Freecol Documentation User Guide For Version V0.9.0

FreeCol Documentation
User Guide for Version v0.9.0
The FreeCol Team
August 8, 2010
2
Contents
1 Introduction 7
1.1 About FreeCol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 The Original Colonization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Liberty and Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Installation 11
2.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.1 FreeCol on OSX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 Compiling FreeCol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 Interface 13
3.1 Starting the game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.1 Command line options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.2 Game setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1.3 Game options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2 Client options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2.1 Display Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2.2 Message Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2.3 Audio Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2.4 Savegame Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.5 Warehouse Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.6 Keyboard Accelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.7 Other Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3 The main screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3.1 The Menubar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.2 The Info Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.3 The Minimap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3.4 The Unit Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3
4 CONTENTS
3.3.5 The Compass Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3.3.6 The Main Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 The Europe Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.5 The Colony panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.5.1 The Warehouse Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.5.2 The Build Queue Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4 The New World 39

4.1 Terrain Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 Goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2.1 Trade Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.3 Special Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.4 Native Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.5 Lost City Rumours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.6 Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5 Colonies 47
5.1 Picking a suitable site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.1.1 The colony tile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.1.2 The adjacent tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5.1.3 No Reforestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5.1.4 Government Eciency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5.2 Colony Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.3 Using Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.4 Building Units and Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6 Your Home Country 55

6.1 Your Home Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.2 Your Monarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7 Units 59
7.1 Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.2 Skills and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.3 Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.3.1 Combat Bonuses and Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8 The Continental Congress 69

CONTENTS 5
9 The Birth of a Nation 73

9.1 Sons of Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
9.2 The Treaty of Utrecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
9.3 The Declaration of Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
10 Known bugs 75
11 Copyright Notice 77
6 CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Introduction
Welcome to FreeCol! If you're interested in development of this program,

please see the FreeCol web site. This is a draft version of the user's guide.
You can nd the latest version at the FreeCol homepage.
1.1 About FreeCol
The FreeCol team aims to create an Open Source version of Colonization

(released under the GPL). At rst we'll try to make an exact clone of Colo-
nization. The visuals will be brought up to date with more recent standards
but will remain clean, simple and functional. Certain new 'features' will be
implemented but the gameplay and the rules will be exactly the same as
the original game. Examples of modern features are: an isometric map and
multiplayer support.
This clone will be developed incrementally and result in FreeCol 1.0.0

which will be an almost exact Colonization clone. Incremental devel-
opment basically means that we'll add features one at a time. This allows us
to have a running program at all times and also to release an unnished but
working game once in a while.
Once FreeCol 1.0.0 is nished we'll start working towards FreeCol 2.0.0.
FreeCol 2 will go beyond the original Colonization and will have many
new features, it will be an implementation of our (and our users') image of
what Colonization 2 would have been.
7
8 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.2 The Original Colonization
The original Colonization was released in 1994 by Microprose. Coloniza-

tion is heavily based on Civilization which some consider to be the best
turn-based strategy game for the PC in the history of mankind.
In Civilization the object of the game was to build a nation that could
stand the test of time and that could also do one of the following: conquer
the world or be the rst to launch a spaceship. In Colonization things are
bit dierent...
A Colonization game starts in 1492 and the object of the game is to
colonize America. You begin the game with one vessel and two colonists.
As in Civilization you need to build a powerful nation, but fortunately in
the early part of the game you'll be able to send ships back to Europe
in order to sell the goods you've produced or to bring back some colonists.
Getting colonists into the new world is a very important aspect of
the game as one game turn takes one year and later on even one season and
as a result colonies don't grow as rapidly as they do in Civilization. You can
pay colonists to come to the new world or you can show o with the religious
freedom of your people in which case they will hop on your vessels for no
money at all.
Another important aspect is trade: the source of all income (apart
from Inca and Aztec gold). In a land lled with precious resources it is
important to build your colonies at the right location and to place
craftsmen where they belong. This is not only to have an income but also to
be able to live o the land when you can no longer count on the support
of Europe.
Through all this you'll have to decide whether or not you want to live
next to the native americans peacefully. They can teach your colonists
new skills that cannot be tought anywhere else and they will oer you goods
in case you choose to treat them as your friends. On the other hand, their
villages can be attacked and their valuable goods can be taken from them
and sold in Europe.
Other European forces are also busy occupying their piece of
the new world. Should their borders go too far then take over some of
their colonies by force because they wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing
to you.
declare your independence and sur-
The object of Colonization is to
vive an attack of the King's forces. Before declaring your independence
1.3. LIBERTY AND IMMIGRATION 9
you need to have the majority of the people behind you. This can be
done by promoting free speech and by providing a strong governmental
system.
1.3 Liberty and Immigration
Liberty and Immigration are two very important aspects of the game. The
more liberty you accumulate, the more your colonists will support your
policies. In time, they will work harder, thus gaining a production bonus,
and will support independence from the home country. Since you can not
secede from your home country before at least half of the population supports
independence, and since popular support has a large inuence on your nal
score, the accumulation of liberty must clearly be a priority.
Liberty points are also required to elect new members to the Continental
Congress. Each of these founding fathers can increase your abilities in a
dierent way.
Nor should you neglect Immigration, since immigrants from Europe are
likely to be your main source of skilled and unskilled labour early in the
game. As your colonies become more and more self-sucient and you build
great universities to teach even the most demanding professions, immigrants
from Europe become less important. But since the number of colonists is
one of the most important factors contributing to your nal score, you might
wish to attract further immigrants even in the late stages of the game.
In the original game, liberty points were virtually identical to Liberty
Bells, and immigration points were indistinguishable from Crosses. In the
classic rule set and the default rule set, one Liberty Bell produces exactly
one liberty point, and one Cross produces exactly one immigration point.
However, new rule sets can change this ratio, or even introduce new types
of goods that also produce liberty or immigration points. For example, you
could introduce gold as a new type of goods that produces a large number
of immigration points (say ve immigration points per unit of gold) in order
to simulate gold rushes.
10 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2
Installation
You can download a system independent installer, which should install FreeCol
and set up the required shortcuts on your desktop. If everything works as
planned, you will only need to double click the icon in order to start the
game. If this is not the case, then please read the following paragraphs.
2.1 System Requirements
FreeCol is written in Java. In order to run, it requires a Java Virtual Machine.

In theory, FreeCol should run on any platform on which a Java Virtual Ma-
chine compatible with Sun Java 5 or higher is available. In practice, however,
things are less clear cut.
FreeCol is known to work with Sun's Java 5 and 6. FreeCol also works
with OpenJDK, although some problems and graphics glitches remain. FreeCol
is known to run on recent versions of Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. If
you are using Linux, using Java 6 is recommended, as its font rendering is
much better. If you are using FreeCol on a dierent platform, we would like
to hear about it.
FreeCol requires at least 128 MB memory and works best with a screen
resolution of at least 1024x768 pixels. It should also be possible to play the
game with a screen resolution of 1024x600 pixels, although some panels will
look a bit cramped. You can play the game with an even smaller screen, but
we do not support that, and some things might not work.
11
12 CHAPTER 2. INSTALLATION
2.1.1 FreeCol on OSX

Some users report that they can not start FreeCol on their 64-bit Intel Macs.
It seems that these Macs use a 32-bit version of Java 1.5 by default. In
order to solve this problem, you can either edit the le "Info.plist" within
the application package to select 1.6+, or you can change the default Java
version under "/Applications/Utilities/Java/Java Preferences". Just drag
"1.5 64-bit" or "1.6 64-bit" to the top of the list and FreeCol should run
without any changes in "Info.plist".
FreeCol uses context menus in several places. On most platforms, context
menus are opened with a click of the right mouse button. If you have only
one mouse button, holding down the control key while clicking the mouse
button should also work. Some versions of Java on Windows are unable to
display context menus that extend beyond the game window correctly. As
we are unable to x that, we display the context menu in the top left corner
of the game window in these cases.
2.2 Compiling FreeCol
In order to compile FreeCol you will need Java and the Ant build sys-
tem. When these are installed, go to the root directory of FreeCol and
typeant to build a JAR le containing the game. This process requires the
native2ascii task, which is an optional ant task. Some Linux distributions
place optional tasks in a dierent package, so make sure you have installed
all necessary packages if you are a Linux user. The game is started using the
command java -Xmx128M -jar FreeCol.jar.
If something goes wrong, please open a bug report at the SourceForge
page of FreeCol. Use the command ant -projecthelp to nd out about
other kinds of things you can build (this manual, for example). Note that
you will require additional software to build the manual, however.
Chapter 3
Interface
This section will provide information about various interface elements, as

well as the keyboard shortcuts and the dierent actions that can be used in
the game.
3.1 Starting the game
If you installed FreeCol with the system independent installer, or the Win-
dows installer, there should be a shortcut on your desktop. Double click the
icon in order to start the game. If that does not work, or if you prefer using
the command line, then please read the following paragraphs.
3.1.1 Command line options

If you are in the directory in which FreeCol is installed, you can start the
game with the command java -Xmx128M -jar FreeCol.jar. This will tell
the Virtual Machine to load the game and to set the maximum heap size to
128 MB. Refer to the manual of your Java Virtual Machine for details.
There are many other Java options, but you probably won't need to
change the default settings. FreeCol is developed in English, but it includes
translations into several other languages, some of which are not very com-
plete, however. Java will automatically select the translation for your locale,
if available, and English otherwise. If you should wish to select a dierent
language, or if language selection fails, you can choose a dierent language
from the preferences menu.
13
14 CHAPTER 3. INTERFACE
FreeCol also provides several application-specic command line options:
• --freecol-data DIR Specify the directory that contains FreeCol's data

les. In general, you will only need to use this if you have installed a
modied copy of FreeCol's data les.
• --windowed[[=]WIDTHxHEIGHT] Run FreeCol in windowed mode in-

stead of full screen mode and set the window width and height. You
will need this if your window manager or Java Virtual Machine do not
(correctly support) FreeCol's full screen mode. If you use Linux and
Java 5, for example, you should set the window width to the width of
your screen, but probably set the window height slightly lower than the
height of your screen, in order to leave space for the menu bar, dock
etc.
• --load-savegame SAVEGAME_FILE Load the given savegame. This is

particularly useful in combination with the client option show savegame
settings.
• --no-intro Skip the introductory video.
• --no-sound Run FreeCol without sound. Note that the game does not
yet contain any music, so the only sounds you will hear will be special
eects.
• --usage Display the help screen.
• --version Display the version number.
• --server PORT Start a stand-alone server on the specied port. If you

don't know what that means, you will not need the option.
• --server-help Display a help screen for the more advanced server

options.
There are several other options that you will probably only be interested
in if you are a developer:
• --no-java-check Skip the java version check.
• --no-memory-check Skip the memory check.

3.1. STARTING THE GAME 15
• --log-level LEVEL Set the java log level.
• --debug Start the game in debugging mode.
3.1.2 Game setup

If you start FreeCol without command line options, the game will rst open
a dialog that allows you to start a new game, to open a saved game, to open
the map editor, to set various options, and to quit.
If you decide to start a new game, you will be presented with another
dialog, which enables you to start a single-player game, to retrieve a list of
servers from meta.freecol.org, to join a multi-player game, or to start
a new multi-player game.
If you start a new game, you must also decide whether to use xed or
selectable national advantages, or no national advantages at all. In the orig-
inal game, national advantages were always xed. The Dutch, for example,
always had a trading advantage.
The next screen allows you to select which European and native nations
will be present in the game, which colour will be used to represent them,
and whether they will be played by humans or computer players. At the
moment, human players can only select a European nation. In future, that
might change. If you chose selectable national advantages, then you can also
change the national advantage of the nation you are playing.
The original game only included four European nations, namely the Dutch,
English, French and Spanish. FreeCol includes eight, mainly in order to sup-
port large multi-player games, but also in order to include the Portuguese,
who were sadly absent from the original game. By default, however, only the
original four European nations are selected.
The table headers for the Nation and Advantage columns are buttons
that will take you to the relevant sections of the Colopedia. Also see the
chapter on your Home Country for further information on the national ad-
vantages of various European nations.
If you choose to retrieve a list of running games from the metaserver, your
computer will attempt to establish a connection to meta.freecol.org, port
3540. You will be presented with a list of games, from which you can select
one to connect to. Please note that the list will frequently be empty, since
not that many public multi-player games are being run.
If you wish to join a multi-player game, you must enter the IP address
of a server that is running a FreeCol game as well as the port it is running
on. The default port is 3541. If you join a multi-player game, you can also
choose a nation and colour, but another players might already have selected
your preferred nation.
If you wish to start a multi-player game, then the IP address of the
server will be that of your computer, but you must still select a port to
run the server on. Again, the default port is 3541. You must also decide
whether you want to run a public server or a private server. By default, you
start a private game, which means that the game will not be available on
the metaserver. Furthermore, you must decide on the number of European
players (see above), and whether to use national advantages. A multi-player
game may be more balanced if you do not use them, so that all players start
with the same units and abilities.
FreeCol is a client-server game. The game server takes care of the game
logic, and the client provides the graphical user interface. One or several
clients can connect to the game server via the network. In the case of a
single-player game, all other players are handled by the game server. At the
moment, however, your client uses a network connection even if the server is
running on the same computer.
This means that you can only run FreeCol if you have the necessary
privileges to bind an unprivileged port. If you use a personal rewall that
blocks the port you wish to use, you will need to congure your rewall
accordingly. If you wish to retrieve a list of games from the metaserver, you
also need to congure your rewall to permit connections to that server, port
3540. In order to connect to a server, your client also needs to bind a port.
Which port depends on the operating system you use.
If you are running a public game server, then your rewall must also
permit the clients to connect to the port of the game server.
3.1.3 Game options

