Anno 1800: Shifting Tides and Opinions in the Solo Campaign
Produce various resources to advance along a tech tree with different inhabitants and production choices with Anno 1800.
With the first few solo scenarios complete, I was ready to move forward with Anno 1800! I enjoyed the challenges and the way the campaign slowly opened up more options. Yet I had a lot more to learn with the fourth scenario, which promised a host of new building tiles. My island would need to expand… And I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant.
Game Overview
Game Name: Anno 1800
Publication Year: 2020
Designer: Martin Wallace
Artist: Fiore GmbH
Publisher: KOSMOS
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant (Unofficially Translated)
Buildings require resources to be produced by inhabitants, while trade can offer other possibilities. The idea is to work towards objectives in the solo campaign. An island takes shape with new technology and engineers, yet it’s no easy task to meet the desires of the entire population!
First Play
June 26, 2023
Complexity
4
Latest Play
June 27, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
14
Play Time
20 Minutes
High Score
61
Game Area
38" x 24"
Low Score
15
Stumped by a Scenario
Despite my early success, this fourth solo scenario turned out to be my undoing. I looked up strategy tips, re-read the rules, and tried everything possible to plan ahead.
Now, I’m not one to turn away from a solo game after a frustrating session. Yet I noticed some things this time around that really turned me off of gameplay. Why?
The random card draw spoiled everything. It wasn’t like I could just work around these options, either.
Constantly swapping population cards took up precious actions and I watched time simply run out each time.
New World Cards
Maybe I was also a little hesitant about the idea of exploring the New World… The crossed swords felt a little more confrontational than I originally thought.
These population cards also came without population cubes. If these people weren’t inhabitants, who were they?
I kept drawing cards with requirements for exploration tokens, which simply weren’t possible to spend.
The goal was to complete at least 7 New World cards… So I needed to use those exploration tokens to even draw the bare minimum of population cards. Very frustrating!
Resource Difficulties
When I started mixing up resources, I was in trouble. The summary sheet is very helpful, yet it doesn’t remove the fact that some icons look far too similar.
No joke… I mixed up sewing machines for weapons a couple of times. Ha ha! Those don’t even look alike, yet I found myself struggling in odd ways like this.
I appreciate how this sheet is designed to help, but the use of video game images as iconography isn’t so great.
So I ended up turning around with my overall rating, as unfortunate as that is. I truly had a great first session!
For Lack of an Insert
When I felt excited to clean everything up, I knew it was time to set this game aside. That’s how it goes sometimes, and I’m sure there will be many who enjoy this challenge!
Yet I was also reminded of the lack of a storage solution. This was my best attempt at organizing it with the bags… And this is borderline unacceptably messy for me.
To set this up again will require some extra sorting of tiles. I can only hope they stay neatly organized in the bags.
I’ll enjoy the moments I had with the initial solo scenarios, yet it’s definitely time to find some more fun.
Looking at the Reasons for Such a Big Shift
Based on my initial session, this looked like it was going to be a really enjoyable game for me. I was on the fence about it returning to my table after I finished the solo campaign, yet I never figured I would stall out like this. Granted, I know all of these losses mean I have absolutely no skills. Ha ha! Yet it felt like I had no path forward and no way to solve it.
Playing this much also brought out the weaknesses with the card draws. Swapping population cards sounds excellent, yet it’s still very random. There is a chance that 3 cards with difficult requirements will be replaced with identical versions with slightly different artwork. Even the starting hand has been subtly updated to disallow engineer abilities.
I didn’t mind how the video game series played out the last time I played it… But that was around 10 years ago or more. The New World element felt oddly disconnected with population cards that didn’t actually affect my population. Plus, the tile expansions were randomly drawn, so if I needed a specific trade resource, I wasn’t guaranteed to find it.
There is an interesting challenge here that just feels a bit unpolished to me. I do think the right audience will enjoy this one a lot, and even my husband wants to hang onto it for the multiplayer experience. This is why I can’t clear some shelf space. Ha ha! Still, it was nice to experience part of the solo campaign and understand why the game isn’t for me.
Session Overview
Play Number: 7-14
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant (Unofficially Translated)
Play Details: Scenario 4 at the Standard Difficulty Level
Outcome: 25, 40, 37, 46, 33, 37, 27, 41 (8 Losses)
The single objective was to complete 7 New World cards. My best attempt resulted in 4. Not even close! I tried so many different choices, and just never figured it out. The horrible card draws I had left me with few options, too. Engineers seemed to end up in the time deck, and I just wasn’t sure what I was doing on these exploration actions to the New World. Time to move onto another solo game!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
6
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
10
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
6
+ Pros (Positives)
- Introducing concepts works well with the first few scenarios of the solo campaign, which can be a lot of fun.
- Finding ways to advance along the tech tree with resource production and trade is an interesting challenge.
- Play time for a lot of the scenarios is very quick with a timer deck that indicates how close the end game is.
- Decisions are very important and feel meaningful with the limited building space and option to build over tiles.
- Different inhabitant types provide ways to produce resources, yet they can also be upgraded to higher tiers.
- Managing a plan against the random population card draws can provide a great experience in balancing choices.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The luck of the card draw is very important with the population cards, and bad luck leaves limited options.
- Iconography is taken from the video game, so a lot of resources look far too similar and are easy to mix up.
- New World cards are difficult to complete and are only collected by exploring, which doesn’t feel like exploring.
- All of the building tiles need to be carefully sorted, yet without an included insert, setup can take a long time.
Victory Conditions
Complete All Objectives
- Overall Goal Progress 75%
Goals and Milestones
Complete scenario 1 at the standard difficulty level.
Complete scenario 2 at the standard difficulty level.
Complete scenario 3 at the standard difficulty level.
Complete scenario 4 at the standard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of the solo campaign for Anno 1800? It was interesting to see how things didn’t work out for me after enjoying the first few scenarios, but that can happen. Are there any solo games you changed your opinion about? I hope those who enjoy this game continue to do so, as I can see the fun in solving these challenges. For now… Onward!
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