Settlers of Catan Junior- A Great Start to Gaming for Kids

For parents who LOVE to play games, the temptation is to start pushing our kids into playing our favorite games early. To be fair, they often WANT to play. But, when it comes right down to it, even if you have a wildly precocious kid, putting your 5 year old at the table to play Lords of Waterdeep… or even basic Settlers of Catan… just leads to frustration and disappointment. Fortunately, there are quite a few kid’s games on the market that aren’t mind numbing or adults… and one of my favorites for the 5 and up set is Settlers of Catan Jr.

Buy it here–>Catan Junior
from: Puzzle Master

Setters of Catan Jr.

Settlers of Catan Jr takes the basics of the original Settlers of Catan, strips it down, and reworks it with a PIRATE theme! (Gotta love those pirates!). And it works. In fact, it works well enough that adults can play without kids….

The board is smaller, and set in cardboard (no assembling Hexes and topping with numbers). Instead of Resource Cards, players get Resource Tiles (a cutlass, a Goat, some logs, cotton, and molasses barrels). And instead of a Robber, there is a Ghost Pirate. Only one die is used instead of 2.

The object is to settle your own Pirate lairs on various points around the board. First one to 7 wins.

But how do you get those lairs?

Every turn starts with the roll of the die. Anyone who has an existing lair on the island associated with the rolled number gets to pick up the island’s resource tiles. Tiles are turned in for lairs and ships (oh! and Coco tiles!).

Movement is straight-forward. If you have the resources for a ship, you place a ship next to an exiting lair. When you have money for a lair, you build in the spot next to the ship. There will always be one ship between each of your lairs.

So, what about the Ghost Pirate?

When you roll a 6 (notice that no island is marked “6”), you get to move the Ghost Captain to any island, and take 2 of the resources produced by that Island. (And until he moves, no one else collects anything from that location).

Trades are MUCH easier in Catan Jr!

Instead of begging someone to trade wheat for wool… you can just trade one for one at the marketplace which starts with one of each good (as the game goes on, it may end up with all 5 of the same good… then the marketplaces is wiped, and it starts over).

Coco Tile

Think of Coco Tiles as development tiles. They act as resources, allow free building, or even move the Ghost Captain. All good things.

Board Game Components

All of the Resource Tiles and Coco Cards are made from SOLID Cardboard Stock. (The kind that might even hold up to a little sibling chewing on them). The Pirate Lairs and Ships are colorful plastic, and seem sturdy enough (maybe not sturdy enough to step on, but sturdy enough to survive a battle between two brothers launching them at each other.) And they LOOK like Lairs and Ship.. which is cool, but it does mean that you can’t build shapes out of them like you would with the wood bits from the original.

The board is two sided, depending on the number of players. I think they could have made it a little sturdier, but it’s acceptable.

The rule book is just a few pages, and is clear.

Who Can Play Settlers Catan Jr.?

The game box says 6 and up. And truth is, it’s no more complex than that old pop-matic Trouble game you played as a kid. There is no reading, symbolism is basic and clear. Once a kid is taught to play, they should be able to manage it alone… even without a parent hovering over them. At the same time, this doesn’t have a “kid’s game” feel. An adult can actually play along without losing their mind (I’m still in recovery from the 983,492 games of Hi Ho Cherrio I played with my Littles)

If you are looking for a board game to act as a bridge for your kids between Chutes and Ladders and Catan, Catan Jr is definitely worth adding to your game rotation.

Buy Settlers of Catan Jr HERE

Catan Junior – $47.99
from: Puzzle Master

You can get the English or German Language game here-
(I think the difference would be primarily the rule book… since the game itself isn’t language dependant)

Catan Junior Kosmos 697495 – DIE SIEDLER VON Catan