Hey Anno Community!
It’s not a secret anymore: land combat makes its return in Anno 117: Pax Romana. Naval combat doesn’t go anywhere, of course, and warfare in general is just one of many aspects of the game.
Today, however, we want to put it in the focus and take a look at the military means at your disposal, should you decide to – or be forced to – exchange your plough for a sword.
Anno and Warfare
Historically, Anno games always had a warfare component; and while it – like other features as well – changed in scope and design from game to game, we very much believe it to be an important feature for the game.
At the same time, Anno games are builder games: the main fascination (and therefore also the focus we put in terms of development) is coming from discovering the world, settling new islands, building ever-growing cities and all the logistics and productions required to support it.
We also know we have a playerbase with sometimes strongly differing views on the topic: how important is warfare in Anno, should it be mandatory, how is it implemented, should there be land combat, etc.
In short: it’s a discussion that’s been happening both in our team as well as in our community for many years already.
In fact, back in the Anno 1800 days, our (back then) Creative Director Dirk wrote a great blog on the tradition of military in Anno games – we very much recommend you check it out:
https://www.anno-union.com/devblog-the-art-of-war-i/
Now we’ve set the scene, time to take a look at how warfare looks like in Anno 117: Pax Romana and what this might mean for your cities and economy.
Naval Units
Let’s start on the ocean before we make our way to the land: Naval Combat!
Just a few weeks ago we talked about ship construction in detail: how you’re able to build your own ship setups via modules like additional sails, rowers and – of course – offensive modules like archer towers or catapults.
Have a look at the dedicated DevBlog here.
Different modules and other improvements can be researched via the Discovery Tree, to constantly increase the strength of your fleet.
The three different offensive modules (archer towers, scorpions, catapults) differ in range, accuracy, rate of fire and damage, making them useful in rather different situations. Catapults are slow and inaccurate, but archers are limited in range and can’t destroy fortifications.
Land Combat
Let’s invade someone! If you have a neighbour you really don’t like (in the game!) or if they have an island that should be yours (in the game!), sending an army is a valid solution.
Broadly, we separate land units into four types – infantry, ranged units, cavalry, artillery – with their own recruitment buildings.
As you might have guessed, you will also need to produce certain resources in order to train units in the first place: A group of Auxilia (medium infantry with spears), for example, requires weapons – for which you’ll first need to set up a production chain with a furnace, smith, and of course iron and coal production. Legionaries, on the other hand, also require expensive to produce armour.
While you start with a smaller selection of unit types, like the aforementioned Auxilia, as well as Archers, more unit types can be researched via the Discovery Tree. This allows you to later field the highly disciplined legionaries or heavy cavalry, as well as other specialised units.
The Discovery Tree also features a variety of upgrades, boosting aspects like unit morale, attack against fortification or accuracy.
A healthy mix of different unit types is one of the keys to victory: Auxilia with their spears are effective against cavalry, while Slingers or Archers are great to keep enemies at a distance. Cavalry is especially useful to flank opposing units or attack unprotected ranged units of your enemy. In short: we are using the good old stone-paper-scissors system here.
And then there’s artillery: the accuracy of Scorpios makes them great against individual units, while Onagers excel at the destruction of fortification.
In addition to the units’ health, you also have to keep an eye on their morale. If the morale becomes too low during combat, units might flee – and fleeing units can affect their nearby comrades, potentially leading to a larger rout. There is a chance for routed units to reform, otherwise they will ultimately vanish.
The Connections
Synergies
Both naval and land units will be needed to bring down your opponents: if your enemy has built a villa on their island, taking it is your main objective – simply destroying the trading post is not enough in that case.
Your ships will play a key role in not only shipping your troops to your opponent’s island, but also in clearing the landing by destroying defensive structures. Generally, as long as they are in reach, naval units can attack units and buildings on land, and land units can shoot back at naval units.
That also means that you can stop an enemy’s invasion by destroying their transports before they reach your shores.
Defences
Defensive structures you say? Oh yes! We’re giving you some options to defend your precious islands from rival governors.
Surround your island (or at least the important parts where the important people live) with a wooden palisade – or go the extra mile and research stone walls which require some proper artillery to take down.
Additionally, you can place defensive towers that fire back at any invaders and further slow their advance until you have gathered your own forces.
Economy
Every unit (naval and land) does cost:
Resources and money to be built/recruited
Money in maintenance
Workforce in maintenance
This means, your land and naval forces are deeply tied into your population and economy: you will need a large population and stable economy to support a big army. War is costly and must be considered carefully. The workforce you’re spending on troops and ships might also be needed to assure stable production of food or clothing – or in manning trade ships to supply the various islands under your governorship. Different unit types also require different types of workforce, meaning more advanced units require you to first have enough population of one of the higher tiers.
Units are therefore always tied to a “home island” in terms of workforce. Should you lose such an island, the game will automatically reassign units to another island with free workforce. If you do not have enough free workforce anywhere, then the units will slowly “desert”, i.e. lose health over time.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that time doesn’t stop when there’s a fight on land or sea: both attackers and defenders of course still have their empire to manage.
Production of goods and recruiting times also mean that quickly setting up a massive force or fleet is no small task either.
You want to see all this and more in action? Then check out our livestream on land combat from last week.
Outro
War, of course, is only one way of solving conflicts: you can always opt for the diplomatic route, forging trade treaties and alliances with other governors and live in harmony with your neighbours. For some of them, this is indeed their favoured course of action, while others might prefer drawing their sword instead of engaging in negotiations. Well, and then there are pirates who will likely only keep their feet still if you pay them enough money.
For peaceful players, playing with easier, friendlier rivals or simply disabling them and pirates is always an option, making war and combat very much a choice.
All this of course was just a rough overview of the military system in Anno 117: Pax Romana. Do you want to learn more about how we developed unit behaviour, how the calculations work behind-the-scenes – and also get some tips from the devs? Let us know and we’ll look into tackling these questions in a future deep-dive devblog!
In the future, we’ll of course also dive deeper into the topic of diplomacy and introduce you to your rivals!