The map generator options allow you to import a map, and to set several
parameters that inuence the size and terrain of a randomly generated map.
FreeCol includes several hand-made maps, which can be selected by clicking
on the map icon.
To import a map, either select one of the maps in the shortcut panel,
enter the name of a le in the import eld, or click on the browser button in
3.1. STARTING THE GAME 17
order to select a le via a le browser. You have the choice to import terrain,
bonuses, rumors and settlements. At the moment, the map editor does not
provide all these options, however.
The map generator tab allows you to select the size of the map, as well
as the amount and the general shape of the land on the map. The terrain
generator tab allows you to select the number of rivers, mountains, lost city
rumors, native settlements, forests, and bonus tiles on the map, as well as
the humidity and temperature of the map. The latter settings will inuence
the terrain.
The game options proper allow you to select several parameters that
inuence game play, such as non-standard rules, victory conditions and the
diculty of the game. The initial values tab allows you to set the amount of
gold available to the players at the start of the game. This is zero by default.
The map tab allows you to select whether to use the Fog of War, whether
to hide enemy units in settlements and carriers, and whether to award explo-
ration points for regions discovered by the players. By default, exploration
points are only awarded for the discovery of the Pacic Ocean.
The colony tab allows you to enable custom houses to ignore boycotts.
This means that custom houses will be able to export boycotted goods. This
does not apply to carriers, however, and does not prevent further boycotts
by the Crown. This feature of the original game is considered a bug by the
FreeCol team and is therefore disabled by default.
You can also allow experts to have connections, which means that
experts working in factory-level buildings will be able to produce a small
amount of goods even if the necessary raw materials are not generally avail-
able. This alleged feature of the original game is also disabled by default.
Finally, you have the choice to save production overow, which means that
new buildings, for example, will not use up all available hammers, but only
the exact number required. The remaining hammers will remain available
for the next building project.
The victory conditions tab allows you to choose among three possible
victory conditions. The game will be won by the rst player to achieve
independence, the player to eliminate all other European players, or the
player to eliminate all other human players.
Finally, the diculty tab enables you to select a diculty level between
very easy and very hard. The diculty level inuences various prices and
probabilites in the game, such as amount of gold required to buy Indian land,
and the probability of converting natives.
3.2 Client options
The client options panel allows you to customize how your client displays the
game objects and how it handles some tasks such as auto-saving.
3.2.1 Display Options

• The language to use. Some languages are spoken in more than one
country. In this case, you might also be able to select a specic country.
If the translation you choose is not complete, the missing strings will be
taken from another language le. This could be the default translation
for your language or the English language version. If you selected
Austrian German, for example, missing strings would be taken from
the default German translation if available, and the English language
version otherwise.
• The minimum number of goods to display with a counter. If you accept

the default setting of seven, for example, six hammers will be displayed
without a number, and seven hammers will be displayed with the num-
ber 7 on top. Note that some panels only show a single item with a
number next to it or below it anyway.
• The maximum number of goods to display. If you accept the default

setting of seven, then no more than seven items will be displayed, even
if the corresponding counter tells you that these seven items represent
a far larger amount.
• Whether to center on the selected tile automatically.
• Whether to center on the active unit always.
• Whether to display the Fog of War, which enables you to see which
tiles are currently visible to your units..
• Whether to scroll the map when dragging with the mouse.
• Whether to display the compass rose in the top right hand corner of
the map. The compass rose enables you to direct your units with the
mouse as well as the keypad. This is particularly useful if you play
with a small keyboard, such as a laptop keyboard, which does not have
a keypad.
3.2. CLIENT OPTIONS 19
• Whether to display the map controls, which include the minimap, the
info panel and the unit buttons.
• Whether to display the map grid.
• Whether to display tile names, owners, regions or none of the above.
• Whether to sort your colonies by name, age, position, size or Sons of

Liberty membership. Since name, age and position are unique, these
keys impose a total order, whereas size and Sons of Liberty membership
do not. In the case of size, the Sons of Liberty membership is used as
a secondary key, and vice versa.
• How to animate the movements of your own units.
• How to animate the movements of enemy units.
• How to display the minimap:
Whether to attempt smooth rendering.
Which background color to use.
Which zoom level to use as default.
3.2.2 Message Options

You can choose whether to group messages by type, by source, or not at all.
The source of the message is a game object, typically a colony or unit, and
the type of the message is either the default type, which is always displayed,
or one of the following types, which can be turned o:
• Warning messages. These are important and should generally not be

turned o.
• Messages about the Sons of Liberty membership in your colonies.
• Messages about the eciency of the government in your colonies. The

eciency of the government inuences the production of all types of
goods.
• Messages about the number of goods in your colonies' warehouses.

• Messages about units improving through experience, education or pro-

motion after a battle won.
• Messages about units being demoted after a battle lost.
• Messages about new units, such as colonists born in your colonies.
• Messages about units lost in battle, missing in action or dead of star-

vation.
• Messages about the completion of buildings in your colonies.
• Foreign diplomatic messages about the declaration of wars and signing

of peace treaties.
• Messages about the prices of goods in Europe changing.
• Messages about reduced production due to missing goods.
• Warnings about the suitability of colony sites. These messages are

particularly useful for new players. Turn them on if you are unsure
where to establish your colonies.
• Messages about the factors that inuence combat. Turn them on to

learn more about things like the terrain bonus, the ambush bonus, or
the artillery in the open penalty.
• Tutorial messages. These are still a work in progress and thus rather
limited.
3.2.3 Audio Options

FreeCol comes with a limited selection of music and special sound eects.
The audio options enable you to select the output device, which you should
probably leave to be automatically detected, as well as the volume of the
music and special eects.
3.2. CLIENT OPTIONS 21
3.2.4 Savegame Options

• Whether to show savegame settings always, only when starting multi-
player games, or never. These settings include the name, address and
port of the game server you wish to connect to. If you only play single-
player games, you can choose the option never.
• After how many turns you want the client to create an auto-save le.
If you select 0, the client will never create auto-save les. If you select
1, the client will create an auto-save le every turn.
• How many generations of auto-save les you wish to retain.
3.2.5 Warehouse Options

• The number of goods to keep in your warehouse when exporting goods
automatically (which requires a custom house), or by means of a trade
route.
• The minimum number of goods in your warehouse. If you store goods

of a certain type in your warehouse and the level drops below this
number, you will be warned.
• The maximum number of goods in your warehouse. If you store goods

of a certain type in your warehouse and the level rises above this num-
ber, you will be warned.
3.2.6 Keyboard Accelerators

Many but not all of the actions available via the game menu or via orders
buttons are also available as keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts can be
congured.
3.2.7 Other Options

• Whether to load immigrants waiting in Europe onto your ships auto-
matically.
• Whether to end the turn automatically after all your units have been
moved.
3.3 The main screen
The gure 3.1 represents the main screen.
Figure 3.1: The main screen.
The main screen consists of up to six dierent areas: the menu bar at
the top, the minimap in the lower left corner, the info panel in the lower
right corner, the order buttons between the minimap and the info panel, the
compass rose in the top right corner, and the main map in the background.
The units, colonies, and so forth can be seen on the main map. They are also
represented as coloured dots on the minimap. The preferences menu allows
you to disable some of these controls if you wish to do so.
3.3. THE MAIN SCREEN 23
3.3.1 The Menubar

The menubar contains the Game, View, Orders, Report and Colopedia sub-
menus at the left hand of the screen, as well as a status area at the right
hand of the screen. The status area displays your score, the amount of gold
you possess, your current tax rate and the current turn.
The Game Menu allows you to:
• start a new game
• open a savegame
• save the current game
• change your preferences
• reconnect to the server
• chat with another player
• declare independence
• end your turn
• return to the main menu
• view high scores
• retire from the game
• quit the game entirely
The View Menu allows you to:
• turn the map controls (minimap and info panel) on or o
• turn the map grid on or o
• turn borders on or o
• switch between the unit view and the terrain view
• switch between full-screen mode and windowed mode

• display tile names, owners, regions or none of the above
• change the zoom level of the main map
• switch to the Europe panel
• display trade routes
• center the map on a known settlement
The Orders Menu enables you to give orders to the currently selected
unit:
• switch to sentry mode
• fortify
• go to a destination you select
• go to a tile you select
• execute goto orders
• assign trade route
• build or join a colony
• plow the tile the unit is on (requires 20 tools)
• build a road on the tile the unit is on (requires 20 tools)
• load a carrier if possible
• unload all goods and units on board if possible
• wait until other units have moved
• skip this turn
• switch to a dierent unit on the same tile
• clear current orders
• change the unit's name

• disband the unit
Note that not all orders are available at all times. The build colony order
is only available if the unit is able to build colonies and the tile it is on will
support a colony, for example. The unload order is only available if the unit
is carrying goods. You can unload the goods anywhere, but if you are not
in Europe or in a colony, the goods will be lost. You can use this feature to
dump unwanted cargo in order to avoid the cargo penalty.
The Reports Menu provides access to various reports on the current state
of your colonies. In these reports, icons as well as text strings of a greyish-
brown colour link to the places they refer to. If you click on the name of a
colony, for example, the Colony Panel will be opened.
• The Religious Advisor tells you how many crosses your colonies pro-
duce, and how many crosses are required in order to recruit the next
emigrant in Europe.
• The Labour Advisor tells you which types of colonists have emigrated
to the New World or are waiting in Europe. If you can not remember
where you sent your only Expert Ore Miner, for example, you can use
this report to locate him.
• The Colony Advisor tells you which units are present in each of your
colonies, what each colony is producing, which buildings have already
been built, and which building is currently being built.
• The Foreign Aairs Advisor tells you about your relations with for-
eign powers, the number of colonies and units they possess, as well as
their relative naval and military strength, and the amount of gold they
possess. As soon as Jan de Witt has joined the Continental Congress,
you are also informed about the number of Founding Fathers, the cur-
rent tax and the current Sons of Liberty membership of your opponents.
• The Indian Advisor tells you about your relations with the various
Indian nations, and the number of settlements they possess.
• The Continental Congress Advisor tells you which Founding Fa-

thers are already present in the Continental Congress and which Found-
ing Father is currently being elected.
• The Military Advisor informs you of the deployment of your military

units, as well as the strength of the Royal Expeditionary Force.
• The Naval Advisor informs you of the whereabouts of your naval

units, as well as the strength of the Royal Expeditionary Force.
• The Trade Advisor details the current market prices of all goods, the
prots before and after taxes you have made, as well as the amount of
goods present in each of your colonies. Colonies that have already built
the Custom House are highlighted, as are all goods that are currently
being automatically exported from these colonies.
• The Turn Report presents a summary of various events that have

occurred during the current turn. If no such events have occurred, the
Turn Report will not open.
• The Requirements Report gives an account of how well certain re-

quirements of your colonies are met. It tells you which colonies require
expert units and where these units can be obtained or trained, for ex-
ample. It also tells you which colonies require raw materials in order to
increase their production of manufactured goods, and which colonies
produce a surplus of these materials.
• The Exploration Report provides some information about the re-

gions you have discovered and named. If you did not select the explo-
ration option, then the report will only show you when you discovered
the Pacic Ocean, provided you did discover it.
• The History Report contains a short overview of important events

that took place during the game, such as the rst meeting with na-
tive tribes, the foundation and abandonment of colonies, among other
things.
• The Production Report provides you with an overview of the pro-

duction of up to four dierent kinds of goods in your colonies, as well
as the buildings that produce these goods.
The Colopedia Menu provides access to the online game help, which is
divided into eight sections:
• The terrain section contains information on all the dierent types of

terrain you may encounter in the New World.
• The unit section provides details on various types of units, your own
as well native units and units of the Royal Expeditionary Force.
• The goods section gives on overview of all the types of goods in the
game.
• The building section provides information on the various constructions

you may build in your colonies.
• The Founding Father section can be used to look up information on the

various Founding Fathers you may elect to the Continental Congress.
• The nations section tells you which nations are available in the game,
which national advantage they currently have, and which one they have
by default.
• The national advantages section tells you which national advantages

are available. Some advantages only apply to European players, others
only to native players.
3.3.2 The Info Panel

If you are in unit view mode (the default), the info panel in the lower right
corner of the screen either shows information about the currently selected
unit, or contains a button to end the current turn if no unit is selected. If a
unit is selected, then the info panel shows an image of the unit, as well as its
name and the moves it has left. If the unit is a carrier unit, such as a ship
or wagon train, the info panel also shows the units or goods on board of the
carrier. If the unit is a pioneer, the info panel shows the number of tools the
unit carries.
If a unit is displayed, you can click on the info panel in order to centre
the map on this unit.
If you are in terrain view mode, then the info panel displays the name,
owner, defense bonus, movement cost and potential production of the selected
tile. You can switch between view modes by pressing Shift-Ctrl-V, or by
using the view menu.
3.3.3 The Minimap

