Diplomacy isn't our strongest point
Each scenario has a story attached and will reward you with points when completed, enabling you to start the next scenario with more gold or resources. We played through three scenarios and thoroughly enjoyed both the story-lines and the logical approach needed to complete them.
The final single player scenario is called ‘Playground’ and allows you to build a settlement without the threat of pirates or carrying out any diplomacy objectives. For any beginners this will be the best option to help you become familiar with all the buildings and resources on offer.
The multiplayer aspect of Anno 1701 allows for four players to battle against each other with pre-determined victory settings, but if you don’t fancy that, you can play co-operatively and build a community together.
Click for larger imageWe mentioned earlier that construction and monitoring of your territory can be overwhelming, purely due to the amount the game has to offer. By hovering over buildings you can check their status and make sure that the particular building is profiting or working as you require. For example, this allows you to see whether the sheep farm you have just built is full of stock or whether you need to construct more market buildings to cope with the amount of resources that you are producing. You’ll need to constantly keep and eye on all of your working buildings and ensure you react to the situation; otherwise you’ll start to lose money quickly. If you make a mistake, for example build a lumberjack hut in an area where there are no trees, you can demolish any of the buildings and start again. Despite Anno 1701 having so many options for the building and maintaining of your community, you’ll soon be moving through the construction menu, clicking and dragging buildings, building pathways around your town and sending workers to collect resources with little though from any stores that may be full (it took us about an hour or so to able to comfortably navigate the menus).
Click for larger imageNow diplomacy in Anno 1701 is something that you need to pay careful attention to. As soon as you discover a new culture they appear in your diplomacy menu. You’ll receive messages via a portrait window which pops up on the screen where you’ll be offered contracts, or assignments. These diplomatic choices can affect your community; for example if you annoy a rival island they may send people over to try and take over your territory.