Catan Junior - Tips & Strategies

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.

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!]

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.