Category: Anno 117

Union Update: Diplomacy, Roadmap and Community Spotlight

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community,

We’re here today with ANNOther Union Update! (Will we ever get tired of Anno-jokes? Don’t think so). We’ll recap what happened over the last few days and give you an overview of that to expect in the coming weeks and until the end of the year.

Livestream on the Diplomacy system

If you missed our last livestream dedicated to the Diplomacy system in Anno 117: Pax Romana, you can still watch it whenever you prefer here on Twitch. Together with Andrea and Dominik from the Game Design team and Jannik from Gameplay Programming, we talked about changes compared to past Anno games, the two different ways of waging war (limited war and all-out war), various diplomatic treaties and your relationship to the Emperor.

Next week Tuesday we’ll publish a DevBlog here on the Anno Union with all the details in writing.

Roadmap for upcoming weeks

It doesn’t stop with the DevBlog on Diplomacy, of course: As we get closer and closer to release, expect more (Dev)Blogs on various topics as well as more livestreams. Below, we want to give you an overview of our plans for the coming weeks – we’ll soon also have a more visual timeline on the frontpage of the Anno Union for quick reference.

  • An overview of the multiplayer aspect of the game for those of you who want to play Anno 117: Pax Romana with (or against!) friends (end of next week)
  • A closer look at the campaign and story (week starting the 13th)
  • All about the Governor’s Villa and specialists (week starting the 20th)
  • A glimpse into the future with our post-launch plans, something you have already been speculating on based on the Year 1 Pass artwork
  • How things are looking on the topic of mod support
  • An overview of the game, its features, population tiers of both provinces, etc.
  • and a few more topics.

Together with DevBlogs, expect livestreams from the Ubisoft Mainz studio on our Twitch channel, to show you in practice what you will read in our blogs. As before, they will feature people from different departments of the Anno team – the perfect opportunity for you to directly ask questions to members of the dev team!

So, keep an eye on the Anno Union and our socials to make sure you don’t miss on the latest news!

Minor demo update

This is just a quick note to let you know that we’ll have a minor update for the demo next week (likely Monday) to help us better track crashes some of you are reporting. We’ll also use the opportunity to do some updates to the translations, and are adding French and Simplified Chinese localizations to the version.

Community Spotlight

To end this lengthy Union Update, we collected some more screenshots shared by you Annoholics, while playing the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo – which yes, it is still available to download and play on PC.

Let’s start with this screenshot by ONI-Player, a charming Celtic settlement in Abion, but make it “Dutch” style. Such a creative way to use the the marsh drainage and its canals!

What a peaceful shot taken and shared by PANacho on Reddit! That Latium sun and sky are quite hard to beat. We wonder how this screenshot was taken, so close to the residences… huh.

ChMalfet managed to capture Albion’s moodiness in just one picture: this Celtic city almost feels embraced by the darkness of the night, enhanced by the thick fog and the heavy rain.

Advanced tips for new governors

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

You’ve built a stable first settlement, money is looking good and your citizens are happy – what other challenges await you? In this blog we’ll cover a few topics for after you reached Tier 2 and beyond in Anno 117: Pax Romana.

If you’re just starting out, check out our blog with some tips to get started!

Fertilities/settling island

While not a concern for the first population tier, on tier two (Plebeians/Mercators/Smiths) you might notice that not all goods can be produced on your starting islands anymore: lavender, olives, barley or herbs may not grow on your island and also some types of fish can’t be caught locally.

While you don’t have to fulfil all Needs of your citizens, as mentioned earlier, if you want to, you may have to settle a new island to grow different crops.

You can see which fertilities every island has by centering your camera above it and looking in the bottom left corner above the minimap:

If you’ve found an island that has what you need, send a ship there to build a trading post at the coast. Settling a new island requires a large sum of money – and the bigger the island, the more expensive it is. Don’t forget to also bring some construction materials with your ship in order to set up whatever buildings you need.

Attributes

We’ve touched on the topic of Attributes on some of the previous topics already, but want to dive a bit deeper:

There are 8 attributes in Anno 117: Pax Romana: Income, Population, Knowledge, Belief, Prestige, Health, Happiness, Fire Safety.

These attributes are increased and decreased via the Needs you provide to your citizens, as well as the area effects of various buildings. In addition, specific event (e.g. a festival or the outcome of a quest) can also impact them, as will your city status (a larger city will get a debuff on health, happiness and fire safety).

Our tips:

  • Hover over the different attributes in the bar on the top to see which factors are currently impacting each attribute.
    • This will help you to figure out why your fire safety is so low (e.g. cause you built multiple bakeries in your city) or which factors are contributing to your income.
  • Always pay special attention to the area effects of (production) buildings when placing them – no one wants to live next to a pig farm or charcoal burner but having a lavender field nearby is highly appreciated.
  • Negative attributes are not the end of the world: you will naturally run into times where you have e.g. negative fire safety and will find ways to counter them later (e.g. with aqueducts)
  • Health, Happiness and Fire Safety have specific “resolver buildings” that not only raise these attributes but also fight fires, quell riots or cure plagues. Place them strategically in your cities to automatically address any incidents appearing in your city.

Discovery Tree

One feature you unlock by advancing to the second population tier is research. If you generate Knowledge (another attribute) you can open the Discovery Tree and start investing those Knowledge Points into different technologies.

The Discovery Tree is split into three categories (economic, civil and military research) with various technologies and discoveries like new buildings, military units or improvements to existing systems.

