Colonization

A colony ship is not a boat -- it is the coffin of the old homeland and the cradle of the new.

TL;DR: Colonization is the endgame expansion mechanism.

- You need a harbor at level 20 and advanced Sail research

- The colony ship is consumed upon successful landing

- The target must be weakened militarily first

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Prerequisites #

Colonization is not for beginners. You need:

• A harbor at level 20
• Advanced Sail research
• A completed colony ship -- the largest and most expensive vessel in the game

Building a colony ship devours immense resources and takes a long time. It transports not just soldiers but entire settler collectives. Upon arrival it is deliberately run aground -- from its planks the foundation of your new town hall is built.

The Process #

Colonizing an inhabited island typically unfolds in two waves:

Wave 1 -- Weakening: You send warships, troops and catapults to shatter the defenses. The town hall must be reduced to a very low level — once your troops have won the land battle, your catapults can chip away at the town hall as part of the siege phase. The island changes ownership only when a colony ship lands in Wave 2, not by catapult alone.

Wave 2 -- Colonization: A second fleet carrying the colony ship, an escort and reserve troops. If the target's town hall is low enough and your colony ship survives the battle, the island changes ownership.

Even uninhabited islands can be colonized, but they still have a base defense -- you need troops regardless.

The main island of an active player is off-limits here — it can never be colonised; only their secondary islands are a valid target. So send a spy ship before every colonisation attempt: the spy report shows you the defence — and also whether the island is the target's main island.

Who can be colonised? #

Not every island on the map is a valid colonisation target. The short version:

• Empty islands -- Always, as long as you bring troops
• Your own islands -- Pointless, you own them already
• Active players -- Secondary islands only. Main islands of active empires are off-limits while the captain stands at the helm
• Beginner protection -- New players are untouchable during their early period, main island and secondary islands alike. This protection ends automatically after 14 days — or the moment a player sends an attack or colonization fleet. Attacking means giving up protection.
• Slumbering empires (silent for seven or more days) -- Secondary islands are colonisable. The main island stays protected as long as the captain can still return. The points-tier barrier is lifted from this stage onward.
• Rudderless empires (silent for fourteen or more days) -- Everything is fair game, main and secondary alike, with no points barrier. An empire without a helmsman is a prize for every watchful captain.
• Departing empires -- Captains who strike their colours release their secondary islands for plunder and colonisation during the seven-day reflection period. Whoever leaves of their own accord gives up every protection — that of their main island included. Only a captain whose account the admiralty has barred keeps it to the very end.
• Old Empire Ruins (from thirty days) -- World content, severed from any captain's history. Plunderable -- and off-limits to established empires: those high on the rankings cannot colonise them. There is one exception: every player up to and including the Captain rank may reclaim an old empire and breathe new life into it -- a leg-up to get a foothold. Currently at most five such reclaims are allowed per captain; once that count is reached, a further colony fleet to a ruin is turned away at dispatch. Rise to the Pirate rank and you give this up again; a colony fleet already underway returns home safely with its cargo.

Remember: a player's main island is not untouchable. It stays protected while they merely slumber — and also when the admiralty has barred their account. Whoever strikes their own colours, or stays away too long, releases it in the end as well.

What Happens to the Target Island? #

After a successful colonization:

• The island belongs to you
• You inherit the island with its infrastructure -- buildings, workshops and stockpiles all remain
• But conquest exacts its price: several building levels are lost in the upheaval, and the smallest structures crumble entirely
• The library burned -- the predecessor's research progress is lost
• The statue, if any, holds its pedestal -- the shrine survives the conquest
• Your surviving troops take over the island as the garrison

What Happens to Your Fleet? #

After a successful colonization, the surviving escort ships return to your origin island — they do not stay at the new colony. The colony ship is consumed on landing, and your troops become the garrison of the new island. The fresh colony therefore starts without any fleet: plan a separate transfer of ships once the island belongs to you.

If your fleet arrives and the target island no longer exists — because its owner completed account deletion mid-voyage — the entire fleet returns home intact. The Colonisation Ship is not consumed in this case.

It can also happen that someone beats you to it: if the target is colonized or conquered while your fleet is in transit — because another captain was faster or the island changed hands in the meantime — your fleet arrives to face the new owner and their defenses: there will be a fight. Only if attacking the new owner would not be permitted under the protection rules does the admiralty abort the landing and the fleet returns home intact, colony ship included.

