To win the game, you must be the first player to get 10 victory points. Points are awarded as follows:
The game begins in the "setup" phase. Players take turns placing a town, then a road.
Each tile (except the desert) has a number on it. When that number is rolled in the game, you get 1 of that resource for each town you have adjacent to that tile, and 2 of that resource for each city.
You're not allowed to build a town immediately beside another town (regardless of if it's yours or another player's.)
The beginning of your turn is called the production phase. During production, you have to roll the dice. After you roll, each player who has a town or city adjacent to a tile marked with the sum of the dice gets resources from that tile. Each player gets 1 resource per town adjacent to the tile, or 2 resources for each city. You're allowed to use development cards if you like, but you can't buy them. The production phase ends when you roll the dice and you enter the build phase.
This is the main phase of your turn. You can buy development cards, build roads, towns and settlements, as well as trade resources.
Roads can be built beside one of your towns or cities, or off of another of your roads. Towns may be build at a point in one of your roads, as long as nobody has a town or city at one of the adjacent points. Cities replace towns, so you can only build one where you already have a town.
When you buy a development card, you will get one of the following cards: