Anno 117: Pax Romana's Dawn of the Delta Trailer Reveals a New Nile Delta Province
Ubisoft's launch trailer for Dawn of the Delta sends governors into a new Nile river province, with fresh deities, ships and a murder-mystery campaign.
Ubisoft has launched Dawn of the Delta, the third and largest Year 1 expansion for Anno 117: Pax Romana, and marked the occasion with an official launch trailer that trades the series' usual open-ocean islands for the narrow, winding channels of a river delta. The video introduces Aegyptus, a new province built around the Nile, and gives the clearest look yet at the deities, ships and murder-mystery campaign governors will find there.
A Province Built Around the Nile, Not the Sea
Where Latium and Albion asked players to spread settlements across open water, Aegyptus is shaped by a single river system. Each buildable area splits into three zones: Drylands, which need irrigation from basins or norias before farms can take root; Farmlands, a tree-lined strip along the riverbank suited to crops like dates; and Floodplains, a brand-new terrain type that sits closest to the Nile itself. Floodplains carry exclusive resources (geese, beads and reeds) and yield bigger harvests than anywhere else in the province, but they can't be drained the way Albion's marshes can, and every building there has to be linked by mud roads instead of standard paving.
The whole province also answers to the Nile's two seasons. During Shemu, the harvest season, Floodplain production buildings produce an extra ton of goods. During Akhet, the river floods, Floodplain output drops to a quarter of normal and every city takes a health penalty, though better access to water raises fire safety in return.
Choosing Between Two Ways of Life
As in Albion before it, Dawn of the Delta asks players to decide how hard to lean into Rome's authority versus the province's own traditions. After the entry-level Threshers, the population splits into two branches: staying loyal to the Aegyptian way produces Potters and then Chanters, while the Graeco-Roman path leads to Scribes and then Gymnasiarchs. The choice ripples outward into which deities a city can worship, which goods its production chains unlock, what ships and troops it can field, and how its skyline ultimately looks.
New Deities, Ships and Technology
Three Aegyptian deities join the game with Dawn of the Delta: Sobek, Isis-Bastet and Thoth Trismegistus, each boosting a different slice of the new economy and unlocking its own exaltation building, from a population-boosting Sphinx Shrine to a Books of Thoth hall that cuts the cost of re-rolling Specialists. Two river-specialized ship types give fleets a reason to venture inland rather than out to open sea, and the province adds Kumatic Archers and Dromedarii to the roster of recruitable troops. On the technology side, the Aegyptian Way unlocks basins and canals that pull water inland from the river, while the Graeco-Roman Way builds large norias that feed aqueducts and cisterns, turning dry land fertile wherever they're built.
A Murder Mystery Along the River
Dawn of the Delta's campaign opens with the death of Nymphaeus, a local celebrity who had spent his career arguing for cooperation between Aegyptus's Kumatic and Hellenistic communities. When his body is pulled from the Nile, the player is tasked with preparing it for burial while Epistrategos Heron, the region's Rome-appointed overseer, tries to contain the unrest that follows. Evidence of foul play turns the mummification into the start of an investigation that runs alongside two new antagonists: Decimus, a tyrant who treats his own people as forced labor, and the Kandis of Kashta, a raider who can't be beaten by warships and instead has to be paid off or starved of targets. Longer term, the expansion adds a four-stage Sector Project built around restoring Aegyptus's already-ancient pyramids, turning the province's governors into rivals for who can contribute the most to Roman grandeur.
Where and How to Play It
Dawn of the Delta is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam and the Epic Games Store, and it's included for anyone subscribed to Ubisoft+. Ubisoft is also running a sale of up to 40% off the base game, the Year 1 Pass and the first two DLCs, Prophecies of Ash and The Hippodrome, through December 1 on the Ubisoft Store, November 18 on Steam, November 20 on PlayStation and November 19 on Xbox. Anyone who hasn't tried the base game can do so during a free weekend running on PlayStation, Xbox and Ubisoft Connect, with any progress made carrying over if they decide to buy afterward.
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Ubisoft Store, Steam, Epic Games Store)
- New province: Aegyptus, built around Nile floodplains, farmlands and drylands
- New deities: Sobek, Isis-Bastet, Thoth Trismegistus
- New campaign: a murder-mystery storyline introducing Epistrategos Heron, Decimus and the Kandis of Kashta
Official links
Mira leads previews at Gamers6. She has spent fifteen years playing co-op shooters badly and writing about them well, and she still keeps a spreadsheet of every weapon reload animation worth the frame count.
