A free Viking strategy MMO in your browser
Sail to an island.Build a town.Defend it.
Holmstead is a real-time strategy game in a world of islands that keeps going when you log off. Settle an island, raise a Viking town and hold it against raiders — among real players, each the jarl of a town of their own.
Free · No download · Phone and desktop
One sea of islands, shared by everyone
- A whole archipelago of hills, forests, coves and long beaches, grown from one seed.
- You start in a dinghy. Sail to any island you like and wade ashore.
- Everyone plays in the same world at once: you see their boats, their towns and their jarls as they move.
- On the next island east, Eirik the White is building Hvitholm — a town the game runs by the same rules as yours.
Nothing appears out of thin air
Every building is put up by your people, piece by piece, and stays where you put it.
Your people carry wood and stone to the site and build it piece by piece; it rises only as far as its materials allow.
Homes and a hall, a forestry and a quarry, docks and a market, a barracks and an archery range, walls, gates and towers.
Foresters plant and fell trees all over town, and a quarry cuts stone from the rocks. What you no longer need comes down the way it went up.
Lay a stone wall in one line, with battlements and a walk along the top. Gates open only for your own people, and a guard tower takes an archer up to keep watch.
Defend what you build
- Every few days raiders land by boat and go for whoever is out on the edge of town. Women and children run for the town centre while your men and soldiers fight back — outnumber a raider three to one and he runs for his boat.
- Train swordsmen at a barracks and archers at a range. Swordsmen fight up close; archers shoot from a distance and from the top of the guard towers.
- Keep your soldiers in groups and march them in formation, ranks across the way they go. Post them at the gates, let them stand at ease, or call them to their posts.
- Your jarl carries a steel sword: draw it and cross blades with other players.
A town with a life of its own
Your villagers are not units waiting for orders: they set up home, raise children, grow old and keep working while you are away.
Couples move into empty houses and raise children; with room to spare, more families sail in and ask to stay.
Children grow up, grow old and are buried — in the woods, until you build a cemetery. Hunger or a winter night outdoors can take them sooner.
They work by day, eat round the fires in the evening and sleep at night. When food runs short, half the town keeps working through the night.
Give someone a job and they keep it. Idle villagers find work by themselves, and builders move on to anything half built.
Four seasons under one sky
- Day and night run on the same clock for everyone: when the sun sets for you, it sets for everybody.
- Autumn turns the leaves; winter brings snow and smoke from the chimneys.
- Rain clouds roll in over the sea, fog lies in the woods at dawn, and paths wear in wherever people walk.
- Birds on the roofs, hens laying eggs, roosters at sunrise — and music that turns tense when raiders come.
Grow beyond one island
When one town is not enough, take your jarl to sea again.
Take your jarl and three villagers to sea with supplies, and found a new town under your colour on another island.
A dock builds fishing boats, merchant ships and war galleys, each with its own crew. Boats carry people and goods between your towns.
A market swaps what you have too much of for what you lack.
Straight from the game
Screenshots, not renders: this is how Holmstead looks in a browser today.
Everybody needs some time off
Here you still pick up something: the other jarls are real people, in a world that keeps going.
The towns you sail past and the boats on the water belong to real players. Only raiders, visitors and Eirik the White's town are run by the game.
Where they settle, how they lay out and wall a town, how they hold the shore and when they fight. Tactics for survival and for running a settlement, learned from people rather than a script.
Play as a guest: no account and no download. Sail, explore and cross swords straight away.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. It runs in the browser, there is nothing to download and nobody asks for a card. Play as a guest with one button, or sign in with a mixtape.works account.
What kind of game is it?
A real-time strategy and town-building game in a persistent online world — an MMO you play in a browser tab. If you liked building and defending a town in Age of Empires, The Settlers or Banished, or growing one among other players in Travian, it will feel familiar: in 3D, in one world shared by everyone.
What can a guest do, and what needs an account?
A guest can sail, walk, explore every island, talk to other players and cross swords with them. Building, training soldiers and taking in villagers need a mixtape.works account — and while Holmstead is in its first test, building is open only to a small group.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes, on a phone and on a desktop. Tap to go, tap to pick, pinch to zoom — and you can add it to your home screen like an app.
What happens to my town when I log off?
It stays where you left it, and the world goes on around it; builders you left at a site keep building. Raiders come only while you are there to meet them, and no other player can harm your town or your people.
Is there fighting?
Yes. Raiders come by boat every few days while you are in town, and you defend it with walls, towers, swordsmen and archers. Players can also duel each other on foot with swords. No other player can attack your town.
Which languages does it speak?
The game itself speaks English and Hungarian so far: pick one in its settings menu and it remembers it. This page is in 42 languages.
Is it finished?
No. It grows almost every day, and the people playing it decide what comes next.