CATAN

In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan),  players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building  settlements, cities and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to  determine which resources the island produces. Players build structures  by 'spending' resources (sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore) which are  represented by the relevant resource cards; each land type, with the  exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource:  hills produce brick, forests produce wood, mountains produce ore, fields  produce wheat, and pastures produce sheep.

Set-up includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each  depicting one of the five resource-producing terrain types--or the  desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some  of which contain ports of exchange. A number disk, the value of which  will correspond to the roll of two 6-sided dice, are placed on each  terrain tile. Each player is given two settlements (think: houses) and  roads (sticks) which are placed on intersections and borders of the  terrain tiles. 

Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which  terrain tiles their last-placed settlement is adjacent to. A robber pawn  is placed on the desert tile.A turn consists of rolling the dice, collecting resource cards based  on this dice roll and the position of settlements (or upgraded  cities—think: hotels), turning in resource cards (if possible and  desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, possibly playing a  development card, or trading resource cards with other players. If the  dice roll is a 7, the active player moves the robber to a new terrain  tile and steals a resource card from another player who has a settlement  adjacent to that tile.

Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the  longest road or the largest army (from some of the development cards),  and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory  points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held  in secret), s/he announces this and claims the win.