declares which of their cities the scout is “sending” the square to during the Start of Turn Phase, and all of the icons in that square (including trade, production, culture, coins, and resources) are then considered to be in that city’s outskirts for the rest of the turn.

I'm thinking that you can't double down on a resourse square either with 2 scouts. But I could be wrong.

Please, someone help me.

Thank you.

allenkwest said:

Well I'd say if you make a square that's already in a cities outskirts count as being in it's outskirts then basically nothing changes.

Or to put it more simply, no, using a scout to gather for City A in the outskirts of City A does nothing. But, I've just thought, using it to Scout in the Outskirts of City B for City A, might that be allowed?

Say your captial has built a wonder if you're going for a culture victory then plonking a scout on that square to gather for one of you other cities might be a viable tactic.

Hmmm.

I would say this is certainly possible. The example on page 27 under Blockades makes clear that when a scout Blockades a square in the outskirts of an enemy city, it sends the resources to one of its cities and the blockaded city loses them.

If a scout can send resources from an enemy city, there should be no reason it can't send resources from a friendly city.

1) I would say that the original question's answer is an emphatic no. I don't think you're able to double dip, since the mechanic clearly states that the square you're scout is standing on is "sent" to the city you designate and is considered to be in the city's outskirts for all intents and purposes, which means you get EXACTLY the same bonus you get from it being in your city outskirts, which it already is.

2) I think putting your own Scout on a square in the outskirts of one of your cities does, however, allow you to send the icons on that square to another city. However, since that square is now considered to be in the outskirts of another city and the outskirts of no two cities can overlap, the adjacent city loses access to those icons. This may be useful if you are one production short for a spcific building/wonder but not much else.

Scud-O said:

Yup. That was my thought.

Scud-O said:

Again, whilst I raised the point I think you're probably right and until there's an official ruling on it that's what I'll play. But it would be nice to have that one answered.

I guess the intention behind this question is to use a Scout to "move" a square in one city's outskirts to another city, but I don't think that was the intention behind the rules (even if this isn't explicitly ruled out).

So I'd say

By the letter: yes

By the spirit: no