Dawn of Discovery is called Anno 1404 in Europe. It's the latest in a long line of Anno games. One of the hallmarks of the series is that you need to settle various islands to collect goods. No single island can grow everything you need. To sustain a thriving civilization, you have to colonize and trade.

Above is a spice farm, built at my settlement on a southern oriental island (Dawn of Discovery seems to have its cardinal directions confused, since the islands are divided into occidental islands to the north and oriental islands to the south). Oriental islands aren't as fertile as their northern neighbors. You'll often have to irrigate the land. The water wheel visible in the background is part of something called a "noria", an ancient water pump used to irrigate fields and supply aqueducts. When the spices are collected, they're shipped to my island in the north. The middle class gets grumpy if their food is bland.

However, what I really want to show you is visible only in the wider shot. In the thumbnail below, you'll see a tower to the right of my spice farms, nestled in the mountains. Click on it for a larger view:

That's an alchemists tower. I have no idea what it does. Every now and then, I can give the alchemist certain goods, at which point he retreats into his tower and conducts experiments. I have no idea what the experiments are supposed to do, but the game promises me some sort of surprise if the experiments are a success.

Tomorrow: give war a chance