New Shores vs Colonist
A free Colonist alternative with every expansion included — what carries over, what is different, and what each one is better at.
If you already play settlement games in the browser, most of what you know transfers without thinking about it. This page is for the handful of things that do not — written for someone deciding whether a second site is worth the tab. New Shores and Colonist are separate, independent projects; neither is affiliated with the other or with any publisher.
What carries over unchanged
- The turn: roll two dice, everyone on the number collects, then build, trade or pass.
- Build costs, the distance rule, and roads connecting to what you already own.
- A seven forces discards down to seven cards, moves the robber and steals a card.
- Longest Road as a transferable bonus, and hidden victory-point cards that only count at the end.
- Trading with the bank at 4:1, or better at a port you have built on.
What is different here
- Rooms, not a queue. You create a room and share the link. There is no open matchmaking — invite people, or fill seats with bots at three difficulties.
- Every expansion is included. Eleven seafaring scenarios and a full knights-and-commodities board, with no unlock and no paid tier. Colonist's own site offers its maps and expansions through a membership. All fifteen maps →
- Maps are generated fresh. Number tokens are shuffled per board rather than dealt in a fixed order, and one map redraws its coastline every game.
- A game survives a restart. Tables are snapshotted, so a deploy or a server restart does not end a game in progress — the first player back restores it.
- Trading is one surface. Bank and player trades are composed in the same panel; the bank option lights up on its own when your offer is a rate you actually hold.
What Colonist is better at
Worth being straight about, because it decides whether this is for you:
- Finding a game at 2am. An established site has a player pool measured in thousands. New Shores does not, and will not for a long time. If you want instant matchmaking against strangers, that is the deciding factor.
- Years of polish and community. Tournaments, ranked ladders, replays, a large body of strategy discussion — none of that exists here yet.
- Mobile apps. New Shores is a website with a purpose-built phone layout, not an installable app.
If you want the biggest lobby, stay where you are. If you want every expansion free, a game you can start with one link, and bots good enough to practise against, this is worth a tab. Neither is the only option — eight free Colonist and Catan alternatives compared →
Common questions
- Is New Shores the same game as Colonist?
- They are separate, independent projects. Both are browser implementations of the same family of settlement board game, so the core loop — roll, collect, trade, build, race to a victory-point target — will feel familiar immediately.
- Do I need an account to try New Shores?
- No. Pick a display name and share the room link. Signing in with Google is optional and only keeps your match history.
- Are the expansions free on New Shores?
- Yes. Every map is included, including the eleven seafaring scenarios and the knights-and-commodities board. There is no paid tier.
- Can I find random opponents?
- Not yet. New Shores has no open matchmaking queue — you play with people you invite by link, or fill the empty seats with bots. If you want to drop into a game with strangers at any hour, an established site with a big player pool will serve you better.
Start a gameAll the free alternatives, compared →
New Shores is an independent project, not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Colonist, Catan GmbH, Catan Studio or any other game publisher. Other names are used only to describe what kind of game this is and to compare it honestly.