Catan Junior is a collecting game where you build a pirate kingdom around the Isles of Catan. You play by rolling dice, collecting resources and buying Lair pieces. It is a tactical race to gather and trade to get what you need and beat your opponents to the best locations for a fast victory.

In this game, you play as a pirate captain who spots the Isle of Catan and races other pirates to gather enough resources and build seven lairs. You start with two lairs, which produce a resource on a specific dice roll, for example a three might gain you a goat. You trade-up these resources, aiming to get the correct combinations to build new additions to your kingdom. These new buildings give you other resources from other numbers on the dice.

As you play, space on the board gets taken up by other players, so it's a race to gather the resources you need to get your buildings built first. If you don't, your opponents can snatch away the space you need, forcing you to build in a different direction or around a number that you don't want. There is also a Ghost Pirate, which you can move to block your opponents numbers, stopping them from collecting key resources. The winner is the first player to build seven lairs.

What starts as a dice-rolling, resource collection game, quickly becomes a game of tactical trading, quick building and racing your opponents for the best spaces on the board. To succeed you need the luck of the dice and a sharp eye for a good trading deal.