A Colonist alternative
Play the hex trading game online — and change the rules
If you play Colonist, you already know the game: build roads and settlements, trade for what you need, watch out for the robber, race to ten points. Islanders is the same genre in your browser, free, with no account needed to play.
It is built around one idea — that the rules should be yours to change.
Who this is for
Colonist is a great way to play the classic rules online, and if that is all you want, it does the job well. Islanders is for a different mood: the night your group wants a bank that runs dry, a robber that punishes big hands harder, a board shaped like a long thin island, or a rule that gives the player in last place a fighting chance.
Those are house rules. Here they are real rules the game enforces, and every player at the table can see which ones are in play.
What you get with Islanders
- Every rule is a setting
- Points to win, costs, bank size, dice, the robber, trading rates, placement distance, turn timers.
- A WHEN / IF / THEN rule builder
- Write consequences: when X happens, if Y is true, then Z. Start from 33 ready-made rules.
- A board designer
- Draw a map of any shape — a strip, two islands, an atoll — and place every tile, number and port.
- Custom awards
- Go beyond longest road and biggest army with 10 awards, including catch-up prizes for a bad start.
- 3D or 2D, your choice
- A sculpted 3D board you can orbit, or a clean flat one. Each player picks their own.
- Replays
- Every finished game can be watched back move by move.
Trying it takes thirty seconds
There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. Type a name, start a game, and send your friends the four-letter code. Two to six players. It works on a laptop or a phone.
The standard game is free to play with friends for as long as you like. To start a game with the rules changed, only the host subscribes — $5.99 a month — and the whole table plays. See pricing.
Not affiliated
Islanders is an independent game. It is not made by, affiliated with, or endorsed by Colonist or by Catan GmbH. Colonist is mentioned here only to describe what kind of game this is.
Give it a game
Play the standard rules first. Change one thing next time. See where your group ends up.