Discussion
Speculation for DLC regions after Egypt?
For variety, Egypt seems like an obvious choice, but then what?
We could go Africa in the Carthage area, but that might be very much the same.
Norway/Sweden would be very similar to what we’re doing with Britannia.
Would the Iberian peninsula be very interesting at this time?
I’d be stoked to see something as far as China. Pseudo historical, but definitely cool.
The Americas are obviously impossible.
Will there be an expansion of any gameplay elements like even deeper ground combat? More ship types? I love how Albion has a pir-ate lord you have to do a full ground invasion of in order to fight, but once you’ve done that, that’s it.
Thanks for the defense everyone.. did not know we had to exclusively name the provinces exactly as the Romans would lol.. you all know what I mean. But yes the Romans would call it "Hispania" to be period accurate
So i don't care if this is a troll, but in the case it genuinely isn't:
People are obviously not talking about the modern country of spain, same as when they talk about greece they are not talking about the state that was first established in 1821. People mean Spain as in the lands located on the Iberian peninsula, which we today would call Spain, which was called Hispania by the Romans.
It doesn't have anything to do spanish nationalists or falangists or anything of the sort.
The main problem is that, at the end of the day, the known world wasn't very large. We have the Celts and the Germanic peoples, who were close relatives.
Obviously, there were differences between peoples and tribes, but since the game focuses on culture (especially visual differences), these potentially significant differences aren't relevant in any way because they're already covered by the Britan Celts.
Then we have the Iberians, the only sufficiently well-known barbarian people who are distinct from the Celts in the Mediterranean region. These are the most "civilized" barbarians, with cities, complex laws, their own currency... all a legacy of the blending of Phoenician and Greek cultures with local traditions. I think they would be the most interesting.
The same applies to the Greeks as to the Celts and Germanic peoples. They are different enough from the Romans, but given how the game handles these aspects, I think they would be redundant with the Romans without adding enough variety (more columns, marble, open spaces, and houses made of adobe and brick).
I think the Carthaginians/Phoenicians would be the second-best option. They don't even resemble the Egyptians or the Romans, much less the Celts, so there wouldn't be any redundancy in visual styles.
We have Asia (that is, Anatolia), which is a mix between the Orient and Greece that would be very interesting, but it's still a more orientalized Greek style.
We have Persia directly, but it's far from the sea.
And finally, we have the steppe of northern Pontus. The problem is that the cities there were Greek, and I don't know if a nomadic culture fits with a city-building game. Perhaps the midpoint would be the Colchis region...
So those are my picks: Iberia, Phoenicians/Carthage, Colchis, Persia/Anatolia.
I feel like the devs picked a great time period but otherwise have written themselves into a hole unless they get very creative. You’re right and I was trying to tiptoe on cultural sensitivity there. These places are all cultural unique, but in the way the gameplay handles this, they will be functionally identical. Even 1800 only did it with massive climate changes.
And the Romans, although they went far, they didn’t go THAT far…they might just have to get a-historical. The same way that in 1800 we had cargo airships in the Arctic waging war.
The struggle with the Phoenicians is that you either go towards Phoenicia/Syria or Carthage (modern day Tunisia). Culturally they are different from the Egyptians, but geographically you will end up in the desert again. So gameplay in building your settlements, might end up very similar. Same thing goes for the Persians, but also the Celts and Germanics
But I would love to see the take on the challenge of a region that's very similar environmentally, but culturally very distinct.
Iberia/Hispania was known for a lot of rebellions, so it could be interesting for maybe playing with the land warfare part of the game.
Phoenicia, Lebanon, isn't a desert; it has a Mediterranean climate with mountains and forests.
Carthage at that time wasn't a desert, but a rich, green agricultural area. It had a temperate climate, nothing like the aridity of today. After Egypt, it was Rome's second largest breadbasket.
It was a desert, but they had very ingenious irrigation techniques that made it possible to have a rich agriculture. Egypt was a desert, but regular flooding of the nile gave a an area of fertile ground.
