CATAN Junior Board Recreation – Swashbuckling Journey for Younger Pirates! Technique Recreation, Enjoyable Household Recreation for Children and Adults, Ages 6+, 2-4 Gamers, 30 Minute Playtime, Made by CATAN Studio

We don’t really play Catan (play many other games) but this is great for 5 and up!
We are not fans of Catan. Own it, don’t play it. With many, many games in our collection it just isn’t a hit and is hasn’t been played in years. This is an easy to learn version that is great for kids as young as 5. This one is similar, but also improves it with having a market to trade at and parrot tiles to take a chance on. I do feel like the parrot tiles are perhaps OP (overpowering), but that seems ok for a kids game and makes it a viable strategy for young ones to use and perhaps win.The tiles are thick (were kind of hard to punch out and left weird marks on the edges where they were still connected for shipping) and nice looking – vibrant. The miniatures seem a little flimsy but as long as you treat them well should last – they look fine, especially for the 20 dollar price point. The board is thin but seems okay at the cheap price point as well but I do wish it was thicker. As a whole, it has a solid table presence which is really important to get kids to want to play. The more table presence and visual appeal it has, the greater desire a child will want to play the game again, and this succeeds there.What I really don’t like is the insert. The layout seems like it might have been for a different game and just repurposed. It is really unfortunate but maybe it was to keep the price down? What I really wish was they had included baggies or something for the resources and player pieces which would have cost next to nothing to add if they were going to use this insert.The game is solid, and fun to play with kids. It I s also quick unlike the full version. You can play in 20 to 30 minutes very easily. For a kids game, we like it a lot and I don’t hesitate to play (which is surprising because I’m not a fan of Catan, and I was hesitant to buy this originally) but it’s quick nature and nice table presence just makes it enjoyable. If my children like it then I like it. I can overlook the clunky insert, and strongly recommend buying this, even if you don’t like Catan.

Good game for families with kids.
We are a board game family and sometimes struggle to find age appropriate games that are a good difficulty, play length, and/or attention holding. This game was great for that. It plays like a smaller version of OG Catan, with something happening for every player every turn (great for keeping everyone engaged). It also is a nice introduction to strategy, with having to plan routes as players start close to each other and can choose to block a path or not, and moving the ghost captain. It moves along fairly quickly, which is great for short attention spans. The game itself seems to be of decent quality, plastic pieces and a sturdy board. I would change the layout of the box if I could, because it wasn’t well suited for piece storage.

Fun, good for imaginative play.
Okay, the rules don’t seem to indicate exactly what to do with your lair (castle), so my grandson invented his own rules, using it to take over an adjacent lair, and we had a grand time working all this out as we went. Fun afternoon!

My 5 year old loves board games and has watched the grown ups play Settlers of CATAN for a while now so we thought we would introduce him to the junior version.He understood the game mechanics straight away and loves playing it.The theme is pirate so the resources are a little different from the adult version, but it still incorporates most of it’s gameplay such as the ‘robber’ which in this case is a ‘captain’ and instead of building roads and cities you build ships and lairs or trade for Coco the Parrot tiles which is like the Development Cards.I wish it would give you the option of where to place your first lair and ship though as this is one of the main strategies in Settlers of CATAN and I don’t think it would’ve made it too hard for juniors.Overall, there’s not much room for strategy planning as much of it is down to luck but I guess as a junior game for my 5 year old, will do now.I expect he will outgrow it by the time he’s 7 though and move onto the proper game, but it is a great introductory game for him nevertheless.

My husband and I are big Catan fans. We have the basic game and a few extensions and expansions. We couldn’t wait for our son to be old enough to play Catan junior. The game was a hit, he loves it and so do we. It’s enjoyable for adults as well since it’s not too simple but simple enough for a kid to understand. I would highly recommend this game.