You can, for example, unlock new deities to worship (see “Religion” tip below) like Minerva (Latium) or Cernunnos, Mercury-Lugus and Epona (Albion). Or you can research Warehouse Organisation or Sewing Circles in the economic tree, or Night Watch or Portitores in the civil tree to make your task of governing a bit easier.

A few pointers:

  • Hover over discoveries to learn more about them and figure out how they can help you
  • Parts of the tree only unlock after meeting specific requirements. Hover over these nodes to learn more
  • Find the things most useful to your current situation:
    • Upgraded warehouses (economic tree) can support more production buildings, preventing delivery delays
    • If you want to focus on research, unlock Minerva and worship her in your Sanctuary, and unlock “Sewing Circles” to gain extra knowledge from Spinners
    • If you’re struggling with incidents (Fire Safety, Happiness, …) there are multiple discoveries in the civil tree that unlock additional buildings and boost the existing resolver units like vigiles and custodes
    • Even if you’re not focusing on military, the “Tacking” discovery in the military tree speeds up all your ships, even if they’re sailing against the wind

Religion

Religion played a big role in ancient Rome, and it also does in Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Upon reaching Tier 2, you’ll be able to build the Sanctuary (Latium) or Fanum (Albion) and worship a patron god on each island. Some deities can be worshipped right away, some others have first to be unlocked via discoveries (see above). How you use the feature depends on your current plans and needs.

  • Each deity provides a number of local buffs for the island they are being worshipped. At the beginning, Ceres (agriculture) and Neptune (maritime production) are likely the most useful for you.
  • Later, Minerva is powerful if you want to focus on research and discovering new technologies
  • Mars is useful if you decide to go on a warpath, but shouldn’t be worshipped in early game since his buffs provide no benefits as long as you aren’t recruiting units and planning to wage war
  • You can switch to a different patron god any time but have to keep in mind that you’ll also lose any buffs granted by respective deity.
  • Every island can worship a different deity, allowing you to specialise and make the most of the buffs

Statistics Menu

Checking your storage in the warehouse and looking at the production timers of each chain is fine at the beginning, but the more your city grows and the more islands you expand to, the more moving parts there are you want to keep track of.

Therefore, utilize the Statistics Screen!

Click on your character’s portrait in the top center of the screen to open it and get an overview of all your islands and production chains.

  • Select an island on the left side, or multiple if you e.g. produce olives on one island but turn it into olive oil on another
  • The green bar represents production, the white bar consumption: generally, you want them to be of equal size.
    • a larger green bar means you’re overproducing goods
    • a larger white bar means you’re not producing enough and your stock will start decreasing, resulting in potentially your citizens’ needs not being met anymore
  • You can also find information on the buildings on your respective islands, how much money they cost and what their impact on your city attributes is

There is, of course, more to discover and to learn in Anno 117: Pax Romana and we’re only scratching the surface here. Don’t hesitate to simply experiment with the game and its features – or reach out to other players for advice.

We’re looking forward to reading about your experiences!

Getting started in Anno 117: Pax Romana

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Anno 117: Pax Romana is releasing on November 13th, and we want to make your experience with the game as smooth as possible. For this reason, we’ve put together a little “survival guide” directly from the devs to help you get started.

If you’re new to Anno or haven’t played Anno 117: Pax Romana yet, we recommend activating “Full Tutorial” in the game settings and starting with the Campaign. The story will slowly guide you into your role as Roman governor, from the tiniest settlement to a small town and all way into the province of Albion.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is a complex game and learning and understanding some mechanics might take some time – take it slow and don’t be afraid of restarting for a more successful second attempt.

The basics

Your first decision: Campaign or Endless mode

If you’re new to Anno in general but also if you enjoy a good story, we recommend starting with the campaign. In the role of either Marcus or Marcia learn how to be a good governor under the tutelage of your advisor and imperial slave Ben-Baalion. This mode slowly introduces the different features of Anno 117: Pax Romana while also involving you in a story that doesn’t just involve your character’s personal future, but also the events in the wider imperium!

If you’re an experienced player or simply want to get started right way, pick the Endless mode. You can still activate the tutorials to learn the basics along the way but in contrast to the campaign there are no artificial restrictions – and you can pick your starting province!  Select Latium for a regular playthrough with large, inviting islands – the classic Anno experience. Select Albion for a more challenging experience with marshlands and two potential population paths.

 

First steps

Whichever game mode and province you choose, your first steps will be very similar: you start with a trading post at an island and should set up a timber production first. Build two woodcutters and two sawmills in the forests near the trading post. Make sure each woodcutter has the minimum number of trees in its radius, as displayed when hovering the building over a forest. Less trees means lower productivity.

All buildings in Anno 117: Pax Romana require a road connection: production buildings to transport goods, and residences to consume goods and services. Production buildings also require Workforce as well as a warehouse in range (see range indicator on the roads) – your Trading Post at the coast also counts as a warehouse. Therefore, connect your wood production chain with roads to your trading post.

To address the need for workforce you require population. Your available workforce is displayed in the top left of the screen. Build some residences further inland and make sure they all have a road that connects them to the trading post. People will only move into those residences if specific needs (with the population symbol) are fulfilled. For a start, building a Fishing Hut (Latium) or Cockle Picker (Albion) are great to fulfil the “Food” need and when unlocked you can follow that up with the Market which should be placed near the residences.

Be aware that in Albion, some buildings – like the Eel Grabber – will have to be placed in the marshland.

Supplying your population

Let’s take a closer look at “Needs”. The menu of a residence (Liberti in Latium or Waders in Albion) shows you three Needs Categories: Food, Public Service and Fashion. You will need to provide at least one Need per category to upgrade your residence.

