Anno Union Ship Vote

“If I may say, an excellent day to visit. A lot of new stuff came in only last night… by moonlight. We have all sorts, something for every taste. I can’t just give them away – I have a family to look after! – but we can’t afford to hold on to this stock too long either!”
The Imperial Pride
“Stunning to look at and surprisingly well-armored, this steamer is a showpiece of Imperial power”

We had to pull quite a stunt to snatch it from the empire’s greedy hands. You can tell they have spared neither expense nor effort, from that swanky design to the absurdly powerful steam engine, all wrapped up in enough armor and firepower to make the enemy think twice. As if its teeth weren’t enough, it also has a capacious hold for storage.
The Iron Dragon
“Some like it hot!”

Armed with weapons that spit fire straight from the pits of hell, this beast comes with a monstrous engine and such thick steel plating; you’d wonder how it ever swims. But it swims fine; as we learned the hard way. I’m surprised we managed to get hold of one! Don’t worry though, I’ll get you a discount for all those strange symbols scratched everywhere.
The Black Pearl
“Sailing under the black flag is a commitment to an alternative lifestyle.”

She looks a bit worn, but I’ll get you those sails stitched and decks scrubbed of blood stains. I’ll be honest, this here is one of my favorites: reliable, fast and easy to repair; I often take her for personal use. Doesn’t have the most guns, but she’s quick and deadly. Leaves our enemy regretting they bet their lives on some new-fangled steamer.

Tourist Boat
“A real dandy. For those leading a life of leisure.”

Talking of new-fangled, here is a fashionable paddle steamer. Longing to leave the promenade for a tour around the bay? Here’s your chance. And if for some reason you want a ship with no chance of defending itself, you get a whole host of accessories as compensation. Deck chairs, parasols, and colorful pennants. It’s a proper showboat.
Tug Boat
“I have no idea how it ended up here.”

Ah, the crown jewel of the collection… Okay forget it, we woke up aboard this tug one morning, don’t ask how. She may be small, but she’s mighty, and you should never write off an underdog; especially one with a steam engine, storage enough for a good bit of contraband, and maybe even a nasty surprise or two.

The Anno Union ship vote

Presented here are five ships that are normally reserved for use by various NPC factions in the game. While you won’t be able to construct these AI ships in your shipyard, there will be a chance to acquire some of them during gameplay, such as buying stolen ships from pirates.

Today, we want to know which of these ships is your favorite, before we enter the second stage of our contest.
The second phase will challenge your creativity, as we want you to design a ship variant of the first stage’s winner. Similar to the island contest, you will be able to go all in with ideas, drawings and descriptions of the model variant. Whether you envision a mix of speed and transport space or an interesting combination of weapons of special features, we will gather all your submissions at the end to put the best design ideas up for the second stage of the vote. The winner of that contest will make it as a true community ship into Anno 1800!

The first stage of the vote will be up until July 2nd. After the end of the first phase, we will provide further details about the upcoming ship design contest!

After you hit that vote button, let us know what your favorite of the five concepts is, and why you would like to get your own hands on it in Anno 1800.

Vote: Community Island

Annoholics have discussed the art of island design since the dawn of the Anno series. With our Anno Union island contest, we put your knowledge, design skills and creativity to the test to create a truly community-shaped island for Anno 1800. You impressed us with almost 100 entries to the contest, ranging from well thought gameplay concepts to the craziest playgrounds.

It was far from easy for us to make the final selection. Over the last weeks, our team went through every single entry and finally, we have a list for the five islands competing in the next Anno Union vote.

And the finalists are:

VulcanixFR
We liked VulcanixFR’s entry especially because of the well thought out mix between bigger and smaller construction spaces. With its opposing beaches, this island offers an iconic vista to build an interesting harbor installation.

MW.TRIBUN
The natural form of this island convinced our team. Hills, beaches and rivers are well placed and come together in a harmonious overall concept. The arrangement of the construction site and the fascinating landslide in the south create an interesting hotspot.

fabian_eiter
This islands got our attention because of its unique shape. The narrow parts of the island offer a great challenge for city builder and the jagged hills surrounding the bay add an adventurous element to it.

