Is this going to be at all accessible, given the concerns about it lacking documentation? I play a lot of strategy games, but I’m unfamiliar with the specifics of the hard-core resource manager, so I’m wondering if I should start off with something lighter before jumping into the deep end.

And not just out of some primitive “DRM bad, me not buy”-reflex, but due to experiences with the previous Anno-games.
A while back I bought one of those (I forgot which one, my GF wanted to play it) and it just wouldn’t work on my computer. Just crashed if I remember correctly.
A search in their forums showed that it it was either due to my DVD-Rom drivers, my AV-software or some other silly thing. That was the official statement. Update your DVD-driver or disable AV-software (and I think the post even contained the advice to have a look at the mouse-drivers or sth.)
Searching a little further revealed that my DVD-emulation software (perfectly legal) prevented it from running, and deactivating or even uninstalling it wouldn’t help. I would have needed to completely install Windows again.
Of course, my support-request remains unanswered up to this date.

So no, they’re not getting any of my money, I vote with my wallet. For better support and more intelligent DRM (if at all needed).

I also really recommend binding some keys to the rotate building commands (I use “e” and “r”). Actually, a lot of the key assignments seem weird (camera panning on “x” and “y” is not helpful on a keyboard!) or non-functional (the default function key assignments don’t seem to work for me).

Also, if you want to, you can always sink or capture (with boarding crews) your enemies’ ships and rob their cargo…

It was only after seeing a pre-generated village on level 5 that I realised markets & quays/warehouses do not need to be connected by roads.

Also, how many charcoal sites and iron ore sites for one smelter etc. These are the sorts of things it doesn’t tell you.

Only problem: the rotate building keys are unbound by default… who plays these games and doesn’t pedantically line up their nifty wee buildings? Bonus points for having multiple House models to select from though – it makes the peasant houses quite an interesting collection of hovels instead of a tedious collection of hovels.

I like a good manual so I can read it when my Mrs gets fed up with me being on the PC!

Universal Combat has a manual like that with an appendix that gives you info on everything in the game. I love that

Not having the experience of previous Anno games, a decent manual would have been very useful. Do you remember the manual you got with Caesar III, now that was a manual!

Enjoying the game. Nice and relaxing. Makes me laugh when it warns you you have been playing for 2 hours. This is the first game I’ve played for a long time that I find myself playing to the early hours, very addictive.