Anno 1404

This is a list with general advice for the game Anno 1404.

• Anno 1404 Venice

Technical

Anno 1404 and its add-on are an award winning combination of construction, economy, discovery, diplomacy & combat. Raise monumental metropolises and develop an idealized historical empire in the Orient and the Venice of the Renaissance. The game also offers multiplayer support, allowing you to share this experience with your friends. Anno 1404 is a real time strategy game, that focuses on economy and resource management more than war and empire building. When you first play Anno 1404, the lovely semi-animated painting style introduction really makes an impression. The game itself is also beautifully animated, detailed and generally impressive.

Buying and installation

You can buy the game “DRM-free” (= no copy protection/disc required to play) if you buy the “gold edition” on a DVD. Install the game, install patch 3.1 (available here: http://static3.cdn.ubi.com/anno_1404/anno1404_goldedition_3.1.exe), which works only for the gold edition.

//UPDATE: You can now also buy the game on gog.com DRM-free: http://www.gog.com/game/anno_1404_gold_edition.//

Profile and saved game data

Screenshots are stored here: C:UsersYOURUSERNAMEDocumentsAnno 1404
Saved games are stored here: C:UsersYOURUSERNAMEDocumentsANNO 1404 Venice
Your profile is stored here: C:UsersYOURUSERNAMEAppDataRoamingUbisoftAnno1404Profiles
It is highly recommended to make regular backups of the profile.

Your profile is connected to your saved games. If your game crashes during a multiplayer session, the game will automatically save for the other players. You however, will not be able to receive achievements for this game anymore (“You can load this savegame, but will not earn any achievements in it.”).
Either use an older autosave file or have your friend send you the savegame file and modify it as described here: http://anno1404.wikia.com/wiki/Savegame_editing

Profile not recognized in Anno 1404 Venice

After a crash Venice sometimes does not recognize a profile anymore, even though the regular Anno 1404 still does. There is no solution to this, although you can try sending your profile to the Ubisoft support and ask them to repair it. Hence you should create backup copies of your profile!!! (after each session!)

Out of memory

Anno 1404 has memory problems. Basically the memory seems to fill up and as soon as a limit is hit the player receives an annoying error message and/or the game crashes.

Warning! There is no longer enough memory available to safely continue playing ANNO 1404. Please save your game and restart ANNO 1404.

This happens even on a 64-bit OS, as soon as you reach a certain value of total RAM usage (3.25GB? 3.75GB?).
If you have a 64-Bit OS you can bypass this by modifying the game executable files (.exe) with a tool named “CFF Explorer“.
Open the Addon.exe with it, click “NT headers” (to the left) -> click “File header” -> “Click here” -> check “App can handle > 2gb addresses” and save. Now Anno 1404 should run until your whole memory fills up.

Gameplay

Building layout strategy

Here is how I build houses and farms.

Missing layout for apiary and layouts using the “noria exploit”. A farm that receives water from 7 norias on dry land (more than 7 on frugal land required) has a productivity of 100% with just one field placed. The disadvantage of the “noria exploit” is that 1 water is consumed in all 7 of them per item that is produced (although there are items that stop water consumption and increase maintenance costs for norias).

Hotkeys

production chains

• linen: 1x weaver’s hut – 2x hemp plantation
• rope: 1x ropeyard – 1x hemp plantation
• war machines: 1x war machines workshop – 2x lumberjack’s hut – 1x rope chain (75%)
• iron: 1x iron smelter – 1x ore mine – 1x charcoal burner’s hut
• tools: 2x toolmaker’s workshop per iron chain
• weapons: 1x weapon smithy per iron chain
• cannons: 1x cannon foundry – 2x lumberjack’s hut – 1x iron chain (75%)
• wine: 2x wine press – 6x vineyard – 2x barrel cooperage – 2x lumberjack’s hut (67%) – 1x iron chain
• bread: 1x bakery – 1x mill – 2x crop farm
• beer: 1x monastery brewery – 1x monastery garden – 1x crop farm
• glass: 2x glass smelter – 1x quartz quarry (75%) – 1x forest glassworks
• salt: 1x salt works – 1x salt mine – 1x charcoal burner’s hut
• leather jerkins: 2x tannery – 4x pig farm – 1x salt chain
• meat: 2x butcher’s shop – 4x cattle farm – 1x salt chain
• fur coats: 3x furrier’s workshop – 3x trapper’s lodge – 1x salt chain
• books: 2x printing house – 4x indigo farm – 1x paper mill – 2x lumberjack’s hut
• brass: 3x copper smelter – 3x copper mine – 2x charcoal burner’s hut
• glasses: 4x optician’s workshop – 3x quartz quarry – 1x brass chain
• candlestick: 4x redsmith’s workshop – 6x candlemaker’s workshop – 12x apiary – 6x hemp plantation – 1x brass chain
• brocade robes: 1x silk weaving mill – 2x silk plantation – 1x gold smelter – 1x gold mine – 1x charcoal burner’s hut
• carpets: 1x carpet workshop – 1x silk plantation – 1x indigo farm
• mosaic: 1x mosaic workshop – 2x clay pit – 1x quartz quarry
• coffee: 1x roasting house – 2x coffee plantation
• pearl necklaces: 1x pearl workshop – 1x pearl fisher’s hut
• perfume: 1x perfumery – 3x rose nursery
• marzipan: 1x confectioner’s workshop – 2x almond plantation – 1x sugar mill – 2x sugar cane plantation

