Awesome game, and I'm picky about city-builders.

Each run lasts 2-3 hours, and there are several runs in a round; your string of little settlements are wiped out after each round, but as you progress, the rounds get longer. It's building a strategy for the same game loop, but because there's an element of randomness, it hasn't gotten stale, and some of the map modifiers force you out of your comfort zone and into a more challenging playstyle. Some people might be put off by that, but I enjoyed having to figure out how to adapt.

It is possible for RNG to put you at a big disadvantage, but even then, there's usually an earlier choice you could have made differently in order to avoid it. Even then, it's almost always possible to salvage a bad run (I've had a few really satisfying last-minute turnarounds). When you do lose, it feels fair and you usually know why (spoiler: it's usually poor planning).

There's a little bit of a learning curve but it's not too steep, and the progressive difficulty makes it feel approachable.

Strong recommend if you're even sort of into city-builders or RTS.