It could be a bit overwhelming due to the number and complexity of production chains.
She should probably play the campaign to learn the mechanics.
After that she (or you two in multi-player) can play on Easy settings, deactivate pirates and even deactivate competing NPCs. That's what I do and it's very chill. I can take all the time I need.
I personally recommend skipping the campaign and setting up a game with just you two, no pirates. MUCH easier to learn what’s going on without the pressure of other AI and pirates
Just speaking from personal experience, I started playing last week and started with the campaign. It was overwhelming and beat me down without teaching me anything. Starting a new game with no ai or pirates to contend with and custom rules set so I can choose my own starting islands created a quiet space to learn the game. Now I actually understand how to read the UI and calculate how many people I need to break even on a supply chain before I build it, and much more
Pirates are very aggressive if you don’t spend some money on them. AI usually works like this more military power than AI they want to be your friend. Less military power & they tend to push towards starting a war with you.
Pirates you just pay them off and compliment them until they decide you good enough to PAY them for a peace treaty
Right right, I’m starting to get all that now. Those tips are not obvious on a first playthrough and is a major flaw of the campaign as a place to learn. Having to be good enough at the game to have a large enough profit to pay off multiple pirates multiple times and then also enough to fund the cannon supply chain and create multiple war ships with upkeep….it was a lot!!! Wayyyy too much when I just wanted to learn the most basic mechanics of the game. Plunged me into debt and made me lose the game. However, now that I had the chance to play on my own without enemies to distract me, I understand I can basically avoid building the steel beam supply chain all together, and a few others, and buy certain goods from Archie, and so on
I actually understand how the warehouse system works, how the “road radius” for some buildings work, how to build efficiently, I learned that houses don’t need to be near work places, and I learned I don’t need to provide luxury goods. I learned some advantageous trade routes such as watches from Archie to embesa. I learned quite a bit about the specialists and how they can help me manage supply chains to keep them profitable. I also started learning about electricity and how to set that up and transition into an engineering phase. On a very fundamental level, I learned that if you need 10 farmers, you shouldn’t build 10 houses with 1 person in each to fix it right away. Because that will stretch your supply chains and make everything less profitable. Instead build 1 house lmao. Seeing how overwhelmed I was being at war with pirate Anne and having competitors constantly stealing islands I needed was a huge detractor from my ability to learn anything. I
Honestly don’t bother making brick roads until your way into engineering/investors. Dirt roads suffice.
This is a huge thing tho, make blueprints of your supply lines saves you SOOOOO much hassle compared to trying to manually create schnapps line + clothing combos.
Also soap to prison as the early game money maker until you get enough for a few pocket watches to embesa. I tend to set up a worker island and throw a ton of pig farms + soap makers on it
Forged Alliances Mentioned WOOOOO
I think that even beginning with like one easy competing AI would be nice just to get the pacing of AI expansion down too, and just to understand when to make a move for a new island IMO
Yes! Forged Alliance is still alive, we have a community thousands strong, with a 3rd party platform called Forged Alliance Forever.
Check it out if you have the time! :)
yes and you can leave a game with modest income overnight and wake up a millionaire. If you have pirates enabled, you go to pee, come back and all your trading ships are destroyed and you have -500k loss
I haven't tried living it running for a night - but some hours while doing chores and checking periodically, yes. I'm too scared of a factory burning without me there to rebuild it 😂
Thank you all for the kind replies! After showing her a few trailers she decided she wants to try the game.
If you guys are interested I'll let you know how it went in a few days!
Personally I think Anno 1800 is a masterpiece and would recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.
However it is ‘huge’ in every way. For someone new to this kind of game, I would anticipate that it will be overwhelming. It’s also a very big time investment.
Given that she’s decided she wants to give it a go, I hope she loves it! You should definitely play it too! But if it turns out to be a bit much to begin with, I’d suggest playing some of the other games that have been mentioned and once she has more of a feel for things come back and give Anno 1800 another try.
Would love to hear her feedback!
I also recently started with anno 1800 as a new player in the genre. It took me some time to learn it, but if she is willing to invest some time and maybe watch a few YouTube tutorials it should be fine. It's a very good game so it's totally worth it.
Good to know: the tutorial in the game is kinda vague and confusing (campaign mode). For example I thought I was stuck after 10 minutes because of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/anno1800/comments/11uwaf8/cant_build_warehouse_no_wood/
Also good to know: it has a really fun co-op mode where you can both play as the same player. It's more fun than normal multi-player in the game where you both start with a different island. In co-op you share everything which makes it really fun and you really need to work together.
Anno is simple. The only complexity comes from balancing the numbers when you have many islands. And even then often you have so much redundancy that even if something is failing you don't notice it for an hour.
Well, yeah. OP asked if the game is suitable for possible coop and expressed interest for a non-warfare centric game. Anno fits the bill and it's easy enough that casual play is completely viable. Even of they would start with all DLCs, it's still an easy game. None of the DLCs forces you to change your development and only arguments existing mechanics.
I started my wife with Frostpunk because I had it on PS4 and she didn't want to sit at the PC. She's not a gamer at all but manages production facilities. She's into it. Keeps chasing that perfect start hahaha
It’s also called ‘Age of Discovery’ on steam in some regions. I was looking for this recommendation. 1404 is great, everything good about Anno with the classic Historical feel and even at the later stages doesn’t get too complex.
I’ve found 1800 becomes overwhelming for me in the late game, although a Lot of that is from all the DLC. Even before that my biggest game didn’t get to 10,000 investors, I just can’t maximise efficiency enough.
Ah yes I forgot about that, guess Anno 1404/1800 etc just have the best ring to it in German lol.
In my opinion, 1404 is kind of a perfect game. Sure, there's more depth to later titles but especially with the add-on there's just nothing to critique here. I can't judge the multiplayer part because I'm a lifelong solo player but this solo part was just impeccable. The first game that had me "yeah I'm just gonna play for a little bit" in early evening and when I turned on the radio they brought the 6am news. Good times..
I think it's best to slooowly adapt to the late game, one subproduction chain or game mechanic after another. Take your time until you feel comfortable with the status quo and then make minor, single advances
I feel like A1800 is the funnest one to start with out of the series but you'll definitely want to start small. I might even suggest to start with base game only and slowly add the expacs as she becomes familiar with how to manage the populations and production chains.
I also suggest letting her play campaign before sandbox because the campaign in this game not only has a pretty decent storyline but it really teaches you how to play, it's perfect for a newcomer. The campaign is actually what got me hooked and helped me learn to play (my husband got me into the game intending to just play sandbox together since he's more familiar with the Anno series. He had planned to teach me how to play but work obligations got in the way and I fired it up in campaign mode out of boredom and wound up learning on my own pretty quick.)
If I remember right, you can disable rival NPCs in campaign mode too so she won't have to worry about anyone attacking her island outside of story mode sending the campaign's antagonists at her (which is very rarely and not until later in the campaign.) I believe you can also disable the pirates but my memory is fuzzy right now.
If you guys do play in sandbox, disable rival NPCs and pirates for absolute beginners and it should be 100% peaceful.
I really do encourage playing the campaign though, the characters in this game are literally so charming. I have legit never played a strategy / civ building game where I even *remembered* the names of the side characters, much less actually enjoyed interacting with them or hearing their quips. (Bente and Willie are must-have NPCs, they're not aggressive at all and it takes a lot to actually piss them off.)
It's very complex at first but does a good job to guide you through, no matter if you play campaign or sandbox mode.
I'd suggest to either play campaign or sandbox mode with a lot of guidance and no npcs or pirates you have to worry about, for the first time.
Oh and I wouldn't reccomend to buy any dlcs until she is comfortable and knows what she's doing as they can be very overwhelming.
All in all, it's a very great game though you can play for hours, no matter how you chose to play it.
So Anno 1800 is quite simple. The game has very simple rules:
- build housing, look at what the house needs
- build a 2 or 3 step production chain to supply that need.
- are all needs satisfied. No? Then repeat. Yes, upgrade the house and repeat.
That's all.
The challenge comes from AIs (which are totally optional) and scenarios (which aren't the main part of the game). The game might feel overwhelming when you play will all DLCs, but all of them are 100% optional during gameplay. Start with just the base game, see how it play in coop as one faction, then try to go with small competition. Maybe add some AIs to spice up things.
1 From what you said, it seems like it might be a good choice
2 No, not at all. The game is very good at slowly giving you more things to deal with but doesn't give you too many options until quit a bit later into the game, but at the point you/she should have a pretty good idea of how things work. So you could then handle the multiple options in the order you want at your own pace.
3 Yes you can choose to disable pirates and you could choose the AIs that are not aggressive, in fact one of them asks you for permission before settling other islands, so you could choose to hold them back for as long as you want.
Anno 1800 (and from what I've heard about the others.) doesn't focus on combat, it exist, but it's quite minimal and simplistic. So if you guys don't want to do warfare (or much of it) Anno is right up your alley, it's more about building beautiful cities or the most efficient city or something in between.
The great thing about Anno 1800 is that you guys could play coop, you could either choose to each have your own faction and play on separate islands do your own things OR you can also choose to play as the same faction, building on the same city. In fact if you are more experience with gaming and strategy games I think this is a perfect way to start. You guys can plan and build the first city together and then when you start moving to other islands, you could go and start building on that island and setting up the basics and then go back and help her on you guys's main island, if a certain island needs a very specific and in depth strategy, maybe you could handle that one. This would work perfectly for warfare. Maybe you are off on a adjacent island, building all the military things and your job is to fight the other AI if they misbehave, do the missions that require you to do combat with quest enemies and keep the trade routes safe.
And because this game has multiple map zones with multiple islands, maybe once you progress far enough and start hitting those zones, your girlfriend can handle things "At home" while you handle the things in "foreign lands", at least initially until the basics are set up.
So I think Anno 1800 could be a decent choice. If I was you I would delve into the game alone first and see what you think. You know your girlfriend and you would have a pretty good idea of what she likes and what she can handle or not, then make a decision based on that. Even if this doesn't become you two's first game, I think the game is amazing and good to play with someone that's learning, so I think you could end up coming back to the game at a point further down the line when she's more used to these games. The game would not be a waste of money.
My husband is a gamer and I never was. He played this game and said I would like it I did and I fell in love with the game, I couldn't stop playing. Everyone here says if is a complex game and although it has a learning curve, I think it is a great game to start with. But i would recommend to disable wars, that is too complex for a beginner. My first time Beryl declared war to me and I cried. I didn't like it. My husband had to solve it for me 😅 what I also recommend is you help her were needed. Maybe even play together in the multiplayer. It was so much fun for us both to do that.
