Anno 117: Pax Romana — After Strategy

Anno 117: how to get to Albion, settle it and trade with Latium (2026 guide)

Sun, 01 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT

How you get to Albion in Anno 117 depends on your game mode. In the campaign, the story sends you there when Calidus replaces Lucius on the throne. In sandbox, you need to reach tier 3 in Latium, the Equites: a notification then announces Albion, and you switch province with the earth icon at the bottom left of the screen.

This guide covers Patch 2.1 from September 17, 2026, whose notes leave the unlock untouched. Update 3.0, announced for November 5, 2026 with Dawn of the Delta, is not included. Nothing here comes from a played game: the information cross-checks Ubisoft’s guides, the press and player reports, which are labelled as such.

How to get to Albion in each game mode

The trigger changes with your game, and so does the way back to Latium.

Mode	Access condition	Return to Latium
Campaign	Progress until Calidus replaces Lucius, which exiles you to Albion	After the Albion quest line, according to players
Sandbox, Latium start	Tier 3 in Latium, the Eques	Free
Sandbox, Albion start	Province already open	Threshold for opening Latium unconfirmed

Game Rant and Xbox Play describe the first two lines the same way. Players in a November 2025 Steam thread confirm tier 3 and the notification, and one of them adds that the return stays free in sandbox.

Patch 1.4 also fixed a game over screen on arrival in Albion during the campaign. It affected games started with the resettling option disabled, so an old save deserves a quick test.

Switching between provinces

The game asks for no expedition, unlike what you might expect from an Anno. Several players say so on AnnoZone: you simply change region.

Earth icon. The circular menu at the bottom left opens the province choice.
Keyboard. According to players, Numpad 2 opens Albion and Numpad 1 returns to Latium.
World view. It shows the distance between provinces and tracks ships on the way.
Ships. A Steam player says a button on each ship lets you pick a harbor, including in the other province.

One point remains unclear: a Steam report mentions a free ship for settling at the first tier 3 upgrade. The AnnoZone thread does not, so check your fleet before paying for one.

If Albion stays locked

Tier 3 does not always seem to be enough right away. On AnnoZone, a player with more than 500 Equites had neither a notification nor access to the province. Another player saw Albion open after a cheese request, a message from the Empress and a gold reward. That account is no rule, but it gives you a lead: open your messages and clear pending requests.

First buildings in Albion

The start resembles Latium, with a few terrain constraints. The Anno Union starter guide suggests this order.

Timber. Two woodcutters and two sawmills near the trading post, in a dense forest.
Roads. Every building needs a road link to the trading post.
Food. The Cockle Picker covers the first need, ahead of the Eel Grabber in the marshes.
Residences. They go inland and only fill up when their needs are met.

The marsh sets its own rules. According to the Albion DevBlog, residences cannot be built there, and each marsh building has a single street connector. Plan the road layout before you place Eel Grabbers and reed gatherers.

Money is the other early constraint. Anno Union points out that you start at a deficit, because production, public services and ships all carry maintenance. Residences bring income once their needs are met, so build at the pace of demand and keep the market close to them.

Waders, your first resident type, have three need categories: food with cockles or eels, public service with the market or the bard’s hearth, and fashion with shoes or the tunica. One option per category is enough to upgrade. Beyond tier 2, you need three points per category: a tier 1 need gives one, a tier 2 need gives two.

Smiths or Mercators: the tier 2 choice

Albion splits into two paths, described in the official guide.

Tier	Celtic path	Roman path
1	Waders	Waders
2	Smiths: cheese, beer, drinking horns	Mercators: sausages, bread, amphoras
3	Aldermen: pelt hats, chariots, wine, Alder Council	Nobles: togas, theatre, aqueduct

In practice, this choice first sets how much you rely on Latium. Vodafone notes that Smiths can make everything locally, while Mercators need imports. For a first colony in Albion, the Celtic path therefore asks for less logistics.

The choice does not lock your game. Anno Union says it can change later, and tier 3 on one path also unlocks the other. Celts and Romanized residents can then share an island.

The Roman path carries a diplomatic cost. According to part 2 of the official guide, Voada dislikes Romanization and marsh drainage, while Tarragon opposes Celtic customs. Once your population is Romanized, marsh goods lose value: the Marsh Drainage technology then lets you place sluice gates and canals to win land.

