Players are recent immigrants to the newly populated island of Catan.
Expand your colony through the building of settlements, roads, and villages by harvesting commodities from the land around you. Trade sheep, lumber, bricks and some grain for a settlement, bricks and wood for a road, or try to complete other combinations for more advanced buildings, services and specials. Trade with other players, or at local seaports to get resources you might lack. The first player to achieve 10 points from a combination of settlements, and special cards wins.
Winner of "Spiel des Jahres" German Game of the Year 1995, and US Board Game of year 1996
There are quite a few 2 player variants of this game, you can find them by going to BoardGameGeek.
A truly classic game that can be player from age 8 to 88.
NB This game has a number of official expansions available and additionally a large number of rules varients and new scenarios on the web, so its replay value is vastly enhanced. Still one of the best games to play with the familly or with dedicated gamers.