The 12 best games like Anno 117: Pax Romana

The best Anno 117 alternatives at a glance

1. Anno 1800

Best overall game like Anno 117

If the production chains, shipping routes, population tiers, and gradual urban expansion are what attract you to Anno 117, Anno 1800 is the natural first choice. It comes from Ubisoft Mainz and applies the recognizable Anno structure to the Industrial Revolution.

A modest settlement develops into a dense economic network in which farms, workshops, factories, ports, and trade routes depend on one another. New population classes create new demands, and meeting those demands unlocks additional buildings and production layers. Expansion therefore feels purposeful rather than cosmetic.

The biggest difference is the era. Anno 1800 replaces Roman provinces with industrial cities and overseas regions. Its mature collection of systems can also feel denser, making it ideal for players who want a larger logistics sandbox rather than a simpler introduction.

Choose it if: you want the closest possible match to Anno’s economic and city-building rhythm.

2. Pharaoh: A New Era

Best ancient-world alternative

Pharaoh: A New Era shifts the focus from Rome to ancient Egypt, but its historical city-management structure makes it one of the most relevant alternatives. You build neighborhoods, organize food and goods, provide public services, manage religion, and undertake monumental construction.

Its cities function through interlocking systems. Housing improves when residents receive the right goods and services, while poorly planned roads can make distribution unreliable. The Nile and its agricultural cycle also shape the economy, giving the setting a mechanical role rather than using it as decoration.

Unlike Anno 117’s broad sandbox appeal, Pharaoh is strongly associated with structured campaign scenarios. That makes it especially suitable for players who enjoy solving distinct planning problems and steadily mastering a historical builder.

Choose it if: Roman-era atmosphere matters nearly as much as production and population management.

3. Manor Lords

Best for organic medieval settlements and tactical battles

Manor Lords combines detailed settlement construction with regional economics and real-time tactical warfare. Roads and buildings can follow the landscape, helping towns look less like rigid grids and more like communities that developed naturally.

Its strongest connection to Anno 117 is the relationship between land, labor, resources, and expansion. Families must be assigned carefully, seasonal needs affect planning, and local production supports the growth of your domain. Territorial competition and battles add pressure beyond ordinary city management.

Manor Lords is a more survival-oriented and military experience, and it remains an Early Access title. Players should expect its systems to continue evolving. Even so, it is a strong alternative for anyone who wants the fantasy of governing historical land while personally shaping both its economy and defenses.

Choose it if: you want city building and economic planning with more direct battlefield control.

4. Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic

Best for extremely deep economic simulation

For players who treat every Anno production line as a puzzle to optimize, Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic offers one of the deepest alternatives. Its simulated economy covers construction materials, factories, utilities, transport, education, employment, and the daily movement of citizens.

The satisfaction comes from reducing dependence on external imports. A functioning republic needs more than productive factories: raw materials must arrive, workers need transport, power and water networks must remain stable, and finished goods need somewhere to go. One weak link can expose problems across the entire system.

The setting and presentation are very different from Anno 117, and the learning curve is considerably steeper. However, few city builders offer a stronger sense that the economy is a connected machine built by the player.

Choose it if: logistics and production efficiency are your favorite parts of Anno.

5. Kingdoms and Castles

Best approachable alternative

Kingdoms and Castles begins with a small settlement and gradually introduces farming, housing, resource management, trade, defenses, and relationships with neighboring kingdoms. Its readable visual style and clear systems make growth easy to understand without removing the need to plan.

The economy is lighter than Anno 117’s, but the central loop remains familiar: support a growing population, expand infrastructure, manage resources, and protect what you have built. Vikings, dragons, and competing kingdoms ensure that defensive layouts matter, while full controller support makes it a flexible choice for different PC setups.

It works particularly well as a relaxed entry point for players who like historical settlement building but do not want to begin with a dense web of production chains.

Choose it if: you want a welcoming city builder with enough trade and defense to stay engaging.

6. Banished

Best survival settlement manager

Banished strips the city-building formula down to a vulnerable group of exiles and the resources required to keep them alive. Food, fuel, housing, tools, clothing, and labor all matter, and population growth must be managed rather than assumed.

Where Anno 117 presents expansion as an opportunity, Banished often makes it a risk. Construct too quickly and workers may be diverted from essential production. Grow too slowly and the settlement can face an aging workforce. Winter turns weak stockpiles into immediate problems.

There is no military campaign or diplomatic layer. The challenge comes from demographic and economic balance, making Banished an excellent choice for players who want population management to carry more weight.

Choose it if: you prefer small-scale survival pressure to imperial conquest.

7. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

Best turn-based empire-building alternative

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI expands the scale from governing provinces to guiding an entire civilization across history. Cities claim territory tile by tile, districts specialize their output, and diplomacy, science, culture, religion, and warfare offer different paths to victory.

It does not reproduce Anno’s real-time supply chains. Instead, it captures the wider appeal of planning an empire, choosing where to settle, developing infrastructure, and responding to rival powers. Its turn-based structure gives you time to evaluate each decision without the constant motion of an Anno economy.

Civilization VI also supports single-player and online multiplayer, making it a better fit for strategic competition than many traditional city builders.

Choose it if: you want long-term historical strategy and diplomacy more than detailed logistics.

8. HUMANKIND

Best for building a changing cultural identity

HUMANKIND is another turn-based 4X alternative, but its defining idea is cultural evolution. Instead of choosing one civilization for an entire campaign, you combine cultures as you advance through historical eras.

