Anno 1800 is the game that fans of the series have been waiting to play for a while. It marks a return to the historical setting and naval combat that made the franchise popular in the first place.
And it comes with plenty of new features that make the city-building experience more realistic, and way more fun than before.
Despite the game being quite good, there are a few mechanics that could have been better. Especially those that rely on random chances that can make things quite frustrating.
Thankfully the game has released on PC, and modders haven’t wasted any time fixing these small issues. Not to mention introducing new mechanics and tweaks that make Anno 1800 even better than it already is!
So if you’re big into modding and want some updated fun, this list is sure to have something for you.
Every city worthy of its name requires a proper zoo. A place where citizens can spend time looking at animals.
Doing so in Anno 1800, however, can be a very scary experience.
The animals found in the vanilla version clearly have something that makes them look off… like wrong icons, bad 3D models, and some frankly strange coloring patterns.
All things of the past with this Animals mod, which introduces new 3D models for select animals and a whole lot of tweaks to boot. Not an essential mod by any means, but one that perfectionists will want to install.
Anno 1800, or Anno 1701, 1404 or 1503? All of them.
At the same time, even.
Old Town gives us a selection of new buildings taken from previous entries in the series, fully integrating them in the experience so they come with actual features that do not make them look out of place.
Which had a high chance of happening, considering the oldest new building came from an era when industrialization was not a dream, but something truly inconceivable.
The city that you build in Anno 1800 can look truly marvelous.
But never forget that it’s always possible to make things better. Especially with mods.
City Ornaments is the mod to download if you want to make your city become the best looking city in history.
It adds a lot of new objects like three new street types, statues and fountains, plants, an upgradeable marketplace, and a few more ornaments that look just gorgeous.
Now if we could only get something for those ugly parks…
No matter what players need, modders always provide. Need a better-looking city? You get the City Ornaments mod.
Need better parks? You get something for them too!
Nature Ornaments makes a huge difference for parks, without totally overhauling the vanilla elements.
Instead it mostly improves the original trees and paths, adding some ornaments that make them look much better, no matter which resolution you’re using.
Better yet, each new element comes with multiple variations that can be accessed on the fly.
If you cannot make your city look great with a mod like this, well I dunno man. Maybe just keep reading?
Does it surprise you to see a mod that improves harbors in Anno 1800? It should not, and this is definitely one worth checking out.
Harbour Ornaments, like the City and Nature Ornaments mods, introduces new ornamental buildings and objects that vastly improve how a harbor can look.
The improvements aren’t just cosmetic either: some of the buildings generate 2 attraction points, and the warehouse can be expanded for additional storage capacity. Now that’s more like it!
Time to become the true ruler of the sea, with a battleship that’ll make your enemies shiver at the thought of getting on your bad side!
This Battleship mod adds a marvelous steam-based warship coming with a custom mesh and textures, also featuring a high hitpoint and damage rating… but very slow movement.
A true tank of the seas that can take a beating to protect the most glorious city of the 1800s!
Trying to get Legendary Specialists in Anno 1800 may be more difficult than actually conquering the sea, due to the randomness of the process.
Well not anymore, if you can get a proper academy!
This mod adds a new type of building to the game which comes with a couple of benefits, including new items sets that make it much easier to get the Legendary Specialist you need to bring your city to the next level.
And that’s not all: the Academy also brings four buffs that can improve loading speed for all ships, and productivity, among other things. But you’ll have to work for it.
If a monumental town hall is not enough for your virtual delusions of grandeur, you definitely need something bigger.
A castle, for example.
Archibald’s Castle introduces a modular buildable castle that features 2 main buildings and 8 side-buildings.
As something like this is truly massive and requires a lot of resources to manage properly, you’ll only be able to unlock it once you have 750 investors. So get to work!
Farm field placement restrictions in Anno 1800 are rather baffling.
Especially considering the game is all about the freedom of building your city any way you want.
Well the Free Farmfield Placement mod finally lifts these restrictions.
It allows you to place farm fields on a certain radius, no matter if they’re adjacent or not. This should prevent you from having to change roads and other building placements, and let you create the superfarm to bring your city to new heights.
What, you never dreamt of building train stations? Details, details!
Train Stations and Hotels adds new buildings to Anno 1800. Stuff like central stations, small stations, hotels, post offices, and even investor residences.
All these buildings have a specific function that works in tandem with another, effectively adding new mechanics to the game. As if there weren’t enough already!
Dealing with pirates is never the right thing to do. And I don’t even have to tell you why.
Sure, they sell some amazing ships… but they’re not worth the risk.
If you really need the pirate ships, as well as a couple of other rare ones, you can install the Ship Unlocker mod and unlock all of them by simply having a single Artisan and the respective shipyard.
God Mode, activated. And your city will never be the same again!
Cheat mod, unsurprisingly, allows you to do things not normally possible.
Like boosting production, increase starting funds, and so on. It does feel a bit like cheating, to be honest… but does it really matter when you can make the game more fun?
I say this is at least worth a try for every player.
These Legendary Traders will be in your city very soon.
So prepare your hard-earned funds: it’s time to do some serious shopping!
This mod makes it so Old World traders always offer a selection of 12 Legendary or Epic Items, which is very convenient considering how difficult it is to get these items in the vanilla game.
With this mod, creating the city you always dreamt of will no longer take the better part of your life!
Engineers, Investors, and workers all aim to achieve the same goals.
But they’re absolutely not the same. As such, even their buildings should be different.
Project Distinction adds new visual effects, colors, and slightly different models for Engineer and Investor residential buildings.
These additions not only differentiate these buildings from all the others, but they also blend much better with the rest of your city. And you even get some new variations for Workers and Farmers buildings. No complaints here.
The bigger your city gets, the more power you need.
Instead of building more power plants contributing heavily to global pollution, why not install this mod enjoy the benefits of technological advancements?
It’s about as straightforward as any Anno 1800 mod can get, since it extends the power plant range so that it covers more of the city and increases the storage of the Oil and Gas Power Plants.
Exactly as one would expect by the name. Simple, but effective.
The Anno 1800 Mod doesn’t need a creative name to stand out from all the others.
Its features are more than enough to set itself apart.
I’d consider this a must-have mod, as it streamlines some of the most annoying mechanics of the game without changing them too much or breaking the game.
These tweaks range from resident capacity increases to better range of influence for select buildings, better warehouses, and better ships.
All these changes will make your life so much easier, you probably won’t touch the vanilla game anymore. And really, why bother?
All work and no play makes the Anno 1800 workers dull boys.
Increased Production and Enhancements is a mod that not only doubles production and quadruples storage amounts, but also lets you tweak the game in several other ways to get rid of tedium and repetitiveness.
This means longer playtimes and more actual fun.
And makes the virtual workers and farmers so much happier!
If you’ve installed even half of the mods on this list, I’m sure things are starting to feel confusing.
Never fear, city builders, modders are here to save the day again.
The Anno 1800 Mod Manager is a very handy application that makes managing all your installed mods much easier. And it even provides a quick launch option with news from the lovely Anno 1800 community.
Which we all should be thankful to, having improved the game quite a bit with their efforts. All for free, too!
Let’s spice up Anno 1800. And this is an order, not a suggestion!
Spice It Up is the definitive mod for Anno 1800.
It includes a metric ton of quality-of-life changes, new addons, and gameplay tweaks that make the game way more enjoyable.
And all this without making it too easy or broken.
And if you want things to get funny, you can even access some memes that will have you crying from laughing so hard. Until pirates arrive to spoil the fun, that is.
