Founding a town · open to all settlers
Ancient Rome
Found a Roman port town at the mouth of the Tiber. Moor merchant vessels, trade their cargo, tap your banks, lay roads, send voyages out to chart new regions, and grow one timber quay into a great city. Then do it again on the next shore.
- Plays in the browser
- Saves on your device, or sign in to save across devices
- No account needed
- Free to play
Ostia · LatiumKey art
Six systems · one harbour
What you do
-
01Harbour
Moor the traffic
Merchant vessels tie up at your quays for provisions, repairs and a hot meal, and pay on departure. One quay, one vessel at a time; every quay needs an open side for the approach.
-
02Trade
Trade the cargo
Vessels sell what their home city exports and buy what it imports. Set Buy and Sell per good, hold iron ore for a foundry, and ride the booms.
-
03Income
Tap the banks
Every building earns denarii by the minute into its own bank. A glowing coin means it is ready: tap it and watch the denarii fly home. Banks keep filling while you are away.
-
04Timers
Build on the clock
Buildings take real time to open, from ninety seconds to four hours by tier, and upgrades take longer still. Queue a build, go live your life, come back to a brighter town. Imperium skips the wait.
-
05Voyages
Sail out
Send voyages from your quays to any of eight regions. They come back with cargo, charts, Imperium and discoveries for the Annals: vessels, peoples, antiquities.
-
06Roman world
Claim new shores
Clear rings of unclaimed land around your forum as the town grows, then found the next town in one of eight regions: dry Greece, the mines of Hispania, the bays of Gaul, the volcanic shore of Campania, the Nile. One purse across all of them.
The panels you run it from
The city view
There is always something on the fire
Come back for
Missions
Fifty goals in seven chapters, three live at a time. Finish one, come back and claim the denarii, Imperium and rank it pays.
Achievements
Twenty-four lifetime achievements in bronze, silver and gold, from your first fifty vessels to the whole Annals, each tier paying Imperium.
Daily reward
A seven-day streak of denarii, crates and Imperium, with a banner token on day seven. Miss a day and you can mend the streak.
Civic rank
Citizen to Praetor and on to First Citizen of Rome. Ranks are earned across every region and grant real powers: collect all banks at once, a fourth mission, a bonus on every rate.
The Annals
Twenty-four vessels, twelve peoples of the ancient Mediterranean and sixteen antiquities to find, with a story for each. Completing a set pays Imperium and a title.
Territory
Every town starts on a small plot. Buy the next ring of unclaimed land, wait for the workers to clear it, and the town grows outward, ring by ring, in every region.
Unlocked by renown and building count
Five tiers
- L1
Salt Landing
One timber quay and 6,000 denarii. Build a quay, a horreum and a well, then serve your first vessels.
- L2
Trading Port
A couriers' hall, an emporium, insula blocks and an aqueduct. Merchant houses begin to trust you, and the second region opens.
- L3
City of Brick
A schola, a bank, a portico and a shipyard. Residents run businesses; you lend denarii at interest.
- L4
Imperial Port
A capitolium and the great lighthouse. Long-haul grain giants arrive.
- L5
City of Marble
The end of the road: a port the whole Mediterranean sails through.
Each one a whole new town
Eight regions
Latium
Salt flats, pines and a steady sun. Every founder starts here.
Greece
Thin soil and hard summers; iron at a premium.
Hispania
The red hills behind Carthago Nova. Mining country.
Gaul
Long bays and open water; salt, grain and the fleets of Massalia.
Campania
A volcanic bay. Provisions run rich and pirates run often.
Africa
Wheat, olives, a long shore and its festivals.
Sicily
A fertile island where residents arrive in numbers.
Egypt
The far end of the sea road, and its great lighthouse.
24 buildings · six families · three levels each
The buildings
Core
Forum
Tier 1
Timber Quay
Horreum
Public Well
Ropewalk
Mariners' Inn
Thermopolium
Tier 2
Couriers' Hall
Emporium
Bathhouse
Walled Gardens
Infirmary
Insula Block
Aqueduct
Customs House
Legion Post
Tier 3
Schola
Argentaria- Portico
Vivarium
Iron Foundry
Shipyard
Tier 4
Capitolium
Great Lighthouse
24 vessels · 12 peoples · 16 antiquities to find
Who comes through
Phoenician Merchants
Merchant families of Tyre and Sidon, at home in every port.
Veneti Mariners
Atlantic sailors of north-west Gaul, in high oak hulls.
Celtiberian Swordsmiths
Hill people of inner Hispania; met by voyage.
Alexandria Grain Giant
Long-haul passengers of the fourth tier.
Sacred Sistrum
A temple rattle from the Nile. Rare.
Premium currency
Imperium
Earned by missions, daily rewards and voyages, and offered in the Store. Spend it to skip a build, call a voyage home, open a region before you have the charts, or dress the town in a region banner. The game is free to play; nothing in it needs Imperium.
Purchases are handled securely by Stripe Checkout and charged in US dollars. Items arrive in your town as soon as the payment goes through.
- Imperium every new founder starts with
- 20
- Regions to unlock, with denarii or Imperium
- 8
- Imperium skips eight minutes of any build, upgrade or clearing
- 1
- Things to find for the Annals
- 52
Keys · saves · screens
Harbour notes
Controls
- Space
- Pause
- 0 · F
- Fit the town, focus the selection
- B S M F
- Build, Town, Market, Fleet
- E G J R
- Voyages, Roman World, Missions, Annals
- Wheel
- Zoom the world; drag to pan
- Esc
- Close a panel, stop placing
Saves
Your profile saves to your browser every few seconds and when you leave the tab. Timers run on the clock, so builds finish and banks fill while you are gone.
One profile per browser, every region inside it. Export and import it from Settings, or sign in to keep a cloud save and pick up on another device. Without an account your save stays on your device.
Screens
Built for a desktop browser at 1280 px and wider with WebGL on; a landscape tablet works, and on a phone the panels fold into a bottom bar and sheets.
Current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. Reduced-motion settings are honoured, and the effects tier steps down on slower machines.
Questions
What kind of game is this?
A calm harbour city builder. You start with one timber quay around 500 BC and grow a town over weeks of short visits. Timers run on the real clock, so it keeps working while you are away.
Is it free?
Yes. Every building, region, mission and achievement can be reached with denarii and patience. Imperium can also be bought with real money in the Store to skip waits; prices are shown in US dollars before you pay.
Do I need an account?
No. Your town saves in your browser. Sign in only if you want a cloud save on more than one device.
How true to history is it?
The places, trade goods, buildings and peoples are real, and the buildings and titles are drawn from the Roman world between about 500 BC and AD 200. Centuries are compressed for play. You reach new regions by trade and voyage, not conquest. It is a game about harbours, roads and trade, not a full portrait of ancient society, and it leaves out much of the harder history.
Do the gods appear in the game?
Temples and festivals are part of city life. No god is a character, and nothing in the game makes light of anyone's beliefs.
Who are the peoples in the Annals?
Real cultures of the ancient Mediterranean who traded with the Romans, among them Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans, Gauls, Numidians and the kingdom of Kush. Each is written as a people with their own skills and history.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. On a phone the panels become sheets over a bottom bar, and the world pans by drag and zooms by pinch. A desktop screen shows more at once.
Ready to found a town
Town name. Pick one on the title screen, or take the one the register hands you.
Found a townRegister AR-0000 will be assigned at the founding