(The rules state that the trading mechanic can easily be put back into the game if you’d like however!) There are no ports in CJ, but a player can always trade 2-1 with the bank to get a resource they need. I like the marketplace idea because it helps prevent arguments/hurt feelings with kids if no one will trade with them.

Because of that, what the marketplace has to offer is always changing. On their turn, a player may freely trade 1-for-1 with the marketplace to get a resource they need. Printed on the side of the board (on the shore) are carts which, at the beginning of the game, will hold one of each resource. One of the biggest differences/additions to CJ is the The Marketplace, which replaces the trading-resources-with-other-players mechanic. (A roll of 6 allows the player to move the Ghost Pirate.)

A roll of 1-5 will produce Goats, Molasses, Cutlasses, Wood, and Gold for players with Lairs in right places. There are five resources that can be collected for players who have a lair built next to the generating islands determined by the die roll.

Like SOC, you roll the die at the start of your turn. There is still strategy on choosing the direction to build your ships on the map to help you gather resources.Īnother similarity to SOC is that, instead of a Robber, there is a Ghost Pirate! Ooooooo! He works basically the same the robber, but looks cooler! When a player moves the ghost pirate to an island, they collect 2 of that island’s resource from “the bank” and island now won’t generate resources for anyone until the pirate is moved again.ĬJ is played with only a SINGLE six sided die. This makes it easier for younger players. A difference is that you don’t have to be two intersections away from another lair to build your next one. Rules for building more ships and lairs in CJ is similar to SOC in that you must have a certain amount of resources to build them, and the ships must be built next to your lairs and vice versa. The pirate ship is the equivalent to a road in SOC. This makes setup A LOT FASTER than in SOC!ĭepending on which color you choose, the game board has pre-marked where your first two starting pirate lairs are placed as well as one pirate ship. The placement of these islands on the board and rolled number needed to generate resources have already been preselected. In CJ, there isn’t one large island that generates many resources, but many hex-shaped islands that each generate a single resource, with water lanes separating the islands. Pirate Lairs are the equivalent to settlements in SOC (there are no pirate cities….). The theme of CJ is pirates! Yay! Who doesn’t love pirates? Your goal is to be the first pirate to build seven Pirate Lairs before your opponents do. Since many gamers are probably already familiar with how SOC gameplay works, I’ll make lots of comparisons to CJ that way. Let me just start off by saying that both my wife and I have played a fair share of SOC with expansions, but after playing Catan Junior (CJ), we immediately both agreed that CJ would be an excellent way to introduce ANYONE of any age (particularly casual gamers) to the world of Catan! Enter CATAN JUNIOR by Mayfair Games, a Catan game designed just for younger players…OR IS IT?!?! However, I didn’t think they were quite ready for the complexity of SOC and would probably get confused by the rules and strategy or fatigued by its running time. Catan Junior is not just a game for kids but a genuine family game, to be enjoyed by both adults and younger children.īeing a fan of the classic game The Settlers of Catan (SOC), I couldn’t wait to someday introduce that world to my young daughters (ages 5 & 8) and my students in my kids board gaming group. And if you want to build a pirates' lair, besides a lumber tile and a wool tile you also need a cutlass tile and a molasses tile.Īlthough in the Junior edition some rules were simplified, so that also 6-year olds have no trouble keeping up, it is still unmistakably a “Settlers of Catan” game. These tiles are used to build ships and more pirates' lairs or to buy development cards (which here are called “Coco tiles”). Pirates' lairs are built adjacent to islands by means of these lairs, the players receive resource tiles. Instead, the players represent pirates who build their hideouts - called pirates' lairs - all over the island and set sail to find new places and build more pirates' lairs there.Ĭatan experts will easily recognize that many essential elements of the “big” Settlers of Catan game are included in the Junior edition, which - in accordance with the theme - have different names now. The Catan Junior edition takes families with children ages 6 and up to a place quite different from Catan as we know it.

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