Anno 1800 in about 3 minutes

Anno 1800 in about 3 minutes

Designer,Martin Wallace,
Artist,Fiore GmbH,
Publisher,KOSMOS

3 minute board games theme Music by Vic Granell

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

"Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act
1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

3 minute board games are J Carmichael and S Rodgers

[MBG]

So, the whole colonial thing in Anno 1800 is played out in the most sanitized and risk averse way. Like the game was a blunt colonial experience and then a sensitivity reader looked at it, and all they did was rename a few things.

First, You "explore new places, using your icons showing crossed swords, which come from ships with guns on them. It's like they didnt want to say conquer. Also, why does one need a warship to get more land on an island in the old world. The island you are developing is clearly a colony in the new world, they just don't want to own that. The premise of "building up an island in the old world" is nonsense, you are not the new governor of Guerrnsey. And then the new world trade tokens, all presented harmlessly as trade ports, despite you needing warships to open them up and the historic sources of things like new world which was slavery.

This is a great example of what bugs me about colonialism in games. Not that it happens, but that its both modelled in a bizarre way and white washes over any unpleasantness in the most sanitized way possible. Those folks who talk about "not messing with history", really need to look at how colonial games like this 100% present a sanitized, idealized and heroic version of colonialism. Which is a bigger fantasy than Lord of the Rings is. It would be like making a war game, where you never admit its an actual war, and the winner is the player who can build the most supply depots on an ever expanding board that is expanding through "exploration".

Either own that you are making a colonial power fantasy game, or just retheme it. This half way house is the worst of both worlds.

[KacperFrydrykiewicz]

It has no solo mode... in the box! But if you go to BGG you can find excellent way to play it solo :)

[carrickrichards]

Love how you thoroughly cover the essentials. This is very helpful and informative. Thank you

[fich]

Big fan of the PC game series, with 1800 honestly being my favourite. I loved how the boardgame looked, and bought it as soon as it was translated into English. It sees play quite often, actually, and various people I've introduced to the game love playing it. The same goes for myself - I honestly think it's a great game and that it actually does a really good job of translating the PC game's mechanics into the boardgame format. The PC game is massively complex, and the boardgame boils it down into its most important bits, and then simplifies them. Having spent a lot of time with both iterations, I think it's a really well designed boardgame. It also absolutely shines in 4-player games, as the limited number of industries forces trade between players, table banter and shenanigans included.

Also, an official solo mode does, in fact, exist, but it hasn't been translated into English yet, as far as I know. It works pretty well, too, though it's no substitute to multiplayer. There's even a campaign.

[ruijiang]

I've been a huge fan of the Anno series and I personally loved Anno 1800 the PC game. However it doesn't look like the experience transformed very well into the board game format.

[CarlToonist]

I played the Anno 1503 PC game. It did a lot of the same things, but the computer took care of a lot of the details. It still took me some time to grok it though. Because trading with another island wasn't intuitive. This board game version sound like it does a lot of the same things, but in a tighter process. You did a great job of explaining the basics. Not sure it is a game for me. I think I would need the computer to help.

[kyussinchains]

I saw this on offer recently and picked it up, being a bit of a Martin Wallace fan, and I have to say that my partner and I really really like it, it probably sits between the versions of Brass for me, I'd never turn a game down

I do agree that the colonialism was handled strangely, I dont know how faithful it is to the video game in this respect, having not played it

[timoseppa]

I like Anno 1800 but it's on the heavy/long side for me to get folks to play it.

[ohtheforlanity]

Oh no, after seeing the last 5 seconds of this video I now want a Path of Exile board

[mabos]

What do you think about the solo mode?

[AndreaForlani]

WAIT WAIT WAAAIT!!! You can build Industries on the COAST!?!?? 😱
WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS

[wayner]

My wife bought this for me last Christmas but we haven't got it to the table yet.

[Brekekekiwi]

.... This looked really really boring to me. Way too many cards with pictures that didn't feel like they really mean anything, and tedious actions... Obviously I am not the target market!

[mabos]

This is not true that there Is no solo mode... You have the sandbox mode and the campaign both on bgg original language was in German so the community helped with the transition

[tas]

I probably played this game 30+ time but its a race game not an engine builder. I claiming European colonialism is worst thing that ever happen is just eurocentric as claiming it was wonderful thing.