Cities & Knights of Catan: Spending/Trading commodities as resources?
david....@gmail.com
decisively from Cities & Knights rule books.
Q1) Can commodities be spent as their corresponding resource for
building purposes? For example, can I spend one brick and one paper to
build a road?
Q2) Can commodities be traded as their corresponding resource for port
trading? For example, can I perform a 4:1 trade using three wood and
one paper? If I have the wood port, can I perform a 2:1 trade using
one wood and one paper?
I was suprised to find that these details are never spelled out
precisely in the rules. Here are some passages which seem to support
the notion that commodities may be spent/traded as their corresponding
resource:
Page 6 of Game Rules, first paragraph of the "Commodities" section:
"In Cities & Knights, three new, "more refined" materials are added to
the game.... In many ways, the commodities are treated the same as
resources."
- This seems to indicate that commodities are simply an upgrade of
their corresponding resource, and it should therefore be permissible
to spend them as if they were the corresponding resource.
Page 11 of Almanac, description of the Merchant Fleet card:
"... The two cards that you trade must always be of the same type.
Combinations of resources and commodities are not permitted for this
special trade".
- This seems to indicate that combinations of resources and
commodities are usually permitted for port trading, but not in this
special case.
Page 10 of Almanac, description of the Merchard card:
"... you may trade the resource (not commodity) produced by that hex
at a 2:1 ration"
- The special mention of commodities in this paragraph would again
seem to indicate that commodities may ordinarily be traded as
resources.
On the other hand, this passage seems to point in the opposite
direction:
Page 7 of Game Rules, first bullet point on this page:
"Commodities may be traded in all the same ways as resources... You
may exchange 4 of the same commodity for 1 of any resource or
commodity you choose. If you have a settlement or a city on a 3:1
harbor, you may trade 3 of any commodity for 1 of any resource or
commodit you choose. You may also trade 4 of any resource for 1 of any
commodity (3:1 at a harbor; 2:1 if you have the matching specific
harbor)"
- This passage spells out many trading scenarios that involve either
all commodities or all resources, but never a mixture. Also, it
mentions 2:1 ports for the case of resources, but not for the case of
commodities which would lead me to believe that commodities cannot be
traded at 2:1 ports.
Does anyone have an official ruling on this?
J. Hunter Johnson
> I have have two questions that I haven't been able to answer
>
> Q1) Can commodities be spent as their corresponding resource for
> building purposes? For example, can I spend one brick and one paper to
> build a road?
No.
> Q2) Can commodities be traded as their corresponding resource for port
> trading? For example, can I perform a 4:1 trade using three wood and
> one paper? If I have the wood port, can I perform a 2:1 trade using
> one wood and one paper?
No.
> I was suprised to find that these details are never spelled out
> precisely in the rules.
But they are. The rules make precise distinctions between commodities
and resources.
Hunter
--
http://www.hunterandlori.com
david....@gmail.com
Where exactly in the rule book can find this "precise distinction"?
pyruse
>
> - Show quoted text -
Well, here:
Page 6 of Game Rules, first paragraph of the "Commodities" section:
"In Cities & Knights, three new, "more refined" materials are added
to
the game.... In many ways, the commodities are treated the same as
resources."
'The same as resources' - you can't mix resources when trading, so you
can't mix comoodities with each other, or with resources, either
I don't know how you get your reading:
- This seems to indicate that commodities are simply an upgrade of
their corresponding resource, and it should therefore be permissible
to spend them as if they were the corresponding resource.
---------------
There's nothing suggesting that each commodity is an 'upgrade' - they
are just treated like three more types of resource.
Page 11 of Almanac, description of the Merchant Fleet card:
"... The two cards that you trade must always be of the same type.
Combinations of resources and commodities are not permitted for this
special trade".
- This seems to indicate that combinations of resources and
commodities are usually permitted for port trading, but not in this
special case.
----------------
I don't think it says anything about the general case - only the
special case being discussed.
Page 10 of Almanac, description of the Merchard card:
"... you may trade the resource (not commodity) produced by that hex
at a 2:1 ration"
- The special mention of commodities in this paragraph would again
seem to indicate that commodities may ordinarily be traded as
resources.
-------------
Well, yes - exactly as resources. You can't mix resources during
trading, therefore you can't mix commodities either - there are no
'commodity ports' so they can only trade 4:1 (or 3:1 at a mystery
port) until you get the city upgrade which lets you trade them 2:1.
Page 7 of Game Rules, first bullet point on this page:
"Commodities may be traded in all the same ways as resources... You
may exchange 4 of the same commodity for 1 of any resource or
commodity you choose. If you have a settlement or a city on a 3:1
harbor, you may trade 3 of any commodity for 1 of any resource or
commodit you choose. You may also trade 4 of any resource for 1 of
any
commodity (3:1 at a harbor; 2:1 if you have the matching specific
harbor)"
- This passage spells out many trading scenarios that involve either
all commodities or all resources, but never a mixture. Also, it
mentions 2:1 ports for the case of resources, but not for the case of
commodities which would lead me to believe that commodities cannot be
traded at 2:1 ports.
------------------
Exactly - there are no commodity ports, so I don't know why you would
think otherwise.
You seem to have an idea in your mind that a commodity is 'linked' to
a resource for trading; there is no support for such an idea in the
rules; they just happen to be produced together.
The rules seem perfectly clear on this - I've never encountered anyone
else who misconstrued them.
Mik Svellov
material!
Mik