In the latest DLC for the franchise, we can set Roman history aside.

Ubisoft has announced that the city-building game Anno 117: Pax Romana will release its first DLC later this month. Prophecies of Ash introduces the largest island in the series to date, which is overshadowed by a massive volcano. After all, what’s the point of building a Roman city without risking a natural disaster whose effects will be felt for millennia? The volcanic island is called Cinis and serves more as an extension of the Latium province than as a completely new map.

The Prophecies of Ash video embedded below suggests Cinis offers abundant building opportunities with plenty of riverbeds and mining sites for citizens to exploit. The DLC also introduces a new resource to the game: obsidian. This brings new items into fashion, such as carved idols and board games, as well as the production chains required to craft them. Of course, building a city in the shadow of a volcano comes with its own dangers. The video doesn’t explain exactly what these dangers are, but it shows footage of massive boulders erupting from the volcano and crashing down onto the city’s buildings.

According to Ubisoft’s press release, the volcano mechanics include eruptions, volcanic winter, and a “blooming phase.” We can assume that the latter two affect the productivity of agricultural buildings: the former hinders food production, and the latter boosts it. Additionally, Prophecies of Ash allows players to build Vulcan’s Temple. This increases mine productivity and the city’s fire safety, which seems particularly important given the game’s setting.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the somewhat questionable reputation of Anno 117. The game received a “Mixed” rating on Steam, partly due to Ubisoft Mainz’s controversial decision to use AI-generated art, which has since been removed, and partly because the third act of the campaign’s story was cut, giving the impression that the game was released in an unfinished state.

The Prophecies of Ash DLC will be released on PC on April 23.

Source: PCGamer, Ubisoft, Steam