Each Need also provides certain Attributes: you can check those by hovering over the respective good or building. Sardines from the Fisher for example provides +1 Population and +1 Income, Porridge provides +2 Population. For the beginning, you want to focus on Population and Money to stabilise your economy and acquire enough workforce. Only when a need is fulfilled will the residence provide the respective Attributes and e.g. increase your population on the island.

You can provide all needs (e.g. both Sardines and Porridge as food in Latium) to have your residences provide as many attributes as possible. While not necessary to advance further in the game, this way you can maximise the number of residents per house or gain additional income.

Production chains and times

Early production chains are relatively straight-forward in terms of production time: Both the Woodcutter and the Sawmill each have a 30 seconds production time, meaning, you need one of each for the most efficient production rate.

Same goes for the Hemp Farm and the Spinner (to produce Tunics), for example.

Later you will encounter trickier production timers: the bread production chain has a 60 seconds (Wheat Farm) 30 seconds (Grain Mill) and 60 seconds (Bakery) combination. Meaning, for maximum efficiency, you would want to place 2 Wheat Farms,1 Grain Mill and 2 Bakeries.

 

Clicking on one of your warehouses gives you an overview of how many goods of each type you have and if the stock is going up or down. Only build so many production buildings to provide for all your current residences – setting up more than you need right now only cost you money.

Making money

You will start each game with a deficit and will have to find ways to increase your income soon. Let’s cover a few ways to manage money and make MORE money.

Firstly, your money will mainly be used to cover maintenance costs. All production buildings, public service buildings, ships and later military units cost your maintenance. Make sure to not build more of those buildings than you need at the current time. Hovering over the money icon in the top bar tells you exactly where you get money from and what it is being used for.

In addition, almost any construction – buildings, roads, ships – also cost a one-time sum upfront.

 

To make money, provide goods and services to your residents and keep building more houses! Keep an eye on goods and services that specifically provide money (e.g. sardines, eels or a market) – when these needs of your residents are met, your income will increase.

The second main way to make money is via area effects: production buildings like the Hat Maker or Spinner also effect all buildings within a certain radius, each building producing one additional gold. Build those near residences (but don’t forget to have a warehouse nearby for the transport of the goods) to profit from their buffs.

 

You don’t want to overproduce too much or immediately set up every new production chain but keep growing your settlement slowly and make sure your production and finances are stable before taking the next major step.

From village to small town

With the basics covered and your economy and finances stable, your village is flourishing! Time to take the next step and upgrade your residences to the next level.

Upgrading and progressing

To progress in Anno 117: Pax Romana, unlock larger, more impressive buildings, new production chains and features – in short: become more powerful – you will need to upgrade your residences to the next level (or “tier”).

When you have supplied your residences with at least the minimal number of needs (for Tier 1, Liberti or Waders, that’s fulfilling one need per each of the three categories) the upgrade button with the arrow will become available.

The second population tier, no matter which province you’re in, will come with additional Needs and a new, fourth Needs Category (Household), requiring you to set up additional production chains and building new public service building – like the Sanctuary, for example. You don’t have to rush to fulfil these needs immediately but can very much approach it at your own pace.

Look at what kind of attributes each Need provides and select the one most useful to you: Do you need to make more money? Do you want to research? Are your people unhappy?

To progress beyond Tier 2, you will need to fulfill needs worth three supply points in each category. Tier 1 needs provide one such point each, Tier 2 needs provide two points each. You can check this by clicking on a residence and looking at the supply bar of each category.

 

Upgrading in Albion

While in Latium, upgrading to the next population tier happens in a straight line (Tier 2 are the Plebeians), in the province of Albion things are a bit different:

You’re faced with the choice to either upgrade the Celtic way (to the Smiths) or start Romanising your population (and upgrade to the Mercators). Each path will not only visually shape your city but also come with its own set of needs and buildings. Feel free to pick whatever path seems more attractive to you, the differences are visible on the selection screen.

Your choice isn’t permanent, when progressing further in Albion, you will later be able to also upgrade your population the other path.

More help and tips & tricks

In addition to reading this blog, we recommend heading over to the Anno subreddit or the Annoverse Discord server to talk with other players, ask questions or discuss strategies.

Our welcoming community is always happy to answer questions and help our new players – big thank you to our awesome community!

 

If you feel you have a good grasp of the basics, check out our blog with advanced tips and tricks.

Union Update: Upcoming livestream & Community Spotlight

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community,

Today we’ve got a packed Union Update for you today, covering some exciting demo news, livestreams and the very first Community Spotlight dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana!

Demo availability

Great news, Governors: the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo will still be available and playable after 16th September! More info about the demo (platform, time limit, etc.) can be found in this blog, together with a useful guide on how to get start in Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Diplomacy Livestream

If you caught last week’s livestream and you enjoyed it, then we’ve got great news for you: we’re planning another livestream! This time we will dive into anything that revolves around Diplomacy in Anno 117: Pax Romana. In details, we’ll focus on rivals, characters in general, and the diplomacy menu. The stream is planned for September 30th, 5PM CEST / 11AM EDT – as usual on twitch.tv/annogame.

In case you missed last week’s livestream, you can watch the VOD here on Twitch.

Community Spotlight

First, a huge thank you to all of you who played the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo! We’ve seen so many great screenshots and videos around socials, Reddit and Discord, so we decided to share some of our favourite here on the Anno Union today… which makes this the very first Community Spotlight dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana!

Let’s start with this lovely shot by Dr_PoopiePants, portraying a lovely settlement by the river in Latium. And great job on placing those Vigiles (Fire Station) to protect your residents from fires!

