It’s time! Yesterday we launched “Land of Lions” and you can now set sail to the lands of Enbesa, discover the Land of Lions and assist Emperor Ketema in building a new capital for his empire.
What better way to celebrate the DLC release than with a proper Launch Trailer!
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Over the last weeks we published several DevBlogs detailing the content of the “Land of Lions” DLC and the mechanics and challenges it will bring to your Anno 1800 experience.
If you missed any of them or just want to refresh your memory before jumping into the game – here you go:
As usual, we are releasing a packed-full free Game Update together with the DLC. Game Update 9 not only includes various bug fixes and adjustments, we also implemented a variety of feedback points from our community (like selecting an island for your ship to sail to when switching sessions) to further improve your overall experience with Anno 1800.
You can find an overview over these quality of life improvements here, and the full release notes here (beware, it’s a long list!).
Since Monday you’re also able to get two additional “Land of Lions” ornaments via the Twitch Drop event currently ongoing. We’ve prepared all details in this dedicated article, including a list of all streamers participating.
Ubisoft Connect and the Club Rewards
A few of you already noticed it on Wednesday: All regular Ubisoft Club rewards for Anno 1800 were unlocked for everyone for free!
This is related to the rebranding of the Ubisoft Club and Ubisoft Uplay into Ubisoft Connect – so no worries, you can keep them.
Since this is not a topic solely related to Anno 1800, we recommend following this link for more information on Ubisoft Connect and what it means for you as players.
Anno 1800 board game release
As a final bit of news: The Anno 1800 board game is now released! (in German; an English release is planned for next year) In this physical version of the game, published by KOSMOS, you need to manage your workforce and fulfill your citizens’ needs while facing off against your competitors directly across the table. Have a look at our interview with its designer Martin Wallace.
Additionally, accompanying the SPIEL.digital online trade fair, a replacement for the usual physical event in Essen, you can test a digital (albeit German) version of the Anno 1800 board game for free. More details can be found here.
To the hallowed motto of the Old World’s greatest university, « Ardua Veritatem » many a young, aspiring Scholar has amended their own witty epigraph, one of which remains, etched in pale strokes, to this day: « Ex sapientia immodus ». Through hardships, truth; from wisdom, immoderation.
Though these ambitions have never failed to leave a trail of flustered supervisors and browknitted deans in their wake, there is no arguing the spirited genius of the countless young prodigies whose tireless labour and many sleepless nights consistently push against the frontiers of human knowledge and understanding for the greater glory of Science – and a modicum of personal glory, naturally.
Scholars are infused with the passions and trailblazing fire of youth. To live, to dream, perchance to inspire or set a trend, whether in the quest for knowledge or that for a fashionably dandified wardrobe – these are the waters within which a Scholar’s heart blooms. To these fascinations and wild ambitions, they have sacrificed much, leaving families, friends and lovers behind, in their distant homelands, to heed the call of that Magna Mater – Science!
Easily smitten with novelty and extravagance, Scholars are nonetheless remarkably hard workers, readily expending much of their time and energy to the pursuit of the tantalizingly obscure minutia of wisdom and progress, working together towards a brighter, better and sharper-dressed future.
Hello once more, dear Anno Community!
In this last DevBlog for Land of Lions we will focus on the influence of Enbesa on the Old World.
If you have missed any of our previous blogs, have a look at the dedicated ones for:
Already in our overview blog we mentioned that besides creating a new world for you to explore and a new story for you to discover, we also wanted to incorporate a specific point of feedback we received from you after the release of “The Passage”: Having closer connections between the different sessions to offer more than just a one-region-specific challenge.
With “Land of Lions”, this comes in the form of the Scholars.
When you’ve upgraded your first Shepherd Residences and the initial Elders are moving in, you unlock the last new feature of the “Land of Lions” DLC: With an influx of students from Enbesa and the rest of the globe to the Old World, first the construction of the Research Institute (requires 300 Elders) and later housing for the new Scholar population tier (requires 1500 Elders) is unlocked.
The Research Institute is a new, 3 stage monument that can be constructed once per player in either the Old World or Cape Trelawney. It is a place of study and research, a place where your eager scholars analyze artefacts and plants – and where they come up with technological breakthroughs known as Major Discoveries.
Aside from requiring plenty of workforce for the construction, you will need large amounts of building material – but will be rewarded in turn with a beautiful new landmark for your city which in addition unlocks the new research feature, allowing your brightest minds to engage in what they like doing most: science!
Before we jump into the details of the research system, let’s first take a look at the Scholars.
Being a separate population tier, they will require their own appropriate housing. Scholar Residences have a size of 4×4 fields and – due to their love for academic research – require immediate access to a university. Due to their larger size, these residences also house significantly more people (120 eager students of science) than, for example, an Investor residence does.
It takes time and effort to build up a reputation as a Research Institution. Scholar Residences are tied to permits: Only by acquiring more permits via research in the Institute will you be able to build more of them and be able to invite more Scholars. This will also open up further research options, and unlock additional needs for Scholars.