The minimap in the lower left corner of the screen shows you a more ab-
stract view of the map than the main map. Dierent types of terrain are
distinguished by colour, and units and settlements are also represented by
dots in the colour of the nation that owns them. You can use the minimap
to navigate around the map quickly. Either click on the minimap to center
the view on a certain point, or drag the white frame around. Zoom buttons
to the left and to the right of the minimap allow you to zoom into and out
of the view.
3.3.4 The Unit Buttons

The unit buttons displayed between the minimap and the info panel allow
you to give order to your units. Note that not all buttons are always active.
A ship can not plow a tile, for example, so the plow button is never active if
the selected unit is a ship. The eight buttons have the following functions:
• wait
• skip turn
• fortify
• clear forest / plow tile (requires 20 tools)
• build road (requires 20 tools)
• build colony
• disband unit
All these actions are also available from the Orders Menu of the menu
bar, and as keyboard shortcuts.
3.3.5 The Compass Rose

The compass rose can be displayed in the top right corner and allows you to
give your units movement orders by clicking on the corresponding direction.
It is primarily intended for users who do not wish to (or are unable to) use
the keyboard shortcuts.
3.3.6 The Main Map

The main map shows you the New World in greater detail. You can see
the dierent types of terrain, forested and otherwise, hills, mountains, rivers,
and, of course, the various units and settlements of the native and European
players. Left click on a tile in order to center the main map, or on a unit
in order to select it (a display option allows you to decide whether the map
should always centre on the selected unit, or not).
Your colonies as well as those of your opponents are displayed on the
map. You can see their names as well as their sizes, which are displayed as
a number and also inuence the image used to represent them. The color of
the colony's name is always the color of its owner, but the color of the colony
size indicates whether any production bonuses or penalties apply (at normal
diculty):
Colour Bonus/Penalty Requirements

Red -2 more than eight tories
Orange -1 four to seven tories
White 0 less than four tories and less than 50% SoL
Green +1 50% SoL or more
Blue +2 100% SoL
Left click on a colony in order to open the colony panel. If there is an

active unit outside of the colony on the same tile, then a single left click will
select the unit instead. In this case, a double click will still open the colony
panel.
Right clicking on an empty tile, will either display some information on
that tile if no unit is selected, or open a pop-up menu that additionally allows
you to send the selected unit to this tile. If the tile contains some of your
units, the menu will also enable you to select each of these units. If the tile
contains a native settlement, the menu will also provide you with an item
that will bring up some information on that settlement. If the tile contains
one of your own colonies, the menu will also allow you to open the colony
panel.
You can also activate the map scroll by moving the cursor towards the
edges of the main map. Scrolling with the minimap is faster, however.
If a unit is selected, further information about that unit is displayed in
the info panel, and you can move the unit using the numeric keypad or the
compass rose. If you select a unit with the left mouse button and drag
the mouse, the main map will display the best path from the unit's current
position to the tile the mouse is hovering over.
The tiles the path consists of will be marked with boots if the unit is
on foot, with horseshoes if the unit is mounted, with wheels if the unit is a
wagon train, or with sextants if the unit is a naval unit. Full-colour symbols
mark tiles that can be reached in the same turn, whereas shaded symbols
mark tiles that can be reached only in subsequent turns. A number indicates
how many turns later the unit will arrive on this tile. You can see this on
the main screen.
Once you release the mouse button, the selected unit will begin to follow
this path. It will awake once it has arrived at its destination or if it can no
longer follow the path (if a unit belonging to a dierent player is in the way,
for instance). You can also press the middle mouse button, or both mouse
buttons if your mouse only has two buttons, in order to give the selected unit
a movement order.
In the original Colonization game, a unit always used up all movement
points when entering a colony. In FreeCol, this is not the case a unit can
enter a colony just like any other tile. If the unit is placed in a building, or
on a colony tile, or if a carrier is loaded or unloaded, however, it will lose all
its movement points.
Units are marked with small coloured shields, which may or may not
display a letter. The background colour indicates the nation this unit belongs
to. The Dutch units, for example, are usually marked with orange shields.
The letter indicates the current state of the unit:
• -: the unit is active (no orders).
• F: the unit is fortied.
• G: the unit is going somewhere.
• P: the unit is plowing a tile.
• R: the unit is building a road.

• S: the unit is a sentry (waiting for transport).
• T: the unit is following a trade route.
• W: the unit is waiting for orders (skipped).
• 0: the unit has no moves left.
• #: the unit's state is unknown (some enemy units).
If the unit is a foreign naval unit, the shield will display a number instead.
This is the number of holds this unit is using.
Indian Settlements display at least two shields: The colour of the rst
shield indicates the nation this settlement belongs to. A ∗ on this shield
indicates that this settlement is the nation's capital, a − that it is not. The
second shield, which bears an exclamation mark (!) if you have visited the
settlement, and a question mark (?) if you have not, indicates the current
relations between the nation and your colonists. Its background may be
green, blue, yellow, orange or red, depending on whether your relations are
good, mediocre or bad.
A Settlement with a European mission displays a third shield bearing
a cross on a black or grey background. The colour of the cross indicates
the European nation that established the mission. The background of the
shield is black if the mission was established by a Jesuit Missionary, and grey
otherwise.
The order buttons represent some of the orders you can give to your units.
You can move your mouse over the buttons to see their respective orders. If
a unit is unable to perform a certain action, the corresponding order button
will be disabled. The orders are also available from the Orders Menu, and
you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:
• a: assign a trade route.
• b: build a colony, or join an existing colony.
• c: center on the currently selected unit.
• d: disband the active unit.
• e: show the Europe panel.

• f: fortify.
• g: go to some destination tile.
• h: go to a settlement (or Europe if a ship).
• l: load (ll up all holds already in use).
• n: rename the unit.
• o: execute goto orders immediately.
• p: plow the current tile (requires 20 tools).
• r: build a road on the current tile (requires 20 tools).
• s: be a sentry (wait for something to happen).
• t: show trade routes.
• u: unload or dump cargo.
• w: wait for another unit to move.
• z: clear orders.
• tab: switch to next unit on tile, or to colony screen.
• space: skip for this turn.
• enter: end the turn.
• plus or equals: zoom in.
• minus or underscore: zoom out.
• ctrl-d: display tile names.
• ctrl-f: nd a colony.
• ctrl-g: display grid.
• ctrl-m: show/hide the map controls.
• ctrl-n: new game.

3.4. THE EUROPE PANEL 33
• ctrl-o: open a game.
• ctrl-q: quit the game.
• ctrl-r: reconnect.
• ctrl-s: save a game.
• ctrl-t: show the chat panel.
You can customize these settings in the preferences dialog.
3.4 The Europe Panel
The gure 3.2 represents the Europe panel.
Figure 3.2: The Europe Panel
In this panel, you can control the ships sailing between America and Eu-
rope, as well as the ships currently docked in Europe. You can also buy goods,
recruit, purchase and train units. Units recruited, purchased or trained are
visible in the Docks Area in the Europe panel.
If a ship has set sail for Europe or America, you can change its direction
by dragging it from the Going to America box to the Going to Europe box
(or vice versa).
If a ship has docked at the European port you can drag and drop units
between the Docks and Cargo panel. You drag and drop goods between the
Cargo panel and the Market panel. If you want to buy or sell less than
100 units of goods, press the shift key while dragging. This will allow you
to specify how many units you wish to transfer. If you press the Unload
button, all goods will be unloaded.
If any of the goods are displayed in grey, this means they are being boy-
cotted by the Crown because you refused a tax raise. You must pay your tax
arrears before you can trade these goods. You can do this by dragging the
goods as usual, in which case you will be given the chance to pay your tax
arrears (provided you have enough money). A small area at the top right of
the screen will keep track of how much money you made or spent and how
much taxes you paid.
From time to time, new colonists eager to join you in the New World
will appear on the European Docks. If you are unwilling to wait, you can
also recruit new colonists by paying for their journey to the New World.
Alternatively, you can train expert units at the Royal University. Paying
for their education is expensive, however, and not all types of experts are
available in Europe.
Units present in Europe can also be armed, mounted, equipped with tools
or blessed as missionaries in Europe. In order to select one of these actions,
you need to right click on the unit. Note that you will have to pay for the
arms, horses or tools required to equip your units. Blessing a missionary,
however, is free.
In order to send a ship back to the New World, you must drag it to the
Going to America section of the Europe panel, or press the Set sail button.
3.5 The Colony panel
The gure 3.3 represents the Colony panel.

To view a colony's panel, left click on it from the main screen. In this
panel, colonists can be assigned to cultivate tiles surrounding the colony, to
work in buildings, defend the colony against attackers or wait outside of the
colony.
3.5. THE COLONY PANEL 35
Figure 3.3: The Colony Panel
The select box at the top left of the panel displaying the name of the
colony can be used to select a dierent colony. Next to the colony's name,
the production panel, shows all the goods your colony is producing.
Below colony name, you can see the area surrounding the colony to the
left and a scroll pane displaying the buildings of the colony to the right.
You can drag and drop a unit on a tile or a building. The tiles surrounding
the colony can produce several kinds of goods, however. If the unit is not
producing the right kind of goods, you can right click on the unit to select
a dierent kind of work. If a tile has a red border, then it can not be used
it is either assigned to another colony or settlement, or is occupied by a
hostile unit, or is a water tile which can not be used until you have built
docks. Note that if you drag a unit onto a tile used by the natives you may
be oered the chance to purchase the land.
Below the surrounding area, you can see the population panel, which
displays the size of your colony, the number and percentage of colonists that
support independence, the number and percentage of colonists that support
the crown, as well as the current production bonus.
Below the status panel, the port panel shows you any ships or wagon
trains in the colony. If there is at least one unit present, the cargo panel
below the port panel shows you the cargo of the selected carrier (if any).
On the right hand side of the panel, you can see the buildings panel, which
displays an image for every building in the colony, as well as the building or
unit currently being built. You can see the units working in a building, as
well as its production. If you let the mouse hover over a building, you can
see a slightly larger and more detailed view. You can click on any building
in order to open the build queue dialog, which enables you to create a list of
units and buildings to build.
Below the buildings panel, the outside colony panel shows you which
colonists are present on the same tile, but are not working inside the colony.
Any units shown here are able to defend the colony against attacks.
Below this panels, you can see the colony's warehouse area. You can
drag and drop goods from the warehouse to the cargo panel and vice versa
in order to load and unload your ships or wagon trains. Press the shift key
while selecting goods if you do not wish to select all the goods present, or
less than one hundred units.
The Warehouse can only hold a certain amount of goods of each type. Its
initial capacity is limited to 100 units of each type of goods, but it can be
increased to 300 by building two Warehouse Expansions. If the current limit
of the warehouse is exceeded, the number of goods is printed in red. If you
do not store the excess units elsewhere, they will be lost at the end of the
turn.
If you have already built a Custom House in the colony, you can export
goods to Europe automatically. Goods marked to be exported are printed
in green. Open the warehouse dialog (see below) in order to change export
settings.
At the bottom of the Colony Screen, you will see a row of buttons, not
all of which are always active. From left to right, these buttons will allow
you to
• Unload the active ship or wagon train
• Fill up all partially lled holds of the active ship or wagon train
• Open the warehouse dialog in order to change the export and warning
levels for all types of goods (see below)
3.5. THE COLONY PANEL 37
• Close the dialog
You can drag and drop colonists to and from buildings, tiles surrounding
the colony, ships and the area outside of the colony. You can also use the
right click menu of any unit to assign it to a work place, equip it, or place it
outside of the colony (unless it already is outside of the colony).
3.5.1 The Warehouse Dialog

The warehouse dialog allows you to set the warning levels for all types of
goods. If you have turned on the warnings about goods levels, you will
receive a warning if the number of goods drops below the lower level or rises
above the higher level. In a warehouse with a capacity of 100 units of each
type of goods, the lower level is set to 10 and the higher level is set to 90 by
default.
The export level allows you to specify how many goods should be kept in
reserve if goods are automatically exported from this colony, either through
the Custom House, or by a carrier following a Trade Route. A checkbox
indicates whether this type of goods should be exported through the Custom
House or not. If you have not yet built a Custom House in this colony, the
checkbox is disabled.
3.5.2 The Build Queue Panel

