Gamehelpcannonballcolony

Cannonball Colony

It is the golden age of colonialism, and ships from rival countries have all arrived at the same newly discovered island. Build roads and forts to extend your reach, set up cannons to blow away your opponents' forts, and claim the island.

Goal

The game ends in one of two ways:

• Ten forts: the first player to have all ten of their forts on the island wins immediately.
• No road tiles left: when the last road tile is built, the player with the most forts on the island wins.

Setting up

The island, made of one 6×6 board per player, is laid out at random. The road tile supply is 50 tiles with two players, 70 with three and 90 with four. The supply counter above the island shows how many are left.

Choosing countries. Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player picks a country: France, Spain, Portugal or England. Your country is your color, and your player mat appears once you have chosen. Each country also has a shape, shown beside its flag in the player panels: France a circle, Spain a triangle, Portugal a square and England a diamond. Every fort and cannon carries its owner's shape, so you can tell pieces apart without relying on color.

Your player mat

Your mat holds the pieces you have not built yet:

• Fort spaces 1 to 10 are covered while a fort is still waiting on them. Forts are always built from the lowest covered space.
• Cannon 1, cannon 2 and the blockade sit on their spaces until you earn them (see below).

Your own mat is shown beside the island and your opponents' below it.

Player panels

Each player's panel, on the right of the screen, shows:

• their flag, shape and country, once they have chosen it;
• their fort count out of 10;
• their earned cannons and blockade. A black icon is a piece still to build; it turns grey once the piece is on the island. Pieces not yet earned are not shown.

Hover over any part of a panel for an explanation.

Landing

Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player chooses a landing space for their ship. The space must be:

• on your own landing board, the board nearest you;
• on the edge of the island;
• grass or forest;
• more than four steps from any other player's landing space.

In a three-player game, a few spaces next to the lower board cannot be used. Legal spaces are highlighted for you.

Your landing space is where your road network starts. Your first turn is always a road tile on your landing space.

Connections

You may only build on or next to road tiles that are connected to your ship or one of your forts: joined to it by an unbroken path of road tiles, along edges, not diagonally. Roads cross from one board to the next freely.

It does not matter who built a road tile; anyone may travel along it. But a path is broken by an opponent's fort and by any blockade, including your own. Cannons do not block paths.

A turn

1. Fire a cannon (optional). If you have a cannon on the island, you may fire it at one opponent's fort in range. The fort is destroyed and goes back to its owner's mat. On screen, click one of your highlighted cannons, then one of the forts it can hit; or click Do not fire.

2. Build (compulsory). Take exactly one of these actions:

• Road on grass: place a road tile on a grass space next to your connected network. You may then place a second one on grass, anywhere next to your network, including next to the first.
• Road on forest: place one road tile on a forest space next to your network. Only one per turn.
• Fort: build your next fort on an empty, connected road tile.
• Cannon: build an earned cannon on an empty, connected road tile.
• Blockade: build your earned blockade on an empty, connected road tile.

You may pass only when none of these is possible.

On screen, choose the action with the buttons at the top: Build a road (already selected when a road is possible), Build a fort, Build a cannon or Place your blockade. Then click one of the highlighted squares. Only the actions open to you are offered, and Pass appears only when nothing else is.

3. Confirm. At the end of every turn, including your landing, click Confirm, or Undo to take the whole turn back and play it again.

Moves are shown with short animations: ships sail in to land, forts slide onto the island from their owner's mat, cannons and blockades from their owner's ship, and a cannonball flies to a destroyed fort.

Seeing what other players did

Squares changed on each player's latest turn are marked with corner brackets in that player's color:

• a new road, fort, cannon or blockade gets brackets;
• a fort destroyed by cannon fire leaves a scorch mark inside the brackets. The road under it is open again, and the scorch tells it apart from a road that was just built. The brackets show who fired.

A player's marks disappear when their next turn starts. So on your turn you see everything the other players have done since your last turn, each in their own color.

The marks are only a reminder: they never change what you may build. On a square you can click, the mark fades so the highlight shows clearly. The game log also lists every action. To hide the marks, set Highlight recent moves to Off in the game's preferences.

Forts

A fort must be built on an empty road tile that is connected to your network, and:

• more than two steps from each of your other forts, counting along road and forest spaces (forts with no path between them do not limit each other);
• not in range of an opponent's cannon.

Forts may be built right next to opponents' forts, cannons and ships.

Cannons and the blockade

You earn new pieces as you build forts:

• your 3rd fort space earns cannon 1;
• your 6th earns cannon 2;
• your 8th earns the blockade.

An earned piece leaves your mat for a place beside your ship, and can be built on any later turn. It never returns to the mat, even if you lose forts and rebuild them. Your player panel shows which earned pieces you still have to build.

Cannon range. A cannon hits any fort in the same row or column, at any distance and across board edges, unless a mountain or a blockade lies in between. Grass, forest, lakes, roads and other forts do not stop a shot. A cannon cannot fire on the turn it is built.

• A cannon may not be built in range of an opponent's cannon.
• A blockade stops cannon fire and breaks road paths for everyone.
• Cannons and blockades can never be moved or destroyed.

Lakes and mountains can never be built on.

End of the game and ties

The game ends at once when either:

• a player has all ten of their forts on the island; that player wins; or
• the last road tile is built; the player with the most forts on the island wins.

If players are tied on forts when the road tiles run out, the tie is broken by:

• fewest forts on your own landing board (you reached furthest across the island); then
• fewest cannons and blockades on the island (you used your resources most economically).

Players still tied share the victory.

When the game ends, a Final result table above the island shows every player's forts and both tie-breakers, with the winner highlighted.