If you’ve just started playing Anno 1800, the initial learning curve can feel overwhelming. However, understanding some key mechanics early on will make your journey significantly smoother. This guide will break down the most crucial early-game strategies to help you build a thriving city and an efficient economy.
Discovering First-Person Mode
One of the lesser-known but incredibly immersive features in Anno 1800 is the first-person mode. Many players don’t realize this exists, but you can access it by holding Ctrl + Shift + R. This allows you to walk, run, and even jump through the world you’ve built. While it’s a fun way to explore, it’s also a practical tool for completing quests that require you to find items or characters within your streets.
The Most Important Rule: Keep Your Workers Happy
Happiness is the backbone of a successful city in Anno 1800. If your workers are dissatisfied, expect productivity issues, reduced tax income, and even riots. Worker happiness is influenced by several factors, but in the early game, the most important aspect is fulfilling their needs.
Each house has two categories of needs:
- Basic Needs – Meeting these will increase the number of people living in each house, boosting your workforce.
- Luxury Needs – These determine how much tax the house contributes to your economy. The happier your workers, the more taxes they’ll pay.
To efficiently manage this, click on individual houses to check what needs aren’t being met. Addressing these needs early ensures stability and economic growth.
How to Make More Money in Anno 1800
The key to a thriving economy in Anno 1800 is twofold:
- Build More Houses – More houses mean more tax-paying residents.
- Meet Your Current Residents’ Needs – If your existing population lacks certain goods or services, their happiness (and tax contribution) will decline.
To find out what’s causing dissatisfaction, use the population tab in the top left. Sort your worker houses by happiness, click on the most unhappy one, and check its needs. If they’re lacking a specific product or service, address the issue by either producing more of the required goods or ensuring they have access to necessary buildings like a pub or market.
Managing Your Workforce Efficiently
If you find yourself short on workers, you can temporarily pause production on certain buildings to free up labor. For instance, if you’re not currently at war and have a decent fleet, you can pause weapon production and redirect those workers to more essential industries, such as food production or textiles.
Additionally, relocating buildings is easy in Anno 1800—you can move any existing structure without losing resources. This is useful when optimizing your city layout for better efficiency.
Time-Saving Features for City Building
To streamline construction, Anno 1800 offers several quality-of-life features:
- Batch Upgrading – Instead of upgrading houses one by one, use the upgrade tool to select multiple buildings at once.
- Rotating Buildings – Before placing buildings, rotate them using the mouse wheel to fit them efficiently within your layout.
- Copy-Pasting Structures – Use the copy tool to duplicate a layout without manually placing each building.
- Blueprint Mode – This allows you to plan and visualize your city layout before committing resources to construction.
Optimizing Production and Trade
To maintain efficiency, you need to balance production and consumption. Open the Production Tab, where you’ll see two key indicators:
- Green Cog Bar – Represents how much of a resource you’re producing.
- Blue Market Bar – Shows how much of that resource is being consumed.
If the rightmost column shows a negative number, it means demand exceeds supply, and you’ll need to increase production to prevent shortages. Regularly monitoring this tab ensures a steady economy and avoids unexpected supply crises.
How to Expand and Claim New Islands
Expansion is crucial in Anno 1800. To claim a new island, send a ship carrying timber and steel to an unclaimed beach. Once near, a blueprint of a trading post will appear—click to build it, and the island is yours.
For inter-island trade, set up a trade route using the following steps:
- Select a ship and open the Trade Route menu.
- Click on the island you want to collect goods from.
- Select the resources you want to transport.
- Choose the destination island where the goods will be delivered.
Ships can also travel between the Old World and the New World. Simply select the ship, click on the transfer button, and send it to the other map. It will take a few in-game days to arrive.
A Basic Village Layout for Early Success
A well-planned village layout is key to a strong start. Here’s a simple yet effective setup to ensure your first batch of farmers are happy and productive:
- Centralized Market & Pub – Place these two buildings at the center since they provide essential services within a certain range.
- Dense Housing – Arrange farmer houses around the market and pub, ensuring they have access via roads.
- Production Buildings – Start with the basics:
- 1 Fishery (for food)
- 1 Sheep Farm & 1 Framework Knitter (for clothing)
- 1 Potato Farm & 1 Schnapps Distillery (for alcohol)
- 2 Lumberjack’s Huts & 2 Sawmills (for wood production)
This setup requires 185 workers, meaning 19 houses will be enough to sustain full efficiency. However, running costs may exceed tax revenue at this stage. To turn a profit, build at least 30 farmer houses. Since wood is a limiting resource early on, start with 10 houses and expand gradually as your lumber supply grows.
Final Thoughts: Understanding the Core Mechanics
By mastering these fundamentals—worker happiness, efficient production, expansion, and trade—you’ll have a solid foundation for progressing in Anno 1800. The game rewards careful planning and adaptability, so don’t be afraid to experiment with layouts and production chains.
If you have any questions or additional beginner-friendly tips, feel free to share them in the comments below. Happy city-building!
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