Clicking on a building (not one of the units working in the building) opens
the build queue panel, which allows you to select which items the colony
should build. The panel consists of three sub-panels, the unit panel on the
left, the buildings panel on the right and the build queue in the centre. You
can drag and drop items from the unit panel and the buildings panel to the
build queue and back. You can also double-click an item in the unit panel
or the building panel to add it to the build queue, and you can double-click
an item in the build queue to remove it. Right-click an item to see its entry
in the Colopedia.
The panel contains a checkbox that switches between the compact view,
which shows only the names of the buildable items, and the icon view, which
also shows the goods required to build each item. Another checkbox allows
you to see items that the colony can not build at this time because it lacks
the necessary population, or because some other requirement has not yet
been met. You can also add these items, which are marked with a small lock
icon, to the build queue, but not as the head of the queue.
The buy building button allows you to buy the building at the top of
the build queue, provided that you have enough gold.
Chapter 4
The New World
At the beginning of the game, you will start with a naval vessel and two
colonists. Your rst task will be to discover the New World, which should
lie due West, although sailing North West or South West may prove quicker.
As soon as you have discovered land, you can establish your colonies and
produce goods to send home to Europe.
4.1 Terrain Types
There are many dierent types of terrain in the New World, each with its
own peculiar advantages. At the beginning of the game you will probably
arrive at a High Seas tile (or at the edge of the map). High Seas tiles (and
the map edge) allow you to sail between Europe and the New World. As you
approach land, the High Seas will be replaced by Ocean tiles, which produce
Fish.
In the New World, you will also discover Plains, which produce a great
deal of Grain, a lesser amount of Cotton, and some Ore; Grassland, on
which Grain and Tobacco can be cultivated; Prairie, which are suitable
Savannah, which produces Grain and Sugar;
for growing Grain and Cotton;
Marsh, where Grain can be cultivated and some Ore can be mined; Swamp,
which yields some Grain, and small amounts of Sugar, Tobacco and Ore;
Desert, which produce some Food, Cotton and Ore; as well as Tundra,
where Grain can be grown, and some Ore can be mined.
Large parts of the New World are covered in forests, all of which yield
varying amounts of Grain, Lumber and Furs. The Boreal Forest also pro-
39
40 CHAPTER 4. THE NEW WORLD
duces Ore, the Mixed Forest Cotton, the Conifer Forest Tobacco, the
Tropical Forest Sugar, the Rain Forest produces small amounts of Ore,
Sugar and Tobacco, the Wetland Forest and the Scrub Forest yield some
Ore, and the Broadleaf Forest Cotton.
The Hills produce a small amount of Grain, and can be mined for Ore and
a lesser amount of Silver. The Mountains are unsuitable for agriculture, but
yield some Ore and Silver. Arctic tiles are the least useful type of terrain,
as they produce nothing at all. Terrain types that produce no Grain, such
as the Mountains and Arctic types, can not support colonies.
Clearing or plowing a tile, and building a road require spending 20 tools.
Therefore, these actions can only be carried out by units carrying at least 20
tools. You can equip your units in your colonies or in Europe.
4.2 Goods
The New World produces many goods, which can be traded in Europe. In
order to this, you must use your ships to transport them to your Home Port.
As soon as the ship arrives in Europe, you can sell the goods, and buy others,
in the Europe Panel. Later in the game, after you have built Custom Houses,
goods can be exported automatically. Until then, you can partially automate
this process by establishing Trade Routes.
Exporting these goods to Europe will be one of your most important
sources of income. At the beginning of the game, you will probably want to
export raw materials, such as Sugar and Tobacco, but as prices drop, you
should concentrate on luxury products, such as Rum and Cigars, which
command higher prices.
Food is the single most important good, since all your colonists consume
two units of food each turn. If this demand can not be met, some of your
colonists will starve to death. On the other hand, a colony that has accu-
mulated 200 units of food will produce a new Free Colonist. Unfortunately,
buying food in Europe is always expensive, and colonial foodstus fetch only
poor prices.
Food comes in two varieties, Grain, which can be cultivated on nearly
all land tiles, and Fish, which is produced by ocean and lake tiles. In order
to harvest the bounty of the sea, you will need a Dock, however.
Breeding new Horses also requires food, but the horses you already have
are content to eat grass and consume no more of your precious food. In order
4.2. GOODS 41
to breed horses, you need at least two horses in your colony (for obvious
reasons). Breeding horses does not require Stables, but Stables do speed
things up.
Four raw materials are typical for the New World. They will initially
generate a good income, but prices will inevitably drop. These goods are
Sugar, which is best cultivated on Savannah tiles, Tobacco, best cultivated
on Grassland, Cotton, which is most abundant on Prairie tiles, and Furs,
which are available on all forested tiles, but most abundantly on Boreal Forest
and Mixed Forest tiles.
These four materials can be used to produce corresponding luxury goods,
which will fetch much higher prices in Europe. In a distillery, Rum is pro-
duced from Sugar. Tobacco is used to make Cigars in the Tobacconist's
House. The Weaver weaves Cloth from Cotton in his house, and the Fur
Trader turns Furs into Coats in his house.
Initially, the resource which fetches the highest prices in Europe is Silver,
which can be mined in Hills and Mountains. As prices drop, Silver will
become less and less useful, however. On the other hand, Hills and Mountains
also produce Ore, which is not in great demand in Europe, but which can
be rened to produce Tools in the Blacksmith's House. Tools are required
for clearing forests and plowing elds, as well as for constructing advanced
buildings and units. Furthermore, Muskets can be produced from Tools in
the Armory.
Lumber also fetches poor prices in Europe, but can be used to produce
Hammers in the Carpenter's House. Hammers are required for construct-
ing all buildings, as well as naval units and Wagon Trains. Hammers are
abstract goods that can neither be transported nor traded. They represent
the work required to nish a building rather than some tangible material.
The two other abstract goods are Liberty Bells, which are produced
in the Town Hall, and Crosses, which are generated by the Church. They
represent the concepts of liberty and of religious freedom. Liberty Bells
produce liberty points, which are needed to convince your colonists of your
policies, and to elect Founding Fathers to the Continental Congress. Crosses
generate immigration points, which are needed to attract further immigrants
in Europe.
Trade Goods, on the other hand, can be transported and traded, but
they can not be produced in your colonies. They are only available in Europe
and are useful for trading with native settlements, which generally demand
Trade Goods.
4.2.1 Trade Routes

The orders menu allows you to assign a Trade Route to a ship or wagon train.
If you select this order, the trade route dialog, which enables you to select a
trade route or create a new trade route, will open. If you have not created a
trade route, you must use the edit trade route dialog to do so rst.
A trade route consists of two or more stops, which may either be the
Home Port, or one of your colonies. Select a destination from the select box
and press the add new stop button. If you select the special destination all
colonies, then your Home Port and all your colonies will be added to the
list of stops.
If you have selected a destination, you can drag and drop goods from the
goods panel to the cargo panel. These are the goods your ship or wagon
train should have on board when leaving this stop. If the ship or wagon train
arrives at the destination with other goods on board, these goods will be
unloaded.
Note that the ships and wagon trains will take the capacity and settings
of the warehouses in your colonies into account. They will not unload cargo
that would be wasted and they will only load goods that should not be kept
in reserve. This means that they may wait for a long time until a sucient
number of goods becomes available.
As soon as a ship or wagon train reaches the last destination of the trade
route, it will continue at the rst destination.
4.3 Special Resources
Some types of terrain can also have special resources, which increase the
production of a particular type of goods. These resources look just like the
goods they will produce. These tiles are particularly valuable.
4.4 Native Settlements
The New World is by no means an uninhabited country. Various tribes of

Indians already live there, and make use of the land. When your colonists
arrive, you will have to decide whether you will attempt to peacefully coexist
with the natives, or to wipe them out. The French player has the advantage
of generating only half the alarm among the natives. The Spanish player has
4.4. NATIVE SETTLEMENTS 43
the advantage of greater military eciency against the natives. Your choice
of Home Country may inuence your strategy or vice versa.
Small Native Settlements use the tile they are built on as well as all
adjacent tiles, just like your Colonies do. Large Native Settlements also use
tiles that are two moves away. Your colonists can not use tiles that are
already used by natives. If they attempt to do so, the natives will demand
some gold for the land. You must then decide whether to pay their price,
take the land away from the by force, or to leave the land alone. Naturally,
the natives will not be pleased if you take the land away from them. As soon
as Peter Minuit has joined the Continental Congress, however, the natives no
longer demand payment for their land nor become immediately displeased if
it is taken.
Colonies and armed units near their settlements will alarm the natives
and poison your relations. If the natives are happy, they will come to your
colonies oering gifts. If they are unhappy, they will come and make demands
instead. If they get really angry, they may attack your units or colonies. After
a few turns, however, they will usually calm down again.
Some types of units may enter Native Settlements. Units that carry
goods, such as Wagon Trains and Ships, can enter the settlements and trade
with them. Trade always improves your relations with the natives. If you
oer your goods as a gift, this will improve your relations even more.
Scouts can either ask to speak with the chief of the tribe, or demand
tribute, which is obviously not good for your relations with the natives. If
your scout speaks with the chief, you will learn which skill this settlement
teaches and which goods the natives would prefer to acquire. Furthermore,
the chief may oer you some gold, or tell you about nearby lands. If your
Scout is not a Seasoned Scout already, he may become so.
Free Colonists and Indentured Servants may enter a settlement in order
to learn the skills of the natives.
Missionaries, which may be either Jesuit Missionaries or ordinary colonists
blessed as missionaries in the Home Port or any colony with a Church, are
able to establish a Mission or to incite the natives against another European
nation. If a Jesuit Missionary, or an ordinary colonist blessed as a missionary
is equipped with tools, muskets or horses, he loses his missionary status and
is no longer able to establish a mission.
The presence of a Mission will reduce tension between the natives and
your colonists. In time, some of the natives may also convert and join your
colonies as Indian Converts. If the settlement already contains the mission
of another European country, your missionary may denounce the teachings

of that mission as a heresy. If he is successful, the natives will burn down
the old mission and your missionary establishes a new one.
Note that the missionary will always remain in the settlement. He is
eectively lost to you.
4.5 Lost City Rumours
In the New World, there are also rumours about Lost Cities, such as El
Dorado, or Cíbola. The natives do not explore these sites, but your colonists
can and, in fact, must do so if they enter a tile with a Lost City Rumour. It
is not possible to farm a tile with a Lost City Rumour on it.
Mostly, the rumour proves to be nothing but a rumour. Occasionally,
you might disturb the burial grounds of a native tribe, which will cause the
tribe to declare war on you. It is also possible that your expedition simply
vanishes without a trace.
On the other hand, you might also discover a small tribe and a few trin-
kets. Your colonist might become a Seasoned Scout if he has no other skill,
you might discover the sole survivor of a lost colony, or even one of the Seven
Cities of Gold, and a Treasure Train.
Possibly the best outcome is the discovery of the Fountain of Youth,
which will cause numerous colonists to appear on the docks in your Home
Port.
As soon as Hernando de Soto has joined the Continental Congress, Lost
City Rumours always yield positive results.
4.6 Exploration
The original Colonization game awarded exploration points only for the dis-
covery of the Pacic Ocean. This is also the default behaviour for FreeCol.
However, you may choose to play with exploration points, in which case you
will be awarded exploration points for the discovery of a new region of the
New World.
A region may be either a large area of land, a mountain range, or a river
valley. If you discover a region, you will be asked to name it, and you will be
awarded a number of exploration points depending on the size of the region
4.6. EXPLORATION 45
discovered.
Chapter 5
Colonies
5.1 Picking a suitable site
Your colonies are your most important assets in the new world. Therefore, it
is very important to build them in the right place. There are several aspects
to consider:
5.1.1 The colony tile

Some terrain types are more suitable for establishing a colony than others.
Colonies can not be built on Arctic tiles, nor on Mountains, because these
terrain types produce no Grain. Hills and Deserts are less suitable than other
tiles because they produce less food, which is very important in the long run.
Tiles with forest generally produce less food than tiles without, but Pioneers
are able to cut down the forest and plow the tile, which will increase food
production. The presence of a river will also increase food production.
The Hills produce a small amount of Grain, and can be mined for Ore
and a lesser amount of Silver. The Mountains are unsuitable for agriculture,
but yield some Ore and Silver. Arctic tiles are the least useful type of terrain,
as they produce nothing at all. Terrain types that produce no Grain, such
as the Mountains and Arctic types, can not support colonies.
The New World is also irrigated by minor and major rivers. The produc-
tion of most types of Goods is increased by the presence of rivers and roads,
which your Pioneers can build. All terrain types which produce Grain (ex-
cept the Hills) can also be cleared or plowed by your Pioneers. In the case of
open land, plowing increases the production of Grain and most other types
47
48 CHAPTER 5. COLONIES
of goods. In the case of forests, clearing removes the forest and transforms
the tile into open land: Boreal Forest is transformed into Tundra, Mixed
Forest into Plains, Conifer Forest into Grassland, Tropical Forest into Savan-
nah, Wetland Forest into Marsh, Rain Forest into Swamp, Scrub Forest into
Desert, and Broadleaf Forest into Prairie.
5.1.2 The adjacent tiles

In the early stages of the game, you will need to generate cash by selling
products from the New World in your Home Port. Thus, many of your
early colonies should probably be situated next to bonus tiles, which greatly
increase production. Rivers also increase production, though not as much as
a bonus resource. On the other hand, they increase the production of many
dierent kinds of goods, unlike a bonus resource.
In order to improve your colony, you will have to construct various build-
ings. This will require large amounts of lumber. For this reason, you should
make sure that at least one tile adjacent to your colony site can produce
sucient amounts of lumber. You will also need tools to construct advanced
buildings. Therefore, it is an advantage if the colony can also produce ore,
which can be rened to produce tools. However, ore is not as important as
lumber.
Some of the tiles may be owned by other European powers, or claimed
by Indians. Building a colony too close to other settlements is not a good
idea, unless you plan to conquer or destroy these settlements. Keeping your
own colonies close together is a good strategy, however, as long as you avoid
sharing tiles between several colonies as far as possible.
5.1.3 No Reforestation
You can order your pioneers to cut down forests by plowing a tile. This will
increase the food produced on these tiles, and the lumber will be delivered to
your colonies. However, you can not plant new forests later. Once cleared, a
tile will never produce lumber again.
5.1.4 Government Eciency

