The junior edition of The Settlers of Catan brings children from age 6 and up to a Catan of unknown year. For there are no "settlers" here in the usual sense. Instead the players are pirates, with hiding places—so-called pirate warehouses—all over the island and with ships at sea in order to erect even more pirate warehouses.
The Catan connoisseur will easily recognize that many essential elements from the "large" Settlers have found their way into the junior edition, but in accordance with the subject, they have new meanings: Here pirate warehouses are built on landscapes, for which one receives equipment cards. With these, one again constructs ships and more pirate warehouses or buys development cards. Naturally one needs entirely different equipment cards in order to build a pirate warehouse. Wood and wool undoubtedly belong there, but what would an orderly pirate warehouse be without pirate items like a saber and a bottle of rum?
Every players begins with two pirate warehouses, and the winner is the first player to builds seven pirate warehouses. In order to build a new warehouse, one must go by ship from an existing warehouse to a new construction site. One therefore always constructs alternating ships and warehouses.
Apart from the subject, what are the other differences between the junior edition and The Settlers of Catan?
Primarily, some complicated rules, such as the distance rule as well as the expansion of settlements into cities, have been removed. Other elements have been replaced by a simpler system, such as, for example, the "largest army" which is easier to handle. The dice have become one six-sided die, so that players are guaranteed to receive at least one equipment cards—as long as the corresponding field hasn't been blocked by the ghost pirate or a 6 was rolled. Generally the game time is shortened because one needs fewer victory points to win and only one ship between the two pirate warehouses needs to be constructed.
A new game element is the marketplace. One card of each type of equipment is placed on this at the start of the game. On your turn, you can exchange one card in your hand for one of the cards on the marketplace. At certain times, the cards on the marketplace are cleared and once again a card of each type is displayed.
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