by TwitchBot
Get Earthworm wrote:
The rules say that the person who chooses that space takes the starting player token and that is the only way that it changes. It doesn't say 'may take' or 'may choose'. So I think the answer is no. I also would find it hard to think of an occasion when it would be advatagous to not be starting player. Normally one would want to hoover up the resources.
While it's true that you can't take the Start Player and/or Minor Improvement space and declare someone else to be the starting player, remember that the space is "Take Start Player AND/OR Minor Improvement". This means that it is perfectly legal to place a worker on the space and choose to take only the Minor Improvement action and not take the Start Player action. (It's worded like Sow and/or Bake and not worded like After Renovate also Major/Minor.) In this case, the Start Player marker stays where it is, and the space is now blocked.
It's extremely rare, but there can be valid strategic reasons I'd prefer for Start Player to stay where it is rather than me take it. I've only ever done it once, and it was under very specific circumstances.
It was round 12 or 13 I was second in the turn order. The guy with the start player marker had Clay Pit, Seasonal Worker, and some other good Day Labor card from an expansion, but was losing. The player two spots after me had the Quarry and was winning the game. If I took the start player marker, the guy with the Quarry would be able to take Day Laborer next turn (Because he'd go before the Clay Pit guy) and could then Renovate. If I didn't take that action space at all, then he'd just take Start Player himself, and take DL as his first action.
However, if I just took the Minor Improvement action and didn't execute the Start Player action, I assured that the guy with Clay Pit could take Day Laborer instead of the guy with the Quarry getting it. And since I figured he'd use his first action on that, it meant I'd still get whatever action I wanted when I went second. The guy with the Quarry won anyway, but it deprived him of a couple points.
So it's a strategically valid play, but comes up very rarely. So rarely that the online systems don't even implement the option.