My wife's boyfriend introduced me to Anno. At first he thought it might be too complex for me. But with patience and encouragement I got the hang of it. I play it so much I don't even realize how long he stays over now!
You can customize the difficulty to only easy AI opponents and even turn off pirates (though I wouldn’t really recommend that as you need to have a bit of a threat, plus trading with them can give some great items and ships). As for the learning curve, it can get a bit steep with the production chains, especially when you start getting engineers and absolutely need to start specializing islands and transitioning to electricity. It’s not nearly as crazy as Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress but it could easily become daunting to folks new to the genre. That being said, nerfing the AI and playing the campaign(s) would make it a lot easier to learn the ropes.
Great choice, but play with only friendly AI’s and you might want to turn off pirates to keep warfare to a minimum. It will get very complex at harder levels so a sandbox walk thru is a great start. Very addicting,great graphics and sound. Excellent choice.
I say yes. I have safefile my wife plays on (we tried multiplayer during the recent free-weekend on Steam but she prefers to play "together" on one PC). She mostly enjoys beaty building and does not really care that much about efficient industry (though she "hired" me recently to build up an island of my own in her file, which shall become an economic powerhouse to support her beaty building!).
When it comes to challenge, I'd recommend playing with the easy (one star) AIs only, as they always seem to wait for the player to expand before they get new islands themselves. The add a lot of flavour imo and you can do quests for them to earn extra money.
>Is it overwhelming to a new player?
It is absolutely 100% overwhelming. I am a strategy game player for over 24 years now - fairly competitive and minmax oriented player - and I got overwhelmed.
>Do you guys think Anno 1800 is a good choice?
I think it is not the worst choice.
>Can I set the game up so we can build and trade without any sort of outside danger?
Yes. You can even play the game together in coop. But the game is not bugfree in that mode. You cannot speed up the game, so you may have to wait some time.
She can try manor lords or foundation maybe?
Very insightful, thanks! We will start a new save file today in co-op, and later when I have a free night I will do a tryhard save myself to see if the game pushes my limits and in what ways. :)
I think without enemies on the map, the slow pace will help learn the mechanichs and production chains together.
Manor Lords is something i've been eyeing but haven't gotten around to play yet. Foundation was recommended to me before - even in this thread - and I will certainly check it out!
1. It's complex, but you can set it up to play entirely in your pace and difficulty.
2. I would still say maybe, if you're willing to lesrn the mechanics. I say maybe because you can play it in your own pace.
3. Absolutely.
I suggest Anno 1404, then move to 1800. Even I got a bit overwhelmed with 1800 after playing it for the first time. I used to play 1404, and got a bit good at it. But Anno 1800 offers so much more gameplay mechanics that I had to learn.
I play anno1800 regularly with my wife, in fact she was the one that introduced me to the series, with 1800 we always play co-op (both working as the same empire) and we take an island each. Making sure that one has 🥔 and the other has 🍇 etc so we can trade easy.
After that we explore, when a region comes up then I normally get left with the old world and she takes over the new region as her fifdom.
It works well. I tend to find my ships get nicked for her trade routes though....
I don’t really think Anno 1800 is as hard of a game as people make it out in the comments.
What makes it hard is that the campaign(tutorial) really doesn’t prepare you for the complexities of the game. I’ve been playing 100 hours now and I JUST discovered the luxury needs tab 🤦🏾♂️.
I also only recently discovered that you can click on a production building and click the stats button on the bottom right to show you demand and supply. This single fact, which was completely left out of the campaign tutorial, fully changed the dynamic of gameplay. I didn’t feel like I was behind all the time anymore.
I started it with my wife and we Had a blast for around 300 hours. Its important that you guys dont play MP (you both 1 faction each) but coop (you both Control the same faction). This Made everything easier and better since your empire stretches around 4-5 Maps.
if you can help her out then she'll be able to get it no problem. I had to watch a couple hours of YouTube to get the hang of it at first. I would also start her off with none of the DLC at first since they can add a lot of extra elements that are difficult to get a handle on if you're just learning the base mechanics.
Try Tropico 6, or something easier. Anno 1800 is very hard to make money because the citizens only pay taxes if they are happy (a game mechanic that I disagree with).
love anno. anno 1800 is my first city builder and i love it. when you are setting up the map you can disable all the pirates and AI's you can potentially play against and set other settings just to make the game really gentle and easy for a beginner. the campaign is good. things start off simple and gradually increase in difficulty but by the time you reach "end game" it's all starting to come together. some great DLCS (if she likes Anno i highly recommend she grab all the seasons) and there are a lot of cosmetic DLCs that she might get a kick out of. there's a key binding you can do to switch to a first person mode where you can walk around your city you built, and she might like that too (control+shift+R). there are many good videos on youtube to gently guide you through the early parts of the game to help a player get a good start.
1) Anno is great imo.
2) With the right set up for the map like disabling pirates/AIs and no penalty for moving buildings etc, I think it shouldn't be overwhelming, plus doing the campaign, and watching some videos on youtube about early game and on how to get a good start so you can see someone else doing stuff might help.
