Expanding your territory in Anno 117 means huge expenses. Here's what to do immediately after founding a city

Building a new city in Anno 117 is a task that no player can avoid. Taking over new islands and the resources on them is necessary to increase your influence and defeat your rivals. However, reckless expansion can quickly lead you to bankruptcy. In this text, we describe how to establish a new city, how to prepare for expansion, and what your first steps should be when colonizing a new island.

• How to prepare for building a city?
• First steps in building a city

How to prepare for building a city?

Only one city can be located on each island. To establish a new city, you need to send one of your ships to an uninhabited island and dock at one of its beaches. There, you will see the option to build a trading post, which will require a high upfront payment (prepare several thousand denars). Once you do this, you will officially take control of the island, for which you will have to pay a tax to the emperor. The trading post serves as the most important building of the new city until you build a villa.

Before you start building a new city, make sure you have a substantial reserve of money. Every new city initially consumes large amounts of cash, both through road construction costs and gradual island maintenance costs. Therefore, before expanding, ensure that you have a stable financial situation. It is also worth supplying the newly built city with basic building materials, such as wood and tiles, made in another city under your control. This way, you won't have to wait for creating a local production chain and the influx of raw materials – having a starting stock will allow you to develop the settlement much faster by constructing many basic buildings. You can transport resources by sea on a ship.

First steps in building a city

After settling on the island, you should immediately address a few matters:

1. Create a local wood production chain. Wood is the most common and frequently used resource in the game – you can never have too much of it. One lumberjack hut and a sawmill will meet your needs at the beginning – later, you can start building more to acquire more wood.
2. Start building houses. Carefully examine the island and find a large, flat area that you can designate as a residential area. Each house means more workforce and income – so build as many as possible so that the island quickly stops draining your pockets and becomes self-sufficient.
3. Take care of the needs of your citizens. Your priority should be to provide them with food by building a production chain that creates one of the two basic food types. The more people move into your city, the more needs you will unlock – you will be able to start building entertainment venues and begin clothes production.

After securing wood, building houses, and providing basic food, the island should become much more self-sufficient. You can now develop it a bit more freely and start exploiting its unique resources – it's also worth constructing buildings that provide income bonuses so that the new city can start generating revenue as quickly as possible.

Anno 117: Pax Romana

November 12, 2025

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• Ubisoft
• economic strategies / tycoon
• Anno (series)