The eciency of the local governments of your colonies depends on the
colonists' support for the Sons of Liberty. If more than 50% of the colonists
5.2. COLONY BUILDINGS 49
support the Sons of Liberty, they all produce one additional unit of goods,
and if support for the Sons of Liberty increases to 100 %, they even produce
two additional units.
On the other hand, if the number of Tories exceeds a certain number
which depends on the diculty of the game (4 colonists by default), their
production decreases by one unit, and if it exceeds this limit by four colonists,
their production is decreased by two units. This waste may well destroy your
colony and should be avoided at all costs.
In order to prevent this kind of mismanagement, you need to increase the
support for the Sons of Liberty. You can do this by producing Freedom Bells
in the Town Hall.
5.2 Colony Buildings
A newly established colony already includes several buildings, namely a town

hall, a carpenter's house, a blacksmith's house, a tobacconist's house, a
weaver's house, a distiller's house, a fur trader's house, and a warehouse.
You can improve your colonies by upgrading all of these buildings except
the town hall, and by constructing various new buildings. However, many
buildings can only be constructed in colonies of a certain size, or after certain
Founding Fathers have joined the Continental Congress.
The craftsmen's houses can be upgraded to workshops, which produce
more manufactured goods. After Adam Smith has joined the Continental
Congress, workshops can be upgraded to factories, which produce one and a
half units of manufactured goods from each unit of raw material. While the
town hall itself can not be upgraded, the production of Liberty Bells can be
boosted by constructing a printing press and then a newspaper.
The following buildings are all present in every newly established colony:
• The Town Hall, which can not be upgraded, provides workplaces for
up to three colonists producing Liberty Bells. Its eect can be in-
creased by building a Printing Press and a Newspaper.
• The Carpenter's House, which can be upgraded to a Lumber Mill

once the colony's population reaches 3, is used to convert Lumber to
Hammers. Hammers are required to construct or upgrade all kinds of
buildings.
• TheBlacksmith's House, which can be upgraded to a Blacksmith's

Workshop, is used to convert Ore to Tools. Tools are required to con-
struct certain kinds of buildings and to upgrade all kinds of buildings.
Tools are also used by Pioneers and to produce Muskets. Once the pop-
ulation of the colony has reached 8, the Blacksmith's Workshop can be
replaced by Iron Works, provided that Adam Smith has joined the
Continental Congress.
• The Tobacconist's House, which can be upgraded to a Tobacconist's

Shop, is used to produce Cigars from Tobacco. Once the colony's pop-
ulation has reached 8, it can be further upgraded to a Cigar Factory,
provided that Adam Smith has joined the Continental Congress.
• The Weaver's House, which can be upgraded to a Weaver's Shop,

is used to turn Cotton into Cloth. It can be upgraded to a Textile
Mill as soon as the population of the colony is at least 8 and Adam
Smith has joined the Continental Congress.
• The Distiller's House, which can be upgraded to a Rum Distillery,

is used to produce Rum from Sugar. Once Adam Smith has joined the
Continental Congress and the colony's population is at least 8, the rum
distillery can be replaced by a Rum Factory.
• The Fur Trader's House, which can be upgraded to a Fur Trader's
Post, is used to produce Coats from Furs. Once the colony's population
has reached 6, it can be further upgraded to a Fur Factory, provided
that Adam Smith has joined the Continental Congress.
• The Depot stores all kinds of goods. Its initial capacity is 100 units
Warehouse with a
of each kind of goods, but it can be upgraded to a
capacity of 200 units and to a Warehouse Expansion, which holds
300 units. No colonists work in the warehouse buildings.
• The Chapel is a small religious building which produces only a single

Cross and does not require a preacher. It can be upgraded to a Church
as soon as the population has reached 3 and to a Cathedral as soon
as the population reaches 8. Both the Church and the Cathedral may
house up to three preachers. The religious freedom of the New World
(symbolized by Crosses) causes increased emigration from Europe.
5.2. COLONY BUILDINGS 51
• The Pasture surrounding your colony is used to breed horses. It can

be upgraded to Stables, which potentially double the production of
Horses. Neither the Pasture nor the Stables need colonists to operate.
The following eight buildings are not part of your basic colony and have
to be constructed later:
• A colony with a population of at least 4 may build a Schoolhouse,

which enables some master craftsman to teach an unskilled colonist
their trade. As soon as the population reaches 8, it can be upgraded to
a College, in which additional trades can be taught by two colonists.
Once the population reaches 10, the college can be replaced by a
University, at which all trades can be taught by three colonists. See
Skills and Education for details.
• The Armory is used to produce Muskets from Tools. As soon as the

population reaches 8, the armory can be upgraded to a Magazine
and then to an Arsenal, provided that Adam Smith has joined the
Continental Congress.
• The Stockade, which can be constructed as soon as the colony's pop-

ulation reaches 3, protects the colonists from attacks. In the original
game, a colony with a stockade could not be abandoned, it can only
be burned to the ground by natives. This rule is considered a mis-
feature by many players and is not part of FreeCol's default rule set.
The stockade can be upgraded to a Fort, which provides better protec-
tion and bombards Privateers and enemy naval units on adjacent ocean
tiles. The fort can be replaced by a Fortress as soon as the population
reaches 8.
• The Dock allow colonists to produce Fish on ocean tiles adjacent to

the colony. As soon as the population is at least 4, it can be up-
graded to a Drydock, which allows the colony to repair damaged ships.
When the colony's population reaches 8, it can be further upgraded to
a Shipyard, which enables the colony to build new ships.
• The Printing Press, which can be upgraded to a Newspaper as
soon as the population reaches 4, increases the colony's production of
Liberty Bells.
• The Custom House, which can be built as soon as Peter Stuyvesant

has joined the Continental Congress, allows the colony to export goods
to Europe directly without the help of ships. According to our default
rules (but not the classic rules), the Custom House can even export
boycotted goods provided that Jan de Witt has joined the Continental
Congress and that you are at peace with at least one other European
nation. Furthermore, there is a game option that allows custom houses
to ignore Boycotts in general (see ignoring boycotts).
5.3 Using Buildings
Some buildings have an immediate eect. The Stockade, for example, pro-
vides protection for your colony, and the Docks enable your colonists to go
shing. The eects of these buildings can not be increased by workers. In the
building box at the top right of the colony panel, these buildings are shown
in parentheses, like this: (Stockade).
Most buildings do nothing if they are unoccupied, but provide workers
with a place to produce manufactured goods. The Tobacconist's House, for
example, allows colonists to make Cigars from Tobacco. Place one or more
colonists in a building in order to convert raw materials to manufactured
goods, which can be sold for higher prices. For each building, there are
expert units that work more eectively than Free Colonists. Other units
may work less eectively.
5.4 Building Units and Buildings
In order to upgrade buildings, and to construct new buildings and certain

kinds of units, such as Artillery and ships, you will need to produce Hammers,
which represent work being done. Hammers are made from Lumber, so you
need to produce lumber, either by cutting down forests, or by placing a
colonist on a forested tile next to your colony and ordering him to work as a
lumberjack (right click on the unit to give it orders). Then you can place a
colonist in the Carpenter's House in order to convert the lumber to Hammers.
Units and advanced buildings also require Tools, which are made from
Ore. So you need to place an ore miner on a tile that produces ore (Hills,
for example) and another in the Blacksmith's House, in order to convert the
5.4. BUILDING UNITS AND BUILDINGS 53
ore into tools.

Chapter 6
Your Home Country
Your Home Country is a European monarchy and colonial power. The orig-
inal game featured four playable nations, namely Spain, France, England
and the Netherlands. FreeCol optionally adds Portugal, Denmark, Sweden
and Russia.
Virtually all players agree that the addition of Portugal corrects a glaring
omission of the original game, but the other three European nations are
controversial. Sweden, Denmark and Russia all had colonies or territories
in the Americas, but were either minor colonial powers or arrived very late.
However, as we wished to make multi-player games with up to eight human
players possible, we had to add further nations. We might well change the
selection at some later date, and you can change the selection by editing the
rules yourself.
Each of these countries may have special abilities and dierent starting
units. In the original game, these abilities and units were tied to particular
nations. FreeCol, however, optionally allows you to select your national
advantage.
At the moment, FreeCol denes the following six advantages, and also
allows you to select no advantage at all:
• No advantage: You start with two Free Colonists and a Caravel, and
no special abilities. This is mainly intended for multi-player games, as
it removes a potential imbalance between players.
• The trade advantage: You can buy and sell twice as many goods in
Europe before prices change. You start with two Free Colonists and a
Merchantman.
55
56 CHAPTER 6. YOUR HOME COUNTRY
• The cooperation advantage: You generate only half as much native

alarm as the other European nations. You start with a Free Colonist,
a Hardy Pioneer and a Caravel.
• The immigration advantage: You need to generate only two thirds as

many crosses as the other European nations in order to attract new
immigrants. You start with two Free Colonists and a Caravel.
• The conquest advantage: You capture twice as much treasure and twice
as many converts when destroying native settlements. You start with
a Free Colonist, a Veteran Soldier and a Caravel.
• The naval advantage: All your ships can move one tile further than
those of other European nations. You start with two Free Colonists
and a Merchantman.
• The building advantage: Your lumberjacks produce two units of lumber

and your carpenters produce two hammers more than those of other
European nations. You start with an Expert Lumberjack, a Master
Carpenter and a Caravel.
• The agriculture advantage: Your farmers produce two units of food