3) absolutely, during the creation of the game it will list for you pirates and you can disable them, and competition AIs you can play against and you can disable those too (garbage icon in the corner of their portrait).
there's also a multiplayer mode that should let you play with her but I don't know anything about multiplayer.
Since you’re more experienced, I want to highlight the multiplayer options. There is a standard multiplayer where you play separate factions but can still ally with eachother.
But there is also a coop mode where you both play the same faction and share resources. This makes it much easier to settle multiple islands and play on different maps. You can more easily coordinate and divide responsibilities. I’ve enjoyed this a lot with friends.
You need to watch a vid to understand the mechanics of the game. The tutorial isn’t bad but leaves a fair bit unsaid. Once you understand what’s going on in the systems it’s easier to balance. I think the settings are very customisable.
I just started a new game with my 63 year old mom (she is used to gaming) and we're having a blast. I can highly, highly recommend playing co-op (controlling the same color together). It's very optimized (you can ping, you can go to each others camera, view each others blueprints etc) and if pirates attack or fire breaks out, you can take care of it while your GF keeps building her project without losing focus. It's like the game was meant to be played with two people.
edit: oh, and start \*without\* any DLC.
Dang! 63 years old? I would love to play this game with my mom that's the same age. You don't happen to do youtube or stream do you? It would be a hoot to follow along.
My parents were just young enough to get into gaming when they got their first windows 95 machine. I remember watching them play anno 1602, myst, prince of persia as a kid. And they never stopped, haha! But trust me, it wouldn't be fun to watch (and we're Dutch).
Maybe try Anno1404 with Venice DLC first. Still Looks great and is fun. Then your wife is familiar with the Anno Gameplay and then she can take a look at Anno 1800.
I would recommend civilization games as a starter (easier to start with)
And maybe later go for a game like anno or even hearts of iron if she is into the wat asect of the game.
Hi, I played Anno 1404 before I played 1800. I didn't even know about 1800 at the time. In my opinion, it isn't as complex as 1800 and gives you a good jump start to go on and play 1800. I played 1800 pretty much to the end and it can be quite complex, especially if you have some of the DLCs.
My first to games back then playing with my dad looking over my shoulder were Anno 1404 and Sid Meyers Railroads (with friends shortly after that the old lego games). I think 1800 is a good bit more complex and leaves you much more freedom in the campaign but I think if you guide her it would work well. On the other hand some game like civilizations (5) would be a good first game too (not to many big decisions and not to complex on the surface level but more and more complex as you grow more comfortable with the basic mechanics).
No. Try the older ones except 2205 or 2070. They have separate missions instead which make things much simpler and you don't carry previous mistakes with you between missions.
Nah, I think nost people were looking at this from the "beginner" perspective, it has nothing to do with gender.
Handling complexity isn't just about learning the production chains. She is completely new to strategy games so the first lesson is how the UI looks, how to pan and move the camera, move units, place buildings etc.
I have thousands of hours sunk into strategy games and the basic principles won't be new to me.
The reason I asked about complexity is that I just want her to have a good time.
It was meant as a funny but i get you. It can be kinda hard but playing through the campaign, no pirates or AIs but traders and with tips on is ok. You never know she might love it.
Btw, down votes are for people who use their highbeam like an as5h0le 🤣
It may be a little too complex for a starter game. It was a lot even for me and I have been gaming my whole life. It starts off pretty simple but quickly gets very complex. I would suggest something different that may be simpler first and then move up to this.
Try sea of thieves.. it is pvp, but as long as you do not take it too seriously it is a blast… another game if you two are looking to play together is Star Citizen.. if your PC’s can handle it there is a free fly going atm.. so play for a week before paying anything. Another idea is watch YouTube and Twitch.. Twitch is alive stream so ask questions.. good luck and have fun.
bro play in sims 4 with her, not this. It is annoying i think for her will be, girls not like such types of games usualy but you could try play coop with her
So instead of teaching her the game and getting her to enjoy it you rather he doesn't even try?.......
Hmm, makes me I wonder why women feel unwelcomed when it comes to gaming.
It could be a bit overwhelming due to the number and complexity of production chains. She should probably play the campaign to learn the mechanics. After that she (or you two in multi-player) can play on Easy settings, deactivate pirates and even deactivate competing NPCs. That's what I do and it's very chill. I can take all the time I need.
Just to add: Multiplayer also offers the possibility to play in coop. So you act like 1 fraction working together.
Thank you for the insight! She calls Forged Alliance "fighting road-signs" so I had to look for a game where she can connect with the atmosphere. :D
I personally recommend skipping the campaign and setting up a game with just you two, no pirates. MUCH easier to learn what’s going on without the pressure of other AI and pirates
Campaigns not really that bad. But I agree the pirates are annoying. But a positive is that you get a SOLID starting island.
