14

Played Seafarers/Cities and Knights recently with someone new and they insisted that a gold field would allow a city to draw a resource and a commodity. I may have missed something, but I checked my rules and the FAQ and didn't find anything specific.

His reasoning was that in C&K a city can produce commodities, so naturally a gold field would allow you to get one as well. Additionally, that the rules say a city can't choose to take two resources instead of a resource and a commodity (for a city that produces a commodity) so the ability to take two wood/ore/sheep would also be against the rules.

My reasoning was that the Seafarers rules specifically mention resources only and the rules for combining the two make no mention of any changes, so the Seafarers rules should apply.

While we settled this amicably (after all, we play to have fun), for future reference, who was right?

3
  • 1
    If I recall correctly the computer game I play allows me to draw two resources (e.g. two wood), but not one resource and one commodity.
    – Hennes
    Dec 8, 2013 at 19:17
  • @hennes, agreed. However, the rules don't seem to clarify this clearly and most people tend to frown on "well that's the way the computer/video game works" as a line of reasoning. I was hoping someone would know of a clear answer to this somewhere.
    – YLearn
    Dec 8, 2013 at 20:54
  • If I had a nice link to a FAQ on the producers website I would have posted that as an answer. :)
    – Hennes
    Dec 8, 2013 at 21:10

1 Answer 1

11

Your are correct. I believe that the official Cities and Kights rules are clear enough for this:

Commodities are produced only by cities, and only in forest, pasture, and mountains.

It might be different if Cities always produce commodities in C&K, but that's not that case. Cities on grain or brick don't produce commodities, and C&K rules specifically mention which lands produce commodities. Gold should be treated more like grain and brick; you get double resources.

Here is a link to an answer on the German FAQ: http://www.siedeln.de/faq/327_152_de.html

Roughly translated, it says no you cannot take commodities from the gold field; and it explains it by saying that every rule still counts unless it is specifically countered by a different rule; so the Seafarers rule about what you can get from a Gold Field still applies; because the C&K rules don't specify otherwise.

4
  • That seems to be very clear to me, especially considering that C&K was released after Seafarers (I also think the Seafarers reference to only resources is pretty clear as they have revised the game as well). Still hoping someone finds documentation that specifically mentions gold fields since I could see it argued that this was referencing C&K only which doesn't address gold fields as it wasn't part of that expansion (as it could be argued Seafarers doesn't address commodities because they are not part of it).
    – YLearn
    Dec 9, 2013 at 0:16
  • This answer is right, and exactly what the (German) Catan FAQ says. They argue that a rule persists in following addons until its modification is mentioned in the rules. The rules say resource, and C&K does not extend this. It does extend e.g. the meaning of the road building card. @Gendolkari Do you mean clay and grain or has something changed in the newer editions?
    – Tim
    Dec 9, 2013 at 14:41
  • @Tim, you should post this as it's own answer, as it is the correct reference to answer this question by backing up both my reasoning from my post and Gendolkan's reasoning.
    – YLearn
    Dec 9, 2013 at 18:11
  • If Tim doesn't mind, I can also just edit my answer to have a link to the German FAQ.
    – GendoIkari
    Dec 10, 2013 at 17:20

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .