It's pretty sandboxy really, more like a city builder in that sense. Supply chains are there, but not that deep, and frankly neither is automation even though they added sensors/logic circuit type stuff just a couple of days ago. But you need to alter/engineer the 3d block terrain so that the water goes where it's supposed to, which is interesting and unique and the physics are good.

At first you need to make sure the beavers don't starve or die of thirst, by building dams and storing food/water. This is not especially hard on the normal difficulty. Later it's more about building cool or pretty engineering projects for the heck of it, feels a bit like building stuff on minecraft.

I haven't played anno, and I haven't gotten far enough in timberborn to unlock the automation stuff. So far the most important number seems to be average beaver quality of life.