How to play Colonial Wars

A free browser strategy game on the North American frontier of the 1750s: one colony on a shared persistent map, real-time marches, and wars fought by federations of real players. This page is the short course — the interactive guide inside the game goes deeper, and every number below is read from the live game rules, not typed.

Your colony

You start with one colony and 17 buildings to raise: Town Hall, Militia Hall, Stable, Gunsmith Workshop, War Council, Blacksmith, Muster Square, Memorial Statue, Trading Post, Lumber Camp, Tanning Yard, Iron Forge, Homestead, Storehouse, Root Cellar, Palisade, Lookout Tower. Timber, Hides and Iron accrue every second — including while you are offline — and the Town Hall opens annex plots so two colonies of equal size can be built for entirely different wars.

Protection for new players

On a standard world a new colony cannot be attacked at all for its first 4 days. After that, a ratio shield ramps in over 60 days: bigger players can only strike you once the size gap is inside 20:1, so day-one giants cannot farm day-one newcomers.

The army

Every march is real time: an army crosses the map at the pace of its slowest company. Battle luck is seeded from the order itself, so a report is a record, never a re-roll. A night defence bonus is a per-world setting, shown on each world's rules.

Beyond the battlefield

Foraging parties range the back country as a second economy with unlockable tiers. Independent colonies grow, train garrisons and raid on their own. Federations are capped, so numbers alone win nothing — conquest takes a War Council, coin minted from your treasury and a Diplomat landed beside a real army, repeatedly, until a colony's loyalty breaks. Worlds can be WON: hold enough of the map long enough and the world closes with your name on it.

Worlds open now

Charter Marks — the game's premium points — are earned by playing, and the store sells affordable top-up bundles. Money only ever buys saved time and cosmetics, never a stronger army.