Common Questions

Anno 1404 is an amazing game but they way it brings forth information leaves a lot to be desired.

Therefor ill be listing as much questions that new players may have and provide as much awnsers as i can.

These will be devided into 3 catagories: City building, Militairy and Quests.

If you have any more questions, feel free to comment here and ill try to awnser all of them.

City Building

1.How do i colonise an island?

You will likely have started with a ship, select it and move it to an islands coastline. if the coast isnt claimed by another player, you will be able to builds a warehouse from a button that appeared in the ship menu.

2.How do i build roads?

By selecting the *dirt road* building in your building menu, then left klick once on a tile on your owned island, you can then move it anywhere in your territory that isnt blocked and the road will increase in lenght. once your content with its shape, you can left klick again to build it.

3.Im out of a resource, where can i get more?

Theres plenty of ways to get what you need. things like tools and wood can be bought from neutral harbors or even in your own harbor by selecting your trade building and pressing the green + sighn. this allows you to buy goods from passing ships for pricess and amounts you can adjust yourself. paying less means less is sold and visa versa. there will always be neutral ships sailing around so you dont have to worry if there arent any AI players. afcourse a more stable way to gain resources is by producing them yourself. lumberjacks huts for wood and iron mines, smelteries, coal burners and tool smithies all unlock when you develop your population.

4.The island i have doesnt produce cider, why is that?

Large starting islands often produce cider and hemp but not all. you can see an islands fertility directly north of your screen when your are looking at the island, you can left klick on this in order to see its miniral deposits aswell. there are many goods in anno 1404 and not all of them are availeble in one island so you will likely have to colonise another one in order to ship desired goods back too your city. however, certain islands have a question mark in their fertility menu, this means that if you can find a type of seed, you can plant it on the island. you can buy seeds from some neutral harbors and bring them back to your trade building. theres a special tab to the left of it in the form of a treasure chest, this is where special items are being held, you can slot these in sockets above in the trade building`s menu. diffrent trade buildings have diffrent amounts of slots for these special items and there are simply to many to list here but cider seeds are one of them. at first these will appear grey which means you will have to activate them. it will give you 2 buttons to check or decline its activation and if you check it, a message will appear saying the seeds have been planted and you can now farm cider, or any other plant you have brought here. removing the seeds from the socket will remove the fertility aswell, you can only add one seed per island that has a question mark and only oriental seeds work for oriental islands and visa versa.

5.How do seeds work?

Read the last awnser.

6.I can build a church, where should i put it?

There are many buildings your people are going to need like churches and taverns. you will want to have as many people within a buildings influance range in order too please them (there are some items which increase this range). having multiple churches overlap doesnt increase your peoples happiness by 200%, and having to many of them will bankrupt you, so place them as close to your people as possible, and as far away from other churches as possible.

7.My people complain about a shortage, but ive build a fishermans hut?

As population increases, so does its needs. you will have to build more production of the things they want like fish, however this is also the easiest way to bankrupt yourself in anno; by building to much production while not enough is being consumed, leading to permanently full fishermans huts and drainage of funds. in other worde: youll want to satisfy your population, while spending as little money as possible, and the key to this is patience. a fishermans hut may be full now a market cart could come by soon to empty it, your peasants could be complaining about a lack of fish while the fishermans hut havent had the time to catch any yet. if you dont exectly know how many production buildings your city needs and your sick of going bankrupt finding out, then this production calculator can tell you what you need according to your population: https://www.anno1404-rechner.de/index.php?lang=en

8.Can i name my new village?

yes, you will have to select the trading post that is your harbor and you will see your cities name in the top right, you will have to left klick it with your mouse, remove the old name with backspace and then write your own and press enter.

9.My peasants are becoming citisens, what does this do?

congratulations! you are now on the path of unlocking more of the game, new buildings, quests and events will soon grace your city! however if you wish to stop your people from evolving, you can forbid them by selecting your market squire and left clicking on the button up top in the form of parchment. this forbids your people from using ascention rights. ascention rights are earned by increasing your population (aswell as some rare items). these make sure your peasants transform into citisens, particans and nobleman and require building materials for each phase, from wood to even glass later on. this will be drained from your own stocks so there is a reason to stall their evolution.

10.HELP EVERYTHING IS ON FIIIIIIIRE!

Dont panic! fire is but the first treat of many to your growing settlement. these can be put out by a fire station that will unlock upon reaching a decent amount of citisens, however your people will try to get water from city wells like those in your marketplace to put down nearby fires. you can reduce the chance of a fire spreading by destroying nearby buildings, but not to nearby as the fire wont allow you too. many things in anno 1404 can and will result in fires like rebelions, sabotage, bombardments, thunderstorms and many more! so its wise to have a firestation near all your houses, though production buildings and trade buildings dont have a tendency to spontaneously combust on their own so they likely arent needed in rural areas. if your sick of fire, you can turn off the option by adjusting the settings while making a new game.

11.I made hemp farms but im not getting clothes!

Many production buildings will require workshops to refine their goods, a weavery is one of them. workshops might need more or sometimes less production buildings in order to be supplied. you can see their productivity by selecting them and looking at the amount of % it generates (100% is the maximum).

12.Why are my citisens complaining about a lack of food? my warehouse is FULL of fish!

As your population develops, they will require additional goods, one of these is spices. later on you will require bread and meat aswell but for now you will have to start looking for this hot new good to the south, in the orient!

13.I found the grand vizier and an isle to settle, but this is nothing like the islands up north!

thats right! anno 1404 features 2 types of chivilisations: the orient and the oxident. these two grow ever more dependant on eachother as the game goes on, and in order too optain oriental goods like the spices your people want, youll have to build an oriental settlement.

14.How to i build an oriental settlement?

First, you will have to gain knowlige of oriental architecture, and the grand vizier is willing to share it for a gift. you can buy these gifts in the form of parchement from the oxidental harbor of lord richard. then you must sail it back to the grand vizier who will ask you to give it too him. this should unlock the first few orient buildings in the building tab whom work much like those of its northern counterparts.

City Building 2

15.Why arent nomads eating my fish?!

Nomads dont care for fish, and wont consume any oxidental goods. however they come with their own type of food: Dates. you can build a date farm on furtile ground which is rare to find in the orient. but dont despair! the wise nomads of the orient have a trick up their sleeve; norias! these usefull watering holes fertilise the barren deserts down south, allowing thing like date farms, goat herders and silk plantations to take root in this arid land. just like any production building though, it takes time for a noria to compleetly fertilise within its radius and will have to be refilled once it runs out of water. there is a small button to the top right of a norias menu depicting a building with a green arrow pointing up. this will allow you to refill it for a price, this works with mines aswell!

16.I made spice farms but they arent producing anything!

Remember what was stated about cider?

17.Im sick of trading manualy, how to i automate it?

Theres is a button to the south-east of your screen in the shape of a star, this is the menu for trade routes. you can create a new one by pressing a button north east of the menu. you will have to select 2 or more harbors, assighn what goods you would like to have added and removed from your ship in and out of the harbor and then finaly, assighn a ship with enough free good slots to your brand new route!

18. i have productions for everything but my people wont evolve to particans!

in order for your houses to evolve to the next level all of its demands should stay green for atleast a while. if any of its food, drink or other demands is yellow or unfilled, they will refuse to evolve. not every house will evolve no matter what though! there will always be one or two peasant houses left. though the amount can reduced by achieving more ascention rights.

19. Ive come rather far, how do i unlock more buildings?

Though population growth is the main way of unlocking buildings, there are other buildings that can be unlocked by using gems (you get those from ingame achievements), giving more and better gifts to the grand vizier and even using special blueprints that build something for free instantly!

20.Is something worth building/making/getting/trying?

Yes, if you can spare the funds.

Militairy

1.Hows the combat?

Not good.

2.When do i finaly get to fight something?

Once you have build a fortress, you can start recruiting armies from it. this will require arms such as weapons, cannons, warmachines and more. if you have enough goods and gold you can left klick on the desired unit and build its encampment on a free open space.

3.What do all these buttons do?

Once your armies have build their encampment you can issue them 4 commands, these are:
Move-which allows you to rebuild your encampment somewhere else.
Attack-which allows you to send you men to attack an enemy unit.
Reanforce-which allows you to help one of your units that is being attacked.
Cansel-this stops a marching army and makes them build an encampment on the spot (deletes encampment if its already build).

4.Why arent my armies attacking buildings?

Only siege weapons like trebuchets, cannons and miner positions can attack buildings and walls.

5.What are these green and red zones?

These are zones of influance for militairy units such as towers, armies and even ships. the outer ring is the range for ships and towers to fire from while the inner ring is the range armies can capture trade buildings from. if the inner ring of militairy units connect, they can fight eachother.

6.I have seen these mercenaries, how do they work?

There are two: robber barons and assasins. robber barons have a lot of health and capture quickly but do little dammige. assasins do a lot of dammige and move fast but have little health. neather of these require weapons to be hired.

7.How do i send armies to another island?

You will require eather a trade post or a castle on the coast of both islands. you can then use the move button of an army and send then onto sea to become a ship from one of these bridgeheads. from there you can sail them to the other island and build them up again with the move button. they will done go ashore through your second bridgehead. note that castles can be build by sending a militairy camp up too sea and sail them to a shore and using the build castle button much like the build tradepost button from normal ships.

8.How do i get more war ships?

You can build them from shipsyards, buy them from pirates, or buy them from neutral harbors using honour in the diplomacy menu. You can also buy a boarding crew for honour from pirates. slot this into a warship, left klick on it, then left klick on the enemy ship you want to board. if your ship is stronger, the enemy ship will be captured.

9.How do i unlock oriental units?

By unlocking oriental buildings with gifts, youll eventualy achieve the right to build an oriental fortress which works a lot like the oxidental counterpart.

10.Where can i discover more about anno 1404 combat?

in this guide: https://gameplay.tips/guides/12143-anno-1404.html

Quests

1.Is there a campaighn or tutorial?

Yes, you can excess it by launching the game from your steam library WITHOUT the add-on.

2.How do i find what im looking for in a quest?

Things like missing people, sandbanked ships and specific harbors will all be pointed out by the quest in your minimap with red circles IF you hoover over the quest with your mouse.

3.Im at the harbor, the race wont start?

Your ship will have to remain there untill the quest timer runs out, after which you will get an item from the harbor and will have to race to your destinations, just dont forget you parked it there!

4.What rewards do quests bring?

They are randomised mostly and can range from useless charcoal to epic commanders!

5.How do i recognise who i have to klick on?

They will have a blue ring around them. exept for sabotaging spies.

6. i cant find the master builder?

He should be sleeping below a tree in the imperial city, theres a few Z`s above his head. later you will encounter more quests where you can to look amongst the people walking your streets to find such wanted man.

7.How do i give my gift to the grand vizier?

If you have picked it up during the quest and havent put it in your warehouse, there should be a gift an icon of rolls of parchment in your ship that you should bring to the harbor of the grand vizier.

8.I have destroyed guys ships, why wont the mission end?

There are likely still some ships too the south of the map or hidden amongst the great harbor. all enemy ships must be destroyed for the campaighn to continue.

9.I cant beat lucius! how to i defend Edens Isle?

you will have to fight lucius forcess for a while, eventualy marie will task you to find the grand vizier and evecuate the city. you can do this by bringing your ship to your harbor building (likely rebuild up north), going too the item tab and retrieving a map into your ships item socket. from there you must left klick on it to activate it at which point your ship will go out too get help. it will return after a while with the viziers ships to evecuate the city, press on the grand viziers ship to join them.

10.How do i get enough resourcess for the imperial cathedral?

The side quests will give you special items that reduce its building cost, the acedemy of wisdome has one to give to your warehouse.

Technical

1.Does this game require a ubisoft account?

Yes, though older CD versions do not.

2.Will the bug im expiriancing ever be fixed?

Likely not.

3.Is the game good?

Yes.

[wdb-wookie1]

The manual that came with the game is in "German". Ich spreken clinie Deuch!!!

HELP. NEED ENGLISH version of the manual?

[Zogger99]

@israel, ty I found the manual, but it's in German. ;)

[seal cub clubbing club]

(EC)Fotheringill cool! your a real classic gamer :D but if your intrested in a manual for anno 1404, you can find it in: steam > steam apps > common > anno 1404-history edition > support. and then opening the Manual.pdf

[(EC)Fotheringill]

I have been playing games since Zork (?) on my Radio Shack machine. I am somewhat elderly and cannot recall ANY game without a manual or a user friendly pop up guide. The game appears to have potential.

[seal cub clubbing club]

there are several ways @janwatsjwats;
you can use honour too call in an auxiliry fleet from the doplomacy menu.
you can buy them from corsairs when you have a truce with them.
you could also capture them with boarding crews that you can buy from corsairs aswell

but generaly people just build them at shipyards, you make make a small shipyard with enough citisens. nomads and particans also give you an oriental shipyards and a large shipyard respectively :)

[janwatsjwats]

how to get ships

[seal cub clubbing club]

np!

[Deeterx]

Thank you thank you! I was so surprised there was no tutorial or anything when I started!

[seal cub clubbing club]

thanks!

[Telequah]

Excellent!