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Salve amici! My area of expertise is in late republic and Augustan Rome, but I wanted to do a little digging on 117 and see what was shaking then.
I had always hoped they saved Rome for Anno 9, but much to my delight, I discovered that 117 is actually the perfect year for a Roman Anno game.
Trajan died, and Hadrian ascended to the imperial throne. He's a well known emperor, considered one of the better ones. He was a micromanager, very hands on, and visited every Roman province. I think it's safe to say he would have loved Anno. I doubt we will play as or meet Hadrian since Anno fictionalizes its historic characters, but we will no doubt feel his presence in the narrative.
The Roman Empire reached its geographic peak in 117. This cannot be a coincidence. The devs must have been checking up on all =9 years when this fact smacked them in the face. The potential list of DLC provinces is absolutely insane. It blows my mind how much they could fit in this game if they want to. Ubisoft, for once, I'll allow all the microtransactions and DLC that you want to shove in there. Egypt, Spain, Mesopotamia, Germany, the Caucuses... it's all there ripe for the DLCing.
Hadrian's Wall. This is clearly a big influence on why we are starting with Britannia as the first province as it fits the timeline perfectly. This wall was the northern border of the empire, begun in 122. I'll bet a ship full of coffee and rubber that the wall will be a major construction project in the game.
Construction was happening in Rome as well. The Pantheon was started, still standing today as one of the finest ancient buildings in the world. It was a transformative era for the city under Hadrian, and I'm sure we will be building this monument as well.
A widespread Jewish revolt in places like Egypt, Libya, and Cyprus was crushed by Trajan that year, so this could give us some hints about the military side of the game and the narrative: putting down revolts. I don't know what else was going on militarily around this time in terms of locations and technology. I'm sure the Anno fanbase has plenty of Roman military buffs, so please share some info and ideas.
It's such a rich year for an empire building game to be set in. We're in for a real treat.
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