Docklands: 5 best things about the Anno 1800 DLC

Anno 1800 is one of those games that keeps you hooked for a very long time. There are players that prefer the early stages of the game and start new games at regular intervals. Others enjoy the endgame, having endless amounts of cash, all buildings unlocked and focus on optimising trade routes and production chains. 

For the third season now, Ubisoft has released Docklands as the first DLC's for Anno 1800. There are a total of 3 DLCs for Season 3 as well as multiple content packs for extra beautification. 

Docklands, as this DLC is called, was released towards the end of Februari 2021. In this post, I'll share with you the 5 things I like most about the new Docklands DLC.

#1 Trade Contracts

Anno 1800 is a city building game, but with a twist. It's not just one city you need to build, there are multiple islands to settle and they're spread out across multiple sessions. Inhabitants, needs and goods are different per session. 

For instance, artisans in the Old World need fur coats. To make fur coats, you need fur. Fur you can get in the Old World. But you also need Cotton Fabric. Cotton Fabric is made from Cotton (really!) and Cotton fertility is only available in the New World.

In other words: to progress from Artisans to Engineers, you need to unlock the New World.

With Trade Contracts coming to Anno 1800 through the Docklands DLC, there is no need to do this any more. Tobias the trader will visit your harbour once every 20 minutes as soon as you build the Docklands Main Wharf. You can offer him goods you have plenty of and ask for goods you need in return.

It almost feels like a way to cheat the system.

This way, you can import fur coats for your artisans and upgrade to engineers, without having to unlock the New World first.

It's also an awesome way to get rid of excess materials. I always have plenty of timber and pigs, for some reason. Trading them for things I don't have plenty of (beer for instance) is a good way to keep my warehouse stocked with money generating goods, while keeping it from overflowing other goods at the same time.

#2 Harbour Extensions

Using the Docklands Main Wharf, you can extend your harbour to function even better. This works using modules, similar to the way you'd extend a museum or zoo.

Several extra buildings are available using these modules:

• Depot: increases storage capacity
• Pier: extra loading slot for ships to load and unload
• Repair Crane: repairs nearby ships and buildings
• Harbourmaster: Extra item slot in the Main Wharf
• Loading Wharf: Reduces loading time for ships by increasing the amount of goods per second that can be loaded or unloaded
• Exports Office: Increase the number of available contracts 

Of these six Docklands modules, only the Loading Wharf is really new. All other buildings have similar functionality to their regular counterparts. But, there's one big plus: they are way more efficient.

For example: an old fashioned depot increases your island's storage space by 50 tons. To do this, it needs 40 squares of space (4 x 10). That is 1,25 ton per square.

The new depot module increases the storage space by 100 tons, but it covers only 9 squares (3 x 3, 11,11 ton per square). It also blocks an additional 9 squares of water, but this is overlappable. This means it's almost 10 times as efficient.

#3 New item banners

"Your expedition has brought home a new item," is a phrase I don't hear often enough. When I do, it's really nice to be able to see what the new item is.

With the new item banner this is a lot more clear. The red banner, adorned with a bright gold star definitely pulls your attention towards it. 

Note: The new item banner is part of game update 10 and you don't need the Docklands DLC to be able to see it.

#4 Lighthouse

Ever since I started playing Anno 1800 (which started with the closed beta a long, long time ago), I've been jealous. Jealous at Qing, Willy and Beryl. At all the other computer controlled players. 

Why? Because they have such a beautiful lighthouse watching over their harbour! I don't know why, but I feel like the lighthouse is an important part of the island's aesthetic and having to wait until the third year to be able to finally build it, was too long.

With the Dockland DLC, you get access to multiple items to make your harbour area more beautiful. It is a great way to tie in the coastline with all the existing options to improve your city building. 

#5 New ship

After completing the storyline from Tobias, he will reward you with blueprints. Not just any blueprints, but the building plans to build a completely new ship.

The World Class Reefer is exactly what the name implies: World Class. 

It has 6 cargo slots, which puts it on par with regular Cargo ships. If you have a Cargo ship and the Reefer travel from one island to another, the Cargo ship will get there first. 

But! If you'll put them in a match to sail from an island in the Old World to another island in another session (like the New World), the Reefer is definitely going to win.

This is due to its unique mechanic. In regular travel, it isn't really that fast. Less than impressive even. But between sessions, it'll double its speed. So it won't travel at 11 knots (1 knot is one nautical mile per hour), but 22 knots.

Compare this to a regular Cargo ship, which does 13.6 knots both in session as well as in between sessions. 

So, bottom line:

• Use a Cargo Ship when setting up trade routes in the same world
• Use a World Class Reefer when setting up trade routes spanning multiple worlds

In closing

So there you have it. 4 reasons to buy the Dockland DLC (and one extra just because of the game update that came with it). 

In all honesty, I don't always turn on this DLC when starting a new game.

On the one hand I love the extra options trading with Tobias offers. But on the other hand, it almost feels like a way to cheat the system. "I don't want to invest in this, let's just build an extra sawmill and trade away my planks."

But not turning it on also means not being able to beautify my coastlines or using the World Class Reefer. And that is an amazing ship to have in your fleet!

So yes, Docklands is definitely worth the money. The Season Pass for Season 3 includes the other DLCs as well: Tourist Season and The High Life. For under €20 or $20, depending on your currency, this is a steal!