What Albion trades with Latium

The two provinces complement each other, and this table comes from the PC Games and Vodafone guides from November 2025. The lists may have changed since launch.

Direction	Residents	Goods
Latium to Albion	Mercators	Olive oil and soap, plus optional bricks, bread and amphoras
Latium to Albion	Nobles	Wine, togas, fine glass
Latium to Albion	Aldermen	Wine, fine glass
Albion to Latium	Equites	Cheese, fibulae
Albion to Latium	Patricians	Bird tongues in aspic, hand mirrors, chariots, cloaks

What matters is that trade runs both ways: Albion is more than a raw material colony. Granite also appears in the Aldermen chains, and the Hippodrome needs it for construction in Latium.

Albion weighs on research too. Players report that some Latium technologies wait for tier 3 on an Albion island, which can stall a game that stays in one province.

Creating the route between Latium and Albion

The route follows the usual process, with a switch between both maps. Game Rant lays out these steps.

New route. Click the dedicated button at the bottom of the screen.
Islands. Pick an island in Latium, switch map, then pick an island in Albion.
Ship. Civilian ships carry more goods, while military ships can defend themselves.
Cargo. Set what loads and unloads at each stop.
Confirmation. The Establish Route button starts the automated rotation.

The most common risk is a frozen route. If you move a ship by hand, the route pauses: resume it from the routes menu or with the ship’s play button. Patch 1.5.1 also fixed a bug that pulled ships off their route when crossing between provinces.

These routes are long, and Prima Games suggests assigning several ships. On the religious side, Mercury-Lugos improves trade income and loading speed, once unlocked in the Discovery Tree. Cernunnos strengthens marsh and forest production, and Epona helps animal chains and logistics.

Start in Albion or in Latium

If you are new, start in Latium: Ubisoft and Anno Union both present it as the easier opening. Albion then arrives with a stable economy and goods to exchange. On paper, an Albion start mainly offers discovery, and it leaves marshes and the path choice to players already comfortable with the series.

Going further

Anno 117 Dawn of the Delta: Nile Floods Reshape Your Economy on November 5

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ten days before launch, Dawn of the Delta changes the nature of the terrain in Anno 117: every island in Aegyptus is split into three zones, and the Nile decides what works there and in which season. The expansion releases on November 5, 2026, alongside update 3.0, and it is the largest of the year-1 gameplay DLCs. This preview relies on the official Anno Union DevBlogs and roadmap, since no hands-on play is available.

Aegyptus: a river province in three zones

Latium and Albion are archipelagos: islands separated by the ocean, where a fertile tile stays fertile. Aegyptus breaks with that logic. As the October 15 DevBlog explains, a river rather than the ocean separates the buildable areas. The islands sit closer together, but their elongated shape can lengthen some trips. The province can only be entered from the north, so the first settlement location needs thought.

Each island is split into three zones. The Farmlands form a green strip near the coast, useful for agriculture, and they are the only place to build the harbour. The Floodplains run along the river: they are regularly flooded, which disrupts the production of buildings placed there. Finally, the Arid Zone covers the inland: nothing grows there, at least for now, but space is plentiful for building cities.

The developers suggest placing residences, public services and the Governor Villa there. They also suggest putting production buildings in the Arid Zone to avoid wasting fertile land. Nearby cliffs offer mountain slots to mine ore or rock. The river flows from south to north, which affects ship speed, and it slows down the heavy Roman ships.

The floods: a quantified risk, a reward

This is the expansion’s central mechanic. The October 22 DevBlog gives the numbers: during the flooding season, the productivity of every building in the Floodplains drops by 75%. Health falls by 2 and fire safety rises by 2 on all buildings across the province.

The harvest season that follows acts as compensation. The same notes add that it raises the output of every production building in the Floodplains by one ton per cycle. The October 15 DevBlog sums up the idea: fertile mud increases production, but the flood season needs watching. The Floodplains are used to harvest mud and reed, turned into sun-dried bricks, or to grow wheat and barley.

Wood is not needed to build in Aegyptus: players must produce mud bricks from reed and mud, both found in the Floodplains. That detail matters, because it makes the flood zones unavoidable from the start of a game. The real issue is therefore absorbing periodic production drops in exchange for a regular bonus, rather than avoiding the risk.

