Despite a prevailing negative sentiment on platforms like Steam and Reddit, Anno 117: Pax Romana's first major downloadable content, Prophecies of Ash, offers a compelling addition that significantly enhances the game's mid-game progression. While some players perceive the base game as lacking content, this DLC introduces elements that add structure and shake up the established city-building loop.
Mid-Game Structure and New Demands
The expansion's new content begins to unfold once players establish 500 Equites, the Roman equivalent of an upper-middle class, on their islands. This threshold encourages players to expand their population more rapidly or allows for a slower, eruption-free start. Reaching this point unlocks new objectives, such as stockpiling resources for sacrifices or restricting goods for trade, introducing a more active resource management element.
The necessity of stockpiling, a mechanic not explicitly tutorialized, encourages players to build more production sites to meet trade demands. This feature, while aimed at a volcano-specific purpose, also serves as an indirect guide to improving passive and active trade capabilities. Players will also need to quarry and refine marble, a resource often absent from the starting island and its immediate neighbors. This prompts exploration and settlement of new islands, potentially leading to encounters with raiders on trade routes.
The Volcanic Eruption
At the culmination of these tasks, the Occasus volcano erupts, presenting a significant challenge. The eruption damages buildings, drastically lowers fire safety ratings, and causes acid rain. This event leads to widespread unhappiness, increasing the likelihood of unrest. The subsequent volcanic winter reduces agricultural and aquatic production to a quarter of its normal output due to atmospheric ash. Players who strategically stockpiled and limited consumption of difficult-to-produce goods will find themselves better prepared for this scarcity. Following the winter, the volcanic ash revitalizes the soil, boosting agricultural output and providing additional obsidian.
The interval between eruptions is substantial enough that this turmoil rarely feels unwelcome. It provides a refreshing change of pace from the typical Anno routine, introducing a temporary period of economic tension reminiscent of games like Frostpunk, though with a shorter duration and less severe stress. For players who find the volcanic activity too challenging, options exist to adjust weather effects or disable the volcano entirely, though this forfeits the benefits of replenished obsidian.
Obsidian and Specialist Benefits
Obsidian serves a dual purpose: it's used in crafting new items and is a crucial trade good with Caecillia, a prophetess residing on the new island of Cinis. Trading obsidian allows players to acquire new specialists who can grant a single resource fertility bonus, often at half the normal production value. This is particularly useful for exploiting resources on smaller islands that might otherwise be impractical for dedicated production chains.
Technological Advancements
Prophecies of Ash also introduces a new tech tree. A notable early research node allows porridge stands to increase population capacity. This is especially beneficial for supporting smaller islands used for resource extraction, such as marble or specific production chains, without requiring extensive trade networks. Previously, these smaller islands struggled to house enough households across various tiers to provide the necessary workforce.
The rest of the tech tree offers mixed results. Two new production chains are introduced, though they seem to lay groundwork for future content. Buildings that produce statuettes with obsidian, for instance, primarily increase prestige, a stat with limited functional use beyond recruiting specialists. The cult of Vulkan aids in mining and coal acquisition, but religion remains a system focused on acquiring passive bonuses. The DLC is considered a substantial first expansion, effectively addressing some of the emptiness perceived in Anno 117's base game, and the author expresses anticipation for future developments from Ubisoft Mainz.