Example for your first town

[Flo]

This is more or less a short summary of the original thread made by deejoo in the german forum:
http://forum.sunflowers.de/showthread.php?t=12232


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After building your warehouse (my proposal: sail to the west or north-west), you should build 3 lumberjacks, to have enough wood. And then you should build 2 or 3 marketplaces to get more space for your village.
After this, you may start buying tools. Let's say up to 40 or 50 tons in your warehouse. (additionally you also could save some of the tools in your ship)
Now check, if the lumberjack's production is 100%. If not, use the watering can symbol.
Now you can go on building 2 fisherman huts (or 1 fisherman and 1 hunter), they sould produce enough food for the first pioneers.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6576/bild1tu1.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild1tu1.jpg)


Now you can build the town center. Try to build it in almost the middle of your Island, to have more space around it for houses.
After this, you should build 40-45 pioneer houses around the town center. But one of it's side should be free for public buildings, like a church or theatre.
Now build 2 sheep farms and 1 weaver's hut.
When you get the first clothes, you should ckeck you taxes. If the pioneers are happy, raise the taxes to the light green/orange border. But keep it light green.
As in the picture, you should now have a positiv bilance.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/986/bild2gn8.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild2gn8.jpg)


You should now lock the building materials. Because if you do so, you decide, if the pioneers become settlers or not. And you have the control about your tools, which is especially at the beginning very a big advantage.
After doing this, build 2 little churches (if they are not enough for all houses build 3 of them).
Now reduce the taxes into the darkgreen area (but not to much, just that they are dark green). After a short time, there should appear green arrows on your houses.
Upgrade 10 houses to settlers and set the taxes (of the pioneers) back to the border between lightgreen/orange. Look also for the taxes of your settlers and do the same (you don't want to waste money).
Now you have to build again 2 sheep farms and 1 weaver's hut to have enough clothes for all of your people.
Maybe you have to build a further town center.

Now build 1 clay pit and 1 or 2 brick factories.
When you get the first brick, build 2 cattle farms and one butcher. And look, if the production of the farms is 100%.

Now you have a bit time to explore the map and do some of the trade assignemts. (you should do these: money for doing almost nothing)
You should also look into your warehouse and have a look at your goods. (especially food and clothes)
The little arrows give you a tendency of the goods.
But be careful with the arrows. You should understand them right.
e.g.: Don't sorrow for the tendency of your tools. You still buy them, so the tendency is not really correct. Also when you transport goods with your ship, the tendency is not really corrext.

example for the arrows
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/756/bild4to5.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild4to5.jpg)


As soon as food and clothes are increasing in your warehouse, lower the taxes and upgrade 14 houses to settlers (alltogether you should have now 24 houses with settlers). After doing this, set the taxes (of the pioneers) back to the light green/orange border.
Now build 1 or 2 schools and look for your taxes. Now start the research in the school.
If you need a fire department, depends on the options of your game.

Now you can build the tool production chain.
But before doing this, you should build 2 hops farms and 1 brewery. This helps to let the settlers pay higher taxes. And of course, look if the farms produce 100%.

Now it's possible to upgrade your marketplaces. But for the beginning just upgrade those, which have to fetch more than one or two goods.

Have again a look into your warehouse. As you can see, food and clothes are still increasing. So upgrade all the other houses to settlers.


When you get the first alcohol, look for your taxes and raise them.
Now you should build the tool production chain and stop buying tools in your warehouse.

Look again after the tendency in your warehouse. As you can see, you need more alcohol, so build again 2 hops farms and one brewery.
And also some more houses and let them upgrade to settlers, to get more money.
Also sell all the goods you have to much. Except the tools :wink:

To get citizens, you have to look for an island with tobacco. Build 4 plantations and 2 tobacco manufactorys. Now create a trading route and let your ship set sail.
When you get the first tons, raise the taxes.
But before upgrading the houses, you have to build 2 cattle farms and 1 butcher.

And now, you get the first citizens. Upgrade 13 houses. And after this, set the taxes for the settlers back to the light green/orange border.
Now it's possible to build real streets, which let your pushcart drive much faster.
If you want, you could now build one big church, instead of the two little ones. This safes some space and a bit money in your bilance.

example for the big church
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4976/bild9ti8.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild9ti8.jpg)


Now build 22 new houses and let all of them become settlers.
After building these houses, you should stop selling the goods in your warehouse, because you don't know, how many goods your now very big town needs.