Two population paths, two ways to irrigate

The first population tier is the Threshers, local Egyptians focused on farming. A choice then follows, as in Albion: follow the local path or Romanize. The Egyptian path leads to the Potters, then the Chanters. The Graeco-Roman path leads to the Scribes, then the Gymnasiarchs.

Each path brings its own needs:

Potters ask for stuffed goose, beer, talismans and oil lamps.
Chanters want blue lotus tea, perfumed oils and sistrums.
Scribes ask for bread, cheese, soap, olive oil and scribing sets.
Gymnasiarchs demand rare meat, bird tongues in aspic, jewelry and bath milk.

Irrigation is the second big choice. The Egyptian approach is to build basins on the coast and then canals inland: within a radius of eight fields on each side of the canal, land is watered and becomes Farmland. This turns Arid Zone into agricultural land, at the cost of city space. The developers mention the appeal of building dedicated farmland islands.

The Roman approach is only available once the Romanized population reaches tier 3, the Gymnasiarchs. A giant noria lifts water from the river, which travels through aqueducts to cisterns. Each cistern supplies bath houses and irrigates a circular area, creating extra Farmland.

Granaries, production and rats

The Granary is a building specific to Aegyptus. Within its range, it raises farm productivity by 15% and gives a population bonus of +1. It also provides 100 tons of storage for agricultural goods, useful for export or for getting through the flood season.

The downside is overflow risk. Exceeding the storage limit slowly makes granaries overflow, which can attract rats and reduce the island’s health. The higher the overflow and the lower the granary level, the higher the risk. Upgrades and certain specialists help to limit it.

Production chains offer alternatives to those in Latium and Albion. The developers cite three examples: talismans, scribing sets and sistrums, each using local inputs such as copper, sand, papyrus or beads from the Floodplains. The stated goal is to multiply choices: produce bread in Latium, Albion or Aegyptus, or import soap rather than make it locally.

Religion, units and ships

The expansion introduces three new deities, including Sobek, god of the river delta. In the Gamescom presentation, his worshippers devote more attention to managing water, which boosts irrigation and farms. The other two deities will be detailed in the third DevBlog, announced for October 29.

On the military side, two land units are specific to the province. The elite archers cost more to recruit and maintain, but shoot farther, with more accuracy and damage. The October 22 DevBlog calls them Kumatic Archers, while the Gamescom presentation spoke of Kushite archers. The Dromedarii, camel cavalry, are stronger against other mounted units and a little cheaper, but cannot keep up with horses in a chase.

Two new local ships are built at a dedicated shipyard. The small Skiff carries three cargo slots and has no weapons. The Galley carries five after research, with a military variant. The developers state that Roman ships remain better for naval battles. The local boats are faster on the delta, and the suggested approach is to transfer goods to heavier ships near the ocean.

What to watch before November 5

For players already settled, the expansion can be played as a starting province or explored in an existing savegame with the DLC enabled. Links between provinces matter: Aegyptus can become a breadbasket while luxury goods come from Latium.

Four points remain to be checked at launch:

The balance between the Egyptian path and the Graeco-Roman path, which may not be equivalent.
How much a 75% drop during floods hurts a critical production chain.
The content of the third DevBlog, which is due to cover deities, story, characters and the pyramids.
The detail of update 3.0, for which the roadmap lists an expanded statistics menu and a “Stamp” feature to save layouts.

The expansion is included in the Year 1 Pass, sold at 34.99 EUR on Steam, alongside Prophecies of Ash and The Hippodrome. The sources consulted give no standalone price. First player impressions, expected from November 5, will show whether the promise holds up in practice.

Going further

The complete Year 1 Pass roadmap details the three gameplay DLCs and their schedules.
The previous DLC is analyzed in Anno 117 Prophecies of Ash.
The Hippodrome’s material needs are covered in the patch 1.6.1 news.
Every article about the game is gathered on the Anno 117 page.
To unlock the base game’s second province, follow our guide on how to get to Albion.

Sources: Anno Union roadmap · Union Update · Gamescom recap · DevBlog Oct 15 · DevBlog Oct 22 · Ubisoft · Steam · Gamepressure · Playday

Anno 117 Update 2.0 and Hippodrome DLC: August 20 Brings Big Changes

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On August 20, Anno 117 receives its Update 2.0 and its second paid DLC at the same time. For mid-game players, the real question is not the photo mode: it is whether a monument covering the whole island can finally lift the Patricians’ satisfaction ceiling.