The scholars represent a typical international student: hailing from distant Enbesa and other parts of the world, but living in the Old World. The duality is reflected in the Scholar’s needs: They will ask for fancy Old World clothes, requiring you to build new production chains for Leather Boots and Tailored Suits, as well as increasing your output of Bombin Hats. And while as students they enjoy a social Rum and the convenience of Canned Food, nothing tastes better than a memory of home. Their loved ones in Enbesa will only be too glad to ship Seafood Stew and Hibiscus Tea over to the Old World to assuage any feelings of homesickness.
The Scholars’ keen interest in new technologies and inventions means they also desire gramophones, the newly developed telephones and a cutting-edge new public building: The Radio Tower.
With their needs fulfilled and the construction of the Research Institute finished, your scholars will get to work and generate a constant stream of research points. The more Scholars you have attracted, the faster they accumulate research points and the more research points you can “store”. More advanced research requires points in large quantities, a feat, small research groups simply won’t be able to accomplish.
Another way of acquiring research points is by donating items – for science! The amount of points received depends on the rarity of the respective item.
Researching items and especially Major Discoveries takes time, even for such a talented bunch as your Scholars. To speed things up, you can assign parts of your Engineer workforce – the Scholars’ tutors. Just make sure they’re not needed elsewhere.
Now, a variety of exciting research options are opened up to you, providing plenty of advantages for your empire. Let’s go over what kind of options the bright minds in the Institute came up with.
First, the item research. A recurring feedback since the release of Anno 1800 has been the wish for more direct ways to get items for specific purposes. Item crafting with Old Nate in Cape Trelawney and the Artic provide one alternative to purchasing and questing, while the item overview with details about the sources gives you a clearer idea where you need to look for that last missing zoo animal. Game Update 9 will change the number of items offered by AI parties from 8 to 12, which means less re-rolling to get the one you want. Owners of “Land of Lions” will have to live with a small restriction here, though, to balance the option of donating items for research points: Only 20 items can be purchased from a single NPC trader in a 30-min window.
With the Research Institute you can now develop almost any item in the game and this way specifically focus on the ones that make the most sense for your islands and for your overall strategy. The items have to be discovered and analysed by your researchers first, requiring research points, and you can choose between Cultural Science (Animals, Cultural Items and Plants), Technological Advancements (all kinds of machines and tools) and Talent Development (Specialists).
Secondly, there are the Major Discoveries. These present you with more ways to specialise aspects of your economy, but they also address existing community feedback.
For example, the appropriate research allows you to move Oil Springs and Clay Deposits to another place on the island, change the fertilities to grow hops instead of paprika or change the ore of a mineral deposit to one you need more of. This will help you to further specialise existing islands and e.g. move that one oil spring just in range of the refinery, while also helping with layout creation and city beautification.
Furthermore, via a Research Kit you can directly identify items you already own and then develop them in the Research Institute, while additional Great Eastern Permits allow you to… well, build more of these magnificent ships!
Pier Upgrade Permits let you upgrade existing piers to Advanced Piers, increasing their loading speed and allowing you to specialise them: You can now dedicate these piers to a single type of good which helps you with directing your trading ships to specific places on your coast.
And don’t worry: If you, for example, create a dedicated coffee pier, all other goods on trade routes transporting coffee to your island will of course also be handled by the Advanced Pier.
Finally, to continue with the coffee topic from above, there’s something for all coffee lovers on your islands: Modern technology will enable you to produce New World goods in the Old World, by using replacement products. Specifically: You can unlock Advanced Coffee Roasters, Rum Distilleries and Cotton Mills to help you with any shortages.
Running out of space for high quality coffee beans in the New World? Don’t worry, just mix in some locally produced malt coffee – your investors won’t notice!
To round off, Land of Lions will of course also bring new item sets for your cultural buildings, for example a Lion (quelle surprise) or a Giant Snail for your zoo. On top of that, there will of course be some region-specific items for Enbesa, to for example boost local production, like the Tea Selector for your Tea production or Flood Gates to increase your pump’s irrigation capacity.
All of this will be open for you to explore as part of the “Land of Lions” DLC on October 22nd, available via the Ubisoft Store, Epic Store and Steam.
As usual, we will release a free update alongside the DLC including a bunch of quality of life improvements alongside plenty of bug fixes and tweaks. The full release notes will be posted next week, but if you haven’t done so, you should definitely check out our DevBlog detailing all the improvements of Game Update 9 which we posted a few weeks ago.
Over the coming week we will give you the opportunity to already take a closer look at the contents of the last and biggest DLC of Season 2, “Land of Lions”, as well as Game Update 9, by watching some of your favourite streamers during another Twitch Drops Event.
The whole event takes place from Monday October 19 until October 28.
During the event, you will be able to watch how a variety of selected Twitch streamers discover the lands of Enbesa and its stories – and maybe also construct their very own Research Institute in the Old World.