In this collection of screenshots by OnEst1_ we can spot both Roman and Celtic residences in Albion. Why choose only one when you can unlock both on the same island?

TheUnbrokenCircle shared a screenshot of this walled Roman city – great job on using those walls! And we love the little island in the middle of it – who knows who lives there?

Another Latium screenshot, this time shared on Discord by Electric: this is a special one, as it portrays a special statue, Annocius! You might recognise this statue as it’s the one created by HiddenMoon79, winner of the first Community Contest dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana.

If you’re just getting started and playing the demo for the first time or you’d like to help a friend in need, Taka has created a super useful guide for the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo:

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Keep sharing screenshots and videos on social media, Reddit and Discord – we love to see your Anno creativity in action, and we’d be happy to share it here on the Anno Union!

Union Update: Survival tips for the demo

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Two great weeks are ahead of us: We put a demo of Anno 117: Pax Romana in your hands to play and explore! Until September 16th you can try out our game via Ubisoft Connect, Epic or Steam.

If you’re new to Anno or haven’t played Anno 117: Pax Romana yet, we’ve put together a little “survival guide” directly from the devs to help you get started. Anno 117: Pax Romana is a complex game and learning and understanding some mechanics might take some time – take it slow and don’t be afraid of restarting for a more successful second attempt.

The basics

First steps

Your first decision will be in which province to start. Select Latium for a regular playthrough with large, inviting islands – the classic Anno experience. Select Albion for a more challenging experience with marshlands and two potential population paths.

Whichever province you choose, your first steps will be very similar: you start with a trading post at an island and should set up a timber production first. Build two woodcutters and two sawmills in the forests near the trading post. Make sure each woodcutter has the minimum number of trees in its radius.

All buildings in Anno 117: Pax Romana require a road connection: production buildings to transport goods, and residences to consume goods and services. Production buildings also require Workforce as well as a warehouse in range (see range indicator on the roads) – your Trading Post at the coast also counts as a warehouse.

To address the need for workforce we require population. Build some residences further inland and make sure they all have a road that connects them to the trading post. People will only move into those residences if specific needs (with the population symbol) are fulfilled. For a start, building a Fishing Hut (Latium) or Cockle Picker (Albion) are great to fulfil the “Food” need and when unlocked you can follow that up with the Market which should be placed near the residences.

Be aware that in Albion, some buildings – like the Eel Grabber – will have to be placed in the marshland.

Supplying your population

Let’s take a closer look at “Needs”. The menu of a residence (Liberti in Latium or Waders in Albion) shows you three Needs Categories: Food, Public Service and Fashion. You will need to provide at least one Need per category to upgrade your residence.

Each Need also provides certain Attributes: you can check those by hovering over the respective good or building. Sardines for example provides +1 Population and +1 Income, Porridge provides +2 Population. For the beginning, you want to focus on Population and Money to stabilise your economy and acquire enough workforce. Only when a need is fulfilled will the residence provide the respective Attributes and e.g. increase your population.

You can provide all needs (e.g. both Sardines and Porridge as food in Latium) to have your residences provide as many attributes as possible. While not necessary to advance, this way you can maximise the number of residents per house or gain additional income.

Production chains and times

Early production chains are relatively straight-forward in terms of production time: Both the Woodcutter and the Sawmill each have a 30 seconds production time, meaning, you need one of each for the most efficient production rate.

Same goes for the Hemp Farm and the Spinner (to produce Tunics), for example.

Later you will encounter trickier production timers: the bread production chain has a 60 seconds (Wheat Farm) 30 seconds (Grain Mill) and 60 seconds (Bakery) combination. Meaning, for maximum efficiency, you would want to place 2 Wheat Farms,1 Grain Mill and 2 Bakeries.

 

Clicking on one of your warehouses gives you an overview of how many goods of each type you have and if the stock is going up or down. Only build so many production buildings to provide for all your current residences – setting up more than you need right now only cost you money.

Making money

You will start each game with a deficit and will have to find ways to increase your income soon. Let’s cover a few ways to manage money and make MORE money.

Firstly, your money will mainly be used to cover maintenance costs. All production buildings, public service buildings, ships and later military units cost your maintenance. Make sure to not build more of those buildings than you need at the current time. Hovering over the money icon in the top bar tells you exactly where you get money from and what it is being used for.

In addition, almost any construction – buildings, roads, ships – also cost a one-time sum upfront.

 

To make money, provide goods and services to your residents. Keep an eye on goods and services that specifically provide money (e.g. sardines, eels or a market) – when these needs of your residents are met, your income will increase.

The second main way to make money is via area effects: production buildings like the Hat Maker or Spinner also effect all buildings within a certain radius, each building producing one additional gold. Build those near residences (but don’t forget to have a warehouse nearby for the transport of the goods) to profit from their buffs.

 

You don’t want to expand too quickly or overproduce too much but keep growing your settlement at the same time to not lose money too quickly.

Upgrading and progressing

To progress in Anno 117: Pax Romana, unlock larger, more impressive buildings, new production chains and features – in short: become more powerful – you will need to upgrade your residences to the next level (or “tier”).

When you have supplied your residences with at least the minimal number of needs (for Tier 1, Liberti or Waders, that’s fulfilling one need per category) the upgrade button with the arrow will become available.

The second population tier, no matter which province you’re in, will come with additional Needs and a new Needs Category, requiring you to set up additional production chains and building new public service building – like the Sanctuary, for example. You don’t have to rush to fulfil these needs immediately but can very much approach it at your own pace.

Please note that the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo only features the first 2 population tiers of each province – in the final game you will be able to upgrade your population further.

 

While in Latium, upgrading to the next population tier happens in a straight line (Tier 2 are the Plebeians), in the province of Albion things are a bit different:

You’re faced with the choice to either upgrade the Celtic way (to the Smiths) or start Romanising your population (and upgrade to the Mercators). Each path will not only visually shape your city but also come with its own set of needs and buildings. Feel free to pick whatever path seems more attractive to you. You can always start a new savegame in the demo to try out the other path.

Community Help

In addition to reading this blog, we recommend heading over to the Anno subreddit or the Annoverse Discord server to talk with other players, ask questions or discuss strategies.

Our welcoming community is always happy to answer questions and help our new players – big thank you to our awesome community!

Advanced

You’ve built a stable first settlement, money is looking good and your citizens are happy – what other challenges await you? Let’s go over some of them below.

 

Fertilities/settling island

While not a concern for the first population tier, on tier two (Plebeians/Mercators/Smiths) you might notice that not all goods can be produced on your starting islands anymore: lavender, olives, barley or herbs may not grow on your island and also some types of fish can’t be caught locally.

While you don’t have to fulfil all Needs of your citizens, as mentioned earlier, if you want to, you may have to settle a new island to grow different crops.

You can see which fertilities every island has by centering your camera above it and looking in the bottom left corner above the minimap:

If you’ve found an island that has what you need, send a ship there to build a trading post at the coast. Settling a new island requires a larger sum of money – and the bigger the island, the more expensive it is. Don’t forget to also transfer some construction materials onto your ship, however, in order to set up whatever buildings you need.

Attributes

We’ve touched on the topic of Attributes on some of the previous topics already, but want to dive a bit deeper:

There are 8 attributes in Anno 117: Pax Romana: Income, Population, Knowledge, Belief, Prestige, Health, Happiness, Fire Safety.

These attributes are increased and decreased via the Needs you provide to your citizens, as well as the area effects of various buildings. In addition, specific event (e.g. a festival or the outcome of a quest) can also impact them, as will your city status (a larger city will get a debuff on health, happiness and fire safety).

Hover over the different attributes in the bar on the top to see which factors are currently impacting each attribute. This will help you to figure out why your fire safety is so low (e.g. cause you built multiple bakeries in your city) or which factors are contributing to your income.

Always pay special attention to the area effects of (production) buildings when placing them – no one wants to live next to a pig farm or charcoal burner but having a lavender field nearby is highly appreciated.

 

Specifically for Health, Happiness and Fire Safety, there are specific buildings to not only raise these attributes but also fight fires, quell riots or cure plagues. They can be found in the general construction menu behind the City Watch tab. Place them strategically in your cities to automatically address any incidents appearing in your city.

Discovery Tree

One feature you unlock by advancing to the second population tier is research. If you generate Knowledge (another attribute) you can open the Discovery Tree and start investing those Knowledge Points into different technologies.

The Discovery Tree is split into three categories (economic, civil and military research) with various technologies and discoveries like new buildings, military units or improvements to existing systems.

You can, for example, unlock new deities to worship (see “Religion” tip below) like Minerva (Latium) or Cernunnos, Mercury-Lugus and Epona (Albion). Or you can research Warehouse Organisation or Sewing Circles in the economic tree, or Night Watch or Portitores in the civil tree to make your task of governing a bit easier.

Religion

Religion played a big role in ancient Rome, and it also does in Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Upon reaching Tier 2, you’ll be able to build the Sanctuary (Latium) or Fanum (Albion) and worship a patron god on each island. Some deities can be worshipped right away, some others have first to be unlocked via discoveries (see above).

Each deity provides a number of local buffs for the island they are being worshipped – Neptune, for example, buffs all production chains related to the ocean. Take a careful look at the different deities and select the one that is most useful to you at the current time.

You can switch to a different patron god any time but have to keep in mind that you’ll also lose any buffs granted by respective deity.

There is, of course, more to discover and to learn in Anno 117: Pax Romana and we’re only scratching the surface here. Don’t hesitate to simply experiment with the game and its features – or reach out to other players for advice.

We’re looking forward to reading about your experiences!

Anno 117: Pax Romana – Official System Requirements

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Today we’re happy to reveal the official PC system requirements for Anno 117: Pax Romana.

As always with Anno, we strive to support the widest possible range of hardware, allowing as many players as possible to become a Roman governor and manage Latium or Albion – or both! Below you can find our suggestions for some of the most common scenarios in terms of settings and targeted framerate. As always with hardware specifications, your personal results may vary.

In addition, we have prepared a video for you, highlighting some of the PC-specific features in action – and showing you the beauty of Anno 117: Pax Romana! Enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana in 4k, with ray-traced illumination, streets and buildings filled with life – and Albion filled with fog and rain (not all the time, though!).

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Everything to know about the Anno 117: Pax Romana Demo

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

It’s time to play the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo!

From today until September 16th, everyone can download the free demo on PC via Ubisoft Connect, Steam or Epic.

Test your skills as a governor in Albion and Latium, settle islands, meet different characters and make sure your population doesn’t go hungry. There is plenty to explore and try out in both provinces and we’re looking forward to giving all of you a chance to play our game.

So, what can you expect in the demo? Below we summarised the key things to know for you:

Demo FAQ

Time and date

The demo will be available from Sept. 2nd (10AM UTC/12PM CEST) to September 16th (10AM UTC/12PM CEST).

Each savegame will be limited to 1h of playtime but you can start as many savegames as you want during the two-week timeframe.

 

Platforms

This demo for Anno 117: Pax Romana is available on PC via Ubisoft Connect, Steam and Epic.

