Windlass Canal Locks

A flight of locks climbs the hill. The summit pound holds only so much water. Every boat that wants up must borrow a lockful — and the tolls only land when a boat exits the TOP. Windlass is an idle game about throughput, not just numbers. Painted narrowboats moor up below the flight; you tap each chamber's brass windlass to fill it and lift its boats one lock. Each cycle drinks the same lockful from the summit whether it carries one boat or two — so the craft is PAIRING: hold a lonely boat in a chamber until a partner slips in beside it, then lift both on a single shared fill. Twice the cargo, the water of one. The weather has opinions. Rain doubles the summit's refill; drought halves it and the queue backs up while you ration every lockful. Side pounds recapture spent water, a back-pump steams tolls back uphill, and hired hands turn the windlasses on their own cadence — hire the whole flight and boats keep moving even overnight. When the tolls justify it, dig the New Cut: the canal is surveyed away, and every Charter you claim pays +10% tolls and +10% water regen, forever. The company now grants a deed with every cut — Water Rights, Toll Rights, a wharfinger's ledger, the dry dock, horse marines, a beam engine, a long lease — one permanent pick that survives every canal after it. And the company keeps you busy between cuts. Waybills post three rotating contracts over the flight. The Royal Mail packet calls on a hard deadline and pays ×8 if she's over the top in time. Market Day stamps each real day with a modifier and a streak that never resets — it only pauses. A twenty-waypoint journey up-country unlocks six new painted hulls and permanent toll and water bonuses as your lifetime boats climb. And when the company judges you seasoned — forty boats over the top — the Keeper's Examinations open. Thirty hand-set puzzles, each a small flight with a fixed water allowance: leaky chambers that drink deep, narrow locks that take one boat at a time, side ponds that hand water back, barges that fill a chamber alone, and Royal Mail runs against the clock. Waste little and take three stars; the stars unlock brass and scarlet hulls and pay permanent toll and regen bonuses back on the working canal. • A living flight of 4–8 lock chambers, water levels animating with every fill • Paired locking: two boats, one lockful — the ×2 you engineer with timing • Rain and drought cycles that swing the whole water budget • Waybills, a timed Royal Mail packet, and daily Market Day streaks • A 20-waypoint journey with six hull liveries and permanent bonuses • The Keeper's Examinations: 30 hand-set lock puzzles with star ratings and canal-wide rewards • Deeds: choose one permanent grant at every New Cut • Side pounds, back-pump, auto-cranks, gate speed, cargo and trade upgrades • A quiet canal-side: herons, dragonflies, softly synthesized water and bells • Boats queue and the summit refills while you're away — 1 h free, extendable to 8 h or 24 h with a one-time purchase • Fully offline, no account, nothing collected Wind the paddles. Mind the water.