Anyone watching them fertilize the dry lands of Enbesa and assisting Emperor Ketema can grab two brand new ornaments, the Land of Lions Flag and Land of Lions Billboard. The only thing you need to do is link your Uplay to your Twitch account and watch the streamers during the event for up to 3 hours to receive your loot. You don’t have to watch these hours consecutively to receive your drop; watching them accumulated on participating streamers will also grant you the ornaments.
If you haven’t already done so in the past, to link your Ubisoft- and Twitch-account, just follow the steps outlined on this website.
You can find the full list of all participating Streamer here:
“He is the shepherd of the flock, Who gives life and age. Tell me now: Yes, His laws are boundless.” To these tenets of the spiritual poem Al-Muthallathu none are more faithful than the Elders of Enbesa. Shaped in the crucible of indomitable belief, wrought by the creeds of a culture older than the time of legends, they know much and ordain more.
The Irenya, as they are referred to in Enbesa, are the ever-vigilant guardians of their land’s storied traditions and history. Stalwart in their faith and their conviction that the fundamental truths of Life can only be sought across the span of ancient laws and a millenial religion, they care little for the bustle and blare of progress. Why seek to change that which has seen generations past live a devoted and orderly life?
The Irenya command great respect from the people of Enbesa, though there are those who would resent the harshness with which they hold to tradition, toiling away fervently at the crafting arts while the ‘lower’ Shepherds work the land and more menial charges. Few complaints ever reach the keftanya moots – the city-ruling, Elder-held councils – however, as Elders seldom fail to show compassion and care to the people of Enbesa under duress – so long as they respect the Ancient Ways.
Hey Anno Community,
and welcome back to the third installment in our series of DevBlogs about “Land of Lions”. This time, we want to focus on Enbesa’s Elders, and the strong narrative elements of our final Season 2 DLC.
If you missed them, you can catch up on our previous blogs here:
The Elders are the second of Enbesa’s new residential tiers and represent a completely different aspect of life in their region from the Shepherds. Whereas the latter enjoy their time in nature and work the land with the freedom of youth, the Elders’ experiences in life have given them an altogether dourer outlook on things. This is especially true for their representative, an elderly widow who has seen her fair share of grief in life. While she can be harsh and judgmental (especially towards outsiders like yourself), her poignance belies a caring nature towards those who manage to earn her respect.
A long life of working hard has taught the Elders many useful skills which they apply to seven new production chains such as Ceramics (a basic need), Tapestries (a luxury good contributing to their happiness) or Seafood Stew. Unlike the self-sufficient Shepherds, some of the Elder’s production chains also require goods from other sessions, requiring you to expand your network of trade routes to supply them. The Elders also produce the Mud Bricks needed for more advanced construction in Enbesa, alongside the Shepherd’s traditional Wanza Timber.
In total, the Elder tier will introduce 17 new buildings, including of course some public buildings like the Monastery, which contributes to their Happiness.
Let me tell you a story…
While last week’s DevBlog and this one have so far focused on the new gameplay Elements that Enbesa will introduce to Anno 1800, there is a lot more for you to experience. So, let us talk about story and narrative elements. This is one aspect of the game we have steadily been honing and improving throughout the development of Anno, starting with the original campaign, across the “Sunken Treasures” story and up to the icy world of “The Passage”. This DLC specifically received a lot of praise for creating an atmosphere that was quite unlike the usually bright and cheerful Anno world, taking on a more somber and tense tone. Basing the story on the infamously tragic events of Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to find the Northwest passage (albeit with a slightly happier ending, and less cannibalism) and the introduction of heat as a quintessential replacement for the happiness of other sessions helped to create an atmosphere unlike anything else in Anno, replacing the usual cheerfulness with a grim fight for survival. Seeing player reactions to the Arctic emboldened us to try to go one step further when it comes to creating a believable, breathing “Land of Lions”.
To put it simply: The story of Enbesa presents one of the biggest narrative efforts the Anno Team has ever undertaken (and we are not just talking about 1800, either)! We expect that first-time players will take a good 10-15 hours of playtime to experience all the story threads introducing the cultures and people of Enbesa. These story elements come I two distinct flavors: the main story, and story islands.
For the Emperor!
The concept of the main story should be a familiar one to Anno 1800 players, as it follows the same structure as previous DLCs like “Sunken Treasures”, slowly introducing you to all the major new characters, as well as gameplay elements like residential tiers, irrigation and the Research Institute. As with these other new sessions, your journey to Enbesa begins with an Expedition that becomes available at the Artisan tier.
It is during this expedition that you will meet one of the key characters, Biniam. A gifted young academic, Biniam serves as a diplomat to the ruler of Enbesa, Emperor Ketema. Through his service, he hopes to one day bring abut his dream of a research institute in which the brightest young scholars from around the world can work. It is Biniam who introduces you to Emperor Ketema, based on your proven credentials as a skilled city-builder.
Ketema is a warm-hearted yet ambitious ruler, who dreams of Enbesa entering a long-lasting era of peace and unity through diplomacy and trade, earning the recognition of other powers. As a symbol of these efforts, he asks the player to enter his service as the architect of Enbesa’s new capital city, Taborime. This leads to a unique setup among the islands of Anno 1800: while we normally separate player and Ai islands, you will actually be building Taborime for Ketema on his island, surrounding his already existing magnificent palace (which will also visually evolve throughout the story). Of course, it would not be an Anno story if things ended there, and you can expect a few plot twists. We will leave it at that, as we don’t want to spoil any surprises for you…
Unity, but at what cost?
As mentioned earlier, this classic story structure is only one part of “Land of Lions”’ storytelling, with the other being our three “story islands”. These are essentially lovingly crafted, visually unique islands that each offer an additional optional storyline, all of which are entwined with the larger history of Enbesa (for example, one of them is the birthplace and home of Biniam). These islands will not only offer new quests for you to undertake to help their residents, but will also call upon you to make some tough decisions, which can have some dramatic consequence (including, but not limited to, these islands looking very different from how they started out…).
With that said, let us introduce you to these three locations and their people:
Angereb is a mighty fortress rock on a rocky island, inhabited by a fiercely independent people who see no reason to join forces with Emperor Ketema.
Kidusi Anitoni is an ancient monastery and library, home to a group of religious scholars who are doing archaeological work to uncover Enbesa’s past.
Waha Desher was once a flourishing Oasis and center of commerce that has since fallen on harder times but may yet be reawakened.
The quest structure of these islands is much looser and non-linear than the main story, leaving it up to you how and when you want to meet the residents of these three islands. We will leave it up to you to find out much more about them come October 22. Between DevBlog 2 and this one, you should now have a good idea of all the new content awaiting you in Enbesa. But, as you know, that is not all, so make sure to tune in next time for a deeper look at our new Old World goodness: The Scholars and their Research institute!
In the meantime, why not let us know your thoughts in the comments?
“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” None are more faithul to this creed, laid down in contemplation by philosopher Mawlānā Rumi than the selfsame Shepherds of Enbesa. The Meniga, as they are known by other populations in Enbesa, revel best in the open heartlands, the bountiful beauty of Enbesa, stretching across valleys and dells, with boundless horizons across the water.
A people of the land, respectful of all that came before them but ever intrigued by new opportunities, new prospects of peace and betterment for their peers. Kind-hearted and hard-working, Shepherds look to those who rule to guide Enbesa to a united future, one of justice and consideration for all. Long centuries of unhindered pastoral life draw to a tantalizing close as the Emperor raises his mighty capital from the ground, drawing all in Enbesa to him, birthing a new culture and a novel way of life.
Though they relish the deceptively simple arts of landwork and animal care, Shepherds are well aware that a new age is dawning upon Enbesa, one which they hope will see mirth and tenderness and friendship be held high in the hearts of the mighty –manifold lights to guide and heal the people of Enbesa.
Earlier this week we gave you an overview of what you can expect regarding Anno Union content up until the release of Land of Lions. It shouldn’t come as a big surprise therefore that this week we’ll be talking about the beginnings of your Enbesan settlement: The Shepherds and the irrigation system!
Shepherds are the first of two residential tiers in the Enbesa session (the second being the Elders). Similar to the farmers in the Old World, they live in smaller houses, usually a main dwelling with a stable, outbuilding, storage hut or small workplace attached. Together these houses form small communal places where the Shepherd population can, for example, gather around a fireplace.
The Shepherds loves nature and stories by the campfire. City life and politics seems to tire them, much as it does the game’s Farmers and Artisans in the Old World.
Instead they prefer to spend time out in nature with their animals, because the Shepherds’ skills lie in agriculture and animal husbandry; for example, herding goats and sanga cows for milk and meat or growing linseed to darn clothes and hibiscus flowers for hibiscus tea. The Shepherds rely solely on the goods they produce locally, and do not require any imports from the other sessions. Though they have many talents and much wisdom, they are always quick to play these things down, being modest and humble.
To satisfy their needs for community and culture outside of the company of family and friends, they will, however, ask you to build a musicians’ court to enjoy some music together with their fellow Enbesans.
At the heart of all construction and expansion in Enbesa is the new building material Wanza Timber. The Wanza trees do not require fertile soil but their wood is needed for most buildings in the new session. This means you cannot rely on old-world timber imports but must plan for sufficient local production to fuel your construction needs. Later on, will you also need to produce mud bricks for advanced buildings… but the Elders and their production chains will get their own DevBlog.
And while the use of these local goods and the Enbesan architectural traditions influence the construction and style of all buildings, you will see and easily recognize familiar buildings like the Trade Union, various harbor buildings or the Fire Station, which are buildable at the first residential tier. The last building already does provide us with a good segue to the next topic, since the Fire Station now has a special requirement: it needs a water connection!
So, let’s talk about Land of Lions new irrigation system.
Veterans will remember the irrigation system of Anno 1404 in which norias were responsible for pumping water up from below ground and watering the desert or savannah in a certain radius around them. This created fertile green spots in otherwise dry land that allowed for the cultivation of e.g. dates, indigo and almonds. Some might also remember that these norias had to be refilled manually, creating a lot of busywork.