Update, October 26, 2026: Update 2.0 and The Hippodrome DLC did launch on August 20, 2026, as announced. The DLC is listed at €7.99 on Steam France, in line with the announced €8.

Update 2.0: New Features for Every Player

Update 2.0, rolled out to all Anno 117 owners, bundles several changes announced by Ubisoft Mainz on the Anno Union blog.

Photo mode. The postcard mode gives way to a free camera, with more angles, extra zoom, a time-of-day control and lens effects such as depth of field and tilt-shift. The developers call it a first version. Nothing gameplay-related, but if you spend time admiring your Roman colonies, the change is clear.

Note function. It returns at the community’s request. Notes can be dropped anywhere in the game world or attached to buildings and units, ships included, with timers that trigger a reminder. Pinning a reminder to a ship for its route or cargo priority is a real comfort in multi-island trade management.

Ubisoft Connect challenges. Rotating, time-limited challenges arrive on all platforms, PC and consoles, with Ubisoft XP and Fame point rewards. It is the first addition of this kind in Anno 117.

Field workers. Farms and plantations now show animated workers. The change is visual, but it makes farmland feel less static.

Heroic specialists. This is the addition that touches gameplay the most. Heroic specialists are a new rarity: each can exist only once per savegame, and their effects can cover the whole island. The blog cites Paldius, for example, whose bonuses involve cheese production. In the same spirit, the Amphitheatre’s buffs now apply island-wide instead of within a limited range.

The Hippodrome DLC at €8: What It Changes for Patricians

The Hippodrome is the first monument to fill your Patricians’ “Marvels” need. Its strategic difference from regular buildings: a single construction satisfies that need across the whole island, with no dependence on a local influence zone.

The monument also raises the attributes of affected buildings, with an effect that covers the whole island and grows with its Splendour level. Chariot races are the entertainment mechanic, fitting for the year 117 under Trajan. You pick a driver from your specialists, whose speed, stamina, sprint and reliability improve through racing. There are three race classes: amateur, classic quadriga and imperial. The bigger the race, the more it costs and the more Splendour points it earns.

The construction itself is heavy. Like other monuments, the Hippodrome is built in stages and demands a lot of granite, marble and mosaics.

For players stuck on Patrician satisfaction late in a game and looking for access through island monuments, the Hippodrome is worth watching. Weigh it more carefully if your game has not yet reached the Patricians’ second-tier needs: spending €8 on a monument you cannot build any time soon would be premature.

For the full context on the DLC and July’s patch 1.6.1, our analysis of the Hippodrome announcement still holds.

What to Watch Before August 20

The full patch notes will be published on August 18, two days before launch. That is where every balance change accompanying Update 2.0 will be detailed, such as production chains and population need balancing. Read them before deciding whether the DLC fits your current game.

Going further

Anno 117 Patch 1.6.1 Is Live — The Hippodrome Needs Albion Granite

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Six weeks before the Hippodrome, Ubisoft Mainz clears the decks

Anno 117: Pax Romana patch 1.6.1 landed today, July 9, 2026, without fanfare. Four targeted fixes, no new mechanics — and a clear signal that the runway is being cleared for the summer’s main event: the Hippodrome DLC, scheduled for mid-August alongside Update 2.0.

What patch 1.6.1 changes

Four fixes worth knowing:

Cinis expands: Earthquakes have unlocked additional building space on the volcanic island. The change is savegame-compatible — no restart required.
Crash fixed: A crash tied to resolving large incidents in late-game sessions is now gone.
Commerce exploit closed: A gamepad input trick allowed free goods from traders. The exploit is removed.
Vigiles repair fix (Prophecies of Ash): Vigiles now repair buildings destroyed by volcanic activity and tremors — a bug that had gone unaddressed since the DLC launched.

None of these are headline changes, but they clear out technical debt accumulated since Prophecies of Ash shipped.

The Hippodrome: Anno’s largest monument yet

The numbers frame the ambition: over 60 tiles long by roughly 25 tiles wide. That’s nearly twice the length of the Amphitheater, currently the only monument in Anno 117. The Circus Maximus held up to 250,000 spectators — the scale reference isn’t accidental.

The DLC lets you host chariot races inside your city. Two practical results:

Governor prestige increases, improving your diplomatic position and island bonuses.
New specialists become recruitable, providing production, happiness, or military efficiency buffs when placed in existing buildings.

