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From BGG:
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 Other elements have been replaced by a simpler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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