Anno 1800 trial week

[fran]

One can play Anno 1800 until the 18th for free via the Epic game store

After playing it for a number of hours, these are my thoughts.  It is easy to pick up, but not easy to win. Surely the aim what most developers are aiming for. To mention one of the mechanics they changed is that you don't have to build homes in range of your workplaces. You only need to connect them by road.

The game feels challenging, and their concept of not only expanding to other islands (not really continent size), but also moving from the 'Old World' to 'New World'. I've not reached this point yet, so feels like there is a lot of content.

You can spend prestige points to influence your population controlling the media, in editing newspaper before publishing.

The balance in the game feels good, if you do not ensure you have the right resources your farmers/worker numbers will not increase. Not sure how to produce beer, well the user interface will show you the prerequisites needed. Just click on the hops icon and it will allow you to place your hops farm. During placement it will show you if it is in reach of a warehouse or directly to the brewery.  Click on a house and you will be able to see at a glance what resource e.g. sausage they crave to recruit more workers. Click on the happiness tab, and it would show you what is the cause, not easy access to a close by marketplace.

I've not really touched trade in depth, but one can setup routes between your own settlements and other nations. Got stuck setting up my initial route on this one, but was able to find solution on Youtube.

The graphics of the game is something to enjoy, it does feel immersive, and everything seems to be moving along on not the fastest of pc's. It feels a step forward in the city build genre.

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks for the heads-up.  For those of us avoiding the Epic store like the plague, it is also free to try on Uplay, which presumably is where you'd need to activate it anyway.  I think I'll have a look.

[Gusington]

I almost bought it for half off from UPlay a few weeks ago but held off.

[fran]

So I completed the main campaign. Here are my thoughts.

So did it without setting up any trading routes with competitors. I did sell surplus from my own trading ports. Your main income is from fulfilling citizens luxury needs and getting paid for it. I also started buying up competitors shares in their company and earning interest from it. I does have an negative impact on your relationship with the opponent, but that seem to be minimal. Not one opponent declared war on me.

The difficulty became because of scaling of your islands. I say island as the land mass  size wise feel like continents to me. You need to setup and maintain colonies to acquire the needed resources to progress. For example you would need rum as a luxury item from tropical climate in order for your artisans to progress. So you would need to setup your rum production and then transport it back to your old world island.

You can build commuter pier in order workforce between island. But understand now that this is a quicker way to get a resource chain completed by sharing your workforce. So you can immediately build an advance building by using advanced workers from elsewhere by building the commuter pier. See belowfor detailed instructions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK01gz5Dzgw

[Gusington]

Buying this when I get back to my pc from UPlay.

[Destraex]

Did anybody have a problem with providing so much detail to uplay to purchase for the first time?
I went to get one of the anno games and found they wanted email, full name, full address, phone number even though I was going to be using a third party payment system (not a credit card).
It's basically all the information any identity theft hacker would need if they get in.

I wonder if earlier account creation had the same requirements?

[Gusington]

I put that info in every time I use UPlay, Steam, Origin, GOG Galaxy, etc., since I never store my cc info with the vendor.

[steve58]

Free to play is back.  March 12-15.  Also base game on sale for $29.99 (Epic/Uplay).

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/anno-1800/home?epic_affiliate=isthereanydeal&epic_gameId=oregano

[Destraex]

Thanks.

[AchillesLastStand]

Wasn't some form of combat in this and eventually removed from release version?

[fran]

Wasn't some form of combat in this and eventually removed from release version?

Not sure on above, only naval combat exists in the form of a ship to ship and ship to coastal batteries.

The game is not really about combat, all about setting up production chains so one can advance as a nation.

Strangely even trading can take a back seat. One can get enough income by keeping one's citizens happy.

[FlickJax]

No good for me then - I like a little Kaboom :)

[Gusington]

I put about a dozen hours into it and it kicked my ass each time.

[Pete Dero]

I put about a dozen hours into it and it kicked my ass each time.

I couldn't finish the campaign and that one is meant to be a tutorial ...

[Gusington]

That's exactly what happened to me! I am shamed. Plus it hurts that much more because the game is very good.