Rule clarifications

[pugsworth]

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

[Jellby]

You have been playing wrong, or there are different rule versions around.

"You may only play 1 development card during your turn - either 1 knight card or 1 progress card. You can play the card at any time, even before you roll the dice."

"Each player receives the starting resources immediately after building their second settlement. For each terrain hex adjacent to this second settlement, take a corresponding resource card from the supply."

[jaker420]

I agree with Jellby- I have a few different IRL friend groups who follow these same rules BGA has. I can see how your friend group interpreted the turn order rule, however development cards can overrule this (which is why my normal strat is to panic buy as many of them to get knights ).
I've never seen anyone's house rules for getting resources on the 1st, not 2nd settlement, but does sound interesting.

[sesc]

I've never seen anyone's house rules for getting resources on the 1st, not 2nd settlement, but does sound interesting.

That would give a big advantage to the starting player who can choose his location first, I don't think this will be an interesting game anymore. At least not with 4 players maybe even not with 3 players. For a 2 player game there may be no big difference.

With the original rules the starting player may get the best starting location for their first settlement with the best chances for good ressources in the game, but his second settlement may be less advantegous. So often the starting player has then to choose between a location with good numbers but less good starting ressources, or better starting ressources but worse numbers on them. This would completely fall away if you take ressources for the first settlement.

[pugsworth]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, clearly we didn't 'read the rules properly', though those two are buried pretty deep, live and learn...

Re the advantage to first player, a counter argument is that the last player gets a bigger strategic advantage by being able to choose their locations together, so I can see both sides of this, though admittedly I haven't played with four players much.

thanks