Anno 1800 Beginner’s Guide – Houses, Expansion, Resources, Trading

In this Anno 1800 Beginner’s Guide, we will guide you on some basic mechanics and strategies to start playing Anno 1800. Anno 1800 is a real-time city builder and strategy game at the same time and you will need to evolve your civilization and expand your cities to become the biggest power in the game.

You start the game with a handful of resources and supplies and you must gather more resources and expand your cities to build a huge empire. You will need to micromanage your resources, wealth and income so that you can keep your civilians happy as well as keep a steady flow of money and resources incoming.

Beginner’s Guide – Anno 1800

Our Anno 1800 Beginner’s Guide details everything that you need to know about playing Anno 1800 for the first time.

Build More Houses

Start your game by building more houses so that more people can arrive in your city. You can plan the whole city in advance by using the new blueprint mode and then simply pay for the buildings later when you have enough resources. This will ensure that you have everything planned out right from the start and you can easily assign resources to build later.

Focus on building more houses at the start and then keep an eye out on your population. After the initially planned houses, you will need to build more and more houses as more people move into your city. Build houses in small batches and do not concentrate too many houses in the same area.

Focus on Resource Gathering Early in the Game

When the game starts, you do so with a very limited amount of resources. Your initial goal should be to more resource generation rather than expansion. Focus on building as many resource production buildings as possible. Make sure that build only those structures on the island which are productive.

Make sure you explore the complete island first before building the required resource buildings. Islands do not have all the resources. For some resources, you will need to expand to other islands and bring them back to your main island using ships. Once you are well set up and have a steady flow of resources, you can think of expanding to other islands. Make sure that the productivity of each building is also set to maximum.

Expand to Other Islands

Your initial island will give you plenty of space to expand and prosper. However, you will never have enough resources and space to keep expanding on the same island. Very soon you will need resources and more space to build more cities and other production structures. To do so, you will need to expand to other islands which sometimes may require some land grabbing.

Before you expand, you will need a ship with two cargo holds. Your flagship is perfect for this job. Other than that, you will need 2,500 gold, 10 timber, and 8 steel beams. Once you have enough to spare, transfer these goods to your ship and set sail to the desired island where you want to expand and build your new city.

Before you set up camp, it is wise that you explore the island so that you can be sure that has all the required resources and the terrain is not too rough to prevent easy expansion in later stages. If the island is okay, build a trading post and you are all set to build your new cities on the island.

Make sure to set up some goods trading so that your ships can automatically deliver the required resources and goods back to your main island. Do not forget about your main island. It will still require care and management. Not to mention that most of your population is still living there. If you need to expand to a third island after this, simply follow the same process and you should be good to go.

Take Your Time with The Game

Anno 1800 is a city-builder and it will demand some time. Do not rush the game. When it comes to expansion, you must always think of the benefits and your resource inflow before investing in more islands or even expanding on the same island. Everything in Anno 1800 requires resources and just like the real world, resources are limited.

Some resources are not even present on your first island. You must take your time and expand slowly. Let your workers collect a decent amount of resources before you expand and build more structures and buildings. Your money plays a very important role in everything and if you go bankrupt, you will not be even to run your city.

Listen to your Community

From time to time, your community will have certain needs such as entertainment and others. It is vital that you keep your community happy otherwise you will not able to run your empire peacefully. Keep your eyes open for any sort of community needs and build places like parks, museums, and zoos to keep them happy.

This will not only make your city look pretty but will also provide some entertainment value to it and your community will stay happy. On the bright side, you will end up racking some profits from such places as well which will keep your bank account happy as well. Keeping your community happy is vital in Anno 1800.

Trade with AI

This comes at a much later stage however it is still important to mention this vital mechanic here. One of the best sources of generating income for your empire is by trading. You must keep healthy stocks of resources available for your own cities but do not hoard resources. If you have surplus goods, you must trade with AI to generate income off the items.

For trading, you will need ships and trade routes. Once you have set up a trade route, your ships will automatically collect the resources and deliver to your desired locations. You can add different resources and different islands on the same route. Trading will ensure that your extra resources are not going to waste and will keep your treasure well stocked as well.

This concludes our Anno 1800 Beginner’s Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.