I've played Catan a fair bit offline so when first playing on BGA recently I was surprised that a couple of rules are interpreted differently from the way I'm used to.
1. Turn order.
On pg 4 the rule outline a 'Turn Overview' which states that actions may be taken in the order outlined. I've always interpreted this as you must roll the dice first, importantly meaning that you can't play a knight and move the robber before rolling. So I was surprised to see that BGA allows this. Although I generally prefer to reduce luck in a game, this interpretation seems to be against the spirit of Catan as I've come to understand it.
2. Starting Settlement.
Admittedly the rules are open to interpretation on this point but I'd always interpreted the first settlement placed as your starting settlement (seems kinda obvious), so I was surprised to find that my resource allocation reflected the 2nd settlement placed at the start of the game and not the 1st. My friends reported the same, is this a default or random?
Is it intended as a further mitigation of starting advantage? if so, it might be a bit much towards 3rd/4th players.
This (along with dice roles) contributed to a shortage of brick and a very slow start to the game as we'd chosen our 1st settlements accordingly.
Apologies if these issues have been raised in other threads, I did try searching...
thanks
1. Turn order.
On pg 4 the rule outline a 'Turn Overview' which states that actions may be taken in the order outlined. I've always interpreted this as you must roll the dice first, importantly meaning that you can't play a knight and move the robber before rolling. So I was surprised to see that BGA allows this. Although I generally prefer to reduce luck in a game, this interpretation seems to be against the spirit of Catan as I've come to understand it.
2. Starting Settlement.
Admittedly the rules are open to interpretation on this point but I'd always interpreted the first settlement placed as your starting settlement (seems kinda obvious), so I was surprised to find that my resource allocation reflected the 2nd settlement placed at the start of the game and not the 1st. My friends reported the same, is this a default or random?
Is it intended as a further mitigation of starting advantage? if so, it might be a bit much towards 3rd/4th players.
This (along with dice roles) contributed to a shortage of brick and a very slow start to the game as we'd chosen our 1st settlements accordingly.
Apologies if these issues have been raised in other threads, I did try searching...
thanks