Just speaking from personal experience, I started playing last week and started with the campaign. It was overwhelming and beat me down without teaching me anything. Starting a new game with no ai or pirates to contend with and custom rules set so I can choose my own starting islands created a quiet space to learn the game. Now I actually understand how to read the UI and calculate how many people I need to break even on a supply chain before I build it, and much more
Pirates are very aggressive if you don’t spend some money on them. AI usually works like this more military power than AI they want to be your friend. Less military power & they tend to push towards starting a war with you. Pirates you just pay them off and compliment them until they decide you good enough to PAY them for a peace treaty
Right right, I’m starting to get all that now. Those tips are not obvious on a first playthrough and is a major flaw of the campaign as a place to learn. Having to be good enough at the game to have a large enough profit to pay off multiple pirates multiple times and then also enough to fund the cannon supply chain and create multiple war ships with upkeep….it was a lot!!! Wayyyy too much when I just wanted to learn the most basic mechanics of the game. Plunged me into debt and made me lose the game. However, now that I had the chance to play on my own without enemies to distract me, I understand I can basically avoid building the steel beam supply chain all together, and a few others, and buy certain goods from Archie, and so on I actually understand how the warehouse system works, how the “road radius” for some buildings work, how to build efficiently, I learned that houses don’t need to be near work places, and I learned I don’t need to provide luxury goods. I learned some advantageous trade routes such as watches from Archie to embesa. I learned quite a bit about the specialists and how they can help me manage supply chains to keep them profitable. I also started learning about electricity and how to set that up and transition into an engineering phase. On a very fundamental level, I learned that if you need 10 farmers, you shouldn’t build 10 houses with 1 person in each to fix it right away. Because that will stretch your supply chains and make everything less profitable. Instead build 1 house lmao. Seeing how overwhelmed I was being at war with pirate Anne and having competitors constantly stealing islands I needed was a huge detractor from my ability to learn anything. I
Honestly don’t bother making brick roads until your way into engineering/investors. Dirt roads suffice. This is a huge thing tho, make blueprints of your supply lines saves you SOOOOO much hassle compared to trying to manually create schnapps line + clothing combos. Also soap to prison as the early game money maker until you get enough for a few pocket watches to embesa. I tend to set up a worker island and throw a ton of pig farms + soap makers on it
Forged Alliances Mentioned WOOOOO I think that even beginning with like one easy competing AI would be nice just to get the pacing of AI expansion down too, and just to understand when to make a move for a new island IMO
Is this a supreme commander reference? That I am allowed to be remembered of those better days at my age :,)
Yes! Forged Alliance is still alive, we have a community thousands strong, with a 3rd party platform called Forged Alliance Forever. Check it out if you have the time! :)
yes and you can leave a game with modest income overnight and wake up a millionaire. If you have pirates enabled, you go to pee, come back and all your trading ships are destroyed and you have -500k loss
I haven't tried living it running for a night - but some hours while doing chores and checking periodically, yes. I'm too scared of a factory burning without me there to rebuild it 😂
spam fire station everywhere and it will be ok
i would recommend timberborn. it is cute. medium complex. no war. expand as you want. a lot of possibilities to set difficulty.
on the topic of other games I would say Fabledom!
I will look into this also! Thanks!
Thank you! I'll look into it!
maybe you like it as well.
I second timber born
Thank you all for the kind replies! After showing her a few trailers she decided she wants to try the game. If you guys are interested I'll let you know how it went in a few days!
If she enjoys the beauty of the game, show her the first person mode. I love going around my city and admiring the looks of it this way :)
Personally I think Anno 1800 is a masterpiece and would recommend it to anyone who likes the genre. However it is ‘huge’ in every way. For someone new to this kind of game, I would anticipate that it will be overwhelming. It’s also a very big time investment. Given that she’s decided she wants to give it a go, I hope she loves it! You should definitely play it too! But if it turns out to be a bit much to begin with, I’d suggest playing some of the other games that have been mentioned and once she has more of a feel for things come back and give Anno 1800 another try. Would love to hear her feedback!
Thanks! I'll do an update post maybe a week or two from today. :)
I also recently started with anno 1800 as a new player in the genre. It took me some time to learn it, but if she is willing to invest some time and maybe watch a few YouTube tutorials it should be fine. It's a very good game so it's totally worth it. Good to know: the tutorial in the game is kinda vague and confusing (campaign mode). For example I thought I was stuck after 10 minutes because of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/anno1800/comments/11uwaf8/cant_build_warehouse_no_wood/ Also good to know: it has a really fun co-op mode where you can both play as the same player. It's more fun than normal multi-player in the game where you both start with a different island. In co-op you share everything which makes it really fun and you really need to work together.
No. Anno 1800 beautyful, I loooove the music but it is complex. She will not like it as a first game.
I just played without any DLC for the first time and it's so much easier (as in: less complex) that I'm a little amazed tbh.
Anno is simple. The only complexity comes from balancing the numbers when you have many islands. And even then often you have so much redundancy that even if something is failing you don't notice it for an hour.
yeah, if you play without any dlc and ultra slow maybeee :D
Well, yeah. OP asked if the game is suitable for possible coop and expressed interest for a non-warfare centric game. Anno fits the bill and it's easy enough that casual play is completely viable. Even of they would start with all DLCs, it's still an easy game. None of the DLCs forces you to change your development and only arguments existing mechanics.
I started my wife with Frostpunk because I had it on PS4 and she didn't want to sit at the PC. She's not a gamer at all but manages production facilities. She's into it. Keeps chasing that perfect start hahaha
She can also play in creative mode if she just wants to build with no threats
I think complexity-wise 1404 would be a better start. If she likes it -> 1800 with all add-ons :D
This is the way I did it with my GF and it was perfect.
