Is anyone playing Anno online? It is the new free to play version of the game that is played in a browser. I have to say for a free to play game it is a lot of fun and seems to be very fair, I have not really felt like I NEEDED to buy any in game currency...that is my view of good...if you don't have to pay to make it enjoyable. I think I have been playing for two weeks, and I just have a ton of fun with it.

Sure, I have had a few moments of frustration when I think I have left my town chugging along only to find that some change I made unbalanced the economy slightly and now I have 380 wool garments but not enough wool to make rope or sails. Yet on the hole the game never penalizes you for such gaffs except in time. If you do goof, you have to wait until the fixes you have made equal things out over several hours. Again it is a free to play game so time is really the commodity...do you buy improvements for a quick fix or do you wait for you plans to bear fruit over time offline.

For anyone interested I'll give you some advice.

- The game starts you off with some gems (in game cash), ONLY use gems when the game tells you to use gems. Don't use them for buying supplies or construction unless it is a "mission" in the game. You get a lot of gems early, but the game expect you to cash them in...so they give you only as much as what they know you will spend in early phases. After the training phase you don't get many more except after weeks of work and building up your town. (I wasted gems early, ist not a huge deal but now I have no safety net.)

- When you build something you can move it, never knock down important buildings that you can merely move. You can move any buildings into any space they will fit with no penalty (unless you move them out of range of services.) Expect to restructure your town as it grows often! Dirt roads are no cost, so re-linking building to a new infrastructure is easy. Remember, if you put a building in the wrong spot or need to move it later you can do so all you want!

- Pay attention to how much money each housing structure generates. If you find yourself low on cash it might be you are not building outward fast enough. People are cash! Set up a nice town then keep building housing when you have the necessary supplies.

- Organization! I find putting all my agriculture in one spot helps. Throughout the game some supplies are needed in bulk so being able to throttle production is EASIER if you know where each production & refining building is on the map. There is only so much storage too, so making too much of any item can make making items you need impossible. Think of it this way, if you have too much wood you can't store enough cider because wood is taking up all your storage...so you need to THROTTLE your production.