Therefore, when approaching the design for Land of Lions, we knew that a) we wanted to include an irrigation system as a regional challenge due to its popularity with our community and b) we wanted to improve on Anno 1404’s system, reducing unnecessary micromanagement, while on the other hand providing another kind of challenge.
In Enbesa this challenge comes in the form of water canals, using the various rivers crossing the islands as a source for irrigation. Under their Emperor Ketema, the Enbesans use self-developed water pumps that are placed on dedicated river slots. The water taken from the rivers is then distributed via the canals, which fertilize the soil within a certain radius. The lush green areas that have been watered can then be used to grow Hibiscus or Indigo flowers, among other things.
This of course brings with it the challenge of creating an efficient canal system, squeezing in your farms and fields, and making the most of what little fertile ground you have, in addition to the usual limitations of building space on the islands. We’re sure min-maxer will have a great time working out the best layouts.
Each water pump can only pump its water so far, so there’s a limit to how many canal tiles you can place. However, combining two pumps also combines their irrigation capacity, allowing you to build a much longer canal than a single pump would’ve been able to support.
While most Enbesan farms require fertilized ground to function, animals can also graze on the dry savannah – though they prefer fresh green grass, which will directly improve the productivity of the relevant building.
Given the importance of water for agriculture, make sure to check for the number of available river slots on each island: it’s worth keeping in mind that aside from the irrigation pumps, these slots can also be occupied by clay collectors, and later, paper mills – prioritization of the valuable river slots is another water-related challenge you will face in Enbesa – just to ensure you won’t get bored!
Finally, when talking agriculture: Owners of the Bright Harvest DLC will also be able to bring the knowledge and advantages of modern farming to the lands of Enbesa by constructing silos and using tractors. However, this does require the import of oil.
Next week we’re going to look at the second residential tier, the Elders, and present you a bit more about the setting and story of Enbesa which sets it apart from previous DLC.
Land of Lions livestream
But wait, don’t leave quite yet. We still have one more announcement!
Next Thursday, October 15th, we will be holding a Land of Lions livestream, showing you the beginnings of an Enbesan settlement and talking about what’s currently happening in the world of Anno.
If countless comments and questions are anything to go by, some of you are rather keen to learn more about our final Season 2 DLC, “Land of Lions”. So, you will be delighted to hear that we will finally start revealing more today, starting with this first DevBlog. “Wait a minute”, I hear some of you shouting, “what do you mean starting and first?”.
See, the thing is that “Land of Lions” is by far our biggest DLC for Anno 1800, including a lot more content than “The Passage” last Fall! To properly present all the good news and to tide you over until its release on October 22 we will instead have…four DevBlogs for you all!
Let us first talk about Enbesa, the eponymous “Land of Lions”. Enbesa will be a session in the Southern part of the world map once you have unlocked access to it via an expedition (as with our other additional sessions).
The similarities to sessions like the New World and Arctic do not end there; much like them, Enbesa is also the home of two residential tiers, with their own associated housing, production chains and trade goods!
First, we have the Shepherds. The Shepherd’s representative is humble and loves nature, but he is also a keen poet and storyteller who will share his insights into the events around him with the player. In gameplay terms, Shepherds are focused on the agricultural production of new goods like Teff Grass or Hibiscus. As such the Shepherds will of course also play a central role in the new irrigation system.
Enbesa’s second resident tier are the Elders. They are represented by a devout but stern widow, who is an appreciated leader in the community and key to its social life. The Elders are focused on the crafting in Enbesa, producing important goods such as lanterns or tapestries for their people.
Making the Savannah fertile
As hinted at during the announcement of Season 2, “Land of Lions” is revisiting a classic element from Anno 1404: making the land bloom via irrigation. Instead of using the Noria again, the trick to making things grow in Enbesa are rivers and irrigation canals. Rivers on islands have a limited number of river building slots, which you can use not only for some production buildings, but also as the starting point of a new canal. Whereas the land of Enbesa is often dry and infertile, tiles next to water will become green and fertile, allowing you to grow fields on them.
A land of culture and history
Beyond all the sandbox game elements mentioned above, “Land of Lions” is also offering a lot to any players who want a side of story with their city-building gameplay. This starts with the main storyline, which sees you enter the services of Emperor Ketema of Enbesa, who enlists you to construct his mighty new capital, Taborime. As with previous DLCs, the main storyline will introduce you to all the new gameplay elements in the DLC, while also giving you insights into the people of Enbesa.
Besides the traditional story, we are going a step beyond to deliver one of our most elaborate narrative experiences in an Anno game yet, which will give curious players ample opportunity to learn much more about Enbesa’s culture and history. To achieve this, we have created three unique story islands that will serve as quest hubs and may even pose some tough decisions for the player to make.
Old World? New Research!
When we released “The Passage”, we received a lot of feedback from players who said that while they loved the atmosphere and vibe of this frozen session, they wished that it had been more closely entwined with the Old World, and the rest of the game outside the arctic. When we set out to come up with ideas for “Land of Lions”, we knew that we wanted Enbesa to be more closely entwined with the rest of the game. Meet the Scholars!
