• Anno 1800
  • DevBlog
  • Season 2

DevBlog: A “Land of Lions” overview

  • 05.10.2020

Hey Anno Community,

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!

Part 1: “Land of Lions” Overview

Part 2: Shepherds and Irrigation

Part 3: Elders and Story

Part 4: Scholars and Research

 

And that’s it for toda…wait, you wanted more of an overview? Alright then…

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New Residential Tiers in Enbesa

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.

Until then, stay safe!

The Anno Team

Comments

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11 Comments
  1. 7 76561198185420457

    Good! This is something I missed.

  2. 3 340a628066814d91b9d5785604f82ff6

    I cannot wait for the DLC to drop, especially with the recent updates… Enbesa is looking breathtaking, and finally making use of the beautiful rivers, i’m very excited about this.

  3. b bc030b25737240188fdf788fe5852783

    Finally the lovely view of a clay pit will be gone from my Investors residencies 🙂

  4. J Janneman_2020

    Hello! What and what an effort you guys have done for this DLC ❤️
    I’m looking forward to actually play this wonderful looking game! Thumbs up for the makers of Anno 1800! Ive never seen so much love making one like you guys do! No wonder there is a Anno Union

    Keep up the good work

    Janneman

    •   Ubi-Thorlof

      We’re already looking forward to reading your feedback 🙂
      Thank you for the kind words, we’re super happy with how the Anno Union is doing.

      Have a great day!
      Thorlof

  5. 7 76561198056223187

    Freu mich jetzt schon 🙂

  6. t tobiGenial

    That sounds AWESOME! Thank you so much for all the new content you are supplying to this fantastic game! Your reaction to the communities wishes is admirable, more game developers should do that! Can‘t wait till the 22nd!

  7. 7 76561198012795812

    Thank you for the update. I appreciate the new things coming to the game. Can’t wait to play it!

  8. M MaxTroopersII

    At first I had misunderstood … I was in total joy at the idea of seeing that there was going to be a new third party … … … For the new world.
    Except that I shared with my brother who told me: but not reread well.
    The Hype instantly came down … Rotten.

  9. 7 76561198051594515

    the home of two residential tiers
    Im dissapointed with this hoped for at least 3 to 4 tiers

    Moving claypits and research is nice though

  10. H Hixxes

    “Moving a clay pit across your island”.. OMG, yes.

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