Five or six players, free
Two boards sized for a big table. Nothing to buy, nothing to install — share one link.
Most online settlement games stop at four seats, or charge for the fifth and sixth. New Shores has five maps that seat up to six, three of them built for exactly five or six, and they are as free as the rest of the catalogue. The turn order is shuffled when the game starts, so the host is not first every time, and the number tokens are shuffled per board so a six-player layout is never the same twice.
The two big boards
| Large board | 4–6 players · 30 hexes in a 3-4-5-6-5-4-3 layout · first to 12 VP. The base rules with nothing added, on an island big enough that six players are not stepping on each other by the third turn. |
|---|---|
| The Archipelago | 5–6 players · 79 hexes, 34 of them land · first to 15 VP. Three home islands with an islet between each pair and a gold isle at the centre. You start on a home island; every other island you settle pays +2 VP. |
| Twin Continents | 5–6 players · two 17-hex continents across a strait of islets · first to 15 VP. Start on either continent; the far one and every islet pay +2 VP. |
| The Fog Frontier | 5–6 players · a 30-hex mainland between two banks of fog · first to 14 VP. Build beside a fog tile to turn it over and find land, gold or open water. |
| The Great Crossing | 4–6 players · 37 hexes · first to 14 VP. A 22-hex mainland and a 9-hex far shore across one channel. Seafaring rules apply: ships, the pirate, and a +2 bonus for your first settlement on the far shore. Seafaring rules → |
How to seat six
- Open newshores.io, type a name and press Play now.
- In the lobby set Seats to 6 and pick one of the five maps above — every map shows its seat range, and the game will not start with more players than its map allows.
- Share the room code. Players join by link; any seat still empty when you are ready can be a bot.
- Set a turn timer if you want the game to keep moving, then press Start game.
What keeps a big table moving
- A server-side turn clock. The countdown is the same on every screen, and when it reaches zero the server rolls or ends the turn — a backgrounded tab cannot hang the table.
- Autopilot. A seat that disconnects and misses three turns is played by a bot until its owner returns and reclaims it.
- Trades do not block. Offers float over the board for the players who can afford them; everyone else keeps playing.
Common questions
- Which maps take 5 or 6 players?
- Large board (4–6 players, first to 12 VP), The Great Crossing (4–6 players, first to 14 VP), and three seafaring maps for exactly 5–6: The Archipelago (15 VP), Twin Continents (15 VP) and The Fog Frontier (14 VP).
- Does a 6-player game cost anything?
- No. There is no extension to buy and no membership. Every map and every seat is free.
- How long does a six-player game take?
- Longer than four — more turns between yours. The turn timer in the lobby keeps it moving, and a player who walks away is handed to autopilot rather than freezing the table.
- Can some of the six seats be bots?
- Yes. Any seat can be a bot at easy, medium or hard, so three friends can still play a full six-seat board.
- Is there a 7 or 8 player map?
- No. The largest tables are six seats.
New Shores is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or connected to Catan GmbH, Catan Studio, Colonist or any other game publisher. Other games are named only to describe what kind of game this is and to compare it honestly.