The Scholars are a new late-game residential tier based in the Old World (but unlocked as part of the “Land of Lions” storyline in Enbesa). So, who is the Scholar? As stylish as he is gifted, he is representative of the well-educated international students coming to the Old World to work in the newly founded Research institute.
Which brings us to the Research Institute itself. Not only is this impressive new building our latest monument in the game (which means that it is being built in several lengthy stages), it also fits in well with our existing university, which served as the artistic touchstone for the Scholars and all related buildings. The Research Institute also serves to tackle several issues we have seen come up in your feedback since launch. For once, it allows you to research and subsequently craft almost every item in the game, giving you an endgame alternative to hoping to get lucky with rewards. It also allows you to use your research points to make “Major Discoveries”, which are powerful abilities such as moving a claypit across your island to another spot!
And that’s just the overview!
As you can see, we were not bluffing when we said that “Land of Lions” is the biggest DLC for Anno 1800, bringing with it not only a ton of new content, but also the much requested research feature many of you have been asking for. We look forward to revealing much more to you all over the coming blogs and weeks.
We know a picture says more than a thousand words, so how many words does a video count as? Anyway, here you go, watch the brand-new Anno 1800 – “Land of Lions” teaser trailer!
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We’re excited to announce that Anno 1800’s biggest DLC yet will release on October 22nd, 2020 (a date which coincidentally has the checksum 9) on the Epic Store, the Ubisoft Store and on Steam.
“Land of Lions” will feature a completely new session, the land of Enbesa, with its own story, new population tiers, production chains and goods… but we don’t want to go into detail just yet!
Instead we’ll start… hmmm… let’s say: Monday!
Stay tuned for the first wave of information starting next week.
Winners of the Postcard Contest
In early September we asked you to send postcards from the world of Anno, showing off your cities and islands to create some vacation feelings. And we received a lot of amazing cards from places we’d love to go on vacation to! Naturally, making a decision was tough but after plenty of deliberation, we managed to decide on our 5 favourites. You should still check out the English and German forum threads for the other cards or look up the ones posted on Twitter with the #annoholidays hashtag.
Congratulations to Amoury.Montfort, Lethanii, NinoRoelofs, Wiwio (front and back side) and Sakrisch.EZ for winning a stylish Anno 1800 t-shirt!
We will contact all winners on the platform they’ve posted their postcard on, to get their contact details. So please keep an eye on your inbox!
Please be aware there might be delays later on with shipping due to the current world-wide Covid-19 situation.
An update for the Anno Union
After the update to the new Anno Union in June we received plenty of feedback from you as to which parts you’d like to see changed or added.
Today we not only want to say thank you for your constructive input, but are also happy to announce that an update was deployed this mornig with some great changes:
You can now switch between dark and light mode, as requested by several community members, by clicking the round button right next to the language selection.
We’ve also improved the language buttons, making it easier to see if you’re on the German or English version of the page. All non-German users should now also be directed to the English version of the Anno Union automatically. We hope this avoids future language confusion 🙂
From now on you will also find all trailers and streams listed in the new video page – of course including the new “Land of Lions” teaser trailer!
In addition to these features, some smaller changes were also implemented, for example, the front page has been optimized to require less scrolling to see all the content and the box to write a new comment is now right below the article – you won’t have to scroll to the end of the comment section anymore.
There are some more, minor improvements and we still have a few ideas what else we want to add and will keep you updated. In this regard we’re of course open to your feedback, so let us know if you have suggestions or ideas for the Anno Union!
Hey Anno Community,
Today we are looking for some intrepid adventurers to join us aboard the first ships traveling to Enbesa, the “Land of Lions” as part of our next Technical Test! Similar to what we did last year for “The Passage”, this Technical Test will over the course of several weeks invite a number of Anno Union community members to play our biggest DLC early, and to help us find issues and problems.
Keep in mind that you will be playing new content in an early work-in-progress state (as “Land of Lions” is scheduled for Fall 2020), so a certain tolerance for dealing with bugs and technical problems is highly recommended. Testers will have access to a closed forum where they can share their experiences and feedback with members of the Anno Dev Team, to ensure that we can deliver an amazing DLC and end to Season 2 (plus the associated free Game Update of course, which will also have many quality-of-life improvements players have been asking for).
Please be aware that due to the early state of the new content, the Technical Test will be under a strict NDA, and participants will not be allowed to share information, images or videos from the test outside the closed forum. We are currently planning to start the “Land of Lions” Technical Test in mid-July.
Last Tuesday, June 2, marked the release of the “Bright Harvest” DLC and Game Update 8!
Boost your agriculture by building silos and state-of-the-art tractors, and beautify your islands with additional farming and industrial ornaments. The farming revolution is already well underway!
Game Update 8 additionally provides you with a convenient item overview, bigger warehouses, the Great Eastern steamer and many smaller improvements and fixes which you can find here.
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Thanks to your feedback following the release, our team is currently working on Game Update 8.1 to address some of the concerns you voiced. We will have more info on it closer to its release around Mid-June.
