Reviewed by Herb Levy
ANNO 1800 (Kosmos, 2 to 4 players, ages 12 and up, 120 minutes; $69.95)
The Industrial Age was an age of transformation as societies moved from a primarily farm-centric lifestyle to one based on the power of machines. Entire nations underwent this change. In this new design by Martin Wallace, the focus for players is to transform their agrarian island into an industrial power, drawing on resources found in the Old World and the New, a challenge that finds players attempting to garner the most influence points as they bravely embark into the 19th century or, as the game suggests, crossing the line of Anno 1800.
In the center of the play area is a huge board that displays the vast array of industries and the industrial goods that may be made from them. Tiles of these industries are placed in their designated locations. There are also spots for Expedition cards and three types of population cards: farmer/worker, artisan/engineer/investor and New World. Players randomly receive 7 farmer/worker and 2 artisan/engineer/investor cards as a starting hand. In addition, each player begins with an identical board representing his/her own home island, populated by an initial workforce of 4 farmers (green cubes), 3 workers (blue) and 2 artisans (red) which are placed in their respective residential districts on top of the board. This home island board also displays squares representing land fields (with and without a coastline) and sea squares where two merchant ships (each with a trade token) and an exploration ship (with an exploration token) can be found.
Objective cards give you goals to strive for as the game progresses and will generally reward you with influence points to be collected at the end of the game. Five of these cards are randomly drawn and placed face up for all to see (along with the “fireworks” token). The first player is the one who has most recently been abroad (but, of course, you can choose randomly). The second player then gets 1 gold, the third player 2 gold and the fourth player 3 gold. Now, the gameplay can begin.
On a turn, one action may be done out of a substantial menu of possibilities.
Production: Population cubes are moved onto a player’s industries to generate resources. Each industry space depicts which type of worker is required for production. As you might suspect, industries that produce the more complex resources, require the “higher valued” workers.
Trade: You may spend trade tokens (from your ships) to gather resources produced by other players. Trades cannot be refused but, as compensation, your trading partner receiving 1 gold from supply.
Expand: Produce resources to build new industries, ships or shipyards. These new constructs are the tiles found on the main board which are then placed on a player’s board. Industries may only be placed on land spaces; ships and shipyards only on spaces where there is a coastline. You MAY build over a pre-printed space or a tile already there is so desired. There are two of each industry on the main board and no player may have both of them (although there are SIMILAR industries and that restriction does not apply to them) Shipyards come in different “strengths” (1, 2 and 3) indicating how many naval tokens can be placed on them.
Increase the Workforce: Spend resources to increase your work force and place up to 3 new population cubes onto your board. Each new population cube requires you to draw a matching population card into your hand.
Upgrade: Spend the specified resources to upgrade your workers to a higher level, from farmer to worker to artisan to engineer (purple cubes) to investor (turquoise cubes).
Open up the Old World: No man is an island and your island need not be your world. By spending exploration tokens, you can expand your own island board (by 4 land squares and 2 sea squares) and get the bonus the Old World island provides. You can add up to 4 Old World islands to your original island with the first costing 1 exploration token, the second 2 tokens etc. 
Explore the New World: In a similar fashion, exploration tokens may be used to set up a New World island which will provide you with New World resources only found there. As with the Old World, there is a maximum of four New World islands that may be added to your holdings at a similar cost of exploration tokens. For each New World island explored, that player must draw and add 3 Expedition cards to his hand.
Take Expedition Cards: At the cost of 2 exploration tokens, draw up to 3 of these. These cards are kept face down. These cards show an animal for the zoo on the left and an artefact for the museum on the right. Depending on the background color and symbol on the card, population cubes (of the appropriate colors) may be placed on these cards to generate influence points during final scoring.
Swap Population Cards – Exchange up to 3 cards you hold for 3 of the same type. (A good way to remove cards you cannot fulfil.)
Shift End – Spend Gold to reactivate cubes already used.
Celebrate a Festival -Used exploration and trade tiles are considered “exhausted” and may not be used again. Population cubes placed on tiles (unless spending gold) may not be used again. By doing this action as your entire turn, you can bring back all of your exhausted and used tokens/cubes, ready for use on a subsequent turn.
Activate Objective Cards – Apply the action on the cards.
Play and Activate Population Cards – Spend resources to cash in cards in your hand. This is a key activity in the game for several reasons: these cards provide one time effects for resources and are worth influence points for end game scoring plus they serve as the endgame trigger when all of a player’s population cards have been activated! The first player to activate all of his cards receives the Fireworks token. That round is finished and then a final round is taken. Then we score.
Each played population card scores influence points (3 for the farmer/worker, 8 for artisan/engineer/investor and 5 for New World cards). Expedition cards (with their placed population cubes) score as well. Three gold convers to 1 influence point and the player holding the fireworks token adds another 7 IP to his/her total. Finally, IPs gained from fulfilling Objective cards are added. The player with the highest total of Inffluence Points is victorious! Tie? Then whoever has built the most industries, ships and shipyards earns the win. Still tied? Then the player holding the fewest cards gets the nod. Still tied? Then victory is shared.
Anno 1880 is the boardgame version of a computer game and Wallace does a fine job of capturing all of the wide-ranging elements found in the computer version. This is both a strength and a weakness. The sheer volume of possible industries that can be constructed (something that a computer can easily track) can be a bit daunting to us human beings. And compare the smorgasbord of possible actions on a turn to many other worker placement games. It is common, even expected, to have four, five or six possible actions from which to choose. But in trying to capture all the intricacies of the computer game, Anno 1880’s menu of possibilities is more than twice that! While nothing is complicated in and of itself or something that a seasoned gamer would find difficult, the sheer volume of it all can be a challenge that may exceed the comfort zone of some players. And the game does take up space, particularly with a full complement of four players.
A couple of other things separate Anno 1880 from other worker placement games. In most worker placement games, workers are not restricted; they can do ANY of the available actions. Here, however, industries are “color-coded” so that only specific workers can produce at specific industries. Not only is it important to have workers but it is more important to have the “right kind” of workers so that your carefully constructed industrial engine works to maximum efficiency. Another difference is the “tug of war” between increasing your work force and increasing your hand size. You would expect to have your hand size shrink as the game moves on but, as you get more workers, more cards are added to your hand, a dynamic that is counter-intuitive. This compels you to be thoughtful in seeing which resources appear on several cards (rather than one) and to build industries and/or do more exploration so it becomes easier to activate those cards. The game ends when ALL of your cards have been activated and fortunately, you are allowed to activate multiple cards on a turn. Eventually, you will be ale to reduce your hand size but it will grow before it shrinks. It may take a little while to be completely comfortable with this.
Anno 1880 is an ambitious Martin Wallace design where Wallace revisits one of his favorite topics: industrialization. There is a lot to recommend here as Wallace manages to capture the vastness of goods production teamed with expansion and exploration. But, admittedly, it can be a bit challenging to digest all of the many moving parts. Gamers who find Wallace designs and/or the growth of industry appealing will find lots to like here. For others, we suggest a “try before you buy” approach before deciding if this is, at least for you, a yes or Anno. – – – – – — Herb Levy
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