It is not necessary to preorder the game in order to play the demo.

 

What can I play what can’t I play?

The demo gives you access to the early game portion of Anno 117: Pax Romana, letting you experience the first two population tiers in both Latium and Albion in Sandbox Mode.

You will be able to settle new island, do research and build all the buildings of the available population tiers.

While you can meet and interact with NPCs, you will not be able to declare and wage war. The demo also features only a limited selection of items to use in your villa and ships.

 

Game setup

While in the final game you can customize your experience by selecting which NPCs you want to play with and how difficult you want your game to be, you’ll be playing with a fixed preset in the demo.

You will be able to select your starting province, though.

 

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is not available in the demo.

Anno 117: Pax Romana does feature full PvP and co-op modes in the final game.

 

Savegames

You will not be able to save your progress in the demo – which also means that your progress won’t carry over to the release version of Anno 117: Pax Romana.

 

Streams, Videos, etc.

You’re free to stream the game, create videos or share screenshots.

Please note that if you have previously participated in a playtest (e.g. Closed Beta), the NDA from there is still active, meaning you’re not allowed to disclose your experience from said playtest.

 

System requirements

The system requirements for Anno 117: Pax Romana will be released on September 2nd, including here on the Anno Union.

You will be able to select graphics options, sound settings, etc. in the demo.

You’re stuck or need help with something for the demo? – We’ll soon release our tips & tricks blog with advice directly from the team.

Additionally, we recommend heading over to the Anno subreddit or the Annoverse Discord server to talk with other players, ask questions or discuss strategies.

DevBlog: Albion – Celtic deities, marshland and ponies

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Annoholics!

We’re back with part two of our DevBlogs on the province of Albion, covering everything we revealed last week at gamescom 2025 in Cologne.

In our first blog we introduced Albion itself, as well as the people that live there, the ways you can upgrade them – and the characters you can meet along the way. Today, we’re looking at Albion-specific aspects of features like Religion, the Discovery Tree and Military, as well as how decisions here can also impact both the province of Latium as well as your relationship with other characters.

After all, there’s more to culture and society than different types of food and public service buildings. A big part of ancient culture was Religion, and we wanted to represent that in our game as well.

Religion

Not too long ago we introduced you to the topic of worship and religion in Anno 117: Pax Romana: after building a sanctuary or temple you can select a deity per island to worship, providing you a variety of buffs. If a deity is worshipped across multiple islands, there’s also a global effect that can be unlocked and provides benefit to all islands you govern. The full details on the feature are described in this DevBlog right here.

 

The locals in Albion have their own deities as part of their polytheistic pantheon, just like the Romans. In your role as governor, you decide which deities are to be worshipped on each island – and if Celtic deities are among them.

Epona is the goddess of horses, and animals in general. Her worshippers increase the production of animal related production chains – as well as the speed of logistics carts. Additionally, it will allow you to build silos to store agricultural goods.

Mercury-Lugos is a romanized Celtic god, associated with trade and commerce. His buffs will boost your trade income as well as the loading/unloading speed of ships and carts.

Finally, there is Cernunnos, a mystical nature deity. His worshippers boost the production of goods from marshes and forests – and his ancient druidic wisdom will make your citizens healthier and smarter.

No matter which you choose, each will enhance your gameplay to suit your respective playstyle. All three deities need to be unlocked via the Discovery Tree first.

Worshipping deities will also result in the occasional festivals that you can decide to hold: With some support in the form of money or resources, your population will hold a parade in honor of the local patron deity, providing various buffs and preventing the outbreak of fires, plague and riots for its duration.

Discovery Tree

We mentioned unlocking deities, so, let us also briefly talk about the Discovery Tree. It’s here where you spend your Knowledge points to discover a great number of technologies across three branches: Economic, Civic and Military. These can be unlocks (like deities, units or buildings) or improvements (higher morale for units, production increases). Details on how to gain knowledge and how the Discovery Tree functions can be found in our dedicated DevBlog here.

 

Some technologies can only be discovered in a specific province and when fulfilling certain conditions. Only when in Albion, you can, for example, discover Celtic deities or research a technology that allows you to efficiently plant trees in otherwise unforested areas.

Other technologies are even exclusively usable in a specific province, and we want to highlight one specific technology: Marsh Drainage. You remember how we talked about the marshes in the first blog and also about the ways the locals use it for producing various goods? Well… if you romanize the local population, many of the products they are asking for are not using the marshland anymore. You’ll need more “normal” building space.

After researching Marsh Drainage, you can place sluice gates the border between marsh and ocean, and then construct canals inside the marsh. Within a certain radius around the canals, the water is drained and buildable land created. Finally space for more houses – or another bread production chain! Removing the canals will result in the marsh claiming back its territory – be mindful when rearranging or destroying canal tiles.

After this topic, we would also like to point out another important aspect: your decision to Romanize (or not) also influences your relationship with other characters!

Voada doesn’t like it when you drain swamps or worship Roman gods in Albion. Athr, on the other hand, doesn’t care – and Tarragon (one of the Roman rivals) can’t stand it when you get too close to Celtic customs.

The decision of how you want to deal with this and what consequences you are willing to live with is up to you.

Military

One of our most recent DevBlogs and livestreams have been related to the topic of military and warfare in Anno 117: Pax Romana.

As talked about there in detail, land combat is making a comeback in Anno 117: Pax Romana, after being present in several but not all past Anno games. While combat has never been – and never will be – the main focus on an Anno game, it still is one of the features we feel make up the unique character of the series.