Get ready for analogue Anno 1800
And another kind of announcement was made last week which we are extremely excited about: On Thursday Kosmos Spiele (whom you may be familiar with from games such as “Catan” and “Legends of Andor”) announced “Anno 1800: The Board Game”, releasing this autumn.
Famed game designer Martin Wallace, who has proven his industrial expertise with award-winning games such as “Age of Steam” and “Brass: Birmingham” will be handling this version of Anno 1800, which we are very excited about ourselves. Follow Kosmos’ Instagram channel for updates if you’re interested in developing your island and competing with friends or family around a table.
The “Seat of Power” Screenshot Contest
We also have some winners to announce! In late April we started the “Seat of Power” screenshot contest and asked you to share the most epic pictures of your palaces with us – and wow, we received a lot of stunning examples of our community’s creativity! From smaller coastal palaces to enormous inner-city complexes. From palaces with vast parks and flower beds over palaces with an integrated zoo or museum, broad triumph and parade streets and intricate hedge-mazes to dedicated courtyards for specific events and functions.
Understandably, we had a hard time deciding on the winners and want to thank all participants for sharing their creations with us.
Let’s then get to the winners who can look forward to some great gear from our friends at Corsair.
First place, a CORSAIR VOID Headset, CORSAIR IRONCLAW Wireless Mouse and CORSAIR MM350 mousepad, goes to justVera.
This massive palace complex not only incorporates a Zoo, Museum and Botanical Garden, but does so in an extremely elegant way with plenty of green to separate the different modules and paths inviting for a stroll through the vast park. Directly connected to the World’s Fair on the other side of the park and a broad street and park leading to the palace from the harbour our team was deeply impressed by the amount of planning that went into the creation of it.
In second place, the lucky owner to be of a CORSAIR IRONCLAW mouse and CORSAIR MM350 mousepad, comes ChrisX86!
We really liked the symmetry of his palace complex which at the same time still including variety like the hedge maze or differently styled flower beds and courtyards. While less green and more focused on mosaic and plaza tiles than others, the palace does not feel stuffed with decoration but provides plenty of space, offering a calm oasis with resting spots in a busy city.
In third place we have adam5909’s lake palace on Crown Falls which won him a CORSAIR HARPOON mouse and MM300 mousepad.
Far from the bustling, noisy city, this palace sits on Crown Falls’ large lake and offers a spectacular panorama thanks to the waterfalls in the distance. While smaller in size than some other palaces, plenty of parks, hedge mazes and other botanical arrangements make this a calm and quiet retreat for any ruler or magnate with a perfect view in all directions.
All winners will be contacted by us via direct message or forum PM so please keep an eye on your inbox!
Believe us, it was a tough choice to make and our team decided to add two honourable mentions for their different approaches to the topic of palace-building.
One is gntherfrank for his not only idyllically calm and green but also very realistically looking palace and garden. You can easily imagine coming across such a palace in real life, a retreat for a local count or duke while over the years the nearby city has grown closer and closer, slowly integrating the palace into the cityscape.
The other is Moppelkotze09 for the sheer insanity when it comes to the scale of the city design. While the palace itself is not as big as others, city and palace are directly interwoven in their design with the latter not only being at the centre of it all but also dividing the former into four districts. The amount of ornaments and parks built into this project impressed us so much that it indeed deserved an honourable mention.
Finally, again, a big thank you to everyone who sent us screenshots of their palace or posted them on the forums! We can’t wait to see what you manage to create with more ornaments and buildings of the following updates.
And now for some education with Fatherlorris
Last but not least we’re excited to share another comic strip by Fatherlorris of The Chapel with you. Learn about Dr John Rae’s Arctic expedition and his discovery of the lost Franklin expedition:
In an office environment “working in silos” seems rarely a good thing, but out there among the buttercups and daisies these silver sentinels must surely be a reassuring sight to a farmer. Though the word comes to us from ancient Greek, Levantine silos for holding grain have been found dating back over 7000 years. The modern farm silo appears to have been the brainchild of one Fred Hatch, who in 1876, finally managed to convince his old man to let him build a grain store in the barn for green corn fodder. Hatch’s cows quickly became inflated distortions of themselves, living out the winter in luxury, and becoming the envy of any neighboring farmers.
Imagine then the effect, at a similar time, of the “portable” tractor, putt-putting its way nonchalantly about the place, undercutting millennia of peasant toil and hardship. Steam-driven, petrol-driven it didn’t seem to matter; the efficiencies were great, and drastic of course in their implications for Frank and Felicity the farmhands, who had to find other work. “Sorry you two, I don’t need ye, I got me a traction engine now…” And while the Luddites were long gone, you can’t imagine that at least some of these new tractors weren’t torched for their impudence…
Despite feeling much longer, it has only been a little over two months since we first announced our second Season of Anno 1800, including three new DLCs. Now the time is almost here to send you all out into the farming fields with our second Season 2 DLC, the agriculturally themed “Bright Harvest”. Today, we not only want to give you insights into what expect when “Bright Harvest” drops this Summer, but also our thoughts behind the creation of this new content. So, time to put on your favorite straw hat, and to hit the fields!