Included in the Year 1 Pass, with a standalone purchase option for those without it.

The strategic catch: Albion granite

Here’s the detail the general roadmap didn’t emphasize: the Hippodrome can only be built in Latium, and it requires Albion granite — a resource exclusive to the Celtic province of Britannia.

The implication is direct. If your Anno 117 playthrough has been Latium-first with Albion on the back burner, you now need to:

Establish or expand your Albion presence to access granite quarries.
Build a maritime trade route to ship granite back to Latium.
Plan the footprint: 60 × 25 tiles of contiguous space in Latium takes serious urban planning.

With six weeks before the DLC drops, there’s enough time to adjust production chains without a crisis. A player who waits until the Hippodrome appears in the shop to start sourcing granite will spend multiple sessions on logistics before placing a single foundation tile.

Update 2.0 and the August schedule

The Hippodrome ships alongside Update 2.0, targeted for mid-August 2026. Ubisoft Mainz hasn’t detailed the full contents of that update yet — expect Anno Union posts in the coming weeks.

After the Hippodrome, the Year 1 Pass closes out with Dawn of the Delta in November 2026 — a full Egyptian province built around the Nile delta, introducing new populations, deities, and production chains.

For context on what came before, check our Prophecies of Ash review and full 2026 roadmap breakdown.

Start sourcing Albion granite now.

What matters is that the Hippodrome turns a prestige building into a logistics check. Players who secure Albion granite and Latium space beforehand will use the DLC immediately; everyone else will be building the supply chain first.

The August release itself, with the big changes of the update, is covered in Anno 117 Update 2.0 and the Hippodrome DLC.

Sources: Anno Union — Patch 1.6.1 · Ubisoft — Year 1 DLC Plans

Anno 117 Pax Romana: Full 2026 Year 1 Roadmap — Patch 1.6, Hippodrome and Dawn of the Delta

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Anno 117 Grows: Patch 1.6 Recap and What’s Coming in 2026

Anno 117: Pax Romana is delivering on its post-launch promise. Since its November 2025 release, Ubisoft Mainz’s Roman city-builder has attracted over 1.17 million players and maintained a steady stream of updates. Patch 1.6, released on June 18, 2026, sets the stage for the second half of the Year 1 content calendar — two major expansions are now locked in: the Hippodrome in August and the Egyptian province Dawn of the Delta in November.

Patch 1.6 — Blooming Cities Pack and bug fixes
The Hippodrome — chariot races arrive in August
Dawn of the Delta — Egypt comes to Anno in November
Going further

Patch 1.6 — Blooming Cities Pack and Prophecies of Ash Fixes

Released June 18, 2026, patch 1.6 accompanies the launch of the Blooming Cities Pack, Anno 117’s second cosmetic DLC. It introduces an organic system for placing flowers and trees throughout your islands, along with fountains, decorative walls, and the Temple of Flora as a grand centerpiece.

On the technical side, several bugs from Prophecies of Ash have been resolved:

Main Prophecies of Ash quest no longer fails to trigger for certain players.
Vulcan’s shrine buffs now correctly include gold and coal.
Construction grids no longer vanish unexpectedly during building phases.
Landscaping Patterns category added for all players with two free garden patterns (Ambrosian Forest, Celtic Forest) plus Albion and Latium-themed brushes.

Co-op players can now swap object skins to ones they own, even if the original skin belonged to another player in the session — a long-requested quality-of-life fix.

The Hippodrome — Summer 2026’s Signature Monument

The Year 1 Pass’s second major DLC arrives in August 2026: The Hippodrome, modeled after the Circus Maximus. Ubisoft describes it as the most impressive monument ever built in the Anno series, both in scale and in the gameplay mechanics it introduces.

The Hippodrome lets you host chariot races inside your Roman city, delivering:

Governor prestige gains, improving diplomatic standing and triggering island-wide bonuses.
New specialists that can be slotted into existing buildings to activate production boosts, happiness multipliers, or military efficiency upgrades.

The DLC is included in the Year 1 Pass and will also be sold separately. Pass holders get automatic access at launch.

Dawn of the Delta — Egypt Joins Anno in November 2026

The Year 1 Pass closes with its largest chapter in November 2026: Dawn of the Delta, a fully new province combining vast desert landscapes and a fertile river delta. This is the most ambitious piece of content in the first year of support.

