The award-winning city-building franchise Anno is set to return this year with its latest release, Anno 117: Pax Romana. This will be the latest iteration in the franchise since Anno 1800, which was released in 2019. Anno 117: Pax Romana will give players the chance to build their very own Roman Empire, which also includes the Celts and their region, Albion.
We got a chance to go hands-on with Anno 117 earlier this year in our first preview of the game. We learned about the basics of the game and got a taste of building our Roman empire in the Latium region. Anno 117 brings something unique to the franchise in that players will get to choose which of the two areas they would like to start their playthrough.
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In this hands-on session, we got to try out the other region, Albion. We only had a limited play session of around sixty minutes, but we were still able to check out some of the cool features of the region. Albion is a Celtic-inspired province that refuses to join the Empire.
This region has a vastly different aesthetic than the more “traditional” Roman city region of Latium. Albion is a more marshy region, where the people there drink beer and are dressed in rags and trousers. There is a mist that is present throughout the map and region, really giving it an atmosphere that evokes the mystery of the area, and makes it clear that this is a different land.
Anno 117 is putting player choice first, and that’s clear in Albion.
Albion brings a variety of challenges for players compared to Latium. First and foremost, you are Roman and a governor of the Roman Empire, so you will be designated to rule over a land and people that are not your own. The people of Albion at first will not like you, and depending on your choices, may never like you or ever fully accept you.
Players are tasked with a variety of choices that really let them choose how they would like to rule this land. You can force the people of Albion to assimilate into the Roman culture and rule with an iron fist, or you can be accepting of their beliefs, culture, and empathetic to their struggles. These choices are made in multiple ways, with the first being how a player chooses to complete quests and/or dialog choices while interacting with other governors or the emperor. The second is how players decide to build their cities in the Albion region.
Anno 117: Pax Romana, in many ways, is putting player choice at the forefront, and building within the Albion region is no different. Albion, as I mentioned before, is a marshy region, and this impacts building mechanics. Each island will have designated marsh areas where specific buildings can be built, and nothing else.
This makes planning your island more critical, as you have to ensure that you can fit all the marsh buildings within the marsh area and arrange any non-marsh buildings accordingly. The marsh is also sometimes bordered with large rocks that block roads from passing through that area, forcing you to rethink the road you’ve started to lay out.
Marshland changes the building mechanics significantly in Anno 117’s Celtic-inspired region.
Starting out building within the marsh area can be a bit of a struggle, as all roads in the marsh area require wood. Wood is the basic starter resource for Anno 117: Pax Romana and will be needed no matter the starting region, but when building in Albion, I was forced to make a few more wood harvesters to keep up with the demand, especially as I started building in the marshes.
Some marsh-specific upgrades within the knowledge tree will help players later in the game if they choose to go down that path. Depending on the choices, players will also be able to drain the marshes if they choose to, to allow for a different island building design. This lends into how you, the player, choose to embrace the land of Albion. Unfortunately, in my limited play time, I was unable to get to these points, so how exactly they will change your island building and design is left to be seen.
This being a different region of the game, there are region-specific production chains, such as cockles, which replace fish. As players tier up their population and production chains, items will eventually need to be imported or exported to the other region to fulfill population needs and complete production chains. Something else that is unique to the Albion region is that players will get to choose the “type” of population they wish to inhabit the island.
As players tier up their populations, they will be forced to choose whether they would like Romano Celtic or the Celtic population to control the island. Each island can be different, so players can have a mix and match of different population islands. However, each island itself can only have one of the selected populations. Each population comes with its own challenges, production chains, and effects.
Choosing the population you govern in Albion sets the tone for your island’s production.
The Romano-Celtic population will have a more traditional Roman feel, and your island aesthetic will be more in line with Latium in building and production chains. Players will have received a Knowledge boost from the island. This could also lead to the Celtic Albion people growing disdain for you as they are being replaced within their own lands.
The Celtic population will have that Albion cultural feel and aesthetic. Production chains will be more focused on what people enjoy, such as beer. Celtic islands will receive a Belief boost from the island. This can also be seen as a more embracing approach to governing by the people and their culture.
The last big difference between the two regions that we were able to see in our hour-long play session was the Villa. In Latium, each island is required to have a Villa placed and built before players can even start building on their island. However, in Albion, the Villa will still be there and available, but it comes at a later time within the building. So players will need to grow their cities and populations first before gaining access to the Villa.
Anno 117: Pax Romana is shaping up to be a very expensive game. This play-test was a relatively short one, and there are still plenty of features and challenges left to be seen, but in my limited time, I was able to see just how different and unique Albion is compared to Latium. Players being able to choose their starting points will definitely lead to plenty of replayability, as players will not be able to start the same way every time, depending on the region they have chosen to start their empire in.
Anno 117: Pax Romana is set to release on November 13, 2025, with cross-play and cross-progression on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S, Amazon Luna, as well as Windows PC through Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Ubisoft Connect.