Now you should have a town with more than 1000 inhabitants and a balance of about +350 gold pieces.


The next step would be: build a whaler and a whale oil manufactory. Then raise your taxes again. And of course, you should build a small shipyard.



And a useful tip: do lots of the trade assignments. This is good money for almost nothing doing. And you get some goods for free.

==========
Note: This is just an example for a first town. Everyone has his own strategy.



Anno is not a game, which you can play within a few hours.
You have to find out how things work and have to try a lot :go: But if you do this, it's a great game.
The best game ever (together with 1602 and 1503 :biggrin:)




edit: Thank you very much Dobber for the corrections :cheers:

Edith added pictures :wink:

edit: final version

[-ed]

Good work Flo :go:

Very usefull for a starter and as you wrote this is a sample, there are many ways to go Rome.



-Ed

[Opiliones]

Looks nice!

Might want to add the fact that Deejoo suggest replacing the 3 chapels by a big church as soon as it comes available like this: http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild9ti8.jpg
Other than that this looks like a solid strategy to get to Citizen level, I'm wondering however where he'll place the Theatre and Senate as to get to the Aristocrat level.

[Flo]

Thanks,
but i will edit it, so that it will become a "real" text, because i think those "now" and "after" is terrible :nono: :biggrin:
And i have to add, that i used just one of deejoo's pictures. Maybe i add his others too, when i edit the post. I'll see.

@Opiliones
I know that deejoo built a big church, but i think this is not that important. I also build big churches, but i let the small ones exist. But that's just my kind of building. deejoo also built up to 4 lumberjacks and i think that max. 3 are really enough. As -ed said, there are many ways to go rome:smile: (this exists also in english? :lol: )
So thanks for that point :go: maybe someone will do it this way :go: (i'm a person, who delete almost nothing, that was built :biggrin: )

And of course everbody can add some of his strategies, if i should have forgot something:go:


And thinks like the theatre and the senat could for example be placed next to the houses or where ever. If you are on that point, you should be able to plan thinks like this and if not, then the other option will start:
delete some of the houses and rebuild them on the outside of the town. That's what a lot of people are doing :smile:


edit: and thanks for the sticky :go: (i guess Dobber?)

[Dobber]

edit: and thanks for the sticky :go: (i guess Dobber?)

Nope, was not me this time, I was out of town overnight and was unable to access the forum. When I got home the server was down or something wrong, I couldn't get to the forum until later this evening, someone else beat me to it!

[Opiliones]

I find the arrows are a lot less reliable the further you get into the game.

If you play a large map, your trading routes tend to get longer and longer (imagine a whaler all the way north and your settlement all the way south). This means goods like lamp oil will only arrive at your settlement in large numbers at once (like 40 or so, depends on the size of everything). During the time it takes for your ship to get the goods an deliver them, lamp oil will decrease for a long time, thus resulting in a red arrow. Once the delivery has been made it will turn green again, but if you focus on the red arrow too much you might think you need to produce more and more, ending in overproduction.

What I tend to do is keep an eye out on stuff in the long run, see if goods get below a certain minimum and stay below it (like 50 or so). If you're ready to advance to the next civilisation level, do so in stages and don't upgrade everything at once. You can keep a better look at your goods without running out of anything.

[Bram]

^^ i always make 6 lumberjacks, and build loooaaads of houses. gives a big tax income.

[Dobber]

I find the arrows are a lot less reliable the further you get into the game.

If you play a large map, your trading routes tend to get longer and longer (imagine a whaler all the way north and your settlement all the way south). This means goods like lamp oil will only arrive at your settlement in large numbers at once (like 40 or so, depends on the size of everything). During the time it takes for your ship to get the goods an deliver them, lamp oil will decrease for a long time, thus resulting in a red arrow. Once the delivery has been made it will turn green again, but if you focus on the red arrow too much you might think you need to produce more and more, ending in overproduction.


You could set two ships on that same route, with one leaving the home port as the other is leaving the satellite/production port thus having a steady supply!

[MinGraphics]

You could set two ships on that same route, with one leaving the home port as the other is leaving the satellite/production port thus having a steady supply!

That is a very good idea, I never thought of it.

Thank you for this post it helped a lot, I was having problems keeping my money in the green. I only have the demo as the game won't be released here until tomorrow, I hope to have my hands on it by mid week.

[Opiliones]

You could set two ships on that same route, with one leaving the home port as the other is leaving the satellite/production port thus having a steady supply!

Though it sounds like a good idea, I think it will only end in little bits of supplies being brought in every time (i.e. 20 in 2 min.) instead of a whole bunch (i.e. 40 in 4 min.). The end result is the same, but you'll have to pay more to finance both ships instead of just one.

The problem isn't really running out of supplies, but the red arrow indicating that you are while in the meantime a big load is coming in (it just takes quite long)...

[Dobber]

The problem isn't really running out of supplies, but the red arrow indicating that you are while in the meantime a big load is coming in (it just takes quite long)...

What happens if that ship is attacked and sank before it reaches your home port on one of those trips? You've lost the shipment and you have to wait upon another ship to be built and then sent for more goods, in the meantime your people are getting angry.

Another option, if you have another production island in between that you have another trade ship ghoing to, is to combine the two islands into the same trade route with both ships making the route, half-time apartpicking up goods at both islands to deliver at the home port.

Or you could have one ship transport goods from the distant island to the one closer to home and then the other ship picking up bith goods there and bringing them home.

[Flo]

Hi all,

i have to edit the text again, because i want to add some more sentences.
One or two or three of it is/are about the arrows :wink:



But please be patient for another one or two days :angel:

[KittyG]

If it's anything like the others, another option is to ship raw material along with the finished product back to the main island.

Set up one or two refineries, mills, dye works, whatever and it can process and sell goods while the ship is en route for more.

This cuts down on the production gap and stabilizes the supply and demand.

Thanks for the advice on beginning...l'm looking forward to it!

[Flo]

Thanks BaldJim.
But this is LadyH's fault not mine. She edited the post and forgot one link :nono: :biggrin:

But i will fix it soon :go:

[Dobber]

Thanks BaldJim.
But this is LadyH's fault not mine. She edited the post and forgot one link :nono: :biggrin:

But i will fix it soon :go:

I fixed the link for you Flo!

[People's Republic of China]

You could set two ships on that same route, with one leaving the home port as the other is leaving the satellite/production port thus having a steady supply!


I always do this. It works nicely. Though, frequently I don't have the necessary cloth to build ships.


O, to keep my ships from being sunk; I station warships at various island (both mine and unoccupied) to intercept pirates and hostile naval vessels. This is probably why I am frequently short on wood and cloth: I constantly build ships. (I believe in naval superiority).

[simon678cn]

thank flo for the very thing he did,it's really a huge project,he must pay a lot for it.
thanks again
i'll translate the thread into chinese,spread it over my land....
will others do the same thing,as many languages as we could.

非常感谢deejoo的创作和FLO的翻译..:angel:

[pipja]

Naval superiority is the bomb, the ability to pwn the queen's fleet is sweet :D

[Sir Gawain]

Nice tutorial Flo. Thanks for the pics!:go:

[Ove Haithabu]

Now lock the building materials. Because now, you decide, if the pioneers become settlers or not.
After doing this, build 2 churches (if they are not enough for all houses build 3 of them).
Now reduce the taxes into the darkgreen area. And now there should appear green arrows on your houses.
Upgrade 10 houses to settlers and set the taxes back to the border between lightgreen/orange (you don't want to waste money )
Now you have to build again 2 sheep farms and 1 weaver's hut to have enough clothes.
Hi Flo,
for some reason that did not work for me. Without clothes my pioneers do not want to upgrade to settlers. They have the church, food, a market square and they are even laughing at me as I do not chage a lot of tax - still I can not convince them to become settlers without clothes. What do I do wrong?

OH
--
Naval superiority is the bomb, the ability to pwn the queen's fleet is sweet :D

Naval superiority also proofed to be the winner against pirate ships because rather than having an escort for each tradeing vessel I just had 3 small war ships blocking the entry of the pirate harbour sinking each new pirate ship. I had a 4th ship to spare and could always send the damaged ship home for repair. Not one of my trading vessels was attacked by a pirate after I started blocking his port.

OH