Confirmed features so far:

New population tiers with distinct needs and beliefs, entirely separate from the Roman social ladder.
A Roman-Egyptian cultural balance to maintain: Roman imperial ambition must coexist with deep-rooted Egyptian tradition.
New deities to worship, extending the religious system already present in the base game.
New Egyptian military units to integrate into your forces.
Exclusive production chains tied to the region, unlocking resources and economic routes unavailable elsewhere.

Dawn of the Delta functions as a self-contained province — comparable in scope to Albion in the base game — but transporting your governor into the Egypt of Trajan’s era, 117 AD.

Going Further

Missed the volcanic island Cinis from the first DLC? Our full verdict is in our Prophecies of Ash DLC review. Anno 117’s 2026 roadmap confirms that Ubisoft Mainz is committed to substantial post-launch support — between regular patches, cosmetic DLC, and major expansions, Pax Romana has a lot more to offer before the year is out.

For the second 2026 DLC, see our preview of Dawn of the Delta and its Nile floods on November 5.

Sources: Anno Union — Patch 1.6 · Ubisoft — Year 1 DLC Plans

Anno 117 Prophecies of Ash: what the volcano really changes

Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Cinis offers roughly twice the buildable land of the largest island in the base game. At its center, a volcano can shut down mines, hurl rock across residential districts, and cut output from farms and fisheries. Anno 117’s most generous terrain is therefore also the one that demands the deepest reserves.

That trade-off is more precise than a vague promise of “volcanic content.” Caecilia, obsidian, coal mines and the cult of Vulcan tie the disaster directly to production chains. They let us read the DLC through its systems without pretending to have spent two weeks on the island — which is exactly what the earlier version of this article wrongly claimed.

Cinis expands Latium instead of adding a side session

Prophecies of Ash released on April 30, 2026. The DLC extends northern Latium with six islands: three medium, two small, and Cinis. That last one is not a separate region you load from the world map. It slots into the existing province and can be added to a save already in progress.

That choice matters. Trade routes, population and established chains all stay relevant. Cinis does not force you to restart an empire to reach its content. Instead it offers a new center of gravity, with more beaches, rivers and mountain slots than ordinary islands.

Ubisoft puts its buildable surface at roughly twice that of the base game’s largest island. For megacity builders, that is the immediate selling point. For Anno’s design, it is also a risk: an enormous island softens the logistical pressure that normally gives sea routes and island specialization their value.

The volcano exists precisely to put friction back into all that space.

The volcano is a five-act economic loop

The official cycle has five phases, not four. During the calm, the island runs normally. The prelude brings tremors and light damage. The eruption interrupts anything built on mountain slots while flaming rocks strike buildings. The volcanic winter that follows drops the productivity of farms and fisheries, along with several well-being indicators.

The final phase, the bloom, flips the logic. Rain clears the air, lifts happiness, and turns ash into an agricultural bonus. Each eruption raises Cinis’s soil level. That bonus is first capped after three cycles; research then lets you push the ceiling to five.

This structure avoids a purely punishing disaster. You are not just handed a repair bill — you accept a spell of disorder to earn more productive land. The strategic problem becomes temporal. You need stockpiles before the winter, protection for exposed buildings, and a plan to exploit the rebound rather than simply rebuild what was there.

Obsidian ties the disaster to the economy

The eruption also produces obsidian. It appears as a by-product of mines and quarries after a cycle, and some hurled rocks can be recovered once the danger passes. The resource feeds statuettes and Latrunculi game sets, or trade with Caecilia.

So the new trader is not just a portrait bolted onto the harbor. Her missions introduce the story of Cinis and how the volcano works, while her specialists can alter an island’s fertilities or mining capacities.

The cult of Vulcan completes the picture. Its boons cover mining and fire safety, and it unlocks coal mines. Those can occupy any mountain slot without needing a particular fertility. The DLC thus links its theme to several layers of the city-builder at once: extraction, production, religion, trade and risk management.

Turning the volcano off changes what the DLC is worth

Ubisoft lets you tune the volcano’s intensity or disable its disruptive phases. That safety valve keeps a disaster mechanic from making Cinis unusable for players who build mainly for aesthetics.

The disabling is not neutral, though. Without new eruptions, the soil level and the farming bonus slowly fade. You keep the enormous canvas, but you give up the loop that mechanically justifies the abundance.

