River expansion inconsistent with official rules

[Hambomcscrambo]

In the official rules, the placement of the lake is the same as the spring - it doesn't count as a turn for any of the players.

In my current game, I had to place the lake as my turn.

Can you please try and remedy this inconsistency?

Many thanks,

Mr McScrambo

[Meeplelowda]

What edition rules are you referencing? From the Big Box version of rules published in 2017:

Setup
Set aside the source and lake tiles. Shuffle the remaining river tiles and stack them facedown. Add the lake tile to the bottom of the stack, and place the source tile faceup as the starting tile.

Gameplay
Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, players place tiles normally. However, players must draw and place all river tiles before they can draw normal tiles. The river is not a feature; meeples cannot be placed on it, and it cannot be scored.

So, yes, the source (spring) tile is explicitly used as a starting tile, but the lake is part of the river stack you draw from and there is no indication that it is special. The rules do not say you keep the lake tile to the side and just add it at the end to the river. It is added to the "stack" of river tiles from which you must draw until it is exhausted.

[CB Droege]

I think the off-turn placement is from the original River expansion, and the rule changed with River II, in which the lake was given some actual fetures that meeple could go on.

As a supporting note. If you play the current mobile version of Carcassonne with the River turned on, it places the lake off-turn as OP describes.

[Meeplelowda]

I think the off-turn placement is from the original River expansion, and the rule changed with River II, in which the lake was given some actual fetures that meeple could go on.

In the BGA implementation you can place a farmer in the field on the lake tile, so are they implementing River II?

[CB Droege]

Actually, no... I just looked up the original rule books for River and River II, and both of them say (worded slightly differently) that the lake doesn't ever get followers, then after the lake is down, the next player places the first normal tile. (River I explicitly says that it sits to the side and waits for the river to be otherwise finished, while River II says that the player who places the lake skips the follower placement phase, and takes another turn.)

So, I guess the rules allowing the placement of meeples on the lake come from Big Box... Though the language there is a bit ambiguous... :/

The River II slip for reference: