There is a strategy called (highest) resource strategy in Catan. That is, build your initial settlements on hexes where the sum of the favorable die rolls is a maximum. That assumes 1) that all resources are about equal in value, and 2) an abundant resource is as valuable (or nearly so) as a scarce resource. But both of these assumptions seem counterintuitive.
In this video, a you tuber opined that "one ore > two sheep." That is, he would build his second settlement on a site with less ore than sheep, because the former is more valuable. This person has been blogging and playing for some time, so I assume that he is at least "somewhat" expert. His view also corresponds with my own rough calculations that the relative value of resources is: ore, 5, wheat 4, wood and brick, 3, and sheep 2. Taking the base of 3 for brick wood, I come up with value coefficients of 1.6, 1.3, and 0.7 for ore, wheat, and sheep respectively. I then multiply this vector by the values of ore, wheat and sheep to come up with a "dot product" that gives me an adjusted resource value. In this example, an ore hex with two die rolls is worth more than a sheep hex with four die rolls, because 2 x 1.6 (=3.2) >4x0.7 (=2.8).
Do any systems or experts "re-weight" resources using an algorithm similar to mine and then choose intersections for early settlements accordingly?
