Warehouse / Marketplace:

Learn how to effectively use Warehouses and Marketplaces in Anno 1404. Understand their costs, influence, and how they manage goods collection and supply for your settlement.

Alright, let's talk about the Warehouse and Marketplace in Anno 1404. Think of these as the central hubs for all your island's goods. You actually start with a Warehouse automatically placed when you settle an island, and you can't get rid of it. The Marketplace is what you'll build later from the menu, and while they function similarly, they have different costs and upgrade paths. For simplicity, we'll just call them Marketplaces from now on.

The most crucial thing to remember is that almost every building you construct must be within the influence radius of a Marketplace. Plus, most of them need to be connected by roads to it. This influence area is shown when you're placing a building, and it's a 20-square radius around the Marketplace. The only exception to this rule is other Marketplaces themselves.

So, how do they actually work? Marketplaces are responsible for managing your island's resources. They use 'Market Wagons' that travel along your roads to collect goods from your production buildings. Once collected, these wagons bring the goods back to the Marketplace. They also supply goods to buildings that need them. The speed at which these wagons travel is key – the further they have to go, the longer it takes to get your goods. If you notice your wagons are taking too long, your best bet is to build another Marketplace closer to the affected production buildings and then disconnect the roads from the original one. Houses don't need wagons to get their goods, so they don't need to be quite as close to a Marketplace.

Upgrading your Marketplaces might give a small speed boost, but the real gains in wagon speed come from increasing your settlement's level. As your settlement grows and levels up, your roads get better, which in turn makes the wagons travel faster. You can find more details on settlement progression in the Strategy Section.

One last thing to keep in mind: a single Marketplace can only keep track of a maximum of 8 different types of goods. If you find yourself needing to manage more than that, you'll have to build an additional Marketplace. Honestly though, this rarely becomes a problem in practice.

Building Stats & Costs:

Upgrades:

• Level 2: Available with Settlers. Costs 200 Coins, 100 Wood. Defence +1 (Total 5).
• Level 3: Available with Patricians. Costs 200 Coins, 100 Wood. Defence +1 (Total 6).

Defence Values:

• Level 1: 4
• Level 2: 5
• Level 3: 6