How to play Colonial Wars

A free browser strategy game on the North American frontier of the 1750s: colony building, real-time armies, federations, competitive worlds, cooperative PvE campaigns and weekend sprints. This page is the short course — the interactive guide inside the game goes deeper, and every number below comes from the reference rules or world list. Reference values are defaults; check your chosen world for overrides.

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.

Choose a world and check its rules

Worlds differ in map size, economy speed, march speed, research and victory conditions. Competitive worlds allow player warfare. PvE worlds put human captains on the same side against regional factions, with campaign objectives shown on the Campaign screen. Some scheduled worlds offer preregistration and colony placement choices.

Beginner protection blocks attacks while it lasts. The reference default is 4 days, but each world sets its own duration, including short or disabled protection on some formats. Size-ratio protection and morale can also restrict attacks or reduce their strength. Check the world card, Settings and the target preview instead of assuming every world has the same shield.

The army

Every march is real time: an army crosses the map at the pace of its slowest company. Battle luck uses a secret seed stored at dispatch. The War Table models the inputs you provide; hidden defenders, support and actual luck can change the result. A night defence bonus is a per-world setting, shown on each world's rules.

These are baseline unit values. Available units, research and modifiers vary by world; in-game unit cards show current values.

Supply, conquer and cooperate

Foraging sends troops away to gather resources. The Trading Post handles merchant transports, offers, requests between your colonies and Resource Balance. The Raid Ledger offers templates and optional automatic raiding and foraging; the Colony Planner manages saved construction and recruitment targets. These built-in tools are permitted.

Independent colonies can grow, refill garrisons and raid when their world enables it. Conquest uses War Council coins and surviving Diplomats or Covered Wagons to lower loyalty. Valuable independents can resist claims more strongly. Federations coordinate support, operations, intelligence, treaties and wars. Enabled Weekly Musters, expeditions and event games provide additional objectives and rewards.

How worlds end

Domination worlds require sustained territorial control. Weekend Speed ends at its fixed Sunday deadline, with the highest colony-point total winning. Crown worlds award Crowns for holding the central Citadel and end at their target score. PvE campaigns have separate coalition capture-and-hold objectives. Check the world selector and campaign screen for current rules, deadlines and rewards.

Worlds currently listed

Charter Marks and fair play

Earn Charter Marks through play and grants, or buy bundles from the Store when checkout is enabled. Marks buy cosmetics, construction shortcuts, conversion, automation and production boosts. Some PvE worlds also enable direct resource purchases. These benefits can accelerate progress and army growth; they do not directly increase unit combat stats. The Store and each action show current prices.

One person, one account. Use built-in sitting grants instead of sharing passwords. External bots, command scripts, exploits and harassment are prohibited. The Community forum and in-game reporting tools provide help.