Ultimate Cotton Plantation guide: producing Cotton in Anno 1800

The Cotton Plantation produces Cotton in Anno 1800 and forms the foundation of several key production chains.

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Description

“The Cotton Plantation produces Cotton in Anno 1800 and sits at the start of several important production chains. The Cotton Plantation sits in the Fur Coat production chain and is at the start of that chain. It is also used for the production of Bowler Hats and Sails in the New World. Their are other uses of Cotton in DLC’s.

The Cotton Plantation sits at the start of these production chains, so it doesn’t require any input materials. In addition, it produces one ton of Cotton every minute, giving you a steady and predictable output. However, because the Old World depends on this supply, you’ll need to ship Cotton to whichever region needs it. As a result, careful planning becomes essential to keep your production running efficiently. It is practically impossible to predict how long it will take to get Cotton from the New World to your other regions.

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What is produced

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Improvements

In this section, we’ll look at the improvements you can add to the Cotton Plantation to boost its productivity and efficiency. The first step is choosing the right placement for your Plantation, as this decision sets the foundation for every upgrade that follows.

When we look at the placement of this building we will look at either placing the next building in the chain close by or a Warehouse. This will ensure that the transport links between are maximised for efficiency. The next thing that we will look at is the Trade Union. The Trade Union can receive items and then buildings under its influence will benefit from these items, but only three items at a time.

Placement

In this section, we’ll look at how to place the Cotton Plantation to maximise its productivity and efficiency. The key is to position it close to the processing building, in this case, the Cotton Mill, so the supply chain stays fast and uninterrupted. In addition, placing the Plantation nearby reduces travel time and helps the entire chain run more efficiently. This can either be the Cotton Mill or a Warehouse. Lets have a look at this placement now.

Here we can see that the Warehouse is placed close to the Cotton Plantation. This makes it quicker for the Warehouse to take the goods into your inventory.

Trade Union

In this section we will look at what items can be added to the Trade Union to influence buildings in its range. The items for the Trade Union can be got from many places around the map, these include Specialists and Traders, expeditions, the Research institute, defeating pirates and from Quests and World events. Lets take a look at some of these items now.

Item name	Effects	Rarity/Notes
Hat maker	Productivity: +10%	Common, Expedition bonus – +5 Crafting
Picker	Productivity: +7%	Common, Expedition bonus – +10 Crafting
Cotton seeds	Productivity: -15%,  Cotton Fertility Provided	Uncommon,
Soil sampler	Productivity: +15%	Uncommon,
Arborist	Productivity: +15%, Extra Goods, Occasionally produces extra  Tobacco, No. of Modules: -10%	Rare,
Chemical fertilizer	Productivity: +50%, No. of Modules: +25%	Rare,
Quality cotton seeds	Cotton Fertility Provided	Rare,
Horticulturalist Hermann	Productivity: +20%, Extra Goods, Occasionally produces extra  Red Peppers, Occasionally produces extra  Potatoes, Occasionally produces extra  Grapes, No. of Modules: -20%	Epic,
Miraculous Steel Plough	Productivity: +50%, Maintenance Cost: -50%, Workforce Needed: -50%	Epic,
Superphosphate Fertiliser	Productivity: +70%, No. of Modules: +35%	Epic,
Dr. Ali Al-Zahir, the Botanical Director	Productivity: +30%, Extra Goods, Occasionally produces extra  Red Peppers, Occasionally produces extra  Potatoes, Occasionally produces extra  Grapes, Occasionally produces extra  Grain, Occasionally produces extra  Hops, Attractiveness: +7	Legendary,

These are some of the best items that you can add to the Trade Union for the Cotton Plantation.

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Layouts

In this section, we’ll look at the different layouts you can use for the Cotton Plantation. When designing any layout, especially for farms and plantations, it helps to build them as squares or rectangles. In addition, creating a clean square layout makes it much easier to copy and expand your production later. With that in mind, let’s explore a few layout options.

Option 1

Here we will design a rectangle layout that only consists of a single Cotton Plantation. The reason for this is that all of your Cotton Plantations can use this layout for adding extra Cotton Plantations. This way you can easily add to this in an efficient manor.

Option 2

Here we will placing down two Cotton Plantations and we will be adding in the Cotton Mills to accommodate these plantations. We will also add a Warehouse so that the Cotton Fabric can lead into it. This will mean that your Cotton will enter your inventory as fast as possible.

Option 3

In this layout we will use the last layout but will add a Warehouse along with a Trading Post so that the items can loaded on to ships and be transported to other islands or to other regions.

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