Building and house graphics are improved over the previous game. Alongside the houses and farms featured in the previous game, this game also has many more extensive farms for gems, silk, whale blubber, lamp oil, medicinal herbs, hops, wine, indigo, coal, hides, leather, and salt, increasing gameplay difficulty. Thus, it makes it possible to have many more plantations and a diversity of farmhouses. This is mainly because the gameplay area and islands are many times bigger than in 1602.

The buildings in the game are also more extensive than those of Anno 1602. Thus, during battles, the game experience becomes more intense as deploying different units becomes a key strategy for winning a battle. The game has more than seven different types of units as opposed to Anno 1602 with only four. Military operations in this game are more complex than in Anno 1602. Building abilities are amplified with expansion, meaning larger populations have more effective building powers. Buildings in the game do not necessarily have a specific function for the player, but have an implied or effective function for settlers in the game. The second level allows the player's settlers to build more advanced buildings however, settlers also require more goods to stay alive. After giving citizens basic goods like food, cloth, and alcohol, they develop into settlers, the second civilization level. Technology in Anno 1503 begins on the pioneer level. Since the game is built on different levels of civilizations (pioneer, settler, citizen, merchant, aristocrat), each successive civilization level requires more goods and more balancing of skills and finesse.

It begins with the creation of cheap goods, and progresses in civilization levels throughout the game leading to more advanced goods. The economy in Anno 1503 is built on providing different goods to colonist citizens. Each different player, human or computer, is represented by a color. The AI also has adjustable personalities, which the player customizes before the beginning of a game. As in Anno 1602, the AI is progressive, meaning that it advances along with the human player.

The game is constructed around one human player and three computer AI players. Eventually, citizens become Aristocrats, and require at least ten different goods and numerous services, such as access to a large church or a bathhouse. Resources begin as food and cloth, but progress into more complicated and different goods. After finding a suitable site, city-building begins. Anno 1503 begins with the player in control of a ship filled with men and material searching for an island to settle.

Anno 1503 steam