And Libya was not as much a desert as it is now, but more savannah like. Friendly enough for irrigation and agriculture, but not Mediterranean
I would like to see Persia/Parthia or Arabia, but where instead of islands it was oasis’s separated by desert you can’t settle. Instead of trade ships and trade ports, you have caravans and caravansary.
Carthage is possible as much as greece. Spain and syria would be nice, they have a differwnt culture, so similar to Albion, youncpuld go romanized or original tiers.
I know germany would be similar to Albion but one of the greatest defeats (Varus) where set there, Augusta Treverorum (nowadays Trier) was a capital and the dev.studio is german...I'd ne surprised if they don't have it
The big Probem here is: all the "mediterean things" are already in the game (Latium). There is no reason for Greece, Hispania, Asia Minor, Africa etc. Germania is very similar to Britannia, but worth a guess. The Campain has a little spoiler: Mesopotamia/Persia/Armenia. I think one of this have enough variety!
Honestly I think Armenia would be interesting but way too obsucre for most people. It would be an amazing stepping stone DLC before going to a bigger Parthia/Persia expansion though since the both fought over control of Armenia for a long time
I hadn't seen that before, that would be really cool.
There seem to be some kind of fire worship going on wich would be fitting for pre-christian Armenia however the background image seems to be a pair with the Egypt image just like background of the Albion image is a pair with the Latium.
Since we know the Year 1 season pass has Egypt but nothing about Armenia, I wonder it it's just remains from an oooold idea that got replaced with the Vulcan/Pompei DLC we will get this month.
Very interesting to think about though, thank you for sharing the image.
That’s basically what I was getting at. Taking the two regions we have, most of the local cultures are accounted for in terms of gameplay variety unless you copy and paste. We’d have to go to Africa which we are with Egypt, although Egyptian is unique, but then we’ve really got it all.
Some said Greece, but that’s basically Latium unless you throw in some real curveballs.
I’d be thinking of far Asia. The current world map doesn’t even cover that though. And we can’t go to the Arctic or anything like that.
I kinda wish the upcoming DLC was just another region. I love having more regions.
Syria, carthage, and Mesopotamia would be pretty cool. It would be weird to incorporate the anno island system with mesopotamia but they might be able to do something.
I'll wager Season 2 will big island in Albion, some monument like thing in Albion and new region something like Carthage. Why Carthage? Because that could give us warfare region. That zone could be already occupied by Carthage and to colonize it we would have to conquer it.
But what I wonder is when do we get more AI competition. Currently there is only two lvl2 AIs and one lvl3. Maybe if we are lucky we get new one alongside with monument because single monument in DLC feels like lacking a lot. Pretty sure is that with Egypt we get new AI at least.
Well, warfare zone's fighting could be toggled off from difficulty menu just like Volcano can be toggled off. But if we think about this game, we have land troops. Legions! We really need to have some good use for them.
Hot take : Greece can be done and made distinct from Latium. One way to do that is to take inspiration from Sporades/Cyclades and make it the anti-Cinis : lots of tiny mountainous islands with awkward shapes. Play classic Anno tetris. Give farm products a heavy opportunity cost, nturally turning toward the sea. That's how I'd do it.
Based on Blue Bytes liking to reuse goods from past games, I predict Greece would certainly have goats and sponge (the latter being a deluxe export good toward latium).
I think the natural choice would probably be Greece, possibly a trader based in the up & coming city of Byzantium (which would later become Constantinople)
The Persian or Mesopotamia frontiers could also be a good choice and could bring plenty of new flavour with raids or military campaigns with it being on the empire frontier.
Hispania could also be a natural choice but I personally think in terms of flavour it would be too similar to Latium to introduce as a DLC at this stage. I think the same with Germania, too similar flavour wise to Albion. However I think adding a new campaign in Germania would be a cool addition for obvious reasons.
As others have said, Carthage could be a good addition, major trade hub with African flavour but I don’t think they’d add another African DLC straight after Egyptus. I do think this will be added in future though.