Population needs

Someone made a handy calculator that lets you calculate how many production buildings you need with your current population. anno1404-rechner.de
Table with needs for each different population level:http://anno1404-rechner.de/versorgung.php?lang=en
backup screenshot

Other information

• Beggars: Always accept them. You gain more ascension rights and won’t have to deal with their armies. You will get more beggars with higher population, about 0.3xNoblemen + 0.2xPatricians + 0.1xCitizens.
• Silver Ship and preorder emblem: To unlock them, you will need to download Brumbek’s unofficial patch (install the latest official patch first!), replace the patch0.rda file in your installation folder with the patched one (the “unmodded” one), launch any game in the Venice add-on and rename your ship to “The Silver Ship”. You will see an achievement on your left side of the screen. Now you can restore the original patch0.rda file in your installation folder. Links: Ubi Forum, 4shared DL v1.10, Dropbox DL v1.10, patches-scrolls DL v1.10.
• Expeditions: Expeditions are always successful if your ship has an item with repair ability on it. That’s not true. I probably got that information from annowiki.de, which also claims 70t,50t,20t and 10t of goods (“armaments”) raise the likelihood of success of low, medium, high and very high chance maps to the maximum (100%) (two armaments = can combine them as you wish). The items you receive depend on your occidental population (noblemen = best items). Cider, fish, linen and spice armaments = 67% likelihood for an item (33% chance of goods), all others 80% (20% chance of more goods).
• Ships: Citizens increase the ship limit by far the most with only 6.67 houses per point required. My personal summary for this Wikia entry is: Oriental trading ships for trade(fast), occidental warships for war(tough), and maybe small tradesman’s cogs for trade (fast and reduced slowdown from damage) instead of oriental trading ships, if you run out of ship limit points (100 are the maximum, which can be surpassed by capturing ships, or receiving ships as rewards for quests).
• Consumer goods: You don’t need to produce all consumer goods. For instance, Envoys only need Marzipan occasionally to fill up their houses. Without Marzipan they wil be “even-tempered” and pay less in taxes ( 4900 envoys pay about 700 less), but you will save on building upkeep (4900 envoys require exactly 2 confectioner’s workshops, for which the whole production chain would cost 480 minus potential Bailiwick savings plus market buildings plus trade route ship upkeep). A “Customs goods: Marzipan” item from Al Zahir’s noblemen item selection will occasionally add 5t marzipan to fill up your envoy houses for free!
• Taxes:

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Achievements

Some achievements are hidden and have to be looked up. It is impossible to accidentally do them all.

I copied the achievement tables from Wikia (CC-BY-SA license) to have a backup copy: Anno 1404 achievements

Campaign

For completing all campaign missions on hard, including all quests in them, you receive an achievement. Some missions can be easily missed. I have not completed the campaign yet, but maybe playing it on hard also unlocks the achievements for easy difficulty, so that’s why I began with hard difficulty.

I am trying to compile a list of short instructions that get the player to do all quests.

(more to follow … See here for a complete list.)
Chapter 1:
Before building a chapel (and possibly after having mapped the islands for Lord Northburgh), click Lord Northburgh’s cathedral to find his Master Builder, who is asleep next to a golden statue to the northwest of the cathedral (pretty much right next to it). Look for zZzZz and flip the camera if you can’t see him.

Chapter 2:
Sail on the other side of the island southwest of you. Guy Forcas will give you a quest to rescue people (do this right at the start, so you won’t forget).
Click on Lord Northburgh’s stone island warehouse to get a quest to deliver 10t fish (available after Marie D’Artois quest).

Chapter 4:
Take the “Noble appreciation” item you get from the mine manager to Al-Zahir.
After having rescued 5 children and before destroying the 4 pirate ships, click on the mine manager’s warehouse.
Somehow I am always missing Brother Hilarius’s quests for supplies. No clue how to trigger them. 🙁

Anno 1404 Venice

Chapter 5: