Yeah, starting with the base case would help the moves a LOT.

I found this to be true of the body of the rules as well. My first read-through was a train-wreck, I stopped about halfway through and made a little list of questions about the basic structure of the game and skimmed for those answers, and then re-read much more successfully. An overview at the very beginning would have helped enormously.

(Even something as simple as starting the rules text with the turn-state box from the board and an explanation of how it flows would be an improvement. That information is certainly there, but it’s kind of buried.)