Basically you are exploring a map, and you discover other villages. Some of them are "enemy" and others are friendly (or become friendly if you cooperate with their requests). You can then buy certain resources from them. It does not teach complex economic principles by any means. The main thing about the game is that you have to produce enough food by building farms, hunting cabins, fishing shacks, etc. And then you need to produce clothing from the hides that are produced. You also end up building other structures like Taverns, Baths, Broom Makers, etc. as the game progresses and your settlement develops. DS would forget about all of this because he was so eager to run around the map and attack bandits or enemies with his armies. Then his settlers would go on strike. He would also forget to build a wall around his city. After the first few campaigns it can get repetitive, but DS was rather obsessed. I almost always see the game at Half Price Books for $5, it was well worth the money.
You can play against the computer, or you can set up a LAN game. We have played it where it was all 4 of us with our own cities on the same map, helping or attacking each other.
