Anno 1503 (board game)

Anno 1503
Game data
author	Klaus Teuber
publishing company	Cosmos , Mayfair Games
Publishing year	2003
Art	Board game
Teammates	2 to 4
Duration	60 minutes
Age	from 10 years on
Awards
Swiss game award : 2nd place strategy games 2004

Anno 1503 is a board game by Klaus Teuber published by Kosmos-Verlag in 2003 . In this parlor game, presented as a trading simulation of the Middle Ages, both strategy, tactics and elements of luck come into play. It is based on the computer game of the same name , for example the design of the packaging and all of the printed game material have been completely taken from the computer game. After the board game was released in 2004, the expansion "Aristocrats and Pirates" was released, adding numerous elements to the game.

Course of play of the basic game

Each player has his own island in front of him, with building sites for his city, production buildings for the basic raw materials (wood, bricks, tools, fabric and free choice) and several quays. Each production building on the home island is assigned a number between 1 and 5; these numbers differ from player to player. Furthermore, there are already two residents on the home island, a pioneer and a settler. In the middle is a game board with an island world with several hidden islands, one ship per player and a bar that shows the gold level of the other players.

The players take turns in their turn; your turn first rolls the dice. The number rolled determines the raw material yields for all players; everyone receives the raw material that is produced in his production building with the corresponding number; if he rolls a 6, the dice must be rolled again for a special event (pirates, fire or a profitable year). Then the player can either build new ships, settle new inhabitants for raw materials, upgrade already settled inhabitants, sell raw materials to inhabitants and buy a maximum of 2 raw materials for 6 gold each from the bank. Trading with one another is not permitted. Upgrading residents has the advantage that better goods can be sold to them for more gold. For example, pioneers only pay 1 gold each for wood, bricks and tools, the player receives 2 gold for each unit of fabric that is sold to a settler. New residents, on the other hand, are worthwhile for another reason: from the fourth inhabitant on, the player gets an extra building for each additional one. This extra building can increase the selling price of goods as well as the range of the ships.

Finally, the player moves his ship as far as other players are playing and, under certain circumstances, reveals island tiles. There are different things on these island tiles: Most often there are production buildings for raw materials, where you can also find the higher-value goods tobacco and spices, which are necessary for the development of the inhabitants to higher levels. These can be created above the existing production buildings. If the number of the production building is rolled in the following rounds, the player has the choice between the old and the new raw material. Furthermore, there are occasional indigenous people on the island cards. The player can place up to 3 of these on his home island, whereby each tile reduces the cost of raw materials to be purchased by 1 gold. Finally, treasure chests with gold and resident upgrades can also be found under the island tiles. If, after looking at an island tile, the player decides to actually use it, he removes his ship from the game board.

The game ends when a player has met three of the following five win conditions:

• Turn 3 residents of the home island into merchants
• Create 4 additional production buildings on the home island
• Place 3 aboriginal tiles on the home island
• 4 special buildings
• Have 30 gold

Not every victory condition can be achieved by all players, as the number of special buildings and the various island tiles are limited.

Critique of the basic game

Even if there are relatively many possibilities of action, the game sequence repeats itself very quickly. Furthermore, the interaction between the players is completely absent, which means that one can decide to want to achieve a certain combination of victory conditions and can thus win without paying attention to the other players.

The "Aristocrats and Pirates" expansion

This expansion brings numerous new game elements with it. On the one hand, the home island is being expanded to include a new area in which a castle and houses for aristocrats can be built, and the ships can be equipped with cannons. The game board is about 50% larger and a new map with separate island tiles and pirate fields is added. The victory conditions also change.

In the expansion, each player has the opportunity to gradually build up his castle in exchange for gold and raw materials within his turn. For each setup he receives one of the new event cards. Cannons can be purchased by the player, however the prices for each cannon increase. Furthermore, so-called luxury goods can be purchased, which cost 10 gold per piece. These can be used to build houses for aristocrats and are also needed later for palace construction.

On the supplement to the game board there are some printed pirate fields; if you want to cross these, the player must fight. The combat strength corresponds to a pirate card to be drawn from your own number of cannons or that of a fellow player. A modified die (1-2-2-3-3-4) is rolled and the party with the higher total wins the fight. If the player wins, he gets goods, if he loses, the ship is often damaged or he has to hand over goods. By paying gold, the player can avoid a fight entirely. On the islands of the new section of the board there are, on the one hand, luxury goods tiles, which the player places on his home island just like production tiles from the basic game, and on the other, pirate nests of different strengths. If the player finds a pirate nest, decides to fight and wins it, he may place this defeated pirate nest on his own island; from that moment on it reduces the cost of luxury goods.

In the game with expansion, the winner is whoever meets the following victory conditions:

• 3 merchants
• 4 city buildings
• 3 aborigines

and two of the following victory conditions:

• 3 additional aristocrats
• 2 defeated pirate nests
• finished castle

has met.

Criticism on the expansion

The expansion fills the game with numerous new elements and, according to the critics, makes it complete. In view of the design of the pack and the base game, however, you can see that the expansion was planned from the start, and therefore the low quality of the base game was accepted. The price for this is very high, after all, both cost a good 50 euros together.

Web links

• official homepage
• Anno 1503 in the Luding games database
• Anno 1503 in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
• http://www.rebell.at/ Test for the Anno 1503 board game