billroper | Catan (Junior)

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I noticed one of our friends (and brain-damaged as I am, I forget which one) playing the Catan Junior game with their young children. Since I have become tired of Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land, I figured it was worth a try, so I picked it up at Chambanacon and brought it back as a gift for Katie and Julie.

Many games of Catan Junior have now been played with varying degrees of success. The biggest problem is that Katie has yet to win the game.

Did I mention that Katie is rather competitive? :)

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From:

minnehaha.livejournal.com

What age range is the game suitable for? This link says five and up.

B

From:

billroper

The box says six and up. Katie just turned six, while Julie is four and a half. Both seem reasonably able to handle it, although Julie is at the point of trying to throw the game so Katie can win. :)

Once the rules are explained by an adult, no reading is required, which is really pretty helpful.

From:

capplor.livejournal.com

usually means a code for "the kid has developed certain skills". I wish they'd be more explicit. I can deduce that 3 & up means, "old enough not to shove small parts into their throats & choke". I think 5 or 6 means, has the concept of taking turns, can count, can figure how choices lead towards a desired goal (in a simple situation). 8 would require reasonable literacy. Naturally, some children would be ahead or behind. Being Roper's kids, I would assume the intellectual capability, but would have to interact a bit to know about the maturity. (No implications for or against at this point).

OTOH, is there a way you can handicap the game just a little against the adults, to give the kids a chance to win? (I'm assuming Julie hasn't won a game yet either, unless the chance element is large enough to make it a matter of time for Katie)

From:

billroper

Oh, no! Julie won the first two games that we played. I won the third.

I'm not sure exactly what the score was when Gretchen was playing against the girls, but Katie didn't manage a win then either.

There's a reasonable element of chance in the game. If you're lucky, you accumulate more resources and that gives you a better chance of winning.

If you're Katie and Julie, you trade resources to buy Coco the Parrot cards... :)

From:

kizoku42.livejournal.com

If you have a better chance of winning with more resources, give Katie more resources. That's what I did with my daughters and the railroad games we play. More money at the start of the game. An advantage to playing to win is your children -know- they really won.

From:

billroper

The good news is that this game is simple enough that Katie can actually win on her own from an equal footing now that she's seen the strategy. And she has been winning.

She beat me on Thursday night in a two-player game, while we split a pair of two-player games last night. (The first one, I got creamed. The second one was close.)