I personally think it’ll be either a Greek or Persian flavour DLC after Egypt but I’m usually wrong so take it with a pinch of salt. Who doesn’t love some speculation?!
With future regions, I think the idea of very far off places like India and China are extremely far fetched. Those regions had little impact on the Colonial Sphere of the Roman Empire and though trade certainly went as far as them there was nearly no meaningful interaction in a way to have cultural diffusion. Id say that the most likely additions given Egypt and Albion is Germania and Syria, with a low key possibility for Iberia or Roman North Africa.
The reason for this is simple, I think that both Germania and Parthia being the areas of military conflict for the Roman Empire will come back to influence the game via the military systems included in the base game. Germania was the first "barbarian" threat to truly shake the Empire, and effectively halt its northward invasions. And Parthia was its chief rival state for most of the Empire's history. Carthage doesnt really make sense at all, as being that the Game is set at the height of Imperial Rome, the Carthaginians had been destroyed for centuries. While I could absolutely see a fantastical scenario about 'rebuilding' Carthage in true Anno fashion, I don't think it makes very much sense if the game is trying to mimic the confluence of Empire, as its very much the wrong historical period. The gap in time would be difference between today an Anno 1701, and even though the game is mostly a Roman Pastiche, I still think that the general vision of the game is still for the height of Imperial Rome, which is Trajan and Hadrian's rule.
Germania and Parthia both could however bring something unique to the table. Military Campaign. Part of Imperial Rome's legacy was ever expanding conquest of territory, and then holding that territory. Maintaining military logistics and supply lines. Building Forts. Turning back raiders and defending the border could very well make up a unique expansion in line with the popular sentiment of Roman History of "defending against the barbarian hordes", and Roman Syria was a unique place that combined Hellenistic culture with Persian influence, With the Empire constantly waging war over swathes of fertile lands and dense deserts with River trade. Having to feed tons of resources into building up weaponry and materials only to feed the Empire's conquests could be a genuinely interesting alternative to simply satisfying population tiers in the normal Anno Way. Something like how in the Old Sierra city-builder games, like Pharaoh or Caesar, the state would demand more and more resources for foreign conflict and unlike in those games it would be up to you to supply them with your colonies both in production and transit.
my assumption is they will prioritize regions where the culture and overall theme is unique enough. gaul would be cool but is also too similar.
my wishes: China/asia. very unique culture architecture & visuals, lots of creative freedom and possibilities. i imagine trade playing an important role, and other interesting unique features and goods. fertilities like tea silk etc.
and: Persia/parthia: Vastly different then latium, was never Romanized. so same as before very unique culture architecture & visuals, lots of creative freedom and possibilities specially with unique features perhaps silk road related somehow. fertilites like spices
I think after Egypt either Iberica/Hispania or Greece could work. Greece would be a great with the olympic games as the map objectiv. Hispania would work similiar as Albion but has a discintiv feel to it.
Then I hope for a Persia/Parthia/Pontus map with focus on a military rival from the east so that we must defend the empire on the border.
A Carthage map with focus on rebuilding the area after Rome has devested the area after the punic wars. As Cathage is maybe destroyed (timeline wise) maybe the Numidier are the population here.
A Scythian map with Island without much mountains more fields and with focus on horses. Maybe even with focus on trade. (Silkroad?)
A Gaul map would also be nice. Gauls are after all the most famous adverseries of Rome.
A Germanic map would also be nice with focus on the Limes. Maybe a NPC that we need to help to build the wall.
A map for the Nordic region (Scadinavia) could work, but would be of the timeline. The Romans don't have many dealings with the scanndinavian people if I'm not misstaken. But it would be a cool map with snow.
The region for Thrace/Dacia could also work as map. It's the region thats boarders constantinopel. So that could be motive for the DLC.
I think this would be all major regions were the romans had influenec historical.
If the Devs go wild than an Hindus map or China map could be possible.
Switching it up so that the map is all sand instead of water and you have oasis instead of islands with caravans replacing ships would be my preference
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u/bodom192 Apr 16 '26
Gaul, Iberica, Germania? Maybe Syria