Decisions, decisions...

What do you think, should I grab something from the Settlers series or the Anno series (or both) now that they are on sale? I'm not a big fan of the genre and have never played any of the games before, but I was thinking I should give one or two of them a try now that the discount is quite good.

So which game from which series do you suggest?

Anno if you're into ships, islands and trading routes instead of fighting/war.
Settlers if you're into outposts, cute ant like workers, annexing land and expanding colonies.

Those are completely different kinds of games but both are great.

My favourite of all those until now is Settlers 2.

SETTLERS!

Don't listen to Klumpen, all he knows is killer bunnies.

id say go for Anno series, it has more in-depth trade economy management, looks better that settlers too..
well thats my preference. Settlers more of a warfare based game.

Great game both of em tho.

My favorite is Anno, but which one to pick is a bit tricky. Anno 1602 is great, but the graphics might be a little bit dated for some. If that doesn't bother you, and you think you'll be able to spare the time to check out the sequels then jump right into 1602! As a bonus, once you are familiar and somewhat skilled with the mechanics you can move onto 1503 which is very special, though perhaps too difficult to start with if for an anno-novice.
If however you think that you'll only wind up playing one anno game, then 1701 is the way to go, since gog doesn't have 1404 :(

Ok, so I might go for one of each then if they are rather different from each other. Which game do you suggest from each series?

Settlers 2 or the remake (although I prefer the original).
There's a reason why they chose to remake the second game of the series, it's awesome.
I haven't got RISE OF AN EMPIRE yet though, it's still on my wishlist.

Id say go for Settlers 3 and Anno 1701

I do not want to hijack this thread but I would like to ask - which Anno game to buy? Or all?

Probably 1503 or 1701 if you don't mind the 3D graphics.

So are the Anno games different enough from each other that you could just get them all? I kind of have the feeling that this is not true for the Settlers, it seems like just more of the same, but i could be wrong since I haven't played any of them.

Two of my favorite series, awesome games.

If going for Settlers then I would I with 2 or 4
If going with Anno and have never played before I would go with 1701

Anno 1602 and 1701 are almost the same game, the differences are minor and 1701 is the better if the two. 1503 is similar in playstyle, but different enough from 1701 that it's a new experience.

Combat is minimal and simple. I can usually play a whole game with no combat except destroying some pirate ships. You can invade a rivals lands and take over buildings and eventually he whole island, but I am not a fan of that.

There is some, but it's not the focus at all. The majority of combat is ship based, against pirates and other players in the world. Most of your time will be spent providing for and maintaining the needs of you main colony's inhabitants in the most efficient way possible.

I mostly played custom games, and then I only cared about steadily building up a big and prosperous colony. Typically some sea combat would be involved here and there, but land based combat (which is the weakest part of the games) would be almost completely absent. You only have to make sure that you have at least somewhat of an intimidating force present on an island to dissuade the AI from landing troops.
The campaign can be pretty fun as well, and contains more combat, but even there the focus is mostly on creating and sustaining colonies.