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Our situation:

  1. Extension Cities&Knights
  2. Dices gave us the number 9
  3. All players have settlement in the corner of hexes with number 9 and both 9 hexes are grain
  4. There are not enough grain cards in the bank to supply all players.

According to FAQ (https://web.archive.org/web/20161030152422/https://www.catan.com/faq/4622-resource-cards-what-order-are-resource-cards-distributed-if-there-are-not-enough-cards) none of the players receives grain resource on this turn.

But one of the players has city improvements Aqueduct and rules say: if, when the dice are rolled for production, you do not receive any resources or commodities, you may take any one resource of your choice from the bank.

And the question is: can the player with Aqueduct take any resource from the bank in our situation?

Denis Anisimov
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    Not quite a duplicate, but very similar, and likely the same answer: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/11868/can-you-collect-a-resource-of-your-choice-if-you-have-no-production-due-to-the-r – GendoIkari Sep 13 '21 at 00:55
  • "if, when the dice are rolled for production, you do not receive any resources or commodities, you may take any one resource of your choice from the bank." - this rule speaks about dice. And the dice want to give us resources. But the bank doesn't want to. – Denis Anisimov Sep 13 '21 at 02:28
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    "When the dice are rolled for production" is simply the timing of when the event is happening. The event itself is "you do not receive any resources or commodities". I agree that the rule isn't as completely clear as it should be; but I believe a plain and literal reading of the rules as written gives the answer that's accepted for the other question. My answer on that other question even mentions empty piles. – GendoIkari Sep 13 '21 at 03:34
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    if Aqueduct says "if you don't receive resources" and the general rule says essentially that no one receives the resources, then that reads clear as day to me. So, in the absence of any errata that says that Aqueduct after all wasn't supposed to work like that, I'd argue you do get the one resource. (One might argue the FAQ entry says you can't get that particular resource by any means this turn, not even with the Aqueduct, but that's maybe reading it a bit too far.) – ilkkachu Sep 13 '21 at 07:30

1 Answers1

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Yes.

Sebastian Rapp of Kosmos confirms on BGG:

Cities & Knights: If a player has an aqueduct and is entitled to claim a resource for it, he may claim a resource that was not given to the players due to a shortage. He may even do so, if he is only allowed to use the aqueduct because of the shortage.

There's also this second-hand recollection of confirmation from Teuber:

That player received no production. The roll was not a "7". Therefore, their Aqueduct works. And yes, that is the same if the reason is a robber on the hex. This was in an earlier German-language FAQ from Klaus Teuber, but I can't find it online now.

Someone else also confirmed that it was in the FAQ in this reply on BGG:

The FAQ at Klaus Teuber's website explicitly answers the original question [robber]: The Aqueduct still works in that case.

He also has a link to a more detailed FAQ at http://www.siedeln.de/faq/ which answers the other question [scarcity of resources]: A card shortage will also qualify for the Aqueduct.

L. Scott Johnson
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