catan is one of  the best thouth out and put together borad games you can play. Its very much the same as the first edition and it  is nothing if not a faithful and upgraded edition of the 1995 masterpiece. Roll your dice, build your roads, trade your sheepand conqure the catan lands that await you to explore.

This is a very smart game that is based on the fundamentals of humanity. We all know the history of settlements (at least we can imagine) and this game play is exactly that with a lot more twists.

1. It uses luck to define who gets what. Fair to some extent.
2. It uses strategy to grow our possession, achievements and win the world/island.
3. It uses resources to build something. And we won't always have those resources, when we need them; and we will have them when we don't need them.
4. It requires strategy to get what we don't have. So, a barter system to create a win-win without loosing to others.

While there is some partnership and trading, it does justice to still keep it "competitive". While we will make friend to trade, next moment we will want them to lose.
It will keep our interest until we win (or lose) and even after that, on all the possibilities that we missed. It's "captivating".
It's very "compulsive" to play once more and excited to get our turn.
All in all, this is a "comprehensive" game that requires many of the humans skills.