Welcome to Gold Admirals, we are on Course!

With our initial release, version 1.11, your journey through trade, research, expansion, and conquest begins. Found settlements, develop your economy, command admirals and generals, and decide which path your faction will take. Will you build a trading empire, secure supremacy alongside your allies, or sail as pirates in search of valuable plunder?

Here’s what awaits you at launch:

• 47 playable factions, including 6 pirate factions, with their own advantages.
• 102 research technologies with a total of 499 researchable levels across all faction paths.
• 6 research categories, with up to 12 levels per technology.
• 21 ship blueprints combined with 3 ship types and 6 sizes – a total of 378 standard ship combinations.
• 8 different land unit types.
• 23 building types and 7 settlement development tiers.
• Up to 12 factions per game and 7 adjustable AI difficulty levels.
• Land and sea dungeons, each with 7 levels.
• 6 victory conditions plus a sandbox mode.

Develop Your Faction Through Research

The research catalogue includes 88 upgrade technologies and 14 researchable ship blueprints. The six categories cover Capital and Empire, Trade and Native Relations, Automation and Defence, Command and Combat, Shipyard and Supply, and Privateering.

Improve production, increase transport capacity, strengthen your defences, or invest in reconnaissance, training, and new ships. Nations and pirates have partially different research paths; the available technologies depend on your faction.

Building a research laboratory in your capital unlocks access to research. Research costs gold, population, and goods from your capital. Every advancement therefore competes for resources you also need to develop your empire.

Build Settlements and Trade Networks

Develop your settlements from small villages into thriving metropolises. Construct production buildings, warehouses, shipyards, academies, and fortifications, and decide which roles your settlements should fulfil.

Trade in seven types of goods: food, wood, metal, iron, muskets, cannons, and horses. Complete trade contracts and use automated traders on land and at sea. Through their own research paths, pirates can unlock automated raiders and establish a smuggling network.

Command Fleets and Armies

Your fleet begins with 7 basic ship blueprints, with 14 additional blueprints available through research. Combine hulls with merchant, pirate, or military equipment and different ship sizes. Two researchable reinforcement levels provide further upgrades.

On land, field skirmishers, light and heavy infantry, pikemen, light and heavy cavalry, and light and heavy cannons. Assemble your forces to suit the task, taking range, terrain, morale, and training into account.

Admirals and generals develop through experience, trainable skills, and personal traits. Flagships, bodyguards, and support from your own or allied commanders expand your options in battle.

Explore a New World

Procedurally generated maps offer connected landmasses, island worlds, and archipelagos. Discover independent settlements, pirate ports, and Native settlements, maintain diplomatic relations, and forge alliances.

Land and sea dungeons challenge you with increasingly demanding battles up to level seven, giving experienced armies and fleets objectives beyond expansion.

Choose Your Goal

Before setting sail, decide what you want to achieve:

• Score Victory: Lead the rankings from turn 500 onward.
• Global Victory: Control all regular settlements as a faction or alliance.
• Gold Rush: Accumulate 60,000 gold in a single settlement you own.
• Naval Victory: Win 200 naval battles.
• Land Victory: Win 200 land battles.
• Dungeon Hunter: Fully clear one level VII land dungeon and one level VII sea dungeon.
• Sandbox: Develop your empire without automatic victory checks.

Adjust the world, starting conditions, and AI difficulty to suit your preferences. Fixed teams of two, three, or four let you work towards shared goals.

Thank you for joining