Anno 117 Pax Romana easily took over my weekend and I took over Latium

The Anno franchise is easily one of my top city-building franchises of all time, and when Anno 117: Pax Romana got announced back in 2024, it became one of my most anticipated games of the year.

Once I got hold of the preview in early October – huge thanks to the Ubisoft team – I couldn’t stop playing it over the weekend.

My initial approach to playing Anno 117 Pax Romana for the first time

As someone who has played a few Anno games, especially the previous title, Anno 1800, my approach to the game differs from others because the core foundation of Anno games is already somewhat embedded in me.

With that said, I played as a Roman Governor in Latium with absolutely no care for aesthetics. In city builders, some players tend to carefully organize their buildings, roads, and other infrastructure the minute they start their playthrough. Yeah, my farms were all over the place, even with some residential buildings out of reach from public services to meet their needs.

My approach was to learn through error because I know that somewhere along the middle, I’ll eventually relocate 90% of the buildings and end up saying, “I’ll just make the next island nicer.” With more new advancements, I’ll start relocating structures again, and it really feels bad to relocate if you spent hours building a layout. If you know, you know.

So, I quickly went through the tiers and learned about all the buildings and potential discoveries until I played my first real playthrough.

My first real test in conquering Latium

Once I got a good grasp of Anno 117: Pax Romana, I started a serious run in the Latium province. I knew how to shape my islands, separate my residential plots from the production chains, and much more.

In all fairness, learning the production lines while creating a flourishing nation was exciting. Creating those long production chains working at 100% efficiency, especially when perfectly boosted by a specialist, is one of the most satisfying feelings in the game.

But creating a blossoming economic power is just the first step. Ushering the new dominant military powerhouse to conquer the world of Latium was the next step.

One of the biggest changes in Anno 117: Pax Romana is its addition of land battles. As someone who played a lot of Total War: Rome as a kid, I just had to do it.

I created a dominant naval power, with some ships even carrying archers, trying to conquer every Governor Villa or island in Latium. However, a group of raiders kept dwindling my military force, reminiscent of how Anne Harlow or Jean La Fortune would destroy my trade routes back in Anno 1800.

After conquering a few islands and repeatedly restarting my military presence, the weekend was suddenly over.

There were a lot more playthroughs left to do, including a serious run in the other province, Albion. While these two provinces can be played simultaneously, I’ll reserve some of the game for another playthrough in the future.

If you are a fan of city builders and strategy games that aren’t turn-based, Anno 117: Pax Romana is definitely worth a try.