Naval Strategy Done Right: Anno 1404

[admin]

Anno 1404 is a city building and colonization game published by Ubisoft in 2009. These days, it’s a bit sad and lonely - the series' successors have headed into the future,...

http://www.strategygamer.com/articles/n ... anno-1404/

[craigbob]

So the three naval war-specific strategies are what makes ANNO 1404's naval system stand out?

Not trying to be difficult here, but other than the port raid, the other 2 are pretty much achievable in most recent games from this era. Empire TW and EU IV come to mind.

I've never played this before, but this is pretty much Age of Empires, correct?

[TastyRadiSkull]

Craigbob,

I think the author's point is that the absolute necessity of keeping your sea lanes open - there is no other way to succeed in the game - places an emphasis and importance on what you do with the naval side of the game. If you want to build Advanced Building X you must have a concrete naval plan in place.

It isn't saying that the game is (or isn't) a good game, or that other games don't let you enact naval strategies; rather the author believes that Anno 1404 makes you enact them, and think about it properly to boot.

[Charles Ellis]

Hi Craigbob,

In my opinion, as Tastyradiskull says, the difference between Empire, EUIV and Anno is that whilst in the former, when you're blockaded you lose some cash, you won't have truly catastrophic problems for a long time. In the latter however, being blockaded prevents you from progressing and if you don't have a large stockpile of what your people require then ruin will soon follow.

I'd say this is very different to Age of Empires. Age of Empires is pure (perhaps the gold standard) RTS. Anno is a city builder and management game with combat very much secondary. Usually your objectives in Anno will not be the destruction of the enemy but having a particular building built or a certain number of citizens.

[craigbob]

I agree that its an interesting concept to make the naval portion of the game as critical as the land portion, but accomplishing it through mandatory resource sharing between (only) islands isn't a fair comparison to "other games", especially grand strategy games.

On the other hand, incorporating Anno 1404's city building and game mechanics with Sid Meier's Pirates! combat and map would be pretty cool....