This Anno 117 Pax Romana Guide gives a clean, practical start you can use immediately. It’s focused on the opening minutes and first hour: reliable layouts, efficient production chains, what to research early, and the exploration/expansion moves that turn a shaky settlement into a stable economy. Every step is actionable and explained so you know why it works, not just what to do.
Anno 117 Pax Romana Guide Wiki – Layout tips, Food
Recommended initial settings
Start on Endless with a gentle difficulty mix (Normal + Easy).
Choose Latium as your starting province for space and forgiving fertility.
Pick a governor with simple perks if you’re new; the UI and default rivals work fine. These choices give you breathing room to learn systems without being rushed.
First priorities
Secure timber — timber is the fuel for nearly every building and construction. If timber stalls, everything stalls.
Get housing and basic goods online — population provides workforce and income; without porridge, porridge kitchens, and basic food, growth halts.
Connect everything with roads and warehouses — distance matters for delivery; good connectivity = smooth supply.
Explore early with your flagship — scouting finds islands with important resources you don’t have locally (clay, grapes, resin, marble).
Plan for fire safety and research — some buildings (bakeries, charcoal burners) increase fire risk; research unlocks critical long-term benefits.
Tackle those in roughly that order and you’ll rarely run into crippling bottlenecks.
Practical step-by-step opening build (0–15 minutes)
Pause and plan. Use pause liberally while placing roads and buildings so you don’t waste money or create inefficient layouts.
Choose a timber zone. Find a forested block with few obstacles. Ideally place 3 logging camps with their circles just touching but not overlapping unnecessarily. Overlap costs throughput.
Add sawmills in a compact cluster. One sawmill per logging camp is a good baseline; place them so timber has a short path to a nearby storehouse.
Place a storehouse/warehouse adjacent to the production cluster so goods gather quickly for the rest of your island.
Roads first, then houses. Lay a main road loop, then use planning mode to draw compact residential blocks. The 4×2 house blocks are space-efficient, easy to copy, and simple to cover by markets/taverns later.
Build porridge chain. Place an oat farm (fill its grid), then a porridge kitchen with road access. Porridge is the first household food that unlocks growth and income.
Unlock and place market/tavern. Markets boost income; taverns boost happiness. Put them inside the residence cluster radius so many houses benefit.
Expand housing cautiously. Upgrade houses gradually — every new upgrade reduces lower-tier workforce, so keep an eye on workforce balance. Don’t spam housing beyond your production capacity.
Start clothing production next. Add spinner (clothing), hemp fields and sheep farms as required for tunics/hats. Ensure warehouses cover those production nodes.
Explore with your captain. Put a Hall of Fame governor or specialist as captain (if available) to extend discovery radius and scout nearby islands fast.
This flow quickly gives you timber, a working economy, and scouting information to plan expansion.
Layout tips that save time and money
Keep production clusters compact. Short travel = higher throughput and fewer wagons needed.
Use planning mode and copy groups. Build one good residential block and copy it; this prevents messy road spaghetti.
Reserve space for aqueducts and future public services. Early road placement should leave corridors where you expect later infrastructure.
Place warehouses strategically. If one warehouse can serve two clusters, you save money. If coverage fails, add a small storehouse in the remote cluster instead of long haul roads.
Timber & sawmill math (practical rule)
Start with 3 logging camps → 3 sawmills. That gives steady timber for early construction and upkeep. If a sawmill or logging camp sits starved, move it or add a warehouse closer — distance is usually the problem.
Food and population progression
Tier 1 (Libertus) needs: basic food (porridge), market, tavern. Provide those to unlock population growth.
Upgrade threshold: You don’t need to meet every need to upgrade, but meeting more needs speeds upgrade consistency and carries benefits into next tiers.
Workforce management: Each upgrade reduces lower-tier workforce. Before mass-upgrading, ensure you can replace those workers (build more houses or unlock production that uses higher-tier workforce).
Tiles, clay, charcoal and early industry
Clay → tile production is required for many town upgrades and buildings. Clay pits and tile makers need to be placed where fertility allows.
Charcoal burner consumes forest resources and raises fire risk; place it away from dense housing or offset it with city watch/early safety buildings.
Because some industry takes longer (tile maker 1 min vs clay pit 30s), aim for balanced ratios — a common pattern is 2 producing buildings feeding one slower processing building. Check processing times; if something is starved, adjust counts.
Fire safety — plan ahead
Bakeries and charcoal burners increase fire risk. Counter early with Vigil/city watch buildings and later with aqueducts and latrines.
Avoid clustering many high-risk buildings beside residential blocks. If you must place them close, make sure a city watch is covering that area.
Research & the Grammaticus
Rushing the Grammaticus early is very valuable. Prioritize:
- Trading post improvements and any research that boosts knowledge or trade efficiency.
- Concrete/paved roads if you unlocked hall of fame perks that give you access to concrete; paved roads accelerate deliveries and building placement.
- The “+1 knowledge for spinners” perk if you lean into early economic throughput and faster research.
Knowledge unlocks deities, specialists, and military tech — the midgame depends on it.
Hall of Fame perks & captain choices
If you have Woodland Rebirth unlocked from the Hall of Fame, it changes timber placement dramatically — you can place loggers outside normal fertility limits. This is a very strong early perk.
Pick trading or scouting specialists as ship captains early to accelerate map reveal and trade partner discovery.
Exploration and trade
Explore ASAP. Map knowledge shows islands with clay, grapes, resin, marble. Knowing where to expand avoids later scramble.
Trade routes save time: once you have multiple islands, set trade routes for resources you lack. Manual trading is fine early, but routes scale better.
Internal trade (between your own islands) reduces shortages; use it for high-value supply chains.
Early expansion checklist (first 1–2 hours)
Timber cluster (3 loggers + 3 sawmills) with warehouse.
Housing block(s) with porridge + oat farm feeding them.
Spinner + hemp + sheep chain for clothing.
Clay → tiles area with tile maker and charcoal as needed; protect it with storehouse and roads.
Grammar building (Grammaticus) started for research.
Sanctuary selected to match local fertility (choose a deity giving bonuses for your island resources).
At least one trade ship/scout revealing nearby islands with essential resources.
City watch to mitigate early fire risk.
When to worry about military
Early game: ignore aggressive warfare unless an enemy attacks you. Build basic coastal defenses if you border hostile AI or raider hotspots. Focus resources on economic stability; naval forces are expensive to maintain.
Common beginner mistakes and fixes
Too many houses, not enough goods. Fix: pause, add production buildings, or slow upgrades.
Warehouses out of range. Fix: add a local storehouse or re-route roads to improve coverage.
Fire risk ignored. Fix: place a city watch and avoid clustering bakeries and charcoal burners next to dense housing.
Upgrading everything at once. Fix: stagger upgrades to keep workforce healthy and production continuous.
Quick midgame goals (what to aim for next)
Secure islands that provide missing fertilities (clay, olive, grapes, marble).
Set up internal trade routes to stabilize supplies.
Finish key research branches that increase knowledge generation and unlock critical production tech.
Build a villa and unlock the specialist system to gain broad area bonuses.
Start planning a modest navy if you expect conflict or want to transport troops quickly for expansion.