City placement, territorial influence, diplomacy, warfare, and population management all contribute to an empire’s development. This broad strategic scale echoes the governing side of Anno 117, especially for players interested in how economic and cultural decisions shape a civilization over time.

The trade-off is less attention to individual production buildings and delivery routes. HUMANKIND is about the direction of a civilization rather than the moment-to-moment operation of a city.

Choose it if: you want historical empire strategy with flexible cultural progression.

9. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Best combat-focused historical RTS

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is ideal for players who want to move from Anno’s military layer into a full historical real-time strategy game. Villagers gather wood, food, gold, and stone, allowing you to construct a base, research technologies, advance through ages, and field specialized armies.

Economic management remains important because every military decision depends on production. However, matches develop much faster than a typical city-building campaign, and efficient expansion matters because opponents can attack before the economy is secure.

With single-player campaigns, co-op content, competitive multiplayer, an editor, and mod support, it offers considerable variety. It is less suitable for peaceful builders, but excellent for players who want their resource economy tested by active rivals.

Choose it if: you want historical economic development with much more combat.

10. Stronghold: Definitive Edition

Best for castle economies and sieges

Stronghold: Definitive Edition connects a working medieval economy to castle construction and warfare. Farms and workshops feed the population and supply the fortress, while taxes, popularity, housing, and food influence how effectively the settlement operates.

That relationship between civilian production and military power gives it meaningful overlap with Anno 117. A successful castle is not merely a defensive structure. It is the center of an economy that must support workers and soldiers while surviving enemy pressure.

Its campaigns and scenarios are more focused than Anno’s open-ended empire management, and its medieval setting produces a different atmosphere. The modernized edition adds updated visuals and multiplayer while preserving the clear economic logic of the original castle sim.

Choose it if: you want supply management to culminate in castle defense and sieges.

11. Surviving Mars

Best science-fiction logistics alternative

Surviving Mars replaces fertile provinces with a hostile planet where oxygen, water, power, housing, and mental well-being are essential. Drones establish the early infrastructure before human colonists arrive, and specialized domes gradually become connected settlements.

Like Anno, it rewards careful sequencing. Expanding before life-support networks are reliable can create expensive failures, while research and automation can transform the colony’s capabilities. Different sponsors and mysteries add variety across campaigns.

The science-fiction setting changes the tone, but the core pleasure of turning an empty landscape into a functioning network remains intact.

Choose it if: you want production and population logistics in a harsher, futuristic environment.

12. Frostpunk

Best high-pressure city-building challenge

Frostpunk is a society survival game in which heat, food, shelter, labor, hope, and discontent must be balanced as temperatures fall. Laws let you reshape how the city functions, but solutions often carry social consequences.

Its circular settlement and scenario structure are far removed from Anno 117’s expansive provinces, yet both games ask the player to govern people rather than merely place buildings. Infrastructure choices change daily life, resource shortages force priorities, and political authority is expressed through systems.

Frostpunk is much more severe and narrative-driven than Anno. It is best approached as a focused survival challenge rather than a relaxing economic sandbox.

Choose it if: you want city management where every shortage and policy decision has visible consequences.

Which Anno 117 alternative should you play first?

Start with Anno 1800 if you want the closest match for production chains, population tiers, trade, and large-scale city growth. Choose Pharaoh: A New Era when the ancient setting is essential, or Manor Lords when you want organic settlements and tactical battles.

For specific play styles:

• Deepest logistics: Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic
• Most approachable: Kingdoms and Castles
• Hardest survival management: Frostpunk
• Best turn-based empire strategy: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
• Best historical RTS combat: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
• Best small-settlement survival: Banished
• Best science-fiction colony: Surviving Mars

How we chose these games

Every game here is a PC game we price that covers this topic, or one that shares at least four of Anno 117: Pax Romana’s most characteristic Steam user tags (read on 7 October 2026). We then ranked them by how closely their production chains, population management and historical setting resemble Anno’s.

Frequently asked questions

What is the closest game to Anno 117: Pax Romana?

Anno 1800 is the closest overall alternative. It was also developed by Ubisoft Mainz and centers on settlements, population needs, trade routes, production chains, diplomacy, and optional conflict. Its Industrial Revolution setting is the largest obvious difference.

Which game like Anno 117 has an ancient setting?

Pharaoh: A New Era is the strongest ancient-world choice in this list. It focuses on building Egyptian cities, distributing goods and services, managing religion, and constructing monuments.

Are there multiplayer games like Anno 117?

Yes. Anno 1800 supports multiplayer and co-op, while Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition offers competitive and cooperative play. Civilization VI and HUMANKIND also support multiplayer, but both use turn-based 4X systems rather than real-time city management.

Which alternative is easiest for a beginner?

Kingdoms and Castles is the most approachable starting point. Its economy, construction, and defense systems are easy to read, while still providing meaningful settlement growth and resource decisions.

Which game has the deepest production chains?

Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is the strongest choice for players seeking a highly detailed economy. Anno 1800 provides a closer Anno-style experience, while Workers & Resources places greater emphasis on infrastructure, transport, utilities, labor, and industrial self-sufficiency.

Is Anno 117 similar to Civilization VI?

They overlap in empire growth, diplomacy, historical development, and strategic expansion. The key distinction is structure: Anno 117 is a real-time city builder and economic management game, while Civilization VI is a turn-based 4X strategy game played on a larger historical scale.