At the same time, engaging in war is supposed to remain a choice: if you want to get along with everyone (or even disable opponents completely) or if you want to go to war and invade other islands is up to you.

 

While Anno 117: Pax Romana features a total of 11 different units, only some can be recruited everywhere. Others are unique to a specific province, like Legionaries in Latium – or Axebearers and Chariots in Albion.

Let’s take a closer look at these two Albion units.

Axebearers carry, as the name suggests, large axes – but don’t wear much in terms of armour. These infantry units are excellent shock-troops that deal plenty of damage and have an armour-piercing damage, to the great dismay of any legionaries. To show you them in action, we staged this little “ambush” against legionaries. You can also see the morale system in action here: after taking multiple casualties, the first group is even outflanked and accordingly breaks and runs.

Chariots fill a very interesting niche since they are combining the speed and mobility of a cavalry unit with the damage-from-a-distance of a ranged unit. They are excellent hit-and-run candidates that absolutely hate getting into close combat. In the video below, you can see them avoiding a group of Spearmen (which usually would be perfect against cavalry) while continuing to pepper them with spears from a distance.

As mentioned previously, all military units do not only cost money and resources to recruit, but also money and workforce in maintenance costs.

Of course you can also transport units between islands and between regions with your fleet – and widen your tactical arsenal in Latium with some chariots, for example!

Outro

This concludes our two DevBlogs on the province of Albion! Do you have any questions left? Leave them in the comment section below or save them until mid-September, when we’ll be holding a livestream covering Albion as well as some other aspects we recently talked about. And not much later, we’ll dive into the topic of Diplomacy – and also introduce you some of the characters you’ll be able to meet in Anno 117: Pax Romana.

 

Finally, let us once again remind you that you can check out Anno 117: Pax Romana in about one week: the time-limited demo is releasing on PC (Ubisoft Connect and Steam) on September 2nd and will remain available for two weeks.

Don’t miss this chance to try out our game – and let us know what you think!

DevBlog: Albion – A travel to the fringes of the Empire

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Welcome, new governors, to the province of Albion!

The Emperor appointed you to govern this recently conquered province in the far north of the Empire and we can tell you: it’s a strange place for someone like you, used to the sunny shores and endless lavender fields of Latium.

Therefore, let us help you get acquainted with this Celtic province, from its landscape and weather over its challenges and opportunities to (of course) its people and the characters you should be aware of.

 

This may yet come as a great boon to you, governors, as your skills are already required next week:

From September 2nd until September 16th you will be able to take on the role of a governor in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s time-limited demo on PC!

An alien world

Albion is supposed to feel like a stark contrast to Latium: both from a narrative point of view (if you want to put yourself in the sandals of a Roman governor from the South for a moment) but also for you as players in front of your monitors:

Different parts of (real-life) Britain and its Celtic heritage served as inspiration for this region: green forests and hills but with far more elevation and harsh cliffs. A fog seems to hang over the lower parts of the islands most of the time and rain may come at any moment – but also create beautiful rainbows (is there a pot of gold hidden at the end? Who knows!) and add to the untamed feeling of the region.

And then there are the marshes: parts of most islands are covered in marshland which not only give the province its unique character but also come with important gameplay elements. How do you use the marshes? Are they opportunity or obstacle for your plans to govern this region – and importantly: its Celtic locals?

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This is deeply tied into a key gameplay mechanic for Albion: the topic of Romanization. We’ll explore it deeper in the following paragraphs but for a wider look at Romanization in general, we recommend checking out this older blog post, especially if you care about the historical context as well.

Meet the locals

Starting small – the Waders

In good old Anno tradition, the province of Albion also requires you to upgrade your population to progress, unlock new buildings, production chains and technologies. While there are five population levels (“tiers”) in total, they come with a twist, as mentioned above.

But let’s start at the beginning, with the Waders.

Waders are Celts, home to Albion and now confronted with a new reality: they’re suddenly part of the Empire! That means arranging themselves with a new reality and figuring out what kind of benefits there may be to gain by being ruled by this far distant emperor – cause there may indeed be some upsides to all this after all (“What have the Romans ever done for us?”).

Like the Liberti in Latium, the Waders are content with comparatively little:

Build residences, supply them with food (cockles or eels), build a public service building (market or bard’s hearth) and fulfil their third Needs category – fashion (shoes or tunica).

And like in Latium, the “Optional Needs” system (read more here) also applies here: fulfil all needs, build all production chains and public services or just the minimum to upgrade them further.

Remember the marshland? – The Celts of course found ways to use this biome for their daily life. Eels are caught in the marsh (while cockles require a coastal building) and the reed for the shoes is also grown there. A unique aspect of producing in the marsh is that every building only has one specific street connector spot – and that not every building can be built there (e.g. no residences).

Romanization: Smiths and Mercators

Alright, you fulfilled at least the minimum of all three Needs categories and are ready to upgrade – what now?

In contrast to Latium, where your population is upgraded in a “straight line”, in Albion you’re now faced with a choice. Remember we emphasized a few times already your role as a Roman governor? This is a topic we wanted to draw from in the provinces specifically: will you let the locals stick to their traditions – or have them embrace Roman ambition?

Upgrade your Waders to Smiths and let them stay on the Celtic path – or upgrade them to Mercators to have them start to embrace aspects of Roman culture, fashion and architecture.

Smiths will ask for cheese and beer but also drinking horns, while Mercators request sausages, bread and proper Roman amphoras.

Historically, the Romans tended to largely let locals keep their traditions as long as they remained peaceful (i.e. didn’t rebel) and paid their taxes.

