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If you liked East India Company you should try:
Anno 1404
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Lets start talking ship! Most of the advertised screenshots for East India Company feels very ship battle driven and I was curious to see just how good it was.
Ships can be built at ports that have a large enough shipyard, and they're quite expensive! They've also got upkeep costs per year to pay the crew and any marines you might have aboard. Once built you move ships into fleets, each fleet requiring a commander.
Disapointingly, most commanders have the same voice actor removing any individuality they might have had. They do, however, gain abilities with experience, such as being able to give their crews a morale boost in the midst of a battle.
Battles themselves are easy to initiate and hard to avoid! If a pirate has his sights set on you, you'll probably end up fighting. Before the battle starts you're given an overview of what you're up against and you can choose to either fight it yourself, or let the computer simulate the battle quickly allowing you to continue with the trading portion of the game only.
I was a little disapointed with the fiddly nature of the battles, in that it feels a bit slow and sluggish. Ships don't move fast at all and feel like they have a mind of their own. I fully accept however that this is always the part I'm not very good at! What I can say with absolute surety however is that it looked great and was fun to watch the crew close up as they were locked in fierce naval combat with a french fleet of galleons. Commander abilities are only slightly effective and I'm not convinced any of the ones I used helped much.
It does feel like tactics play a big part, in difference to some similar games where it's simply "larger force wins". Flanking manouvers and good use of both sides of a ship (where the cannons are!) can make a big difference. Crews gain experience through sailing and fighting, which provides a good excuse to attack smaller pirate vessels!
Ships are also instrumental when invading ports and it's a good idea to have them full to the brim with marines for this! When attacking a port the game helpfully displays a "success meter" to indicate if you have a good chance to winning. Chance is the key word here though!
Owning ports has some good advantages, aside from preventing your enemies from trading certain key trade items. Because ships need to call in occasionally to restock (otherwise they'll move very slowly indeed!) Owning a "bottleneck" port may lead another East India Company to ally with you so they can have access to that port. Invading a pirate owned port will additionally cut down on the number of pirate attacks you'll suffer on that route. Any ports you own can be upgraded to have a better shipyard, warehouse, trading post, fort, etc... depending on where it is, different upgrades will be more useful. And each upgrade costs quite a bit and has large upkeep costs.
More numbers I'm afraid!
But then again, that's what games like this are all about! It's a challenge; to keep costs and profits balanced while achieving the goals the company has set for you. There are a few other niggles I have, such as no "instant pause" button, but even with these this one of the best trading games I've played for years!
Score: 79 out of 100
Final Words: Buy Low, Sell High, Fight Everyone. This is the Indies!
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or click here to read other reviews on the site!
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