Silk & Cannons

One year. One sea. One fortune to build.

Your father vanished in a typhoon. All he left you is a name, a few coins and a reputation to rebuild. To get started, you will have to borrow from a moneylender with no patience. You have a single calendar year to build a trading empire, starting from almost nothing.

Trade

Buy where goods are made, sell where they are scarce. Prices shift with the seasons, festivals and shortages. Take contracts, borrow from the moneylender, hire your crew at the tavern and listen to the rumours: some of them are worth their weight in gold.

Sail and fight

At sea, everything happens in real time: the wind, the monsoon, the typhoons. Wanted pirates, fearsome pirate chiefs and zealous customs officers cross your path. Fire your broadsides, board the ships that surrender, take their loot, or run when you must.

Three seas, three eras, three ways to play

• China Sea, 1840: Canton, typhoons and coastal pirates.
• Indian Ocean, 1600: the monsoon rules your routes, Portuguese armadas demand their passes, and you build a trading House in Muscat stone by stone, with trading posts that work for you.
• Mediterranean, 1500: plague closes the ports, quarantine holds your ship, the galleys of Venice sail in convoy and Barbary corsairs carry their prizes to Algiers.

An ambition bigger than one life

Every year you play earns you treasure: jade dragons, fine pearls or gold sequins, depending on the sea. Spend it on the Legacy, permanent bonuses that make your next career more ambitious. The supreme title of each sea must be earned: in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, it will take several careers to reach it. Win it to open the next sea.

A living world

Seasons pass over the coasts, snow covers the heights in winter, and camel caravans and ox carts travel the roads between villages.

Features

• 26 ports, 21 goods and 17 ship types across three seas
• Real-time naval combat: broadsides, boarding, surrenders
• Port and sea events, rumours, festivals and shortages
• A trading House and trading posts to grow in the Indian Ocean
• Games of chance in gambling dens
• A guided first voyage to learn the basics
• Paper-and-ink interface, playable without telling colours apart
• Keyboard (QWERTY and AZERTY) and mouse
• 12 languages