German game maker Sunflowers has announced the third game in their Anno trading/building sim. Titled Anno 1701, it promises to bring a prettier version of the near identical gameplay we saw in Anno 1602 and Anno 1503.

Like Cossacks, this is another European game thing that I just don’t get. The economies in the Anno games are incredibly hard to balance and shortages happen very quickly. Even more than the Impressions city builders, the Anno games are complicated math problems that require nearly perfect planning for a city to be viable and self-sufficient in the long run. Like Settlers, there is a long chain of production from one good to the next and satisfaction of the upper classes means meeting all their needs. I always found it easier to just take someone else’s city than to make my own viable.

Target release date is late 2006.