The Anno 1800 board game was for him Kosmos Publisher is one of those titles with which you have shown a good hand. There was already experience with the brand; after all, the Stuttgart publisher had already adapted the spin-offs 1701 and 1503 from Ubisoft's video game series as analog games. However, something has changed: Klaus Teuber is no longer responsible for the implementation, but rather Martin Wallace. Also a legendary author and expert in trading and business board games. Good conditions for a successful, entertaining board game adaptation - and indeed: Anno 1800 is convincing.
The "Anno" series, whose year numbers always add up to nine, was already able to establish itself in the 1602s, back then with Anno 2007, which was still from Max Design and thus from Austria. Later, the two German development studios Related Design and Blue Byte took over – the publisher is also different today than it was then: Ubisoft replaced Sunflowers in 1800. There were no such changes with analog equivalent: the publishing house Kosmos has always been responsible for the implementation as board games and card games. Only the author who was responsible for the design of Anno XNUMX is new. Martin Wallace was brought on board for this purpose: Experienced as a game author, experienced as a designer of trading and business games and also an industry legend with effective advertising. Could it still go wrong? Yes. Is that it? no
Anno 1800 in the test: like the video game
The relationship to the video game template is already visually obvious: similar packaging, graphics from the digital original, same setting. A board game adaptation could hardly be more precise. Martin Wallace and Kosmos didn't experiment, but rather consistently reworked an existing concept into a functioning table game. This will particularly please those fans who have already enjoyed the PC game series. Everyone else probably doesn't care about the visual similarity, they expect playful quality. And she's also convincing.
As in the template, players start with little more than a few basic elements to get their economic cycle going. Four farmers, three workers and two artisans - there is nothing more for the two to four players who set out to become an economic power in the age of industrialization. The idea is well known: goods are produced, among other things depending on the different population categories.
The success of the board game variant of Anno 1800 is of course much more mechanical: There are bonuses and victory points for successes. Overall, the board game is based very closely on the template. In the course of the game, new elements come into play again and again - new unit types, for example, or goods. Instead of producing yourself, you can also trade with other players or do what pioneers do: discover the world, for example, because that is also worthwhile. Again and again, the game principle urges interim decisions: tokens and units can be retrieved, but you suspend or pay for them. With currency that you generate by trading with your opponents. The board game for Anno 1800 relies on various synergies that are thematically coherent and also playfully interwoven.
Similarly to video games, players can also let off steam on the respective game boards - in the building land, so to speak. With the help of ships, more space is created in order to discover new islands. All of this sounds suspiciously like Anno 1800 on the PC and it also feels like it as a board game as far as possible. Martin Wallace has succeeded in creating a game principle that does not have to be hoarded indiscriminately, but instead has to be managed sensibly. You produce according to your needs, so you use the strength of your workers as efficiently as possible - and you also expand your workforce in line with your productivity.
Instead of using the AI, you trade with the other players in the Anno 1800 board game, and this is also excellent because it is implemented without creating barriers. Anno 1800 is basically interactive, sometimes enforces it, but does not require the players to make any major preparations: If trade markers are available, goods can also be moved. At the same time, however, you also notice that you can lose yourself in these repetitive actions - this is at the expense of playing time. At around two hours, it is not particularly short anyway, but it gets longer the less players want to bring the game to an end.
Just no city festival ...
On the other hand, it is fun to optimize your supply chain, make the production landscape as efficient as possible and delay the city festival. Collect gold and bonuses, use the currencies for workers - in this case without having to let your own game stall - and repeatedly weigh up between several options: this is how the core task of the player can be roughly described. The board game for Anno 1800 does not include any gigantic machinery, but uses comparatively few, but the elements of the digital template that are particularly suitable for a board game.
