Anno 117: Pax Romana’s Egypt expansion, Dawn of the Delta, turns the pyramids into a province-wide construction project that every governor on the map contributes to, and whoever delivers their share first gets a stronger bonus than their rivals. That detail comes from the third and final Aegyptus devblog, published today on the Anno Union. Dawn of the Delta releases November 5 at 10 AM UTC on all platforms.
The pyramids are a province project, rebuilt in phases from a dock near Naukratis
In Anno 117’s version of Egypt the pyramids are ancient ruins, and restoring them is how Rome shows the province who is in charge. They do not sit on any player’s island. They are a “province project” tied to the region itself, next to the port of Naukratis, so finishing a phase buffs every island you own in the province: lower imperial land tax and more prestige. Each phase needs hundreds of tons of tiles, granite and marble delivered to a pyramid dock, plus tunics and food for the workers and dromedaries to speed up transport. Place the pyramidion on top at the end and a province-wide bonus kicks in.
With rival governors enabled, the restoration becomes a race. All governors contribute resources, and the one who provides their share first receives a stronger buff than everyone else.
Decimus, the “tyrant of Aegyptus”, is the new rival and the campaign siblings’ father
The expansion adds three characters. The one players spotted first on the rival-selection screen is Decimus Naukratius Nerva, a new rival governor Ubisoft calls the “tyrant of Aegyptus” and the father of Marcus and Marcia from the base campaign. He favours the Roman way of life and judges anyone who follows the Aegyptian path, and the devblog says his “military power and ambition are unmatched,” pitching him as the rival to add if you want a hard game. On r/anno the reaction ran from “found my new profile character” to working out where he sits in the Naukratius family tree.
The other two are a trader and a raider. Epistrategos Heron is the Emperor’s representative in Naukratis, enjoying the good life with no military to enforce anything, so he works as a middleman and trader. The Kandis of Kashta is the local raider, based far to the south in the Valley of the Pharaohs. She attacks ships and settlements unless you pay her ransom, and beating her means destroying her harbour and then sending troops up into the winding valleys. Valeria from the base game also turns up with a small river harbour.
Three deities: Sobek for food, Isis-Bastet for festivals, Thoth for glass and wine
Sobek is available from the start. Worshipping him boosts food production, from cheese sausages and stuffed geese to sanga cattle, improves irrigation water supply and adds population, and his global bonus unlocks dovecotes that attach to plantations. Isis-Bastet and Thoth-Trismegistos have to be discovered in the research tree first. Isis-Bastet boosts lavender, perfume and dates, cuts residents’ goods consumption, extends every festival and unlocks large cat shrines that raise population, income and prestige. Thoth boosts refined goods such as glass, wine, writing tablets and scribing sets, ties an island’s income and prestige to your knowledge, and lets librarians boost every building in a library’s range. Temples adopt an Aegyptian look when you follow one of them, including a cat or crocodile sanctuary.
The main story is a murder mystery on the Nile
Ubisoft is keeping the plot under wraps, but it gave the premise. The body of Nymphaeus, a well-loved local celebrity who argued for Kumatic and Hellenistic cohabitation in Naukratis, is fished out of the Nile, and the campaign asks who killed him and who wants it covered up. The story is optional, so you can skip it and build.
Dawn of the Delta arrives alongside the free Update 3.0, which adds a stamp feature for saving and reusing building layouts and new options in the statistics screen. It is the third major expansion for Anno 117: Pax Romana.
