Used to roll my eyes at the beginner setup and figured everyone should just learn on the full board. Then I watched a couple of new folks get wrecked in their first game because the board was too spread out and they had no clue what to do. Looking back it was dumb of me, since the starter spots keep things close and let people actually learn how trading and building works. Now I'm with Dale on this one and won't teach it any other way. Getting crushed game one just makes people not want to play again, and that's the real thing you're trying to avoid.