more than those of other European nations. You start with an Expert
Farmer, a Free Colonist and a Caravel.
• The fur trapping advantage: Your fur trappes produce two units of
fur and your fur traders produce two coats more than those of other
European nations. You start with an Expert Fur Trapper, a Master
Fur Trader and a Caravel.
In the original game, the Dutch had the trade advantage, the French
had the cooperation advantage, the English had the immigration advantage
and the Spanish had the conquest advantage. In FreeCol, this is also the
default, although you can optionally select dierent advantages. By default,
the Portuguese have the naval advantage, the Swedish have the building
advantage, the Danish have the agriculture advantage and the Russians have
the fur trapping advantage. This is likely to change in the future, however.
6.1. YOUR HOME PORT 57
6.1 Your Home Port
The Home Port is a port city in your home country, where you can trade
Goods, and train, recruit and buy Units. If you have not built a Drydock in
any of your colonies, your damaged ships will also return to the Home Port
for repairs.
As you generate Crosses in your colonies, colonists will appear at the
docks of the Home Port. Unless William Brewster has joined the Continental
Congress, many of these colonists will be Indentured Servants and Petty
Criminals. Once William Brewster has been elected, these units will no
longer appear at the docks, and you will be able to select the next colonist
to emigrate from the recruitment list.
The recruitment list is a list of three colonists who are thinking about
emigrating to the New World, but have not yet reached a decision. You can
recruit them by oering gold as an incentive. At the beginning of the game,
this is a good way of increasing the population of your colonies. However,
the amount of gold required will greatly increase during the game.
If you have enough gold, you can also train colonists at the Royal Academy.
In exchange for the education you provide, they will also emigrate to the New
World. Not all types of colonists can be trained at the Royal Academy, how-
ever.
Ships and Artillery can also be purchased in the Home Port. You can
also build these units in your colonies, as soon as you have built a Shipyard
and an Armory, respectively.
For further information about the actions available in your Home Port,
please refer to the section on the europe panel.
6.2 Your Monarch
Your Home Country is ruled by a Monarch whose actions can have a pro-
found inuence on your colonies and your relations to other nations present
in the New World.
From time to time, the Monarch may decide to raise the Taxes you
pay on all goods you sell in the Home Port. You may refuse to accept these
taxes, however, in which case your colonists will stage a protest similar to the
Boston Tea Party and throw some goods into the harbour. The Monarch
will not be amused and will boycott this type of goods. This means that
58 CHAPTER 6. YOUR HOME COUNTRY
you will no longer be able to trade these goods in the Home Port until the
Boycott is lifted.
You can end a Boycott by paying the outstanding tax arrears. As soon
as Jacob Fugger II joins the Continental Congress, all Boycotts will be lifted,
but the Monarch may declare further Boycotts later on. As soon as Peter
Stuyvesant joins the Continental Congress, you will be able to build Custom
Houses in your colonies. The original Colonization game contained a bug
which made the Custom House ignore all Boycotts, and this behaviour is
available as a rule variant (see ignoring boycotts).
Naturally, the Monarch does not trust your colonists, some of which are
nothing but Petty Criminals, and some of which even support the infamous
Sons of Liberty. For this reason, the crown maintains the Royal Expedi-
tionary Force, which is to put an end to insurrections in the New World.
From time to time the Monarch may inform you that further units have been
added to the Royal Expeditionary Force, just so that you don't get any ideas.
The Monarch may also declare war on any nation present in the New
World, both European and native. This will also aect your relations with
this nation, unless Benjamin Franklin has already been elected to the Conti-
nental Congress. In this case, the Monarch's wars do not aect you anymore.
If you are already at war with some nation, either due to the Monarch's
actions, or your own, the crown may oer you some cheap Mercenaries. If
you agree to their price, these units will appear at the docks in your Home
Port, ready to set sail for the New World.
Chapter 7
Units
Several dozen dierent units are available in FreeCol, but not all units are
available to all players. Some units are available only to Indian Players,
some units are only available toEuropean Players, and other units are
available only to the Royal Expeditionary Force.
The most basic unit of the European Players (including you) is the Free
Colonist. The Free Colonist is quite good at any task, but has no special
skills. At the beginning of the game, many of the colonists will not be vol-
unteers, but Indentured Servant, or Petty Criminal, who are deported
to the New World. Indentured Servants are pretty bad at all jobs within
the colony, but just like Free Colonists, they can be sent to native villages
to learn a skill from the natives. Petty Criminals are very bad at all jobs
within the colony and can not learn anything from the natives. However,
both Indentured Servants and Petty Criminals can become Free Colonists
through Education.
Many early colonies failed due to a lack of food. In order to avoid a similar
fate, you must ensure adequate food production from the very beginning. All
your colonists can produce some amount of food, especially on the more fertile
terrain types, but the Expert Farmer and the Expert Fisherman will
greatly increase your food production. But note that the Expert Fisherman
requires a Dock to moor his boat to, and that this requires at least one ocean
tile adjacent to your colony.
Four types of units are not available in Europe because they posses
skills that can only be learned from the native population. These are the
Master Sugar Planter, the Master Cotton Planter, the Master To-
bacco Planter, and the Expert Fur Trapper. These units are able to
59
60 CHAPTER 7. UNITS
greatly increase your production of Sugar, Cotton, Tobacco, and Furs, re-
spectively.
In the beginning of the game, you will most likely export a great deal of
these goods to Europe, but beware, prices will drop! However, all the raw
materials of the New World can be used to produce luxury goods that will sell
for higher prices in Europe. Sugar can be used to distill Rum, Cotton can be
used to produce Cloth, Cigars are made from Tobacco, and Coats are made
from Furs. All your colonists can do this, but the Master Distiller, the
Master Weaver, the Master Tobacconist, and the Master Fur Trader
are the experts who will really rev up your production.
The New World also has two mineral resources, Ore and Silver, to oer.
Again, all your colonists are able to mine these resources to a certain extent,
but you will need the Expert Ore Miner and the Expert SilverMiner
to make the most of them.
Lumber can be produced in all forested tiles, and can also be exported
to Europe, although prices are low. However, you will need vast amounts of
lumber in order to upgrade your colonies, and no colonist is more skilled at
cutting down forests than the Expert LumberJack. Nor is any colonist
more skilled at turning the lumber into buildings than the Master Carpen-
ter.
The more advanced buildings you can construct in the your colonies re-
quire not only lumber but also Tools, which are produced from Ore. This
is the job theMaster Blacksmith excels in. Tools are also used by your
Pioneer to clear forests and plow elds, but none of your other colonists can
match the outdoors skills of your Hardy Pioneer. And nally, Tools are
required for the production of Muskets, a demanding task best left to the
Master Gunsmith.
All your units are able to explore the New World, but the colonist most
Scout, a mounted colonist. A Scout
suited to this dangerous endeavour is the
may become a Seasoned Scout through experience, either by visiting native
settlements, or by investigating Lost City Rumours. The Seasoned Scout is
much more skillful at these jobs, but beware, they are dangerous!
Another colonist able to visit native settlements is the Missionary. Any
colonist can be converted to a Missionary by blessing him in a colony with
a Church, or in the Home Port, which is sure to have several churches and
maybe even a Cathedral. Missionaries are able to establish a Mission in
the native settlement, and to convert the natives. The Jesuit Missionary,
however, is much more accomplished at the job.
61
The converted natives may join your colonies as Indian Convert. They
are unskilled at all jobs within the colony, but more skilled than your Free
Colonists at all outdoor jobs. Indian Converts can not be upgraded through
Education, but they become Free Colonists as soon as Bartolomé de las Casas
joins the Continental Congress.
Many colonists come to the New World in search of religious freedom.
Thus, they desire a Church in which to preach and pray. This religious
freedom, which attracts more European colonists, is represented by Crosses.
Naturally, some colonists are more eloquent and inspired than others, and
the most famous of these are known as Firebrand Preacher.
While the preachers are concerned with the spiritual welfare of the colonists,
the colonists concerned with the secular welfare of their fellow citizens meet
in the Town Hall, which generates Liberty Bells. The most dignied and
inuential of these citizens are considered Elder Statesman.
Any colonist can be equipped with Muskets, which makes him a Soldier,
or a Dragoon if he is mounted. However, combat-hardened Veteran Sol-
dier and Veteran Dragoon are much more eective. A dragoon that is
beaten in battle is downgraded to a soldier. A beaten soldier becomes an
unarmed colonist.
On the other hand, any soldier or dragoon that wins a battle may be
upgraded. A Petty Criminal will be upgraded to an Indentured Servant, an
Indentured Servant will be upgraded to a Free Colonist, and a Free Colonist to
a veteran unit. Veteran units may be further upgraded to Colonial Regular
or Colonial Cavalry, but only after the Declaration of Independence.
Artillery is most eective at attacking and defending colonies and for-
tied units, but is also very vulnerable in the open. Artillery may become
damaged, which decreases its eciency. Damaged Artillery is still quite
powerful, but it can not be repaired, and further damage will destroy it.
The Wagon Train, which has to be built in one of your colonies, can be
used to transport up to 200 units of goods over land and to trade with native
settlements, and foreign colonies if Jan de Witt has joined the Continental
Congress.
The Treasure Train is similar to the Wagon Train, but is used only to
transport treasures. You can nd these treasures in Lost Cities, or in the
ruins of native settlements you have destroyed. If you move your Treasure
Trains into a colony with access to the sea, your Monarch will oer to ship
it to Europe for a reasonable fee, unless Hernán Cortés has joined the
Continental Congress, in which case it will be shipped free of charge. If you
62 CHAPTER 7. UNITS
have a Galleon, however, you can take the Treasure Train to Europe yourself.
The Caravel, the Merchantman and the Galleon are unarmed naval
units, with two, four or six cargo holds, respectively. A cargo hold may
contain up to 100 units of goods, or any land unit except the Treasure Train,
which takes up six cargo holds all by itself, and the Wagon Train, which can
not be transported by sea at all.
The Privateer and the Frigate are armed naval vessel with two or four
cargo holds, respectively. The Privateer is unique in that it does not y
the ag of your country and can attack the vessels of other countries with
impunity. It becomes even more deadly when Francis Drake joins the Conti-
nental Congress.
The Man of War is the most powerful naval vessel, and has six cargo
holds. At the beginning of the game, only the Monarch has these powerful
ships, but when you gain independence you can also construct them in your
colonies.
The Monarch has two types of units that you can never command, how-
ever. These are the King's Regular and King's Cavalry, which are
roughly as powerful as your Colonial Regulars and Colonial Cavalry.
The natives also have two types of units that you can not recruit, namely
the Indian Brave and the Indian Dragoon. These are strong ghting
units that can also carry up to 100 units of goods each.
7.1 Equipment
Most units can be equipped with tools, horses, muskets, or a bible. Most
types of equipment are not compatible with each other, however. If you equip
a unit with tools, for example, then that unit will drop any other equipment
it is currently using. Equipment grants a unit certain abilities, which it does
not possess otherwise. Certain units are particularly skilled with a certain
type of equipment, but without it they have no special abilities:
• Only a unit equipped with tools is able to build roads, plow elds and
cut down forests. Even the Hardy Pioneer is unable to do so without
suitable equipment.
• Only a unit equipped with horses is able to scout Indian settlements

and foreign colonies. Even the Seasoned Scout can't do that without
being mounted.
7.2. SKILLS AND EDUCATION 63
• Only a unit equipped with muskets is a soldier. Veteran Soldiers are

more eective than other units when equipped with muskets, but with-
out muskets they have no advantage.
• Only a unit equipped with a bible is commissioned as a missionary and

able to establish a mission in an Indian settlement. Even the Jesuit
Missionary is unable to do so without a bible. If a Jesuit Missionary
is equipped with tools, muskets or horses, he loses his bible. If that
happens, the Jesuit Missionary carries his hat, rather than his bible, in
his hand.
Of course, units that do not represent people, such as ships, wagon trains
and treasure trains, can not be equipped. The Indian Convert is another
unit that can not be equipped.
You can equip a unit by selecting the appropriate menu item from the
context menu. If the equipment is produced from a single type of goods
you can also equip a unit by dragging a sucient amount of goods from a
warehouse, the European market, a ship or wagon train and dropping it onto
the unit while holding down the alt key.
7.2 Skills and Education
In FreeCol, your colonists come from all walks of life. Some are unskilled
Petty Criminals, who are deported to the colonies. Others are Indentured
Servants, or Free Colonists with moderate skills. Still others are masters of
their craft, experts at their trade or profession, who were educated at the
Royal College in Europe. If you have enough gold, you can recruit units
directly from the Royal College.
Not all skills, however, can be learned in Europe. Sugar, Cotton and
Tobacco, as well as Furs are apparently unknown in Europe. Thus, Master
Sugar Planters, Master Cotton Planters, Master Tobacco Planters, as well as
the Expert Fur Trappers, can not be recruited in Europe.
At the beginning of the game, these skills can only be learned at Indian
Settlements, or through experience. If you put a Free Colonist to work
outside of the colony for a long time without changing his work assignment,
he may learn the necessary skill and become an expert. This does not work
for the more complicated jobs within the colony, however.
64 CHAPTER 7. UNITS
The Schoolhouse and its upgrades, the College and the University, allow
you to train your units yourself by placing a skilled unit in one of these
buildings. If a suitable student exists in the colony it will automatically
appear next to the teacher in the building, as well as continuing to perform
its current task. Note that the Master Sugar Planter, the Master Cotton
Planter, the Master Tobacco Planter, the Master Fur Trader, the Master
Distiller, the Master Weaver, the Master Tobacconist, the Master Blacksmith
and the Master Gunsmith all require at least a College, while the Elder
Statesman, the Firebrand Preacher and the Jesuit Missionary even require a
University to teach their profession.
Usually, units need four turns to learn a profession taught in schoolhouse,

six turns to learn a profession taught in college, and eight turns to learn
a profession taught at university. However, the colony's production bonus
or penalty is subtracted from this value, so that units in colonies with a
production bonus learn faster, and units in colonies with a production penalty
require more time to learn.
A Free Colonist can learn any skill or profession in this manner, but
Petty Criminals and Indentured Servants can not. However, a Petty Criminal
may become an Indentured Servant, and an Indentured Servant may become
a Free Colonist through education. Any colonist placed in a schoolhouse,
college or university is able to provide this kind of education.
Petty Criminals may also become Indentured Servants, and Indentured

Servants may also become Free Colonists by winning a battle and being
promoted. Free Colonists can be promoted to Veteran Soldiers, and after the
Declaration of Independence, these may be promoted to Colonial Regulars.
Indian units are more productive than free colonists when working outside
of the colony, and less productive when working inside a building. Indian
units can not become free colonists through education, but all Indian units
become free colonists as soon as Bartolomé de las Casas joins the Continental
Congress.
Scouts can explore the New World and enter Indian Settlements in order
to speak with the tribal chiefs. A scout entering an Indian Settlement may
become a Seasoned Scout through experience. A colonist investigating a Lost
City Rumours may also be upgraded to a Seasoned Scout, unless that unit
already has another skill.
7.3. COMBAT 65
7.3 Combat
A tile can only be occupied by units of a single Player. If a unit of another

Player attempts to enter that tile, combat ensues. The combat mechanism
of FreeCol is very simple: Each unit has an attack strength and a defence
strength. Attack bonuses and defence bonuses granted by terrain, forti-
cations or Founding Fathers are added to the base values of the units. A
random element is then added to the calculations in order to determine the
winner of the battle. If a tile is occupied by more than one unit, the attacker
will ght against the defender with the strongest defence.
Most units that win a battle may be promoted, and all units that lose
a battle will always be captured, demoted, damaged or destroyed. A Petty
Criminal may be promoted to an Indentured Servant, and an Indentured Ser-
vant may be promoted to a Free Colonist. A Free Colonist may be promoted
to a Veteran Soldier, which in turn may be promoted to a Colonial Regular,
but only after the Declaration of Independence.
A Dragoon that loses a battle will be demoted to a Soldier, and a Soldier
that loses a battle will be demoted to an unarmed colonist. An unarmed
colonist that loses a battle is either captured, if the attacker is a European
Player, or slaughtered, if the attacker is a Native Player. Wagon Trains and
Treasure Trains may also be captured by a European Player and destroyed
by a Native Player. Native units that lose a battle are always slaughtered.
Naval units and Artillery can not be promoted. A beaten artillery unit
becomes a Damaged Artillery, which can not be repaired and will be de-
stroyed if it loses another battle. Ships are either sunk or damaged when
they lose a battle. In either case all units and cargo aboard the ship are lost,
and the ship automatically returns to the nearest repair location. This may
be one of your colonies with a Drydock or the Home Port.
The Frigate, the Man of War and the Privateer have the ability to capture
the goods aboard an enemy ship they have bested in battle. Naturally, they
can not take more cargo than their holds will allow.
Naval units can also attack colonies on coastal tiles, although their chance
of success is not very high. And colonies with a Fort or Fortress will auto-
matically re at enemy ships on adjacent ocean tiles.
7.3.1 Combat Bonuses and Penalties

