The good thing about Anno 1800 is that it is a very good game even without DLCs; they of course add a lot of interesting stuff to the gameplay, but the game with no DLCs it's fun and complete on its own

I like the complexity of added DLC‘s and Mods, it lets you build really big :)

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Originally posted by Primigenia:

The good thing about Anno 1800 is that it is a very good game even without DLCs; they of course add a lot of interesting stuff to the gameplay, but the game with no DLCs it's fun and complete on its own

Yeah, the game is still good with no DLCs and they can be enabled one at a time as you learn the game. Alternatively, and this is what I did, I disabled AI for my first runs and just tackled the game's DLCs at my own pace. It's a very customizable game as far as the ways it can be tackled goes, which is quite nice.

Still agree with the OP to an extent though, bigger islands do get unwieldy if you want to tackle every DLC.

Definitely. I'm doing my second playthrough at the moment with all DLC active and it's far too overwhelming. Part of the issue I have is there are too many regions. Don't get me wrong, they're great, but I find it's just too much to manage.

For my next playthrough I've decided to have only The Passage, Bright Harvest, Seat of Power, Docklands, The High Life and Seeds of Change active. This way there's only 3 (instead of 5) regions to manage. I really like Land of Lions, but it's yet another region to manage. I'm going to see how I get on first, and if I find everything manageable, then I'll add that DLC in too.

Having Enbesa active is very useful if only for the pocket watch trade and gain money very fast, even if you don't build anything there at all

As for all DLCs, they're based on the player input so having unlocked them doesn't mean they're meant to be built immediately (especially for things like tourists and arctic)

Yeah way too much is happening considering you cannot pause and go thru your stuff. You never have a moment to just finnish what you are doing.

Keep in mind that there is no pressure to do all of the content at the same time right when it unlocks. You can do it step by step and take however long you want to take.
The only downside comes from playing with two and three star AI, which will expand into the new regions even if you don't. But even that is only a temporary setback.

You can also play without AI opponents - then you have all the time in the world.

Honestly I hope they claim down with adding a new region every DLC in the next game. It just to much to have 6 different regions you need to endless switch between and micro manage. Half time I'll be trying to build up something in one region and I'll just keep getting spammed that something exploded or is on fire or a riot is happing in another region. Not mention if you try play with AI and they just start spam taking all the good island and you have to fight them for it, but if you do they'll sink all your trade route while your at war with them trying to take the islands you want from them, cause for some reason the war AI in this game only targets trade ships at-least IMO I've never seen them actually attack and island or defend on of their islands, But personally I think the competitive AI mechanic another thing they need to completely overhaul in the next game as well it flawed on a lot of levels. It doesn't really do anything beside look pretty and sink trade ships when you need to force them out of your way to expand IMO, also it will pointlessly get mad at you over the stupidest things like building an iron mine..

Yeah pretty much what Tankfriend said above. Take things at your own pace and don't rush it. Just make sure you have a couple free ships at the ready to send them off to expeditions to the new regions so you can claim at least some islands with critical resources. The expedition to the New World, like the rest of them, triggers once you hit artisan tier pop.

Once there, set priorities and start building defensively first if you're playing with more challenging AI opponents. Secure your positions with coastal defences and small fleet squadrons. Make sure your trade routes are firmly secured. Later, you can expand more aggressively if needed. In addition, you also need good anti-aircraft defenses in place because things get nasty if you allow the AI to occupy too many gas deposits. They will start cranking out airships at insane rates and it gets overwhelming quickly.

If you manage to stay strong and if you can maintain ceasefire or peace agreements for prolonged periods of time, then it's actually pretty awesome to have so many regions with a different flair each.