Anno on the whole isn't a difficult game. You place houses, houses attract people, people have needs. Supply their needs, then the people change class and require more things. Not all islands can produce what you need, so supply lines are required. Different things require different amounts of resources to make
e.g. Anno 2070 had energy drinks i think they were called. They required a coffee farm, and a sugar farm, and a building to produce the actual drink.
Building will show you want they require, I believe from 2070 the game actually even had the production chain appear when you went to build one thing, so you could see all the building required and build them all from that menu. You will also get missions from NPCs, supply 10 tons of iron, or collect these, or find this person in your settlement, or deliver some cargo without being detected. There are also 'pirates' which will harass you if you don't pay them off or destroy them.