Bonuses and penalties for naval units:
66 CHAPTER 7. UNITS
• Cargo Penalty: for each unit of cargo, both the oensive and the de-
fensive power of the unit are reduced by 12.5%.
• Piracy Bonus: after Francis Drake has joined the Continental Congress
(see below), both the oensive and the defensive power of all your
Privateers is increased by 50%.
Bonuses and penalties for land units:
• Armed Bonus: the oensive and defensive power of your units increases
by two if they are armed. Native units and the units of the Royal
Expeditionary Force are only granted half this bonus.
• Mounted Bonus: the oensive and defensive power of your units in-
creases by one if they are mounted.
• Veteran Bonus: the oensive and defensive power of veteran units is

increased by 50%.
• Attack Bonus: the oensive power of attacking units is increased by

50%.
• Movement Penalty: the oensive power of units with only two move-
ment points left is reduced by 33% and the oensive power of units
with only one movement point left is reduced by 66%.
• Ambush Bonus: the oensive power of native units is increased by the

defence bonus of the defender's tile. Your units are granted the same
bonus when attacking units of the Royal Expeditionary Force.
• Artillery Penalty: the oensive power of artillery attacking units not

in a colony is reduced by 75%. The defensive power of artillery not in
a colony is also reduced by 75%.
• Bombard Bonus: the oensive power of the units of the Royal Expedi-
tionary Force is increased by 50% when attacking a colony.
• Fortied Bonus: the defensive power of fortied units is increased by

50%.
7.3. COMBAT 67
• Stockade Bonus: the defensive power of units in a colony with a Stock-

ade, Fort or Fortress is increased by 100%, 150% and 200%, respec-
tively.
• Artillery Bonus: the defensive power of artillery in a colony defending

against an Indian raid is increased by 50%.
• Ambush Penalty: the defensive power of your units when defending

against Indians, and of the units of the Royal Expeditionary Force
when defending against your units is reduced by the defence bonus of
the defender's tile.
68 CHAPTER 7. UNITS
Chapter 8
The Continental Congress
As the player generates Liberty Bells, Founding Fathers are elected to the
Continental Congress. The Founding Fathers are historical gures who
played a more or less important part in the conquest of the New World. Each
Founding Father grants the player a new bonus or ability, or causes a certain
event to occur, much like the Wonders of the World in the Civilization
series. At the beginning of the game, you will need only a few Liberty Bells
to elect a Founding Father to the Continental Congress, but as the game
progresses this number may increase to many hundred Bells.
Adam Smith (17231790), better known as the Father of Modern Eco-
nomics, penned several texts pertaining to Economic theory, including, The
Wealth of Nations his most famous text. As soon as Adam Smith joins the
Continental Congress, the player is allowed to build factories, which produce
1.5 units of manufactured goods for each unit of raw material consumed.
Jacob Fugger II (14591525) was an extremely wealthy German mer-
chant and banker who amassed a fortune with family partnerships and stock
holdings in the mining industries. As soon as Jacob Fugger joins the Conti-
nental Congress, all Boycotts currently in eect are dropped.
Peter Minuit (15801638) bought what later became known as Man-
hattan Island from Native Americans for about 60 Dutch guilders. He later
colonized the Delware Bay area as well. As soon as Peter Minuit is elected to
the Continental Congress, the Indians no longer demand payment for their
land.
Peter Stuyvesant (15921672) was appointed Governor General of the
New Netherlands, which, after a British invasion he could not stop, became
New York. With the election of Peter Stuyvesant, the construction of custom
69
70 CHAPTER 8. THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
houses becomes possible.

Jan de Witt (16251672) was a great Dutch statesmen. He represented
the merchants and a encouraged industry and commerce. He also negotiated
several important treaties for the Dutch to end wars with England. As soon
as Jan de Witt is a member of the Continental Congress, trade with for-
eign colonies becomes possible. According to our default rules (but not the
classic rules), de Witt also enables custom houses to export boycotted good,
provided that you are at peace with at least one other European nation.
Ferdinand Magellan (14801521) was one of the greatest explorers to
navigate the globe. Magellan was rst to circumnavigate the globe and cross
the Pacic Ocean. Magellan's election to the Continental Congress increases
the movement of all naval vessels by one, and the time to sail between Europe
and the New World is reduced.
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (15101554) was the rst European
explorer to see the Grand Canyon. Though he never found the golden cities
he searched for, his mapping of the area now called the Southwestern US was
important to further exploration. As soon as Francisco de Coronado joins
the Continental Congress, all existing colonies become visible on the map.
Hernando de Soto (14961542) was the rst European to explore Florida
and the southeastern US. He also held a prominent role in conquests of Cen-
tral America. If Hernando de Soto is a member of the Continental Congress,
the exploration of Lost City Rumours always yields a positive result, and all
land units have an extended sight radius.
Henry Hudson (15651611) was an English navigator who explored and
mapped a large area of the northeastern North American continent. Many
waterways in that region are named in his honour. His original goal was
to nd the famed Northwest Passage. The election of Henry Hudson to the
Continental Congress doubles the output of all Fur Trappers.
Robert La Salle (16431687) was the rst European to travel the length
of the Mississippi river, while on a mission to set up numerous trading posts
along its banks. He later claimed the whole basin as Louisiana in honor of
the French King. Later, he explored several of the Great Lakes. If Robert La
Salle is a member of the Continental Congress, all colonies gain a stockade
as soon as their population reaches three colonists.
Hernán Cortés (14851547) was a famed Spanish conquistador who
overthrew the Aztec Empire and claimed Mexico for Spain. As soon as
Hernán Cortés joins the Continental Congress, conquered native settlements
always yield treasure (and in greater abundance) and the King's galleons
71
transport it free of charge.

George Washington (17321799) was the general who lead the colonial
army to victory over the British to gain independence for the colonies. This
victory and his leadership led to his being named the new nation's rst
President. If George Washington is a member of the Continental Congress,
any soldier or dragoon who wins a combat is automatically upgraded to the
next possible level.
Paul Revere (17341818) was the famed rider of colonial America who
mounted his horse and rode through the countryside alerting colonists that
British soldiers were coming. He was captured during the ride and later
released when his captors believed they were in grave danger and their pris-
oner might slow them down. With Paul Revere a member of the Continental
Congress, a colonist automatically takes up any stockpiled muskets and de-
fends an otherwise undefended colony if it is attacked.
Francis Drake (15421596) was a great English sea captain, the rst
Englishman to circumnavigate the globe and a hero in the ghts against the
Spanish Armada. The presence of Francis Drake in the Continental Congress
increases the combat strength of all Privateers by 50%.
John Paul Jones (17411792) was hailed as a great sea captain in Amer-
ica, and uttered the famous words "Sir, I have not yet begun to ght" while
ghting the British at sea. He later watched his ship sink to the bottom of
the ocean from the deck of a British vessel. As soon as John Paul Jones is
elected to the Continental Congress, a Frigate is added to your colonial navy
for free.
Thomas Jeerson (17431826), a powerful voice of patriotism, was
credited with writing the Declaration of Independence. He later became the
3rd President of the US. The election of Thomas Jeerson to the Continental
Congress increases Liberty Bell production in colonies by 50%.
Pocahontas (15951617) was a peacemaker between early Jamestown
settlers and the Native Americans. She is credited with sending food and
other supplies to starving colonists there during harsh times. She later con-
verted to Christianity and married an Englishman. When Pocahontas joins
the Continental Congress, all tension levels between you and natives are re-
moved and Indian alarm is generated half as fast.
Thomas Paine (17371809) inspired colonists with his pen at the urging
of Benjamin Franklin. He published a pamphlet, "Common Sense", guiding
the thoughts of patriots all over the colonies. The election of Thomas Paine
to the Continental Congress increases Liberty Bell production in all your
72 CHAPTER 8. THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
colonies by the value of the current tax rate.

Simón Bolívar (17831830) is remembered as a great leader in the strug-
gle for South American independence from Spain. Bolívar freed what is now
Venezuela and later became its rst President. When Simón Bolívar joins
the Continental Congress, the Sons of Liberty membership in all existing
colonies is increased by 20%.
Benjamin Franklin (17061790), a heavy contributor to the Declara-
tion of Independence, was one of the voices of the Revolution. He traveled
extensively between Europe and the colonies, and gained the support of the
French in the war. As soon as Benjamin Franklin is elected to the Continen-
tal Congress, the King's foreign wars no longer have eect on relationships
in the New World, and Europeans in the New World always oer peace in
negotiations.
William Brewster (15671644) was the Puritan leader of the Plymouth
colony in New England. As soon as William Brewster joins the Continental
Congress, criminals or indentured servants no longer appear on the docks
and you can select which immigrant in the recruitment pool to move to the
docks.
William Penn (16441718), a close friend of the Duke of York, was
granted the land that is mostly Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. He
governed the Quaker colony for several years to provide a haven to fellow
Quakers. The election of William Penn increases cross production in all
colonies by 50%.
Father Jean de Brébeuf (15931649) befriended the Huron Indians
and converted many to Christianity. He died at the hands of the Iroquois
who had nally defeated their enemy, the Hurons. With Jean de Brebeuf a
member of the Continental Congress, all missionaries function as experts.
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (17811872) was a Spanish theologian who
spoke out for the conquest of Indian lands and forced evangelization of the
natives. The election of Juan de Sepulveda to the Continental Congress
increases the chance that a subjugated Indian settlement will convert and
join a colony.
Bartolomé de las Casas (14741566) was a Catholic Priest who trav-
eled the Indies converting Indians and chastising Spain for their treatment of
the Natives. When Bartolomé de las Casas joins the Continental Congress,
all existing Indian converts become free colonists.
Chapter 9
The Birth of a Nation
9.1 Sons of Liberty
At the beginning of the game, all your colonists will be Tory Loyalists, who
support your Monarch and are opposed to your policies. For this reason,
colonies with more than a certain number of tories (which depends on the
diculty setting and defaults to four colonists) suer a production penalty
of one unit. If the limit is exceeded by four colonists, the penalty increases
to two units and may well threaten the survival of the colony.
Liberty Bells, however, will turn these Tories into Sons of Liberty, who
support your policies. Colonies in which more than 50% of the population
are Sons of Liberty enjoy a production bonus of one unit, which is increased
to two units as soon as 100% of the population become Sons of Liberty.
9.2 The Treaty of Utrecht
The colonies of European powers often changed hands as spoils of war. In the
Treaty of Utrecht , which concluded The War of Spanish Succession
, for example, the French ceded most of their North American possessions
to the English.
In the game, your Monarch may declare war on a foreign power, and if
Benjamin Franklin has not yet joined the Continental Congress, that war will
also spread to the New World. Furthermore, if the Treaty of Utrecht occurs
in the game, the weakest computer player will cede all its colonies and units
to the strongest computer player and withdraw from the New World.
73
74 CHAPTER 9. THE BIRTH OF A NATION
In the game, the War of Spanish Succession is triggered as soon as 50%

of a human player's population support the declaration of independence. If
there are less than two computer players still active in the New World at this
time, then the Treaty of Utrecht event can not occur.
9.3 The Declaration of Independence
As soon as 50% of your entire population support the Sons of Liberty, you can
declare the independence of your colonies. Your Monarch will not be amused
and will send the Royal Expeditionary Force to quell the insurrection. In
order to gain independence, you must defeat the Royal Expeditionary Force
by capturing or destroying nearly all of their land forces and by taking back
any colonies they might have captured. You do not need to destroy the eet.
At the declaration, colonies with strong support for the Sons of Liberty
sometimes promote veteran soldiers at work there to Colonial Regular in
preparation for the coming war. In the future, the European enemies of
your Monarch may support your eort if you generate a sucient number of
Liberty Bells after the War of Independence has begun.
If you continue to play after successfully defeating the Royal Expedi-
tionary Force, your new free nation will no longer be subject to the whims
of a monarch. Your Custom House will continue to operate, trading now
with all comers instead of just your former nation, and therefore the external
tax rate will be xed at zero, with no threat of boycotts. However, you will
no longer be able to sail to your former home port. Future versions may
implement sailing to all European ports.
Chapter 10
Known bugs
FreeCol is still alpha software. In plain English, this means that it is full
of bugs. Some of these bugs have already been reported, but have not been
xed yet. You can nd a list of these bugs, and report new bugs by using
our SourceForge bug tracker.
Even in single player mode, FreeCol is a client-server game. The commu-
nication between client and server can fall out of step. If this happens, the
server often tries to recover by requesting a reconnect. If this occurs, please
accept in order to continue playing. In some cases, the game may come to
a halt during the turn of a computer opponent. If this happens to you, you
can generally reconnect to the server by using the reconnect option in the
game menu or by pressing ctrl-r.
A reconnect is often an indication of a bug. If you report a reconnect prob-
lem, more detail is available in the java log le (usually called FreeCol.log)
which is very helpful to the developers if attached to the bug report. The
log le can sometimes be large enough to exceed the attachment limit at
SourceForge, in which case feel free to omit the bulk of the le the criti-
cal information is likely to be near the end (in the form of a java exception
message), but you should always retain the rst few lines which contain the
FreeCol version and system information.
75
76 CHAPTER 10. KNOWN BUGS
Chapter 11
Copyright Notice
Copyright
c 2008 The FreeCol Team.
This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any
warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or tness
for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more
details.
A copy of the GNU General Public License is available on the World Wide
Web at the GNU General Public Licence. You can also obtain it by writing
to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston,
MA 021111307, USA.
Furthermore, permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
le under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Furthermore, permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
le under the terms of the Creative Commons Attributive Share-Alike license
(CC-BY-SA).
77
Index
Adam Smith, 69 Fort, 51

