Frank Branham:  Anno 1701 The Card Game and Descent minis…AGAIN

I am a big fan of Anno 1503 the board game, as well as most of Teuber's Settler derivative games.

And this is another one of them. Combine bits of the Settlers Card Game, Anno 1503, and a hint of the Starfarers card game and you come up with Anno 1701.

Problem is, is just isn't as good as its ancestors. It is a decent and interesting game, just not as good as the superb games that formed this particular stew. You can fairly easily see which elements came from which games. The Settlers card game provided the basic resource card that you turn to keep track of gained resources. Anno provides the villager upgrades, as well as the concept of luxury goods, and Starfarers provides an event deck that you periodically plunge into to go sailing.

The basic resources are from Anno 1503: Wood, Tools, Stone, Cloth, Spices, Tobacco, and Gold. Spices and Tobacco come ONLY from sailing. Gold comes from a mix of events, buildings and sailing.

In order to win, you need to upgrade your villagers through so many levels of success. This requires a mix of basic resources, plus lots of Spice and Tobacco.

On a turn, you roll the resource die, alongside an event die. Then you build stuff and play action cards, then you have a choice:

1. Draw new cards (building and action cards).
2. Sail

Sailing involves drawing a number of cards from an event deck. Many allow you to trade gold for luxury goods, some make you fight or pay tribute to pirates, some just hurt your ship. Ships can only be repaired with wood.

Buildings and action cards mostly give you extra basic resources, extra action cards, or gold. They also contain happy faces (which give you gold when a particular event is triggered), sails (draw more cards when sailing), and cannons (needed to fight pirates).

That is most of the game. The odd thing here is that you are strongly funneled into sailing on many turns, as you will need a lot of Luxury goods. Thus the heart of the game is keeping enough gold, sails, wood, and cannons to survive the sailing parts of the game.

There isn't as much interaction as the Settlers Card game. A couple of events allow the player ahead in icons to steal a basic resource from the lesser player. Those resources are not all that important towards the end of the game. Some of the action cards also allow you to muck with the other player.

The sailing part is not as interesting as Starfarers. There are only really three types of events, and it makes the most important part of the game get a bit repetitive.

And the buildings, events, and special powers feel less important because they are funneled through the sailing mechanism. One of the nice things about Anno 1503 is that sailing has more variation. I suspect it might even be possible (but difficult) to win without sailing.

While you are actually playing, 1701 it is interesting enough. The most interesting choice is probably whether to sail or replenish your hand. Cards are very useful, but you NEED luxury goods, and so you have to balance the two. But it definitely lacks the addictive nature of the Starfarers card game, and oddly dismissed the multiple goal structure of Anno 1503.

That will not at all keep me from trying desperately to get the 1701 board game of course.

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Also I finished the entire fricking Descent painting project. And got lots of TV watching done during it. In celebration, here are some pics of the final set of minis taken right after the Dullcoat set.







Just in time for Orange Box.



© 2007 Frank Branham

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Comments:

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Wow Frank!!  Those painted figs look great! I’m starting to feel something.... I think it’s called inspiration! Posted by Michael Green on Oct 11, 2007 at 04:53 AM | #

Frank - you can also win Anno 1701 if your opponent has no money. Not a huge alternate path to victory, but it’s there… Personally, I kind of like Anno 1701 as it’s shorter than Settlers Card Game and seems to offer more choices than Starship in regards to upgrades. Posted by Brian Yu on Oct 11, 2007 at 08:56 AM | #

Holy crap...those are nice minis.  Let me know when you get bored with the game, so I can take them off your hands. Posted by Jon Theys on Oct 11, 2007 at 10:18 AM | #

I officially call a timeout on any more pictures of cool looking, painted Descent minis being posted on the web until those of us who are “time challenged” can catch up. Seriously, nice job Frank. Posted by Ed Rozmiarek on Oct 11, 2007 at 11:35 AM | #

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