This is the best way with a group of new players. What I do is hand out some building and fields to players, then give them enough colonists to fill about 75% of their spaces. It's important to emphasize quarries, production plants, and large buildings as they're basic concepts which are best shown by example. I then explain that "one wins by having the most victory points. There are three ways to get victory points: shipping, buildings, and specials." I explain basically what the action cards do. Then we play through two or three rounds and score, while play will demonstrate some of the finer rules. I explain that in the real game, there are three ways for it to end. Then we just reset everything and start from the beginning, and everyone seems to pick it up pretty quick.

If a majority of the group has played before, make the newbie the last person, explain how victory points are scored and how the game ends. A little help for the first two rounds and they will be self-sufficient.

You should probably avoid explaining in detail what every building does, or exactly what happens during the Captain phase, or fiddly things like the limited numbers of goods and extra colonists, before the game starts. These tend to make the players glazed or anxious. Just play the game and explain them as they come up. The important parts to teach before play are:

• 3 different kinds of victory points
• building format (VPs, colonists, cost, and ability)
• 3 different ending conditions and how they work

Everything else seems to be quickly picked up by example.