Another convert. If I had decent java skills I would make a phone app showing all the best building layouts :/
I've just been printing them out from the Anno wiki. The problem of course is that while it might be efficient to do it all to per made layouts, you end up with space around the edges of the islands since a lot of layouts are quite large.
I've been selecting the building I want to build, pausing the game and then working out where I can put the fields and stuff for it. The last 2 levels I've done (5 & 6) of the campaign have been absolutely rammed to the gills as a result.
I finally beat level 6 today partly using the games own mechanics against it as noted in the Anno wiki but also planning ahead properly before actually starting the level.
Since Lucius only ever invades on the bottom edge of the island where the fishing huts are I made it my aim to build a wall completely around that section from the Iron mine on the right hand side to the slight rocky outcrop to the left of the fishing huts. That was also made 3-4 units of wall deep interspersed with towers to help defend. As a result the enemy troops never got outside of his Keep's range and I just bombarded them with the 2 ships I had, the towers and a couple of catapult positions.
What also needed to be done however was to supply the population properly. In a previous playthrough I was running out of beer and bread and cider and iron and pretty much everything else.
Despite d'Artois telling you that her other islands would keep you supplied they just cannot keep up. So I loaded the level and spent a good 15 minutes working out exactly what I had, then using the calculator to work out exactly what that population actually needed. I found I was short at least 1 brewery, 1 weavers, 1 orchard 4 hemp farms, etc etc. So I wrote down exactly what I needed to do when I restarted the level, unpause the tool shop in the north, move all of the current hemp production to a more secure area, build a load of lumberjacks, build some herb gardens, build 3 stonemasons and so on.
Then when I restarted the level I slowed the game down and with 11 minutes to go I had corrected all of my supply issues and was then just waiting on the stone stocks to grow before I could continue building my walls.
What I did find that I didn't know before was that a) you can build while paused which is handy when trying to work out where to put your fields in time critical situations and b) Building a wall of single thickness might use 10t of stone per 10 squares. To then make that wall 2 or 3 times as thick seemed to use a LOT less stone, like maybe 3t per 10 units. I need to check on the exact numbers though.
Still really enjoying the game, looking forward to just playing a free game with no combat so I can city build.