In some cases, local customs and entire religious practises were even adopted and ended up spreading further throughout the empire – leading to e.g. the Mithras cult spreading to Britain or a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis being located directly below our offices in Mainz, Germany.

 

Even when you’re romanizing the locals it’s important to keep in mind: these people are still Celts; Celts which have adopted various Roman customs, clothing styles and other cultural aspects.

No matter which path you take, your choice will be immediately visible: romanized residences and public services provide a striking visual contrast to Celtic construction methods and building styles.

Of beards and buildings: Aldermen and Nobles

With the necessary Needs of your Smiths or Mercators fulfilled, you can upgrade each branch one more time: Smiths to Aldermen and Mercators to Nobles.

Aldermen are among the most respected members of their people, deeply rooted in their culture with impressive mustaches. Considering their status, they will ask for a variety of goods and services – this is where your skills as a governor will get properly challenged: Imported wine from Latium? Fancy pelt hats? Chariots?

And then there are public buildings they will ask for, like the Alder Council where they can meet with the other Aldermen, discuss local politics and maybe have a beer. Building it will clearly show them, that you’re supporting their local traditions.

 

The Nobles, on the other hand, have taken further steps towards Romanization: they’re wearing their hair in Roman style (no beard) and dress accordingly. They will ask for those fancy togas from Latium and want you to build a proper Roman theatre – and an aqueduct to bring the water directly into the city. Building that will absolutely create a striking visual contrast to the Celtic parts of your island.

And as we can see the question already: as soon as you have reached Tier 3 with either the Celtic or the Roman path, you also unlock the respective other. Meaning, you can later create settlements with both traditional and romanized Celts living on the same island.

Friend or foe – new characters to meet

Last but not least: there are different characters to meet in Albion! We want to introduce at least some of them to you briefly. In the near future, we’ll dive deeper into the topic of diplomacy and will let you make the acquaintance of not only other characters but also the Emperor.

For now, let’s stay in Albion and look at one person who will watch your actions as governor very closely: Voada.

Voada is a Celtic Raider (similar in function to the “Pirates” of previous Anno games) and therefore very much set against you, the players, from the start: you are, after all, representing the Empire, the conqueror of this province.

Our team took quite a bit of inspiration from the historical character of Boudicca when creating Voada and her backstory and made her a fierce defender of Celtic traditions and the Celtic way of life.

Your relationship with her therefore depends heavily on how you use the “Romanization” mechanic: drain marshes, romanize the locals and worship Roman deities and she’s guaranteed to become your enemy, sending her raiders out to harass your trade routes and potentially even invade your islands. Let the locals embrace their Celtic traditions and… maybe you can become friends?

 

Another character we want you to meet is Manx. He’s a neutral trader, leader of his own tribe and comes with somewhat ambivalent feelings towards this new rulership. He appreciates the advantages that the Empire brings, the (expected) peace for the region, but is also worried about losing local culture.

You can trade various resources with him and receive quests that both benefit you but also tell you more about his backstory. Manx being a big fan of horses, his island features a large horse figure – inspired by the real “Uffington White Horse” in southern England.

Voada, Manx and Athr – three of the characters you’ll meet in Albion and each coming with their very own goals and expectations.

Finally, there’s Athr Iorgwyn. You didn’t think we’d make an Anno game without a member of the beloved Jorgensen family, did you?

Athr has dreams and ambitions: he’s a rival character who build cities and expands to other islands. Not into other provinces, however, he’s strictly staying in Albion (just like Dorian is only settling in Latium, for example).

There’re certainly a few elements of “King Arthur” in this character, with his focus on knights and building castles. In contrast to both Manx and especially Voada, he does not care about your decisions on the topic of Romanization. He himself is using whatever suits his interest best – and expects you to take similar actions yourself. While this, therefore, will not impact your diplomatic relationships negatively, you might clash with him over who gets to own which island…

Outro

But on the topic of war…. let’s keep Albion’s additions to this topic for the next blog post. In fact, in the second blog on Albion later this week we will also look at the unique aspects the province brings to the topics of Religion and the Discovery Tree. Today, we wanted to focus on the province and its people, since your decisions will not only impact the look of your islands but also the relationships with other characters – and the Emperor!

 

Finally, let us once again remind you that you can check out Anno 117: Pax Romana in about one week: the time-limited demo is releasing on PC (Ubisoft Connect and Steam) on September 2nd and will remain available for two weeks.

Don’t miss this chance to try out our game – and let us know what you think!

Anno’s panel schedule at gamescom

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

It’s gamescom week! Before many of us head to Cologne,  we want to update YOU on where to find US!

You can find the Anno booth, where you can play a demo of Anno 117: Pax Romana in hall 06.1, that’s directly right of the entrance to the hall when you enter from the main hallway.

Try our game yourselves in either Latium or Albion and learn the first steps of becoming a great governor.

In addition, throughout the week, we’ll be holding various panels in the Community Corner. Please find the full schedule for the week below (times in CEST, i.e. local time, which is UTC+2).

As you can see, we’re doing a variety of panels in English and German – and usually combined with a Q&A section so you can ask us any questions you might have.

Additionally, the panels on Thursday and Friday afternoon will be livestreamed on Ubisoft’s Twitch channel. All other panels will be “offline”, i.e. not livestreamed.

That said: don’t worry! You will find all information we reveal at gamescom later on also on also here on the Anno Union, and we’re also looking into a dedicated livestream in September.

 

As you might have noticed, we’re recording another episode of the Echoes of History podcast series live at gamescom on Thursday. This recording will be livestreamed as explained above and will later on also become a regular episode available via the usual means.

 

We’re looking forward to meeting some of you at gamescom this week!