Phyllus1
The crazy idea to use the hat from the Anno 1602 cover was creative and humorous, while the nice curves and long cliffs offer a great challenge for Annoholics.

GmExpresso
We liked this isle for its simple form, providing ample space for huge cities. The high plateau in the north allows you to play around with the new uneven terrain of Anno 1800, which creates a great gameplay twist on a simple concept.

It’s now up to you, the members of the Anno Union, to decide which entry will make it into the game, as the first community created Anno island. We will further provide frequent updates about the state of the community island, including its creation up to all the final details. Keep in mind that we might need to change a few things, though we will be faithful to the general concept, feel and shape of the winning island.

Thanks to every single participating in the contest, putting so much effort and thought into all these glorious creations. If you want to browse through all great community entries again, you can do so here:
Island Contest entries international 
Island Contest entries German

Vote your favorite NPC into the game!

It’s about time to kick off our first Anno Union community vote. When creating a game, tons of creative ideas are flying around the studio but during the development process, we have to make hard decisions. That means some ideas have to go on hold, and eventually go out in order to ensure that the best one goes big.

A diverse cast of AI Characters has been an important part of Anno games for a long time. They help to immerse yourself in our game world and are your ally achieving victory or your bitter opponent during a session. With that said, we would like to introduce you to six interesting candidates for our last AI character for our NPC roster, and it is up to you who will make it on the ship when Anno1800 sets sail.

Find a short description below to make your choice easier, or maybe even harder. You will be able to vote for one of the characters (yes, only one) in the big voting highlighted at the right side of the Anno Union page. We will keep the voting up for a while and when it is time to make the decision of which character we will further develop, we will make that choice based on your actions.

Furthermore, we want to give you the chance to become a part of the characters journey. That means that with weeks and month to come, we will give you frequent updates about the development, from final artwork to 3D animation, classic Anno style.

A) Artur Gasparov – The Visionary
Descending from a noble bloodline, Artur studied mathematics, art and architecture to become the single most influential architect of the Empire. Artur strives for perfection. His works are breathtaking, sometimes even provocative. He dreams of creating the perfect utopian metropolis one day. Many call him the greatest visionary of modern times, still some voices question his inability to compromise, and point out Artur’s highly neurotic nature.

B) Hafsa Sultan – The Ambassador
A hookah pipe-smoking princess of the near-east, Hafsa revels in her wealth – loving jewelry and clothes best of all. She is a talented, enigmatic lioness, yet finds her duties as ambassador lack challenge. She only seems to have a vague interest in keeping her family dynasty alive, despite the fact it crumbles at home. Nevertheless, through her charm an ulterior plan appears, a plan she is keeping extremely secret.

C) Jacob “Jake” Turner – The Gambler
Regardless of his razorblade smile and shiny suits Jake is in desperate need of money. Always. He is extremely charming, wasting his talent on being a notorious gambler, con artist and dazzler. His enterprises are as expensive as they are risky, and in the end a lot of people lose a lot of money. Maybe that’s the reason why Jake, as he calls himself nowadays, changes his face like other people change their underwear.

D) Florence Morel – The Occultist
Florence Morel began her fascination with the occult as a morbid little girl, when she claimed to have found a mirror between worlds. Inheriting a vast fortune, her gothic search for truth now unfolds on a grander scale. Her army of acolytes seem bewitched, letting no one and no thing obstruct their leader. They say it is Morel’s destiny to set loose universal mysteries – for good or ill – and in doing so, change humankind forever.

E) Silas Grendel – The Mobster
Grendel is a vicious and ruthless racketeer, commanding his army of rats to get things done. He began running cutthroat carnivals, until his was the only circus in every town. Now his brutal concern only grows, with him king elect of the underworld. With dark nexus behind him, grander schemes are afoot; a man like Grendel wants to tattoo his name into the forearm of history.

F) Dr. Hugo Mercier – The Anarchist
Dr. Mercier did not spend five years reading politics at a great University just to toe the party line. No, his grand vision is anarchy – absolute freedom for everyone! It was a mistake of the Empire then, to think Dr. Mercier might make a suitable ‘governor’. Only in hindsight is it clear he is the definition of rebellion – a man with such conviction in his beliefs, he is willing to die for them.