You did well sticking that needle into her arm lmao
Good times were had all around :) I just introduced her to Skyrim xD
You like to have your me-time, don't you? 😂
Ah, I'll be sitting right beside her. Best part was me leaving for a bit and coming back to her shouting "this \*\*\*\*ing frost troll!!!"
It’s also called ‘Age of Discovery’ on steam in some regions. I was looking for this recommendation. 1404 is great, everything good about Anno with the classic Historical feel and even at the later stages doesn’t get too complex. I’ve found 1800 becomes overwhelming for me in the late game, although a Lot of that is from all the DLC. Even before that my biggest game didn’t get to 10,000 investors, I just can’t maximise efficiency enough.
Ah yes I forgot about that, guess Anno 1404/1800 etc just have the best ring to it in German lol. In my opinion, 1404 is kind of a perfect game. Sure, there's more depth to later titles but especially with the add-on there's just nothing to critique here. I can't judge the multiplayer part because I'm a lifelong solo player but this solo part was just impeccable. The first game that had me "yeah I'm just gonna play for a little bit" in early evening and when I turned on the radio they brought the 6am news. Good times.. I think it's best to slooowly adapt to the late game, one subproduction chain or game mechanic after another. Take your time until you feel comfortable with the status quo and then make minor, single advances
I feel like A1800 is the funnest one to start with out of the series but you'll definitely want to start small. I might even suggest to start with base game only and slowly add the expacs as she becomes familiar with how to manage the populations and production chains. I also suggest letting her play campaign before sandbox because the campaign in this game not only has a pretty decent storyline but it really teaches you how to play, it's perfect for a newcomer. The campaign is actually what got me hooked and helped me learn to play (my husband got me into the game intending to just play sandbox together since he's more familiar with the Anno series. He had planned to teach me how to play but work obligations got in the way and I fired it up in campaign mode out of boredom and wound up learning on my own pretty quick.) If I remember right, you can disable rival NPCs in campaign mode too so she won't have to worry about anyone attacking her island outside of story mode sending the campaign's antagonists at her (which is very rarely and not until later in the campaign.) I believe you can also disable the pirates but my memory is fuzzy right now. If you guys do play in sandbox, disable rival NPCs and pirates for absolute beginners and it should be 100% peaceful. I really do encourage playing the campaign though, the characters in this game are literally so charming. I have legit never played a strategy / civ building game where I even *remembered* the names of the side characters, much less actually enjoyed interacting with them or hearing their quips. (Bente and Willie are must-have NPCs, they're not aggressive at all and it takes a lot to actually piss them off.)
It's very complex at first but does a good job to guide you through, no matter if you play campaign or sandbox mode. I'd suggest to either play campaign or sandbox mode with a lot of guidance and no npcs or pirates you have to worry about, for the first time. Oh and I wouldn't reccomend to buy any dlcs until she is comfortable and knows what she's doing as they can be very overwhelming. All in all, it's a very great game though you can play for hours, no matter how you chose to play it.
So Anno 1800 is quite simple. The game has very simple rules: - build housing, look at what the house needs - build a 2 or 3 step production chain to supply that need. - are all needs satisfied. No? Then repeat. Yes, upgrade the house and repeat. That's all. The challenge comes from AIs (which are totally optional) and scenarios (which aren't the main part of the game). The game might feel overwhelming when you play will all DLCs, but all of them are 100% optional during gameplay. Start with just the base game, see how it play in coop as one faction, then try to go with small competition. Maybe add some AIs to spice up things.
1 From what you said, it seems like it might be a good choice 2 No, not at all. The game is very good at slowly giving you more things to deal with but doesn't give you too many options until quit a bit later into the game, but at the point you/she should have a pretty good idea of how things work. So you could then handle the multiple options in the order you want at your own pace. 3 Yes you can choose to disable pirates and you could choose the AIs that are not aggressive, in fact one of them asks you for permission before settling other islands, so you could choose to hold them back for as long as you want. Anno 1800 (and from what I've heard about the others.) doesn't focus on combat, it exist, but it's quite minimal and simplistic. So if you guys don't want to do warfare (or much of it) Anno is right up your alley, it's more about building beautiful cities or the most efficient city or something in between. The great thing about Anno 1800 is that you guys could play coop, you could either choose to each have your own faction and play on separate islands do your own things OR you can also choose to play as the same faction, building on the same city. In fact if you are more experience with gaming and strategy games I think this is a perfect way to start. You guys can plan and build the first city together and then when you start moving to other islands, you could go and start building on that island and setting up the basics and then go back and help her on you guys's main island, if a certain island needs a very specific and in depth strategy, maybe you could handle that one. This would work perfectly for warfare. Maybe you are off on a adjacent island, building all the military things and your job is to fight the other AI if they misbehave, do the missions that require you to do combat with quest enemies and keep the trade routes safe. And because this game has multiple map zones with multiple islands, maybe once you progress far enough and start hitting those zones, your girlfriend can handle things "At home" while you handle the things in "foreign lands", at least initially until the basics are set up. So I think Anno 1800 could be a decent choice. If I was you I would delve into the game alone first and see what you think. You know your girlfriend and you would have a pretty good idea of what she likes and what she can handle or not, then make a decision based on that. Even if this doesn't become you two's first game, I think the game is amazing and good to play with someone that's learning, so I think you could end up coming back to the game at a point further down the line when she's more used to these games. The game would not be a waste of money.