At some point a game in Anno 1800 will come to an end: when all the cards in your hand have been played. Annoyingly, that is literally in the hands of the players themselves. If you ponder and hesitate a lot, you put the other players to a hard test of patience, because there is not much to do if it is not your turn. So you usually wait, in the "worst case" many minutes per move, which can ultimately add up to a playing time well over the scheduled two hours. The reverse is better: players have experience, play subsequent games and know what is important. Then Anno 1800 is crisp, but demanding - and then particularly entertaining.
It follows from this: Even with two players, the board game works excellently and the risk of delaying it is low. So one formula doesn't work: The board game for Anno 1800 is not automatically more fun with more players. This is not only due to the playing time, but to the mechanics. Apart from retail, it is designed for self-optimization. You reach into the office opposite, but that's it again. Anno 1800 is convincing as a pair, is outstanding as a team of three, but is not recommended in a full line-up with four players.
A real brake on motivation, however, is a lack of luck when drawing cards. This can quickly turn out to be fatal for your own strategy, which sometimes has balancing reasons. The compensation options are small due to the linear game principle. This becomes noticeable with increasing experience. Then moves feel the same, you work on a strategy rather than thinking up a new one. You should therefore not do without a game of Anno 1800, because going through the rather solitary actions is a lot of fun in a strange way. In the end, this is exactly due to the aforementioned linear game principle: The process in Anno 1800 ripples smoothly and unobtrusively, but you still have to think, but rarely to a tiring degree. Much more concentration is required, however, to keep track of the tangled material on the table. You get used to it, but it's an inhibition threshold.
Infobox
Number of players: 2 to 4 players
Age: from 12 years
Playing time: 90 to 180 minutes
Difficulty: medium
Long-term motivation: medium
Publisher: Kosmos
Website: Link
Year of publication: 2020
Author: Martin Wallace
Language: German
Cost: around 50 euros
Conclusion
One thing is obvious: the board game for Anno 1800 is not a "licensed gherkin". On the contrary: Martin Wallace's trading game is one of the best works in Kosmos Verlag's portfolio to date. This is mainly due to the implementation that is true to the original and the resulting Anno flair. In addition, the catchy, yet motivating game principle works simply excellently. Even if it's "just" pushing tiles in the end, that's exactly the fun factor. You act a lot, also with your fellow players, but on a level where you rarely get in each other's way.
There is a lot more to do with expanding your islands as efficiently as possible, rethinking your production chains, and directing your workers. You have to accept that Anno 1800 sometimes feels mechanical as a result. In return, the board game offers no-frills games around resource management, usually with a manageable amount of time. Depending on the number of players, you have to rethink and adapt your tactics, that's a good thing. Ultimately, this board game does not want to be an epic trading simulation, but an optimization game in which players at best work towards a goal and do not let themselves drift. You play with or against each other, but the real strengths lie in the solitaire game - the fact that a solo set of rules is in development is therefore not surprising, but rather consistent in view of the game principle.
With increasing gaming experience, stronger game elements crystallize that give you an advantage. There are also some inaccuracies in goods trading that can have an unfavorable effect on the course of the game. Nonetheless, overall the game principle works and Wallace's concept of converting the core actions from Anno into a board game works.
This does not necessarily apply to the optics. Functional and sober, this is how the board game presents itself in Anno 1800 and thus exactly the opposite of the wonderful video game. Yes, graphics from the game were taken over - and that's a good thing - but Anno is rather conservative on the table. In any case, a real feast for the eyes looks different. On the other hand, the sobriety provides an overview - and that is necessary, even on the passive trains. You always follow what your opponent is doing. That is essential, but also a blessing and a curse.
Overall, the board game for Anno 1800 is not only a surprisingly good, but an all-round successful title. The board game does not necessarily score points for its complexity, but for the clever use of synergies. You always choose between several alternative courses of action, the more you play, the better you get. Anno 1800 has a noticeable learning curve, which ends abruptly at some point: then subsequent games feel more uniform. Before that happens, however, it takes a lot of laps.
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