Anno 117: Pax Romana – Dawn of the Delta | Hands-Off First Look

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Aarsal "SoulBlazerz" Masoodi

24 hours ago

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As part of Gamescom 2026 last week, I sat down for a hands-off presentation on the latest update coming to Anno 117 Pax Romana: Dawn of the Delta. Ubisoft is adding quite a bit with this beefy expansion, and while there’s still even more to show and reveal in the coming weeks, for now I have all of the latest details.

Keep reading to find out more.

End of Year One

The presentation for Dawn of the Delta first started off by talking about this latest Anno game itself. We’re approaching a year since Anno 117: Pax Romana came out in November 2025, and so it’s fitting that everything discussed was part of their “Year 1”. The previous two updates a little smaller in stature (though still quite massive), the first of which was Prophecies of Ash that introduced an active volcano. The second of which was “The Hippodrome”, which added iconic Roman chariot races to the game.

This presentation, though, was all about the upcoming update in November, Dawn of the Delta. This will be the biggest expansion and update to the game yet, so let’s dive into what we know.

Historically, the region of Egypt was one of the major Roman provinces to be referred to as the “Breadbasket of the Empire”, and Dawn of the Delta aims to replicate exactly that. They do so with some pretty interesting mechanics with “The Great River of Delta”, which has things like seasonal flooding, limited building space, and a strong current.

Though, as this is, of course, Egypt, most of the new province will be dry land, with some farmland interspersed that doesn’t get affected by the seasonal flooding mechanic. They explicitly mentioned these farmlands as a great place to build a stable economy, and I imagine most players will take advantage of exactly that. Finally, the next new terrain is floodplains that are next to the Delta; these provide both a challenge and an advantage as you build your province to fully utilize the seasonal flooding.

The People

Switching now to the locals, they’re referred to as “the threshers,” and they’ve lived here for generations and so are quite knowledgeable about the land. One of the most interesting parts of Anno games is how you have to provide your people with both the necessities and wants of life, such as clothing, shelter, and food. Though as governor, you also are the one to decide how much or how little to respect their local traditions and culture.

Ubisoft Mainz utilizes this as a core gameplay mechanic, where depending on your choices you’ll have different options in what you can build or progress. For example, if you allow local tradition to flourish, then the Potter units show up, while otherwise the Scribes do. The units differ in both what they provide and also in what they need in order to flourish, so it’s up to you to “leave a mark in your world”, as they say. And of course these decisions can also alter your architecture. They showed a glimpse of a fully developed city, and it was a clash of traditional Egyptian and Roman buildings, really cool looking.

As this is the tail end of year one of the game, they made sure to allow interconnectivity between the three different provinces. They did so by making the people in one province like the goods and materials from other provinces, promoting trade. They didn’t dive into the exact specifics of how this would work, but it’s great to see that you’ll be able to interact with other cities you’ve invested time into.

Discovery

To wrap up the presentation, they expanded a little on the various new discoveries and research the new province will provide. There’s going to be a completely new branch in the discovery tree with, of course, dedicated Egyptian research, such as basins. These can be used to convert the rough dryland terrain into something fertile. The Roman equivalent is a giant aqueduct, which clearly requires heavier investment but looks awesome.

As always, religion plays a role in the game, and three new deities are coming with the Dawn of the Delta expansion. They specifically mentioned Sobek, who is the deity of the Delta itself, and any worshipers of him are knowledgeable in all things water. In practical terms, that makes them masters at fire safety. Finally, they briefly mentioned a couple of new military units: The Kushite archers, who are strong but have a high upkeep, and the Dromedarii, which are more support units.

And that was everything they discussed! The expansion to Anno 117: Pax Romana, Dawn of the Delta, releases in November 2026. Will you be governing this lush land full of opportunity, culture, tradition and more? Or do you have yet to give this latest Anno game a shot? Let us know in the comments!

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