CATAN Junior takes families with children ages 6 and up to a place quite different from CATAN as we know it. There are no "settlers" around here. Instead, the players slip into the role of pirates who build their hideouts - called pirates' lairs - all over the islands and set sail to find new places and build more pirates' lairs there.

CATAN experts will easily recognize that many essential elements of the CATAN base game are included in CATAN Junior, although - in accordance with the theme - they received different names: pirates' lairs are built adjacent to islands, and if the islands' numbers are rolled, the players receive resource tiles. The resource tiles depict gold, goats, wood, molasses, and cutlasses.