
As a player's empire develops, so does their population. They pay little amounts of taxes, and require only food and a town center. At the start of the game, all of a player's citizens are pioneers.

The game is divided into five social stages: Pioneer, Settler, Citizen, Merchant, and Aristocrat. Different opponents have different relationships with the queen, and they will react according to the player's choices. Either option will eventually lead to independence. At some point, she will demand the tributes, giving an offer to pay gold coins, or being attacked by her royal fleet. Thus, she expects subservience and respect. Now, players are settling the island world in the queen's name. As the player progresses through the game, players have access to lodge activities and troops which allow them to invade and ultimately to defeat other players. During those activities, other rivals are also strengthening. The player starts with an unnamed country that has to colonize and expand in the world. All twelve computer controlled opponents have their own personalities, preferences and difficulty levels. Similar to Civilization series, the players can decide on the size of the world in advance, determine the island types and toggle the advanced options such as "Disasters", "Plague", "Pirates", "Fire", and others. The continuous play offers free customization options for the start of the game. There are two main game modes in Anno 1701: continuous play, representing an open-ended session, and ten scenarios with certain tasks, which gradually increase in level of difficulty. The more skilled a player is at maintaining a balanced economy the more successful their settlement will be.


A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at ] see its history for attribution.