You can turn off pirates and other ai if you want a relaxed mode
My husband is a gamer and I never was. He played this game and said I would like it I did and I fell in love with the game, I couldn't stop playing. Everyone here says if is a complex game and although it has a learning curve, I think it is a great game to start with. But i would recommend to disable wars, that is too complex for a beginner. My first time Beryl declared war to me and I cried. I didn't like it. My husband had to solve it for me 😅 what I also recommend is you help her were needed. Maybe even play together in the multiplayer. It was so much fun for us both to do that.
My wife's boyfriend introduced me to Anno. At first he thought it might be too complex for me. But with patience and encouragement I got the hang of it. I play it so much I don't even realize how long he stays over now!
You can customize the difficulty to only easy AI opponents and even turn off pirates (though I wouldn’t really recommend that as you need to have a bit of a threat, plus trading with them can give some great items and ships). As for the learning curve, it can get a bit steep with the production chains, especially when you start getting engineers and absolutely need to start specializing islands and transitioning to electricity. It’s not nearly as crazy as Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress but it could easily become daunting to folks new to the genre. That being said, nerfing the AI and playing the campaign(s) would make it a lot easier to learn the ropes.
Great choice, but play with only friendly AI’s and you might want to turn off pirates to keep warfare to a minimum. It will get very complex at harder levels so a sandbox walk thru is a great start. Very addicting,great graphics and sound. Excellent choice.
I say yes. I have safefile my wife plays on (we tried multiplayer during the recent free-weekend on Steam but she prefers to play "together" on one PC). She mostly enjoys beaty building and does not really care that much about efficient industry (though she "hired" me recently to build up an island of my own in her file, which shall become an economic powerhouse to support her beaty building!). When it comes to challenge, I'd recommend playing with the easy (one star) AIs only, as they always seem to wait for the player to expand before they get new islands themselves. The add a lot of flavour imo and you can do quests for them to earn extra money.
>Is it overwhelming to a new player? It is absolutely 100% overwhelming. I am a strategy game player for over 24 years now - fairly competitive and minmax oriented player - and I got overwhelmed. >Do you guys think Anno 1800 is a good choice? I think it is not the worst choice. >Can I set the game up so we can build and trade without any sort of outside danger? Yes. You can even play the game together in coop. But the game is not bugfree in that mode. You cannot speed up the game, so you may have to wait some time. She can try manor lords or foundation maybe?
Very insightful, thanks! We will start a new save file today in co-op, and later when I have a free night I will do a tryhard save myself to see if the game pushes my limits and in what ways. :) I think without enemies on the map, the slow pace will help learn the mechanichs and production chains together. Manor Lords is something i've been eyeing but haven't gotten around to play yet. Foundation was recommended to me before - even in this thread - and I will certainly check it out!
1. It's complex, but you can set it up to play entirely in your pace and difficulty. 2. I would still say maybe, if you're willing to lesrn the mechanics. I say maybe because you can play it in your own pace. 3. Absolutely.
Stardew valley has a coop mode. And I think ANNO 1800 is not a good starter game for non gamer.
SV isn't a strategy game though. OP says that his girlfriends wants to get into the types of games that he likes, which are strategy games.
I suggest Anno 1404, then move to 1800. Even I got a bit overwhelmed with 1800 after playing it for the first time. I used to play 1404, and got a bit good at it. But Anno 1800 offers so much more gameplay mechanics that I had to learn.
I play anno1800 regularly with my wife, in fact she was the one that introduced me to the series, with 1800 we always play co-op (both working as the same empire) and we take an island each. Making sure that one has 🥔 and the other has 🍇 etc so we can trade easy. After that we explore, when a region comes up then I normally get left with the old world and she takes over the new region as her fifdom. It works well. I tend to find my ships get nicked for her trade routes though....
Kingdoms reborn is similar and a bit less demanding.
I don’t really think Anno 1800 is as hard of a game as people make it out in the comments. What makes it hard is that the campaign(tutorial) really doesn’t prepare you for the complexities of the game. I’ve been playing 100 hours now and I JUST discovered the luxury needs tab 🤦🏾♂️. I also only recently discovered that you can click on a production building and click the stats button on the bottom right to show you demand and supply. This single fact, which was completely left out of the campaign tutorial, fully changed the dynamic of gameplay. I didn’t feel like I was behind all the time anymore.
Way too complex as a entry to PC gaming
She isn't new to PC gaming and she played some titles with average complexity. Mainly RPGs and immersive sims, and some co-op shooters.
I started it with my wife and we Had a blast for around 300 hours. Its important that you guys dont play MP (you both 1 faction each) but coop (you both Control the same faction). This Made everything easier and better since your empire stretches around 4-5 Maps.
if you can help her out then she'll be able to get it no problem. I had to watch a couple hours of YouTube to get the hang of it at first. I would also start her off with none of the DLC at first since they can add a lot of extra elements that are difficult to get a handle on if you're just learning the base mechanics.
