1701 AD may appear to be an RTS game, but at its heart it is an economic
simulator. Set in the early 18th Century a tropical sea inspired by the
Caribbean, the game challenges you to build a viable network of colonies while
keeping rival nations at bay. If you’re looking for an Age of Empires style
experience here you’ll be vastly disappointed, but if you enjoy building up a
city and keeping its economy humming then 1701 AD just may be the game for you.
1701 AD is short on history, foregoing any kind of historical campaign and
relegating the players to factions represented by colors rather than European
nations. The centerpiece of the game is the customized game mode in which you
select your world size, the number of rival CPU players, and victory conditions,
and then begin building a new world from scratch on a randomized map.
Your first order of business is to establish your first colony and get it up and
running. Create docks, a town square, and add a few homes, and settlers will
begin arriving at your colony. The most important thing to monitor in your
colony is the people’s happiness as an unhappy bunch of settlers will eventually
lead to a colony’s failure. Keeping everyone happy is not too difficult at first
as your first pioneers have simple needs and tastes. However, as your colony
grows your settlers will develop a taste for the finer things in life and
delivering these goods to them will prove to be a greater challenge.
The economic model is pretty straightforward; you just need to provide the right
structures for the gathering and processing of resources and your settlers will
do the rest. This makes getting through the initial stages of the game a breeze.
However you’ll soon find that your island won’t be able to provide you with all
of the resources needed to provide luxury items to your colony – not only are
the islands themselves randomized, so are the limited number of resources each
one supports. To fulfill these needs you’ll need to seek the raw materials from
elsewhere by either establishing new colonies or opening up trade routes. In a
way, 1701 AD is more of a trade and supply chain sim than a city builder game.
Setting up trade routes is easy enough – just specify what you’d like your ships
to pick up and drop off at each port and you’re on your way. You can also make
goods available at your docks for sale or trade to other factions.
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