A colonist is the main kind of productive "unit" (meaning "person"!) in any of the Colonization games. "Free Colonists" are the ordinary sort, with no special skills but no handicaps. They generally produce three units per turn in any activity in the central tile of a colony but increase that to 4 or 5 if the colony has production bonuses. Any free colonist can acquire a specialist skill, which usually doubles his productive capacity in that field but makes no change for other kinds of work. Ways to acquire skills: