This is a Napoleonic line-battle simulator, and the best of all time ! Exactly what I've been looking for. I am a huge fan of the Napoleonic era and Napoleon and this game simulates a lot of the aspects of the battle. You can create formations with officers, or not, and choose when and how your troops march and when they fire. This feels amazing, and as someone who has a lot of Napoleonic wargames this is very refreshing to have something simulate line-battles to this extent ! Even the total war games I have do not simulate the details in Napoleonic wars to this degree. I highly recommend this game if you are a huge fan of line battles and the Napoleonic era. The graphics, artwork, music, and cutscenes are all great. This is a great game for a great price brought to us by GSC Game World and GOG. Thanks for reading
Just custom game mode which is an additional number of scenarios besides the campaign. There is no skirmish mode like the Settlers 7 if you are a player who played that and wondered with Rise of an Empire was all about. Nontheless, a great game that I enjoy. It has a very unique feel to it.
I've played a number of series: Tropico, Grand Ages, Cities XL, Anno, Sim City, and the Settlers. Despite all those mixture of city builders, I still found myself at the foot of Pharaoh, a fantastic city builder that has a little bit of Anno, Settlers, and SimCity in it. What I mean is the formula in which you build your city. The formula to build a successful city in Pharaoh is pretty clear, residents need water, food, and access to public services such a firemen, merchants, engineers, tax collectors, and more. It heavily relies on roads much like the Settlers, and can be a challenging game because the resource of water and food are placed in certain areas of the map. That is what makes this game so strategically challenging, planning a city that maximizes certain portions of the map. The music is fantastic, is probably the most admired thing in this game. Aesthetic-wise, the graphics still hold up for a game made in 1999 and there are some who actually prefer these pixel graphics over 3-D. First, I recommend you look on Youtube, if the game still catches your interest then at that point you'll probably just want to pick this game up and try it out.
If your new to Anno 1404: Gold Edition, it includes the base game + the expansion. Unlike the previous three Anno games featured in the New World setting and era, 1404 jumps into the renaissance era. However, that isn't all, you now have to build up your islands with two factions simultaneously, known as, the Orient and the Occident. The Orient is the faction based around the Renaissance Near East/Middle East, while the Occident is based on Renaissance Europe. Both factions need each other to progress civilization level. For the Occident, your second civilization level, citizen already requires spices to reach the third civilization level of patrician. While the Orient will need a heavy supply of tools and wood, resources that may be acquire or purchased mostly from the Occident citizen civilization level. Therefore in total, that means 1404 includes six total civilization in all, which is one more than 1701 according to wikipedia. Peasants, Citizens, Patricians, Nobles, Nomads, Envoys. Everything in this game is accommodated with its unique style of music, units, and architecture and needs. The Occident cannot settle in the desert biome, while the Orient can. Therefore, you don't have to worry about making space for the both of them on one island. As mentioned before, they also have units, but in 1404 combat is incarnated in the form of encampments. Encampments are basically its own unit with health points and the actual ability to go and leave land as they please. That's right, you don't have to transport your units ship by ship any more. To take over an area, simply move the encampment near the desired spot, the same way you move a ship. The encampment has an area of effect, and if it is in range of "at war" player's buildings you can order the encampments to take it. So your Island can be contested. Your opponent could literally be farming resources right outside your doorstep. Why haven't they ported this to Anno 2070 and beyond eludes me
Anno 1503 is no doubt, a very nice game, using the classic isometric style gameplay. Anno 1503 is wonderful music, a very large map and island, and a lot of depth and thought. However, there lays on problem for me. The difficulty level is far by the most difficult I've played from 1701, 1404, and 2070. I actually originated from 2070, where I just loved the production chain/ resource management the Anno series is just great at delivering. I then moved on to Anno 1404, AKA in North America, Dawn of Discovery. I absolutely feel in love with it, nothing beats a game in the renaissance setting. I then worked my way down to Anno 1701, where I just loved the colonial setting resembling my beloved first game that brought me to PC gaming, Empire: Total War. To be honest, Anno 1701 is quite unique in the way some of the resources work, as some of it is actually finite, and the area of effect/influence/radius plays a big role when creating your production chains. Then I finally came upon Anno 1503. Anno 1503 is a love and hate relationship with me. It feels so different from the other games, as the authenticity of it can be felt. If you're like me, you will find it very difficult adjust to the way everything works. Unlike previous games, the menu is very organized, but complex at the same time. If you are not familiar with the series, just browsing through that bad boy could be daunting. But the most obvious sign shown in Anno 1503, is it's very steep difficulty. The islands are big in some scenarios, and if you place your first warehouse in the wrong spot, you will likely struggle for the first two hours. Heck, your whole scenario or campaign could be doomed. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, you're still managing resources and such, but the combat is another issue. It's really like an RTS, I mean you have to build every unit, one by one. The equipment for each of those soldiers isn't cheap. I'm about at word count so, tl;dr -- it's a great game, but it's hard.
If you loved Anno1404 AKA Dawn of Discovery for a number of reasons, great graphics, interesting combat, smooth gameplay, but couldn't stand the idea of switching between too factions, 1701 is the perfect balance. In 1701 you won't be required to manage the Orient and the Occident, instead you can rest easy, and manage your own colony. The resource management is a little different, utilizing the radius more than 1404 and 2070, but you'll get over it. I recommend this game is your a fan of the previous or newer Anno games. I'm actually a player from 2070 ,1404, and 1503.
I've played SimCity [the 2014 release], Anno, Grand Ages, Tropico, Children of the Nile, Dawn of Discovery [Anno 1440], and still find this gem to hold up for it's graphics and standards. It has a nice vibe, and goes into the gameplay very fast.
