Tips & Strategies (6)

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Tips & Strategies (6)

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7
USA
Book Lover
Novice Reviewer
Cooperative Game Explorer
31 of 31 gamers found this helpful
“For Younger Kids”

I have played this with my 4.5 year old and they had fun. We just removed the one trade with the market per tern because they are not able to think ahead that much.

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3
31 of 31 gamers found this helpful
“Another Coco Tile!?”

We sometimes impose a house rule of only trading in for 1 Coco tile per turn. We have seen, usually when kids are playing with other kids, an intense desire to collect Coco tiles and overlook *any* other kind of game winning strategy. When an adult joins in, we usually impose this rule to encourage a more ‘holistic’ approach to winning. Once they trade for the Coco card, they usually still have enough resources to plan for next turn’s Coco purchase, as well as allocate some resources to a current/future turn’s non-Coco trade.

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5
AEG fan
Amateur Reviewer
31 of 31 gamers found this helpful
“Guidance”

With younger players, it gets real for them to get caught up in the trades. Don’t be afraid to at least explain what options are there for them, otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of time watching them think about what to do with their one goat.

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5
Video Game Fan
Comic Book Fan
38 of 42 gamers found this helpful
“Get some CHESTS for that gold!!”

The only (slight) annoyance I had with playing CJ when I first got it was that the wonderfully sturdy resource tokens (gold, wood, goats, etc.) that were waiting in the bank area (just off of the board) would tend to get knocked over and mess up the play space with all the collecting and swapping going on. Since the game didn’t come with any kind or tray insert to keep the tokens organized and separated I needed a solution…

So while walking in Wal-Mart the next day, I passed the art/crafts aisle. Ya know, the section that has all the bead, glitter, craft paper, colored pipe cleaners and all? Well, they had these little clear plastic bead storage boxes 3×1.5x.1.5in! Five in a pack for only $2! Perfect size to fit each of my five resources! And they look like little treasure chests! Totally made the gameplay a more organized, cleaner experience!

The only down side is that due to the plastic box insert, the boxes don’t fit in the box UNLESSSSS…YOU TURN THE INSERT UPSIDE DOWN! Now it all fits in! Problem solved! 🙂 [Yes I just figured that out as I was writing this! Fist pump!]

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5
Video Game Fan
Comic Book Fan
54 of 61 gamers found this helpful
“Across the sea FTW!”

In a 3-4 player game, no matter which color you start with you have a position with a lair with a ship ready to go at the start near either the left or right side of the board. From that spot, make it your primary goal to zig-zag straight across the board before you get “blocked” by an intersecting players path. This allows you to lay down lairs quickly, while providing you a variety of resource sources.

Conversely, If another player seems to want to go for coco tokens, use your other position at the top or bottom of the board to sneak up and build a lair to block them from making their way across the board as well. They may grab spooky island, but they won’t be able to make much more progress across the board.

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5
Video Game Fan
Comic Book Fan
44 of 51 gamers found this helpful
“Three to gain control”

Taking a note from Catan Junior’s big brother SOC, we decided that a player must have a minimum of three Coco tokens to gain control of Spooky Island. This limits the back and forth in the early game between players. I think you’ll think it tightens the gameplay as well.

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