Stylish hat? Check! Tractor? Check! Let’s get farming!
From its conception on, Anno 1800 has always been a game of two worlds. Early on, you build picturesque farming hamlets that tell you little about the industrial revolution that is about to happen. Later, as you construct heavily industrialized districts full of huge, smoke-belching factories, those hamlets in turn start to seem positively antiquated. Of course, this evolution is not only visual, but also expressed in gameplay, with the electricity system giving players the option to give their industrial production a dramatic boost in efficiency later in the game.
So, when we started at possible DLCs for Season 2, we quickly decided that giving players a farming analogue to electricity is something we want to explore. Such content would have to check a few boxes: it should have nice visual feedback (“feedback units” being the term we internally use for all the citizens and units wandering around the Anno world) and it should incentivize players to consider rearranging their farms and associated buildings. The Tetris-like chase of the most optimal way to arrange buildings to make the best use of limited building space is a big part of Anno, and so we want to give players reasons to reconsider their layouts from time to time. With these goals in mind, let us see how we put them into practice.
The new gameplay in “Bright Harvest” comes from three new elements: tractor modules, silos, and fuel. Let us start with what you have already seen in our Season 2 trailer, the tractors. How do you get them? Tractors are activated via a tractor module, of which you can build one per agricultural farm, connecting it to the main building. Doing so will result in several things: allowing you to construct 50% more fields per farm, which you will need to boost the efficiency of the farm to 300%. In addition, the amount of required farming workforce will be lowered. In other words: tractors allow you to work larger fields more effectively, while requiring less manual labor to do so.
A Fuel Station is getting supplied with oil
Of course, simply building a module once and then forever benefitting from these boosts would be boring, which brings us to the fact that your tractors require fuel to function. This is where the Fuel Station comes in, which will (surprise?) produce the fuel needed to keep your tractors running, provided it is in turn supplied with oil via the railway system. Should your tractors run out of fuel, the farm will revert to its pre-industrialized state, requiring more workforce and only working the normal number of fields (ignoring new fields from the tractor boost). As such, tractors (a catch-it-all term we use for several different machines, as you can see in the screenshots) become available on tier 4 alongside steam motors (at 500 Engineers).
During our internal playtests, we quickly agreed that it would be a shame to only have the tractors for the agricultural farms, so we needed a counterpart for animal-based farms. Enter silo modules, which follow the same basic concept of allowing you to construct one attached silo per farm, which will boost the efficiency of your farms to 200%. Of course, it would be gross malpractice to try and feed fuel to the animals, so instead each session has a good that the silos will consume (and which needs to be transported to them): grain for the Old World, corn for the New World, and in the Land of Lio…oh, now that would be telling! Suffice to say that both tractors and silos will be available in all sessions that have farming buildings. Sorry Arctic, at least you get huskies!
A farmer in the New World
Of course, all these boosts could lead to a lot of additional goods being produced, which must be stored somewhere. Which is why you will be able to give your Kontors and warehouses an additional upgrade each: From tier three to tier four in the Old World sessions, and from tier two to three in the New World. Better even, both upgrades are free to all players, as part of Game Update 8. Buyers of the DLC will also get the ability to give their Oil Harbors another upgrade, as they will have to cope with the oil demands of their Fuel Stations.
That is it for the gameplay side, but there is more! When we released our first cosmetic DLC, the Holiday Pack, last Christmas, a lot of you asked for more every-day ornaments with an industrial feeling to further flesh out your cityscapes. As “Bright Harvest” is more of a systemic DLC that includes less new assets than previous DLCs, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to throw in some new ornaments that many of you have been asking for, such as haystacks and walls! In total, “Bright Harvest” will include over 30 new ornaments, with a focus on agricultural and industrial themes (including different fence and wall parts). We cannot wait to see all your screenshots once the DLC is out!
You asked fore them, so here they are: brickstone walls!
Beyond that, “Bright Harvest” also introduces 6 new Ubisoft Club challenges to test your farming skills. We also have new rewards you can spend your hard-earned club points on, but this time they take on a slightly different form- ship skins! Many of you having been asking for a long time for more visual variety in your ships, and so you will now be able to unlock new skins for the Battle Cruiser and Collier. Even better, you will be able to use these in already existing games, as you can change the skin of each of these ships individually to suit your taste. And since we already added this functionality, we are of course also extending it to the command ship and train, so you can at any time chose to use your Imperial Pack skins!
Now, after all this good news, it is time to tamper it with some bad news… As you know, we previously said that “Bright Harvest” is coming in Summer 2020. Turns out that is not the case, as Summer starts on June 20- whereas “Bright Harvest” will already be out on June 2! As always, owners of the Season 2 Pass will receive the DLC for free, while it will also become available for a la carte purchase for 6,99€/$ at launch. Stick with the Anno Union for more news on Game Update 8 as we get closer to launch and stay safe!
