The CommonSenseMom

Storage for Settlers of Catan


Settlers and Cities & Knights	Seafarers

I've mentioned that our favorite family game is The Settlers of Catan. We have the main Settlers gamealong with the 5-6 player extension. We have found that our favorite way to play is with the Cities & Knights expansion and the 5-6 player extension for Cities & Knights. In addition, we also own (but use less frequently) the Seafarers expansionand the 5-6 player Seafarers extension.

Consequently, we have many little game pieces to keep track of. We found that setting up and putting away the games was rather time consuming. We'd rather spend our time playing the game than gathering and organizing parts. So we come up with a storage solution. We have two Sterilite large clip boxes from Target. They measure 3.25"X11"X14". Inside the boxes we placed small, round, plastic containers each 2" in diameter and 2.75" tall. The round containers also came from Target (in the craft section). Unfortunately, Target does not have the clip boxes or round, plastic containers on its website. You can see them in the pictures, though.

In the first box, we put all the pieces for Settlers and Cities & Knights together since that is how we play most often. Inside are nine round, plastic containers. One container holds the number chits for a 2-4 person game, another holds the number chits for a 5-6 person game, a third holds the dice, robber, merchant, etc. The remaining six containers hold each color's pieces. Filling the remainder of the box are the land and water hexes, water frame, calendars, and cards. The instruction book lays on top.

The second box has all the pieces from Seafarers. Similarly, the second box holds eight containers with Seafarers pieces. Here are some more pictures:

The solution, of course, is only as perfect as the operator. In our case, the kids frequently play without us. So the setup and clean up are less than perfect. But, they do pretty well getting things in the right places.

I have some ideas to improve the system. Ideally, the clip boxes would be just a half inch taller. I'd like to find some sort of round container that would just match the diameter of the number chits. That way, we could put them away in order, and they would come out already in order when setting up the next game. Finally, I'd love to find a perfect size outer box that would hold both of the clip boxes inside of it.

Interested in Settlers of Catan, Cities & Knights, and Seafarers of Catan? They are available at Amazon.com. Here are the 2-4 player sets:

Here are the 5-6 player extension sets:

Labels: Family, Just for Fun, Organize

Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights Conundrum

This is a guest post from the CommonSenseDad. If you're familiar with the game, let us know what you think.

1. Red has established a long road that separates Blue's two settlements. Blue is highly irate about this situation and intends to do something about it.

2. Blue has successfully built a settlement in a legal position that cuts Red's road. Red is unhappy that he looses his nice long contiguous road, but Blue isn't done yet.

3. Blue now plays a Diplomat card and removes one of Red's roads because Blue believes that since Red's road is cut, the road is now open and the last segment can be removed. (MUUUWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!) (You might notice that I seem to be taking Blue's side in this game. This was a real game situation, and I was playing Blue. Ok, confession time is done.)

4. Blue now builds two road segments connecting his settlements and establishing a nice long road, while also cutting off Red's settlements. (This part doesn't really have any bearing on the question of playing the Diplomat card in step 3, I just wanted to point out how brilliant this play really is. You see it, right? Brilliance? Shield your eyes.)

Ok, so the question boils down to...Once Blue has placed his settlement and cut off Red's long road, are the two sides of Red's road now considered open meaning that the Diplomat card can be played to remove the last segment in either one? The rules state that for a road to be closed, they have to have something item of the same color (settlement, city, or knight) at the end of that road.

Labels: Just for Fun