Set, optimize and trade Speicherstadt – this is how it works
Anno 1800 fans will hardly do without the DLC around the Speicherstadt: After all, the long-awaited possibility of trading, which was unfortunately denied to Anno friends for quite some time, has recently been available again. In fact, trading always came up a bit short in Anno, so that surplus goods could no longer be sold, but had to be laboriously transported away – preferably to one of the merchants in the vicinity. With the Speicherstadt (Warehouse City), there are numerous possibilities to exchange goods, increase goods classes and replace entire production chains, starting at the level of the craftsman. Today we’ll show you how to use the storage city within your island world as efficiently as possible to get as many resources as possible and improve the balance.
Set a storage city from crafting level
Basically, you can set a storage city as soon as you have reached the level of the craftsmen. Basically, this is relatively quick, since only normal workers have to be promoted to craftsmen. The new craftsmen don’t have to be fully supplied to be able to set the storage city. In fact, you can make sure that a storage city is placed within your island world already in the first hours of the game. Most importantly, each island can (and should) be equipped with a storage city to get the maximum benefit.
As you can see, besides the marketplace, work clothes and fish, all you need is sausage, bread and soap, as well as the school to let the first craftsmen move in. And already the warehouse city can be set. Of course, this only applies to the island on which you are currently active – because commuter quays are not yet available to you at this point in the game.
Requirements for the Warehouse City in Anno 1800
In order to build a warehouse city, you need $25,000, 20 tons of wood, 60 tons of bricks, 50 steel beams and 30 windows. Resources that can be generated relatively quickly. Once you have the resources, you should waste no time and place the warehouse city directly.
Planning the placement in the harbor area
When placing the warehouse city, make sure that it is placed in the right place. Building the Speicherstadt far out into the sea may look particularly chic, but in the end it will mean that your bus stops for tourists will no longer be accessible at a later date. So you have to rebuild or replan the Speicherstadt, which is not very easy. The Speicherstadt including its extensions and modules can only be moved in one piece. You would have to move element by element and delete them if necessary, so that the storage city can change its position.
Our recommendation: Place the storage city directly on the coast. You will certainly „give away“ a bit of coastal area in front of it, but you will avoid the problem of moving it and will not have to „readjust“ it at a later time.
Depots, loading quays and landing stages
The Speicherstadt can basically be expanded in a sensible way, providing you with new functions. The more active you are, the more elements can be added. In detail, these are mainly depots, which improve your storage capacity, loading quays, which increase the loading speed, and export offices, which allow you to conclude export contracts.
At the same time, you can place repair cranes, harbor master’s offices and piers. Especially piers become more important in the further course of the game, because ships can be handled much faster this way and you avoid clogging your port area. Click on the module overview of your warehouse city to see how many modules you have already built and which extensions are still possible. The more you export, the more you can grow – but with an upper limit.
Export contracts and goods classes
The heart of your storage city, and the real reason you probably set it, is the export menu. Your export goods pyramid, active contracts, and global importers are the focus of our look at them.
Global importers
The global importers are summarized as „Kap. Morris“, who visits you every 20 minutes and trades the goods you have set. Important: At the beginning not every good can be traded. You have to proceed carefully and „unlock“ goods one by one. The grayed out or locked goods can only be imported if a previously unlocked good has been traded in sufficient quantity. For example, you must import over 1,500 tons of cotton cloth before you are given the opportunity to import cigars. Often at this point you simply have to trade in goods that you don’t need at first, so that you can import better goods at a later time.
Some goods, for example sewing machines, cannot be traded at all. In this case you have to build up a production chain to supply your population accordingly.
Active contracts of the Anno 1800 Warehouse City
In the active contracts area you can set up new trade contracts: The respective exchange ratio is always indicated to you, so you can see how many tons of good A you will receive for a certain number when good B is exchanged. Up to 14 export contracts can be set up at this point.
