How to play
Cowboys and Indians Game

01 / PICK YOUR SIDE

Start a battle

1. Open AI practice and choose Play the game. To play online, enter the Saloon.
2. Choose your faction and the computer’s faction: Texas Frontier, Outlaws or Indians. You can choose the same faction for both sides.
3. Choose Easy, Medium or Hard, your fog and victory rules, and starting credits. Every occupied side receives the same starting credits.
4. Choose Dry Creek for two sides, or Three Frontiers, Red Rock Divide or Broken Spur Ranch for up to three. On any three-player map, + Add third player adds a second computer; leaving it out keeps that starting area empty.
5. Press Start battle. For your first match, try Easy and Buildings Only.

Three Frontiers connects three shores to a central island. Red Rock Divide trades open ground for cliff passes and contested gold. Cliffs stop movement and fire; use the passes or outer trails. Broken Spur Ranch offers broad approaches and scattered resources, giving riders room to raid exposed workers. Empty starting areas remain available for expansion.

Texas Frontier favors rifle lines and gun crews. Outlaws offer less expensive raiders and close demolition. Indians combine rifle infantry and mounted riders. All three factions use the same resource economy and victory rules.

Compare the factions for complete rosters, recruitment costs and an opening plan for each side.

For help while you play, open Settings → First battle coach on desktop or Menu → First battle coach on a phone. Its optional steps follow your building, recruitment and army progress. Close it whenever you want more room for the battle.

02 / KEEP FUNDS FLOWING

Gather and build

You begin with headquarters, a livestock drop-off, a livestock worker and six combat units. Your starting worker gathers nearby cattle automatically. Livestock workers collect cattle, horses or buffalo and deliver them for Funds, the currency used for construction and recruitment.

Select headquarters and open Buildings to place structures on clear, visible ground inside your base boundary. Completed buildings extend that boundary. Build a foot-production structure for infantry and a mounted-production structure for riders. Select a completed producer and choose a unit card to recruit.

For ore income, recruit a Miner at headquarters and build a Mining Camp. Order the Miner to gather gold or silver. A camp includes no worker and earns Funds only when ore is delivered. Keep defenders near your workers and protect their routes home.

Waiting recruitment orders charge Funds when training starts. Canceling paid, unfinished recruitment or construction returns its full price. Set rally points to send new recruits where they are needed.

Why your income can stall

A worker carrying cargo has not earned it yet. Check that the drop-off is complete, reachable and still yours. A busy unloading bay or a long route can hold up deliveries; another useful drop-off can help more than sending extra workers down the same congested path.

Gold pays more per load, but the nearest safe cattle route may earn more over time than a distant gold deposit. Scout and defend the route before investing in it.

03 / FIGHT FOR THE CROSSINGS

Win the battle

Scout the island and bridges before committing your army. Select troops and order them to attack a visible enemy, or use attack-move to fight along a route. Watch your income while your army is away.

The selection strip shows what your troops are doing, including travel, reloading and waiting for a passage. Click a unit-type chip to separate riders, infantry or workers from a mixed selection; on a phone, open Orders to find the chips. Destination markers remain visible for selected units.

Ordinary troops automatically favor armed threats. Siege units favor enemy defenses and important buildings. Give a direct attack order when you want a specific target. Computer armies assemble before attacking and can regroup after heavy losses, so use their retreat to secure a route or strengthen your economy.

Buildings Only

Destroy every enemy structure, including unfinished construction, to win.

Frontier Rush

Capture telegraph posts and escort the stagecoach. First to 600 points wins; at 15 minutes, the highest score wins and tied leaders draw. Losing every building still eliminates you. Choose Balanced, Raiding, Defense or Expansion before the battle; every doctrine is unlocked. This mode is free for all, without alliances.

Total Domination

Destroy every enemy unit and structure to win.

In Frontier Rush, armed troops capture a telegraph after eight uncontested seconds and must stay nearby to earn two points every five seconds. Escort the announced stagecoach for twenty points at each checkpoint; an enemy presence contests it. Objective positions and control are public, while hidden armies stay hidden.

After the match, your battle report shows delivered Funds, completed resource loads, paid recruits and combat losses. Use it to judge whether your economy kept up with your army.

The chosen victory rule stays fixed for the match. Settings → Surrender ends your battle. Afterward, you can play again or change your setup.

04 / BRING YOUR OWN RIVAL

Play with friends

Enter the Saloon and keep the suggested guest name or choose your own. Pick a lobby under Join a game and click Join game, or click Create a game so other players can find yours. You can also see public games in progress. No account, email or invitation is needed. For a private game, choose Friends · invitation code only and share its optional code or link.

New lobbies start with three human slots on Three Frontiers. For two players on that map, set the third slot to Empty or Computer; Dry Creek also supports two players. Red Rock Divide and Broken Spur Ranch each support up to three. The host chooses the map, computer factions and doctrines, starting Funds, victory rules and human, computer or empty slots. Each human chooses their own faction and Frontier Rush doctrine.

Fill every human slot, then each player clicks I’m ready. When everyone is ready, the host clicks Start battle and all players enter the same game automatically. Changing the setup clears the ready checks so everyone can review it again. An optional account saves your username and online wins and lets you join clans and community chat.

In classic modes, use a player’s name at the top to offer, accept or end an alliance. Allies share explored terrain, not armies or Funds. The current free beta has limited online match capacity; if the battlefield is occupied, try an AI skirmish while you wait. Matches are unranked.

05 / MOUSE AND KEYBOARD

Desktop controls

Click inside the game before using shortcuts. Open the in-game Controls guide for more help.

06 / LANDSCAPE TOUCH

Phone controls

Rotate your phone to landscape. Tap a unit or building to select it. To select a group, tap Select at the lower left, drag a box around your troops, then release. You can also hold Select with one thumb while drawing with another finger.

Tap ground to move, a visible enemy to attack, or a resource to gather. Drag to pan and pinch to zoom. Open Orders for attack-move, guard and stop. Menu provides Select army, Headquarters, Map and the Field guide.

Scroll the production drawer to build or recruit. Placement, rally, guard and attack-move show a preview; tap Confirm to commit or Cancel to leave your existing orders intact.

07 / TAKE THE FRONTIER WITH YOU

Save for offline play

1. Open the Play page while connected to the internet.
2. Choose Save for offline play on the game’s start screen.
3. Keep the game open until the download completes. You can then start AI skirmishes without a connection.

Add to Home Screen makes the game easier to open. On iPhone, the launch screen explains Safari’s Home Screen steps. Browser storage can be cleared when space is low, so you may need to download the game again.

Local AI battles save progress periodically. If a compatible save remains in that browser, reopening the game offers Resume saved battle. Saves stay on your device and in that browser.

The Field guide pauses an AI battle and includes Automatic, Sharper and Lower resolution picture quality options. Local AI play also pauses when backgrounded and offers Resume battle and sound when you return.