Arctic, 40 Fortress, 51
Armory, 51 Fur Factory, 50
Arsenal, 51 Fur Trader's House, 50
Artillery, 61 Fur Trader's Post, 50
Iron Works, 50
Bartolomé de las Casas, 72
Magazine, 51
Benjamin Franklin, 72
Newspaper, 51
Blacksmith's House, 50
Pasture, 51
Blacksmith's Workshop, 50
Printing Press, 51
Boreal Forest, 39
Rum Distillery, 50
Boston Tea Party, 57
Rum Factory, 50
Boycotts, 57
Schoolhouse, 51
Broadleaf Forest, 40
Shipyard, 51
Buildings
Stables, 51
Armory, 51
Stockade, 51
Arsenal, 51
Textile Mill, 50
Blacksmith's House, 50
Tobacconist's House, 50
Blacksmith's Workshop, 50
Tobacconist's Shop, 50
Carpenter's House, 49
Town Hall, 49
Cathedral, 50
University, 51
Chapel, 50
Warehouse, 50
Church, 50
Warehouse Expansion, 50
Cigar Factory, 50
Weaver's House, 50
College, 51
Weaver's Shop, 50
Custom House, 52
Depot, 50 Caravel, 62
Distiller's House, 50 Carpenter's House, 49
Dock, 51 Cathedral, 50
Drydock, 51 Chapel, 50
78
INDEX 79
Church, 50 Fish, 40
Cigar Factory, 50 Food, 40
Cigars, 41 Foreign Aairs Advisor, 25
Cloth, 41 Fort, 51
Coats, 41 Fortress, 51
College, 51 Founding Fathers
Colonial Cavalry, 61 Adam Smith, 69
Colonial Regular, 61 Bartolomé de las Casas, 72
Colony Advisor, 25 Benjamin Franklin, 72
Conifer Forest, 40 Father Jean de Brébeuf, 72
Continental Congress Advisor, 25 Ferdinand Magellan, 70
Cotton, 41 Francis Drake, 71
Crosses, 41 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado,
Custom House, 52 70
George Washington, 71
Damaged Artillery, 61
Henry Hudson, 70
Denmark, 55
Hernán Cortés, 70
Depot, 50
Hernando de Soto, 70
Desert, 39
Jacob Fugger II, 69
Distiller's House, 50
Jan de Witt, 70
Dock, 51
John Paul Jones, 71
Dragoon, 61
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, 72
Drydock, 51
Paul Revere, 71
dump cargo, 25
Peter Minuit, 69
Dutch, 55
Peter Stuyvesant, 69
Pocahontas, 71
Elder Statesman, 61
Robert La Salle, 70
England, 55
Simón Bolívar, 72
Expert Farmer, 59
Thomas Jeerson, 71
Expert Fisherman, 59
Thomas Paine, 71
Expert Fur Trapper, 59
William Brewster, 72
Expert LumberJack, 60
William Penn, 72
Expert Ore Miner, 60
Fountain of Youth, 44
Expert SilverMiner, 60
France, 55
Exploration Report, 26
Francis Drake, 71
Father Jean de Brébeuf, 72 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, 70
Ferdinand Magellan, 70 Free Colonist, 59
Firebrand Preacher, 61 Frigate, 62
80 INDEX
Fur Factory, 50 Hills, 40

Fur Trader's House, 50 History Report, 26
Fur Trader's Post, 50 Horses, 40
Furs, 41
ignoring boycotts, 17
Galleon, 62 Immigration, 9
George Washington, 71 Indentured Servant, 59
Goods Indian Advisor, 25
Cigars, 41 Indian Brave, 62
Cloth, 41 Indian Convert, 61
Coats, 41 Indian Dragoon, 62
Cotton, 41 IP address, 16
Crosses, 41 Iron Works, 50
Fish, 40
Jacob Fugger II, 69
Food, 40
Jan de Witt, 70
Furs, 41
Jesuit Missionary, 60
Grain, 40
John Paul Jones, 71
Hammers, 41
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, 72
Horses, 40
Liberty Bells, 41
King's Cavalry, 62
Lumber, 41
King's Regular, 62
Muskets, 41
Ore, 41 Labour Advisor, 25
Rum, 41 language, 18
Silver, 41 Liberty, 9
Sugar, 41 Liberty Bells, 41
Tobacco, 41 Lost Cities, 44
Tools, 41 Lumber, 41
Trade Goods, 41
Grain, 40 Magazine, 51
Grassland, 39 Man of War, 62

Marsh, 39
Hammers, 41 Master Blacksmith, 60
Hardy Pioneer, 60 Master Carpenter, 60
Henry Hudson, 70 Master Cotton Planter, 59
Hernán Cortés, 70 Master Distiller, 60
Hernando de Soto, 70 Master Fur Trader, 60
High Seas, 39 Master Gunsmith, 60
INDEX 81
Master Sugar Planter, 59 Rain Forest, 40

Master Tobacco Planter, 59 Religious Advisor, 25
Master Tobacconist, 60 Reports
Master Weaver, 60 Colony Advisor, 25
Mercenaries, 58 Continental Congress Advisor,
Merchantman, 62 25
meta.freecol.org, 15 Exploration Report, 26
Military Advisor, 26 Foreign Aairs Advisor, 25
Mission, 43 History Report, 26
Missionary, 60 Indian Advisor, 25
Mixed Forest, 40 Labour Advisor, 25
Mountains, 40 Military Advisor, 26
multi-player game, 15 Naval Advisor, 26
Muskets, 41 Production Report, 26
Religious Advisor, 25
native2ascii, 12
Requirements Report, 26
Naval Advisor, 26
Trade Advisor, 26
Netherlands, 55
Turn Report, 26
Newspaper, 51
Requirements Report, 26
Ocean, 39 Robert La Salle, 70
Ore, 41 Royal Expeditionary Force, 58

Rum, 41
Pasture, 51 Rum Distillery, 50
Paul Revere, 71 Rum Factory, 50
personal rewall, 16 Russia, 55
Peter Minuit, 69
Peter Stuyvesant, 69 Savannah, 39
Petty Criminal, 59 Schoolhouse, 51
Pioneer, 60 Scout, 60
Plains, 39 Scrub Forest, 40
Pocahontas, 71 Seasoned Scout, 60
Port 3540, 15 Shipyard, 51
Port 3541, 16 Silver, 41
Portugal, 55 Simón Bolívar, 72
Prairie, 39 Soldier, 61
Printing Press, 51 Spain, 55
Privateer, 62 Stables, 51
Production Report, 26 Stockade, 51
82 INDEX
Sugar, 41 Treasure Train, 61

Swamp, 39 Tropical Forest, 40
Sweden, 55 Tundra, 39
Turn Report, 26
Taxes, 57
Terrain unit movement, 29
Arctic, 40 Units
Boreal Forest, 39 Artillery, 61
Broadleaf Forest, 40 Caravel, 62
Conifer Forest, 40 Colonial Cavalry, 61
Desert, 39 Colonial Regular, 61
Grassland, 39 Damaged Artillery, 61
High Seas, 39 Dragoon, 61
Hills, 40 Elder Statesman, 61
Marsh, 39 Expert Farmer, 59
Mixed Forest, 40 Expert Fisherman, 59
Mountains, 40 Expert Fur Trapper, 59
Ocean, 39 Expert LumberJack, 60
Plains, 39 Expert Ore Miner, 60
Prairie, 39 Expert SilverMiner, 60
Rain Forest, 40 Firebrand Preacher, 61
Savannah, 39 Free Colonist, 59
Scrub Forest, 40 Frigate, 62
Swamp, 39 Galleon, 62
Tropical Forest, 40 Hardy Pioneer, 60
Tundra, 39 Indentured Servant, 59
Wetland Forest, 40 Indian Brave, 62
Textile Mill, 50 Indian Convert, 61
The War of Spanish Succession, 73 Indian Dragoon, 62
Thomas Jeerson, 71 Jesuit Missionary, 60
Thomas Paine, 71 King's Cavalry, 62
Tobacco, 41 King's Regular, 62
Tobacconist's House, 50 Man of War, 62
Tobacconist's Shop, 50 Master Blacksmith, 60
Tools, 41 Master Carpenter, 60
Town Hall, 49 Master Cotton Planter, 59
Trade Advisor, 26 Master Distiller, 60
Trade Goods, 41 Master Fur Trader, 60
INDEX 83
Master Gunsmith, 60
Master Sugar Planter, 59
Master Tobacco Planter, 59
Master Tobacconist, 60
Master Weaver, 60
Merchantman, 62
Missionary, 60
Petty Criminal, 59
Pioneer, 60
Privateer, 62
Scout, 60
Seasoned Scout, 60
Soldier, 61
Treasure Train, 61
Veteran Dragoon, 61
Veteran Soldier, 61
Wagon Train, 61
University, 51
Veteran Dragoon, 61
Veteran Soldier, 61
Wagon Train, 61
Warehouse, 50
Warehouse Expansion, 50
Weaver's House, 50
Weaver's Shop, 50
Wetland Forest, 40
William Brewster, 72
William Penn, 72

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FreeCol Documentation

User Guide for Version v0.9.0

The FreeCol Team

3.3.5 The Compass Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4 The New World 39

6 Your Home Country 55

8 The Continental Congress 69

9 The Birth of a Nation 73

Welcome to FreeCol! If you're interested in development of this program,

1.1 About FreeCol

The FreeCol team aims to create an Open Source version of Colonization

This clone will be developed incrementally and result in FreeCol 1.0.0

1.2 The Original Colonization

The original Colonization was released in 1994 by Microprose. Coloniza-

1.3 Liberty and Immigration

2.1 System Requirements

FreeCol is written in Java. In order to run, it requires a Java Virtual Machine.

2.1.1 FreeCol on OSX

2.2 Compiling FreeCol

This section will provide information about various interface elements, as

3.1 Starting the game

3.1.1 Command line options

FreeCol also provides several application-specic command line options:

• --freecol-data DIR Specify the directory that contains FreeCol's data

• --windowed[[=]WIDTHxHEIGHT] Run FreeCol in windowed mode in-

• --load-savegame SAVEGAME_FILE Load the given savegame. This is

• --no-intro Skip the introductory video.

• --usage Display the help screen.

• --version Display the version number.

• --server PORT Start a stand-alone server on the specied port. If you

• --server-help Display a help screen for the more advanced server

• --no-java-check Skip the java version check.

• --no-memory-check Skip the memory check.

• --log-level LEVEL Set the java log level.

• --debug Start the game in debugging mode.

3.1.2 Game setup

3.1.3 Game options

3.2 Client options

3.2.1 Display Options

• The minimum number of goods to display with a counter. If you accept

• The maximum number of goods to display. If you accept the default

• Whether to center on the selected tile automatically.

• Whether to center on the active unit always.

• Whether to scroll the map when dragging with the mouse.

• Whether to display the map grid.

• Whether to display tile names, owners, regions or none of the above.

• Whether to sort your colonies by name, age, position, size or Sons of

• How to animate the movements of your own units.

• How to animate the movements of enemy units.

• How to display the minimap:

 Whether to attempt smooth rendering.

 Which background color to use.

 Which zoom level to use as default.

3.2.2 Message Options

• Warning messages. These are important and should generally not be

• Messages about the Sons of Liberty membership in your colonies.

• Messages about the eciency of the government in your colonies. The

• Messages about the number of goods in your colonies' warehouses.

• Messages about units improving through experience, education or pro-

FreeCol also provides several application-specic command line options:

• --server PORT Start a stand-alone server on the specied port. If you

Whether to attempt smooth rendering.

Which background color to use.

Which zoom level to use as default.

• Messages about the eciency of the government in your colonies. The

• Messages about the factors that inuence combat. Turn them on to

• How many generations of auto-save les you wish to retain.

The gure 3.1 represents the main screen.

• turn the map controls (minimap and info panel) on or o

• turn the map grid on or o

• switch to a dierent unit on the same tile

• The terrain section contains information on all the dierent types of