Anno 117: Pax Romana just got a whole lot bigger. Ubisoft has released Dawn of the Delta, the third and largest expansion of the city-builder’s Year 1 lineup, and it is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The update opens up a brand-new province to govern, adds fresh production chains and goods to master, and gives players a new corner of the Roman world to bend to their will.
For a game built around the idea that peace always comes at a price, Dawn of the Delta is a fitting next chapter. The expansion does not just add a new map to conquer. It adds a new economy to understand, new gods to appease and new characters to win over, all while the familiar pressures of running a Roman province keep mounting. If you have been waiting for a reason to return to Anno 117: Pax Romana, this is the biggest one yet — and Ubisoft is making it easy to jump back in, with a free weekend for the base game running right now.
As reported by Ubisoft via Games Press, Dawn of the Delta is the third and largest expansion in the game’s Year 1 offering, and it is out now.
What Dawn of the Delta Adds to Anno 117: Pax Romana
The headline addition is Aegyptus, a new province set in the Nile Delta. It is a region defined by the river that made it: fertile, wealthy and endlessly demanding. Building there means learning a new rhythm of production, one shaped by the delta’s crops, its trade routes and its own local needs. New production chains arrive with the province, along with new goods to produce, ship and sell across your empire.
That matters because Anno 117: Pax Romana has always been a game about chains — chains of supply, chains of demand and chains of consequence. Every new good is not just an item on a ledger. It is a reason to build a new workshop, open a new route, hire new workers and rethink a settlement that was already working perfectly well. Aegyptus gives veteran governors a fresh puzzle to solve, and it gives newer players a dramatic new destination to aim for once their first provinces are humming along.
The expansion also introduces new deities and new characters. In a game where the gods and the people you deal with can shape the fate of a province, that is no small thing. Deities in Anno 117 are more than decoration: they reflect the beliefs of the people you govern and the bargains you are willing to strike. New characters, meanwhile, mean new relationships to manage, new demands to meet and new opportunities for the kind of clever diplomacy — or ruthless opportunism — that the series has always rewarded.
Ubisoft is positioning Dawn of the Delta as the biggest of the game’s Year 1 expansions, and the scope backs that up. A whole province, a new economy and a new cast is a substantial addition to a game that already asks players to juggle the needs of multiple regions at once. It is the kind of update that changes how a campaign plays out from the first hour, not just how it ends.
The Cost of Peace in Anno 117: Pax Romana
At its heart, Anno 117: Pax Romana is a game about governing. You play as a Governor of Rome, sent to shape provinces at the edge of the empire, and every decision carries a cost. Do you build for prosperity, for security or for the glory of Rome? Do you trade fairly with your neighbours, or do you squeeze them until they break? The game calls it the cost of peace, and it is a neat summary of what makes the series so absorbing: nothing you do is free, and every thriving city is built on a hundred small compromises.
Dawn of the Delta leans into that idea. Aegyptus is rich, but richness invites attention. Its goods are valuable, but producing them takes land, labour and infrastructure that could have gone elsewhere. Its people have their own gods and their own expectations, and a governor who ignores them will find that out the hard way. The expansion does not just give you more to build. It gives you more to weigh.
That is also what makes the Anno series such a durable city-builder. The pleasure is not in watching a city grow, although that is satisfying enough. It is in the moment when a plan finally clicks — when a production chain you designed three provinces ago starts feeding a new settlement perfectly, or when a trade route you set up on a whim turns into the backbone of your economy. A new province is a new chance to chase that feeling.
Free Weekend and Up to 40% Off Anno 117: Pax Romana
Ubisoft is also giving players who have not yet tried the game a very good excuse to start. The base game of Anno 117: Pax Romana is free to play this weekend on PlayStation, Xbox and Ubisoft Connect, through November 9. It is a proper free weekend, not a demo: a chance to build, trade and govern without paying a penny, and to see whether the Roman life suits you before you commit.
On top of that, the game is on sale for up to 40% off for a limited time. That combination — a free weekend plus a steep discount — is a clear play for new governors, and it is well timed. Anyone who tries the game this weekend and likes it can pick up the base game at a discount and then step straight into Aegyptus with Dawn of the Delta.
For returning players, the timing is just as good. A free weekend brings fresh blood to the community, and a major expansion gives veterans something genuinely new to chew on. If you put Anno 117 down after your first campaign, this is the update that justifies picking it back up.
Where to Play Anno 117: Pax Romana
Dawn of the Delta is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. On PC, the game is available via the Ubisoft Store, Steam and the Epic Games Store, and it is also included with a Ubisoft+ subscription. The expansion is the third and largest of the game’s Year 1 expansions, so players who have been following the post-launch roadmap will find it a substantial payoff.
More information about the game and its Year 1 offering can be found on the official Anno Union website. And if you are new to the series, it is worth knowing that Anno 117: Pax Romana is a city-builder first and a war game second. The battles matter, but the building matters more — and the delta is waiting for someone to build it properly.
City-builders live or die on their expansions, and Dawn of the Delta looks like the real thing: a new region, a new economy and new people to govern, wrapped in one of the most satisfying strategy games of recent years. Rome was not built in a day. Aegyptus, on the other hand, is ready right now.
Source: Ubisoft, via Games Press. For more city-building news, check out The Gods Are Watching — Theos: Cities of Myth Is OUT NOW and It’s the City-Builder Fans Deserved and Dawn of War IV’s Last Stand Is Back — And It Looks Absolutely Brutal.
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