5 steps to build an epic empire in Anno 1800 Anno 1800 Guide and Tips

Last update: 13 September 2018

This chapter of Anno 1800 game guide explains how to properly develop your city in its early stages in five simple steps.

• Step #1 - farmer residences and a marketplace
• Step #2 - Many planks and warehouses
• Step #3 - fish, schnapps and clothes
• Step #4 - promoting social groups
• Step #5 - bricks and looping the gameplay

Step #1 - farmer residences and a marketplace

The first stage of the gameplay is easy. Build at least 20 farmer residences, connect them with a road, and raise a marketplace in the middle. Build more houses near the town center - dwellers will obtain necessary goods from booths. Your first priority should be building a lot of farmer residences to assure a quick development.

Step #2 - Many planks and warehouses

Now, you should build 2-3 Timber yards in a forest, slightly away from your city. Draw attention to the fact that there are percentages above your newly constructed timber yards - they determine the productivity of a given workshop. In order for a timber yard to function effectively, you need to make sure that there is enough forest land around it. The next step is to build two sawmills - use them to produce planks, which can be used as construction material. You should also build a warehouse not far from your sawmills to store your products.

Step #3 - fish, schnapps and clothes

Every social group has its own needs. Your farmers will require fish, clothes and schnapps to advance. Start by building a fishery along the seaside. Move away from the city and select farmland. Select the potato farm and build a large farm field. Now, build a distillery not far from the fields to produce alcohol. Make sure to build a sheep farm and framework knitters not far from your fields.

Step #4 - promoting social groups

Wait for the products to reach the marketplace - select one of the farmer residences and upgrade your peasants to workers. Upgrade them and you will unlock another social group and more buildings. Keep in mind that workers can be assigned to new buildings but they won't be able to work on e.g. farms. Thus, you should upgrade houses whenever you need a specific group of workers. Just keep in mind that by promoting a certain group of dwellers, you will lose workers from the previous group - this can lead to unemployment or unstable economy.

Step #5 - bricks and looping the gameplay

Once you have your workers, you can build a clay pit. You can only build it on clay sources - the map will show you at least two places where you can build your clay pits. Now, it's time to build a brick factory - construct an additional warehouse nearby. It's best to build your clay pits and brick factories as quickly as possible because you will be using a lot of bricks.

At this point, the gameplay comes full circle. You will still unlock new products and social groups but the overall gameplay won't change much. As you gather more dwellers, the consumption of resources will increase. At some point, you will need to construct e.g. more bakeries.