Speicherstadt: Export goods pyramid
The most important thing to note is the export goods pyramid: at this point you can determine the exchange ratio. The more goods you have traded, the sooner you can move them to the upper part of the pyramid. In our example you can see that we focused on the export of steam engines. The exchange ratio is 2x as high as the default settings in Anno 1800. At the same time, you can see which additional modules are unlocked when you increase the export volume – in this case, exporting more steam engines. In our picture you can see that the maximum class has already been reached.
Using drag & drop, you can move the individual goods within the pyramid and thus decide with which exchange ratios your goods should be traded. At this point, it is of course recommended that very expensive goods or goods in absolute abundance are placed at the top, as it is particularly worthwhile to trade in this way.
Trading frequency and exchange ratios
It takes between 18 and 20 minutes for Cape Morris to visit you and execute the trade contracts. Attention: You can only trade until your stock is full. So if your warehouse is bursting, you will move to the next trade contract. At the same time, you should also make sure that the exported goods (left column) are always sufficiently available so that the trade contracts can be honored. There is no „penalty“ here if this is not the case. However, by cleverly swapping over time, you can save yourself entire production chains and trade in basic goods. If there is a failure here, because (as in our example) not enough steam engines are available, there will be a gap in the supply. Tip: Approach slowly and increase the export quantities step by step and improve the production if necessary.
Items and optimization
The Speicherstadt can be equipped with items for optimization purposes, analogous to a Hafenmeisterei (which can also be equipped with items). This way it can be better protected in case of war. Items can usually be found at Sir Archibal Blake or Eli Bleakworth, but they can also be obtained through tasks and excursions, as well as developed through the Research Institute. There are plenty of item slots available in the menu of your storage city, which you can fill with enhancements that are useful to you.
Steam Engines and Warehouse City Optimization
We usually use only a few goods for an efficient, effective and clear exchange. In our example, we focused on steam engines. The huge island in Cape Trelawney tempts to build a gigantic high-rise settlement and skyline city. While this may certainly look very good, it is also perfectly suited as a large production island of goods, which in turn can be efficiently exchanged for raw materials and basic resources. If there is a particularly high storage capacity, these goods can be traded in huge quantities and then shipped to islands where the individual population groups that have the corresponding demand live.
Steam engines in abundance
Our tip: Pick a high-value, expensive commodity that is great to trade for. Steam engines, steam cars or phonographs are particularly suitable for this purpose. This good is produced in absolute abundance.
The warehouse must never „run out“. You can even cross-supply neighboring islands with steam engines in order to set export contracts in the warehouse city there as well. Now try to trade especially the basic raw materials like coal, iron ore, zinc, copper, quartz sand, clay and wood. With only 100-200 steam engines, you can fill the warehouse of your raw materials to the brim and no longer need to worry about the mining processes.
By trading the basic resources, your production chain will always remain active. Tip: Steel and brass can also be easily traded, saving you another production step on the way to maximum steam engine production. And furthermore, in the storehouse city you should now set steam engines to be traded for basic resources to supply the farmer and worker class, maybe even the craftsman class, without having to produce bread, sausage, soap, fish, work clothes, etc. yourself. Note: Since there are only 14 export contracts, a Speicherstadt is usually no longer enough to trade in all the resources you would like to have.
Speicherstadt as the most powerful tool in Anno 1800
Similar to the palace and its effects on production, satisfaction and culture, the Speicherstadt has an enormous impact on your game and ensures that completely new possibilities open up. Be sure to increase export classes slowly and wait for the arrival of your trading partner „Cape Morris“ „once more“ rather than risking an idle supply of certain goods. One last tip: If you have defined minimum stock levels in your warehouse, the goods below them will no longer be traded. Steam engines, as in our case, must therefore not have a minimum stock level, so that all export contracts of the Speicherstadt can be fulfilled if possible. One more reason to initiate overproduction at this point (as an exception).