Thank you so much for your purchase of my three/four player Stabilizer Kit for the Catan Board Game on Etsy! I hope you enjoy it. If there is anything you need or have any suggestions, please send me a note. I designed this to solve a practical problem with the game. I did not want to replace the nice artwork or any of the nice pieces that come with the game but simply to improve it. Once you have set it up, I would love to see a photo of it. If you want, please leave a photo review/comment on Esty to show everyone how you are using it as it is an unusual item that is hard to describe well.
Extra parts:
I assemble and test everything to double check before shipping and included a few extra small pieces in the extra part bag. The black robber holder or the magnetic red dragon could be used as the robber or just placed somewhere fun! You can use the 3D printed port pieces or the cardboard ones from the game, whichever you prefer. (Those 3D printed ports are included because older versions of the game need them (they had incompatible hex shaped ports.)
Storage and Care:
I suggest you store it all in the small baggies in a box of your choice, or leave it set up on a table or board. See one buyer in the store listing who made a custom wooden board and leaves it permanently setup on that, so they are all ready to go when they want to play! After assembling the board, you could then measure the dimensions and create a rectangular or six sided wood board of your own design preference for instance. I wouldn’t permanently glue it though as you might later want to have the option to get the 5-6 player upgrade kit. If you do glue it all together use loctite blue ultra control super glue.
Note that this is made of PLA plastic which should not be left outdoors, exposed to direct sunlight or extreme heat as it might cause the colors to fade a little and become more brittle over time, like any plastic. There are small magnets embedded inside the large frame hexes, the small number tray circles, robber holder, and dragon, so please do not let pets and small kids eat those. You can wash everything here too with warm dishwashing soap and water if you spill something on it like a sticky coca cola drink, but don’t put it in the dishwasher as that is too harsh. The plastic will soften/melt at any temperature over 160 degrees.
Setup Instructions:
Open the box as you need all the parts.
Here is the hex pattern for the four player boards (ignore the colored tiles for now) just focus on the layout pattern of the center hexes and water borders:
From https://catanmapmaker.com/
- First layout all the tan land hexagon frame supports in the appropriate pattern.
- Insert the intersection clips into all the intersections for all the land hexes in the middle area, as well as the water borders. Every intersection should have a clip in it. The clips not only hold the board together but hold the player settlements and cities too.
- Use https://catanmapmaker.com/ to generate a nice layout and now place the cardboard hexes from the game onto the board. Note that there is a small indent on one side that makes it easy to lift them out.
- Place the cardboard numbers into the magnetic number circle holders and place them into position on the board according to the layout from the map generator. They snap to center positions magnetically.
- Place the cardboard ports (or use the plastic ones from the kit) and place the ports along the edge of the board wherever you like or look at the game’s rulebook for placement positions.
- Next surround the hexagons frames with the water borders. If you look at the layout patterns above you can see there are two types of water borders (single and double sided), which are like the ones in this kit.
- Use the dragons as robbers or use the game’s black robber token and place it in the robber holder so it magnetically centered.