This is where the buying decision clarifies. If your goal is simply the largest surface in the series, Cinis delivers that directly. If you want new chains as structural as a full Anno 1800 region, the scope is more modest. Prophecies of Ash deepens Latium; it does not create a second economic game.

The real cost is in the preparation

The eruption does not threaten every activity equally. The explosive phase halts production tied to mountain slots. The winter that follows hits farms and fisheries. An economy concentrated on Cinis therefore stacks two successive weaknesses: extraction stopped, then food slowed.

That sequence gives warehouses and outside routes a concrete job. Importing food from another island shields your population during the volcanic winter. Holding coal or mined goods keeps a downstream chain from stalling when the volcano blocks the mountains. Visible damage is only part of the problem; the flow interruption can outlast the fire.

The bloom bonus then rewards players who kept their city running rather than those who only repaired quickly. With enriched soil, the same farms produce more and gradually offset the reserves you burned. The full loop reads less like “disaster, rebuild” and more like “prepare, interrupt, accelerated recovery.”

Difficulty settings also change how much damage and obsidian each cycle produces. Lowering the violence can be smarter than switching the cycle off entirely: you keep the bloom and the obsidian economy without turning every eruption into a maximum test of your reserves.

Who Prophecies of Ash makes sense for

The DLC looks most relevant for two profiles. The first wants a far larger Roman capital without leaving their current save. The second enjoys systems where a temporary disruption can be turned into a production advantage.

Players who hate seeing their chains interrupted can soften or cut the volcano, but they will neutralize much of the strategic angle. Conversely, anyone hoping for a constantly punishing disaster may find the bloom too generous: the system is built as a cyclical investment, not permanent survival.

The useful question is therefore not whether Cinis contains enough land. It plainly does. It is whether you enjoy building redundancy into an economy well before the warning arrives. A second food route, spare warehouse capacity and production spread across several islands become part of the design rather than emergency busywork. Repair services, supply discipline and mountain-slot placement matter before the first projectile falls, not after it. That is a narrower appeal than a new region, but also a more coherent one: the island asks you to use systems Anno already has with greater discipline.

For where this content sits in the game’s year, our Anno 117 Year 1 roadmap also covers The Hippodrome and Dawn of the Delta. Prophecies of Ash does not reinvent Anno 117 — it gives an identity to an island that could have been mere oversized terrain, and the volcano turns space into a genuine choice: build bigger, provided you organize the empire to weather the next winter.

Anno 117: Pax Romana — After Strategy

Anno 117: how to get to Albion, settle it and trade with Latium (2026 guide)

How to get to Albion in each game mode

Switching between provinces

If Albion stays locked

First buildings in Albion

Smiths or Mercators: the tier 2 choice

What Albion trades with Latium

Creating the route between Latium and Albion

Start in Albion or in Latium

Going further

Anno 117 Dawn of the Delta: Nile Floods Reshape Your Economy on November 5

Aegyptus: a river province in three zones

The floods: a quantified risk, a reward

Two population paths, two ways to irrigate

Granaries, production and rats

Religion, units and ships

What to watch before November 5

Going further

Anno 117 Update 2.0 and Hippodrome DLC: August 20 Brings Big Changes

Update 2.0: New Features for Every Player

The Hippodrome DLC at €8: What It Changes for Patricians

What to Watch Before August 20

Going further

Anno 117 Patch 1.6.1 Is Live — The Hippodrome Needs Albion Granite

Six weeks before the Hippodrome, Ubisoft Mainz clears the decks

What patch 1.6.1 changes

The Hippodrome: Anno’s largest monument yet

The strategic catch: Albion granite

Update 2.0 and the August schedule

Anno 117 Pax Romana: Full 2026 Year 1 Roadmap — Patch 1.6, Hippodrome and Dawn of the Delta

Anno 117 Grows: Patch 1.6 Recap and What’s Coming in 2026

Table of Contents

Patch 1.6 — Blooming Cities Pack and Prophecies of Ash Fixes

The Hippodrome — Summer 2026’s Signature Monument

Dawn of the Delta — Egypt Joins Anno in November 2026

Going Further

Anno 117 Prophecies of Ash: what the volcano really changes

Cinis expands Latium instead of adding a side session

The volcano is a five-act economic loop

Obsidian ties the disaster to the economy

Turning the volcano off changes what the DLC is worth

The real cost is in the preparation

Who Prophecies of Ash makes sense for

Sources