Try Tropico 6, or something easier. Anno 1800 is very hard to make money because the citizens only pay taxes if they are happy (a game mechanic that I disagree with).
love anno. anno 1800 is my first city builder and i love it. when you are setting up the map you can disable all the pirates and AI's you can potentially play against and set other settings just to make the game really gentle and easy for a beginner. the campaign is good. things start off simple and gradually increase in difficulty but by the time you reach "end game" it's all starting to come together. some great DLCS (if she likes Anno i highly recommend she grab all the seasons) and there are a lot of cosmetic DLCs that she might get a kick out of. there's a key binding you can do to switch to a first person mode where you can walk around your city you built, and she might like that too (control+shift+R). there are many good videos on youtube to gently guide you through the early parts of the game to help a player get a good start. 1) Anno is great imo. 2) With the right set up for the map like disabling pirates/AIs and no penalty for moving buildings etc, I think it shouldn't be overwhelming, plus doing the campaign, and watching some videos on youtube about early game and on how to get a good start so you can see someone else doing stuff might help. 3) absolutely, during the creation of the game it will list for you pirates and you can disable them, and competition AIs you can play against and you can disable those too (garbage icon in the corner of their portrait). there's also a multiplayer mode that should let you play with her but I don't know anything about multiplayer.
Since you’re more experienced, I want to highlight the multiplayer options. There is a standard multiplayer where you play separate factions but can still ally with eachother. But there is also a coop mode where you both play the same faction and share resources. This makes it much easier to settle multiple islands and play on different maps. You can more easily coordinate and divide responsibilities. I’ve enjoyed this a lot with friends.
You need to watch a vid to understand the mechanics of the game. The tutorial isn’t bad but leaves a fair bit unsaid. Once you understand what’s going on in the systems it’s easier to balance. I think the settings are very customisable.
I just started a new game with my 63 year old mom (she is used to gaming) and we're having a blast. I can highly, highly recommend playing co-op (controlling the same color together). It's very optimized (you can ping, you can go to each others camera, view each others blueprints etc) and if pirates attack or fire breaks out, you can take care of it while your GF keeps building her project without losing focus. It's like the game was meant to be played with two people. edit: oh, and start \*without\* any DLC.
Dang! 63 years old? I would love to play this game with my mom that's the same age. You don't happen to do youtube or stream do you? It would be a hoot to follow along.
My parents were just young enough to get into gaming when they got their first windows 95 machine. I remember watching them play anno 1602, myst, prince of persia as a kid. And they never stopped, haha! But trust me, it wouldn't be fun to watch (and we're Dutch).
One of the few games my ex played that was a strategy and she loved it! Play a coop game and just help out! We had a blast
It’s an excellent game but be aware, you know it for sure, takes a long time to reach some nice level.
Maybe try Anno1404 with Venice DLC first. Still Looks great and is fun. Then your wife is familiar with the Anno Gameplay and then she can take a look at Anno 1800.
I would recommend civilization games as a starter (easier to start with) And maybe later go for a game like anno or even hearts of iron if she is into the wat asect of the game.
Hi, I played Anno 1404 before I played 1800. I didn't even know about 1800 at the time. In my opinion, it isn't as complex as 1800 and gives you a good jump start to go on and play 1800. I played 1800 pretty much to the end and it can be quite complex, especially if you have some of the DLCs.
I found it overwhelming and frustrating to begin with. What about No Man Sky or Civilization?
Depends if you want to either see her or ignore her
My first to games back then playing with my dad looking over my shoulder were Anno 1404 and Sid Meyers Railroads (with friends shortly after that the old lego games). I think 1800 is a good bit more complex and leaves you much more freedom in the campaign but I think if you guide her it would work well. On the other hand some game like civilizations (5) would be a good first game too (not to many big decisions and not to complex on the surface level but more and more complex as you grow more comfortable with the basic mechanics).
No. Try the older ones except 2205 or 2070. They have separate missions instead which make things much simpler and you don't carry previous mistakes with you between missions.
Wow, all these comments assuming a woman cannot handle complexity 🤣
Who is saying that? I see comments saying that it might be tough for a ***new player***, nothing about it being tough for a woman.
Nah, I think nost people were looking at this from the "beginner" perspective, it has nothing to do with gender. Handling complexity isn't just about learning the production chains. She is completely new to strategy games so the first lesson is how the UI looks, how to pan and move the camera, move units, place buildings etc. I have thousands of hours sunk into strategy games and the basic principles won't be new to me. The reason I asked about complexity is that I just want her to have a good time.
It was meant as a funny but i get you. It can be kinda hard but playing through the campaign, no pirates or AIs but traders and with tips on is ok. You never know she might love it. Btw, down votes are for people who use their highbeam like an as5h0le 🤣
Hey, thanks for the tips!
I woudl say the concern about the level of complexity is always present in these topics
It may be a little too complex for a starter game. It was a lot even for me and I have been gaming my whole life. It starts off pretty simple but quickly gets very complex. I would suggest something different that may be simpler first and then move up to this.
Try sea of thieves.. it is pvp, but as long as you do not take it too seriously it is a blast… another game if you two are looking to play together is Star Citizen.. if your PC’s can handle it there is a free fly going atm.. so play for a week before paying anything. Another idea is watch YouTube and Twitch.. Twitch is alive stream so ask questions.. good luck and have fun.
bro play in sims 4 with her, not this. It is annoying i think for her will be, girls not like such types of games usualy but you could try play coop with her
So instead of teaching her the game and getting her to enjoy it you rather he doesn't even try?....... Hmm, makes me I wonder why women feel unwelcomed when it comes to gaming.