Conquest Takeover #

Unlike before, a conquered island does not start from nothing. The weary people leave behind their workshops, and stockpiles stay untouched within the walls. But conquest damages the infrastructure -- not everything survives the transition.

Lore consequence: It pays to conquer large, well-developed islands -- even after the conquest losses, substantial infrastructure remains. Young colonies, however, often crumble entirely. Those who would rise in the world should choose their targets wisely.

Strategy #

• Plan long-term -- From game start to first colonization typically takes several weeks
• Choose your target wisely -- Weakly defended islands are easier but may be less valuable
• Secure afterwards -- Your new island is vulnerable at first. Station troops and build defenses
• Alliance support -- Colonization is easier when allies help soften the target

Keeping track of your islands #

As your empire grows, one island is no longer enough. The island list shows you at a glance whether each of your islands has construction, research, troop training or shipbuilding underway — and warns you when enemy fleets are approaching. You can see where action is needed without opening each island one by one.

The island overview now also shows troops, ships, the storage level in percent and whether something is being built on each island -- and it can be sorted by "finishes in", storage level or ocean.

Behind every active icon you also see the remaining time as a live countdown: for construction until the building is finished, for research until the next result. Training and shipyard show the end of the whole queue — an estimate that shifts if you upgrade the barracks or harbour in the meantime. The times are a guide, not a promise.

If your realm keeps growing, an achievement family of its own is waiting for it: bronze once you hold thirty islands at the same time, silver at fifty, gold at a hundred -- a mark on the wall, no advantage at sea.

Integration and Limits #

The Admiralty needs time to integrate each new island after a successful colonization. During this integration phase you can already build a new colony ship -- but the colonization fleet may only set sail once the waiting period has ended; the remaining time is shown in the harbor and in the fleet order. The required time grows with the size of your empire -- an experienced governor takes longer to administer new subjects than a young captain does. Exactly how long depends on how many islands you hold after the colonization: up to four islands roughly two to two and a half days, with five to nineteen islands three to four days, from twenty islands on five days. If the Admiralty changes that reckoning, it applies at once -- to a waiting period already running as well.

There is one exception: take an inhabited island from an awake captain in a higher league -- or from your own league, provided they hold at least ten percent more points than you -- and your harbor cheers and lays a new keel at once -- the waiting period currently running is waived, and the battle report tells you so on the spot. A captain who slumbers or has lost the helm brings you plunder and the island, but no waiver -- and the battle report tells you that too. Downwards, or against a captain of your league who is roughly your equal, it does not count, and neither do ownerless islands, Old Empire ruins or empty slots. Between the same two captains the waiver only works once in thirty days -- both directions counted together. It never counts against members of your own alliance, nor against alliances yours holds an alliance or a non-aggression pact with -- and not against your opponent while the two of you are in a feud. It changes nothing about the cost of colony ships or the number of your colonies -- only the waiting time is waived.

Rewards only come from awake captains: plunder, attack points and the island itself are always yours, but the waiver, the academy's points and a bounty only count if your opponent was active on arrival. Protection, by contrast, follows the state: a slumbering captain stays protected by an alliance and by a non-aggression pact -- inside your own alliance no longer, once he has slept for more than a week; a rudderless captain is fair game even across pacts. That a pact protects while your own alliance does not has its reason: a pact is a promise to a foreign alliance, and its whole worth lies in the partner group being safe -- over a comrade in your own ranks the alliance itself keeps watch.

The same holds the other way round for you: if you lose an inhabited island to an opponent yourself, your running waiting period ends at once -- the battle report tells you so. Only if you are in a feud and lose the island to your feud opponent does it remain; there the feud's own reckoning applies. A loss usually does not change the price of your next colony ship: it is measured by the ships you have ever built or by your island count -- whichever is larger.

Constructing additional colonization shipyards becomes more costly with every colony you already own or have built. The materials are the same, but coordinating shipbuilders across many islands demands more effort. The price of the ship itself also grows with every colony ship you have already built: at some point the shipyard asks for more gold than your warehouse can even hold -- what stops you then is not your production, but the room in your stores. That is why the warehouse can be expanded up to level 40; each of those levels is expensive and slow, but it keeps the way to further islands open.

Newly charted oceans stand under the Admiralty's special protection. For the first two weeks after an ocean is opened, colonization from foreign waters is not permitted -- local governors may expand freely. Attacks and trade remain unaffected. The grace period lets new oceans form their own neighborhood before established empires intervene from outside.