Anno 1800 – What is Anno 1800?

Anno 1800 is a real-time strategic city-building game that was developed by Blue Byte and published by Ubisoft. It was released on April 16, 2019 and is based around the Industrial revolution in the 1800s.  and sets up the player as a that.

The Premise

Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age. The path you choose will define your world. Are you an innovator or an exploiter? A conqueror or a liberator? How the world remembers your name is up to you.

In Anno 1800, players will take charge of their own fortune as they navigate the rapidly evolving technological landscape and malicious political arena of the 19th century in their quest to build an empire that will reach from the smog-filled cities of Europe to the teeming jungles of South America.

Combining beloved features with innovative gameplay, Anno 1800 is the beginning of a new era for the Anno franchise as players leave their mark on a crucial moment in human history.

From the official Ubisoft website

Gameplay

Players take on the role of the company competing against ~three competitors to expand their production and influence throughout the world. Players start out with a randomized island that could be small or big with varying distributions of resources. They will need to develop their island by initially building a marketplace as the economic and cultural center of their island. They start out with a fixed amount of currency to begin developing their island, so they need to be careful to spend it wisely.

From there, they can build farms, farm housing and other basic structures to begin developing their town. All structures need to be linked by roads in order to produce goods and interact with each other. As they produce goods and the relevant buildings, warehouses and manufacturing plants, they will be able to upgrade their population and existing structures as well. This will require relevant resources and building types, as well as maintaining the happiness and numbers of their workforce.

As players progress, they will move through various ages and expand their town across their starting island and possibly onto other islands through exploration. If players are the first to discover a new island, it will automatically be colonized by them, although the same holds true for their competitors. Otherwise, players may need to expand through economic buy-outs or military conquest of islands that are owned by their competitors. They will also be able to establish trade routes with new world territories.

When players start out on an island or discover a new island, they can view that islands natural resources and farming capabilities in the bottom-left corner of their screen. This is an important consideration early on, when players don’t yet have the resources to build expand too much. However, players don’t need to start building on an island as soon as they claim it, although it is wise to develop it as soon as they can, in order to avoid opponents trying to buy out or conquer the island for themselves at a later stage. These are the only ways for opponents to claim islands that have already been discovered by others. The same holds true for the player vis-à-vis their opponents.

If players want to, they can also shift to first-person and zoon in o explore the streets of Anno 1800, instead of just observing everything from a grid-perspective. This view allows people to see their citizens and workers going about their daily lives, whether simply walking around, enjoying a café or protesting, among many other everyday activities.

Building Structures

Players can apply the ‘blueprint’ function when building to view the reach of their building before they place it. As different buildings influence each other and the surrounding populace based on proximity, this is a pretty useful tool. These effects can be positive or negative, as well as the degree to which they impact nearby structures. Maximizing positive influences and minimizing negative influences will save additional balancing costs later. This is also important, as all buildings have maintenance costs in addition to any revenue that they generate, and unnecessary buildings can easily deplete the player’s coffers needlessly. It could even lad to bankruptcy, which could easily cost them the game.

All houses and structures have different needs and capacities. Players can click on each structure to review their output and lacks, as well as to review population needs and potential to upgrade those structures. Regarding population, the more their basic and luxury needs are met, the greater their growth rates. Upgrades can only occur when the building’s capacity and requirements are fully met, so it is a good idea to check trough each structure regularly to see where they stand. They can also zoom in and out for different grid perspectives.

However, it should be noted that not all upgrades are necessary. For instance, although there are different levels of housing and associated housing capacities, these different housing types also contain different types of workers. It is therefore necessary to ensure that players maintain a sufficient number of Farmers to work on the farms, Workers to work in factories, warehouses and other menial tasks, and so on.

Each building requires its own resource parameters to be built. This includes both the price and resource types needed. If a player’s island doesn’t contain those necessary resources, players will either need to establish trade routes to the New World, discover and claim new islands, or attempt a coup on one of their competitors islands.

All constructions are built immediately, although transport between the structures can take time, so it’s good to place the buildings that are in a single production chain next to each other I order to decrease the overall production time of goods. Clicking on a harbor or warehouse will show players their overall resources possessed, used or required.

Modes

There are three modes in Anno 1800:

• Campaign

  This is the solo mode. It can either be played with AI competitors or totally solo. It can be played offline, but there are sometimes crashes as the game tries to connect to the server. Players will need to meet various objectives in order to progress to the next stage of the game.

• Multiplayer

  This is an online mode that allows players to either join random lobbies or invite friends for competitive play, with a total of up to four people. Players can either opt for preset game modes or create their own game parameters. Their starting islands are still randomized.

• Sandbox

  There are three difficulty levels with preset options, as well as a customizable gaming option.