Anno 117: Pax Romana city layout tips and tricks for building

An overlook of a city in Anno 117 Pax Romana — (Image credit: Future)

Building the Anno 117: Pax Romana city layout means balancing residences, production buildings, military defense, fire safety and so much more. You need to fit it all into your landscape, while still making it visually pleasing and incredibly efficient, which is quite the task. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day...

Fortunately, I've gathered together some city layout tips and tricks on how to structure everything to get the best from the game, and the best for your growing, and hopefully flourishing, population.

1. Keep up the timber production to keep building

The timber production chain in Anno 117 Pax Romana — (Image credit: Future)

Before you can build pretty much anything in Anno 117: Pax Romana, you're going to need timber and to produce this, you need to set up the production chain that includes Woodcutter and Sawmill. It's pretty basic stuff and when it comes to Anno 117: Pax Romana production ratios, the timber production line works incredibly efficiently straight off the bat.

But, don't rest on your laurels by just building one Woodcutter and Sawmill and hope you'll get all the timber you need. When you get an opportunity, build three Woodcutters throughout the woodland area of your city and two Sawmills closer to the Warehouse. This will increase production and get you ready for the next steps.

It's also worth noting that over time, the trees around your Woodcutter will get used up, but you can use the relocation tool to move your Woodcutters into a new wooded area while the previous one replenishes.

2. Build houses together but leave space for things like Markets or Taverns

A look at the city in Anno 117 Pax Romana — (Image credit: Future)

Residential quarters are the cornerstone to starting out your grand city in Anno 117: Pax Romana because, without population, nothing gets done. Which means you need to attract population to your city by building homes and fulfilling the needs of the people once they've moved in.

For the perfect city you need to focus on location, location, location. In order to fulfil needs, you need to construct certain area of effect buildings, like a Market or Tavern. These should be near to homes so that they fall within a range that lets them benefit from buffs like happiness, population and a whole lot of income. So, while you should build your homes together, you should also leave some space in residential areas for buildings like these.

2. Keep industry buildings away from your general population

Industrial buildings outside of the city in Anno 117 Pax Romana — (Image credit: Future)

While the placement of residences is important, so is where you place production buildings. They can take up quite a lot of space, especially when you consider things like Wheat Fields and Hemp Farms that.

Some have a positive impact on your residences but, there are some buildings, especially industrial ones, that can have a negative effect on your population and you need to build those further out. For example, the Charcoal Burner is dreadful to buildings nearby, for both fire risk and health .

Get these buildings out of town and away from your homes and be sure to build a Warehouse that services any industry out there, so that you can reduce any damage should a fire breakout.

3. Make sure you construct important buildings like the Governor's Villa

A look at the Governor's Villa in Anno 117 Pax Romana — (Image credit: Future)

While all buildings have their own levels of importance in Anno 117: Pax Romana, whether that's fulfilling your resident's needs or producing goods, there are some additional buildings in particular that you should think about integrating deep into your city.

The Governor's Villa, for example, has a huge area of effect with positives shared with the surrounding residences. It also becomes the main building of your entire city, so if you find yourself under siege, the enemy won't just have to take your Trading Post, but your Governor's Villa too. Additionally, this is also where you can utilize your Anno 117: specialists as the Villa has slots to house them so you can take advantage of the buffs they come with.

Another important building is the Grammaticus (and this will come into play in the next tip). The Grammaticus is the home of knowledge and provides opportunity to research new branches of the Discovery Tree. Build one of these if you want to get vastly important tasks done quicker.

4. Upgrade to paved roads as soon as you can

Paved roads in the research tree in Anno 117 Pax Romana — (Image credit: Future)

You'll start with dirt roads connecting every part of your city. They're fine and will get the job done, but they're not great. To boost efficiency, and the overall look of your city, you'll need to upgrade to paved roads.

This is done by first reaching population tier 3 and upgrading residences to suit. Once you've done this you can start to produce concrete, and with concrete you can research 'Paved Roads' in the Discovery Tree. Once that's done you can then improve the roads across your city.

Paved roads don't only look great, but they also increase the speed of travel, extend buildings areas of effect and make your population happier, healthier, and reduce the risk of fire.

5. Focus on fire safety and make it a priority

Building a medici in Anno 117 Pax Romana — (Image credit: Future)

Fires are a real problem in Anno 117, and watching everything you've built go up in flames awful but it's also a totally avoidable situation.

A top tip for a fire as soon as it breaks out is move everything away from it. With the quick tool, you can relocate buildings with ease before they get in harm's way. It feels inevitable that you'll lose something, but you can certainly avoid a bigger problem.

You can also place City Watch buildings around your city and reap the benefits of their wide area of effect. For fire, Vigiles will tackle the flames if they begin to spread, Custodes can protect you from riots, and Medici can prevent the spread of diseases.