The best city layout in Anno 117: Pax Romana should fulfill citizens’ needs, activate buffs, and remain manageable as the empire expands. While there are many ways to set up a new city that meets these criteria, it can be overwhelming to get started as a new player. How many woodcutters should you have? What size is ideal for residential quarters? How do you manage industrial production lines?
To answer such questions, here’s how to build an Anno 117: Rax Romana city layout that’ll give you a head start in early game.
How to get the best early city layout in Anno 117: Pax Romana
First, place three woodcutters in a forest area, but make sure they’re a fair distance away from your trading post, or your town center will quickly expand into the forest. Drag a straight road between the woodcutters and the trading post, then place two sawmills on that road, as close to the woodcutters as possible. Despite the similarity in processing times, it’ll take quite long for the logs to reach the cutters, hence the third woodcutter building.
Now it’s time to build houses. The city layout in this example uses 2×4 residential blocks, but you can also use 2×3 or 2×5 — just don’t make them much smaller or larger than that, as this might mess up your infrastructure. Also, avoid 3×3 residential blocks as the house in the middle wouldn’t be connected to a road (unless you leave out the center house, which looks quite nice but is less efficient).
Place four 2×4 residential blocks in one large square formation, and be sure to connect every house to a road. Meanwhile, to gain both population and income, place a fishing hut on the shoreline. Your fledgling town, including the woodcutters and sawmills on the outskirts, should look something like this:
On the right side of the upper right residential block, as marked with a star, place a market. It’ll have just enough range to cover every residential building. If you have enough timber, you can fill the residential block below the market with more houses.
This is a good moment to add the porridge production line to your town. Very important; the porridge stand doesn’t have an area effect, so there’s no need to place it in the city center. Place a 16×6 oat field (if you care about rectangular shapes) on the outskirts of the island and drop the porridge stand right next door for quick production.
Once you’ve unlocked the “fashion” buildings, pick the hemp farm and place it anywhere you like, but away from your residential area — next to the oat field would be a good option. If you use a 6×12 format for the hemp field, you’ll get a nice rectangular form to fit into the grid. Your spinner (which does have an area effect) can move into the same grid as the market.
Although it isn’t required to unlock residential tier 2, you can add a 3×12 sheep farm next to the oat field and hemp farm, then place the pileus felter next to the spinner for a double fashion bonus.
Be sure to place a warehouse next to your agricultural buildings. Remember: The resources can be moved into a nearby warehouse, and production buildings in the city center can take those resources for their nearest warehouse. Resources and products don’t need to be close to form a functioning production line.
An agricultural setup to support an early tier 2 town should look something like the picture above. This agricultural layout contains the following:
- Two oat farms with two porridge stands next door.
- Three hemp farms to support three tunic shops.
- Three sheep farms to support four pileus shops (remaining sheep may be sold for now).
- One wheat farm to supply one bakery.
- One garum works. Placing garum in the agricultural layout rather than the city layout is a deliberate choice to avoid the happiness reduction.
This layout should be enough to supply a town of roughly 600 residents. Be sure to place some additional fishing huts, one scomber’s shack, and one salt pond in your harbor to supply enough sardines and garum resources.
As you (slowly!) set up the agricultural layout, increase your population alongside it. Divide your time evenly (add a residential quarter, add a new production line, then add a new residential quarter again) to ensure you don’t end up without enough workforce or goods.
To save enough room for area effect buildings, expand the quarter with the market into a vertical straight line full of similar production and service buildings. On the horizontal grid, stick to this pattern: two residential blocks, one service block, two residential blocks, etc. Be sure to upgrade the most central residences first, as they’ll need more services. The blocks on the outside can remain tier 1. This picture illustrates what this Anno 117 tier 2 city layout should look like:
So what about the city’s industrial layout? This is relatively simple: Find two river slots to place one clay pit and one grain mill – preferably as close as possible so they can share one warehouse between them.
Add two tilers next to the clay pit and one charcoal burner in a forest nearby. While you’re at it, place two or three more woodcutters and sawmills and you should meet timber demands for an early tier 2 town in Anno 117.
With this city layout serving as your foundation, you’re on a great track to tier 3 and 4. As you progress further into Anno 117 and add new quarters to this early-game city layout, try to stick to the same rectangular pattern and upgrade the most central residential blocks as they’re the ones who will receive the most area buffs.
