Each player starts with a small principality consisting of two settlement cards connected by a road card. Each settlement is diagonally adjacent to a region card. Each player has 6 regions where - should the dice roll result be favorable - he can harvest resources such as lumber, brick, and ore.
Simply using the resources you harvested to build roads and settlements or to upgrade settlements to cities won't be enough to come out the winner. It is also important that you place heroes, buildings, and trade ships above and below the settlements and cities, because these cards are important in the competition for the trade advantage and the strength advantage, both of which give you additional victory points and pave your road to victory.
The new deluxe edition includes all three expansions and nine hard-to-find promotional cards.