The Main Map

The main map shows you the New World in greater detail. You can see the different types of terrain, forested and otherwise, hills, mountains, rivers, and, of course, the various units and settlements of the native and European players. Left click on a tile in order to center the main map, or on a unit in order to select it (a display option allows you to decide whether the map should always centre on the selected unit, or not).

Your colonies as well as those of your opponents are displayed on the map. You can see their names as well as their sizes, which are displayed as a number and also influence the image used to represent them. The color of the colony's name is always the color of its owner, but the color of the colony size indicates whether any production bonuses or penalties apply (at normal difficulty):

Colour	Bonus/Penalty	Requirements
Red	-2	more than eight tories
Orange	-1	four to seven tories
White	0	less than four tories and less than 50% SoL
Green	+1	50% SoL or more
Blue	+2	100% SoL

Left click on a colony in order to open the colony panel. If there is an active unit outside of the colony on the same tile, then a single left click will select the unit instead. In this case, a double click will still open the colony panel.

Right clicking on an empty tile, will either display some information on that tile if no unit is selected, or open a pop-up menu that additionally allows you to send the selected unit to this tile. If the tile contains some of your units, the menu will also enable you to select each of these units. If the tile contains a native settlement, the menu will also provide you with an item that will bring up some information on that settlement. If the tile contains one of your own colonies, the menu will also allow you to open the colony panel.

You can also activate the map scroll by moving the cursor towards the edges of the main map. Scrolling with the minimap is faster, however.

If a unit is selected, further information about that unit is displayed in the info panel, and you can move the unit using the numeric keypad or the compass rose. If you select a unit with the left mouse button and drag the mouse, the main map will display the best path from the unit's current position to the tile the mouse is hovering over.

The tiles the path consists of will be marked with boots if the unit is on foot, with horseshoes if the unit is mounted, with wheels if the unit is a wagon train, or with sextants if the unit is a naval unit. Full-colour symbols mark tiles that can be reached in the same turn, whereas shaded symbols mark tiles that can be reached only in subsequent turns. A number indicates how many turns later the unit will arrive on this tile. You can see this on the main screen.

Once you release the mouse button, the selected unit will begin to follow this path. It will awake once it has arrived at its destination or if it can no longer follow the path (if a unit belonging to a different player is in the way, for instance). You can also press the middle mouse button, or both mouse buttons if your mouse only has two buttons, in order to give the selected unit a movement order.

In the original Colonization game, a unit always used up all movement points when entering a colony. In FreeCol, this is not the case -- a unit can enter a colony just like any other tile. If the unit is placed in a building, or on a colony tile, or if a carrier is loaded or unloaded, however, it will lose all its movement points.

Units are marked with small coloured shields, which may or may not display a letter. The background colour indicates the nation this unit belongs to. The Dutch units, for example, are usually marked with orange shields. The letter indicates the current state of the unit:

• -: the unit is active (no orders).
• F: the unit is fortified.
• G: the unit is going somewhere.
• P: the unit is plowing a tile.
• R: the unit is building a road.
• S: the unit is a sentry (waiting for transport).
• T: the unit is following a trade route.
• W: the unit is waiting for orders (skipped).
• 0: the unit has no moves left.
• #: the unit's state is unknown (some enemy units).

If the unit is a foreign naval unit, the shield will display a number instead. This is the number of holds this unit is using.

Indian Settlements display at least two shields: The colour of the first shield indicates the nation this settlement belongs to. A $*$ on this shield indicates that this settlement is the nation's capital, a $-$ that it is not. The second shield, which bears an exclamation mark ($!$) if you have visited the settlement, and a question mark ($?$) if you have not, indicates the current relations between the nation and your colonists. Its background may be green, blue, yellow, orange or red, depending on whether your relations are good, mediocre or bad.

A Settlement with a European mission displays a third shield bearing a cross on a black or grey background. The colour of the cross indicates the European nation that established the mission. The background of the shield is black if the mission was established by a Jesuit Missionary, and grey otherwise.

The order buttons represent some of the orders you can give to your units. You can move your mouse over the buttons to see their respective orders. If a unit is unable to perform a certain action, the corresponding order button will be disabled. The orders are also available from the Orders Menu, and you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• a: assign a trade route.
• b: build a colony.
• c: center on the currently selected unit.
• d: disband the active unit.
• e: show the Europe panel.
• f: fortify.
• g: goto some destination tile.
• h: goto some colony (or Europe if a ship).
• l: load (fill up all holds already in use).
• n: rename the unit.
• o: execute goto orders immediately.
• p: plow the current tile (requires 20 tools).
• r: build a road on the current tile (requires 20 tools).
• s: be a sentry (wait for something to happen).
• t: show trade routes.
• u: unload or dump cargo.
• w: wait for another unit to move.
• z: clear orders.
• tab: switch to next unit on tile, or to colony screen.
• space: skip for this turn.
• enter: end the turn.
• plus or equals: zoom in.
• minus or underscore: zoom out.
• ctrl-d: display tile names.
• ctrl-g: display grid.
• ctrl-m: show/hide the map controls.
• ctrl-n: new game.
• ctrl-o: open a game.
• ctrl-q: quit the game.
• ctrl-r: reconnect.
• ctrl-s: save a game.
• ctrl-t: show the chat panel.

You can customize these settings in the preferences dialog.