First, you'll find a brief overview of medals in Anno 1701. This is followed by a detailed explanation of the requirements for each medal category, how to earn them, potential bugs and exploits, and, in some cases, general strategies to help you get started in the right direction.

Feel free to use the comment section to share any advice or feedback!

Back in the days before lightning-fast internet and cloud saves, Anno 1701 allowed you to store multiple profiles locally on your computer. Each profile tracks your progress across various challenges and rewards you with medals for your achievements.

[Player profile displaying a random assortment of medals.]

You can admire your hard-earned medals in the main menu under Profile Management or during a game by opening the Diplomacy Menu and clicking on your character at the top of the screen. However, only the highest medal earned for a given challenge will be displayed. So if you somehow manage to snag the gold tutorial medal without ever earning the bronze one first, only the gold medal will show. If you later earn a lower-tier medal, it won’t change a thing.

Here are the different medal categories you can collect:

• Tutorial medals
  
• Time medals
  
• Scenario medals
  
• Wealth medals
  
• Inhabitants medals
  
• Independence medals
  
• Colonial goods medals
  
• Campaign medals

There are two tutorial medals: Bronze and Gold. Both are awarded for completing different parts of the tutorial missions. You can find the tutorial missions under Singleplayer > Tutorial.

• Playing and completing the first three tutorial missions will earn you the bronze tutorial medal.
  
• Playing and completing the fourth and final tutorial mission will earn you the gold tutorial medal.

There are four time medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. These medals are awarded based on the total time spent playing the game. However, time spent in menus does not count. Only time spent in the campaign, scenarios, tutorial, and continuous play mode contributes toward earning these medals.

• Playing the game for 10 hours will earn you the bronze time medal.
  
• Playing the game for 100 hours will earn you the silver time medal.
  
• Playing the game for 500 hours will earn you the golden time medal.
  
• Playing the game for 750 hours will earn you the platinum time medal.

Note: This information was entierly taken from [1] and [2] without me being able to double check it with another website. (i didn't find any other source as specific)

Since Anno 1701 keeps track of the time played in the game and the player being able to change the speed of the time played in the game, the time medals can be earned faster. To be exact: 1.75 times faster.
By pressing Numpad+ on your keyboard, you can speed up the game by 1.75. Pressing Numpad- on your keyboard will slow down the game by 0.25.

Wait a minute... You don't want to play your favorite game Anno 1701 for more than 750 hours (31.25 days straight or 1/12 of a year) just to get a medal in a game that averages 37 active players a day?!
There is no real way to get around a time limit (other than changing your local profile data [steamapps\common\Anno 1701 - History Edition\Profiles], which I do NOT recommend).

But there is a strategy to get those hours faster and without you actively playing that game. By setting up a game of continuous play on easy without any opponents, queen, allies, etc.. Then you have to build 12 pioneer houses, a village center and an hunter's lodge. Now you want to put something heavy on your Numpad+ key and wait.... This will roughly double your game time. So you only need 425.6 hours for the platinum medal. [3]

There are three scenario medals: Bronze, Silver and Gold. All three are awarded for completing different scenarios. You can find the scenarios under Singleplayer > Scenarios.

• Playing and completing the three easy scenarios will earn you the bronze scenario medal.
  
• Playing and completing the four intermediate scenarios will earn you the silver scenario medal.
  
• Playing and completing the three hard scenarios will earn you the golden scenario medal.

Since the medals are not independent of each other, you can speed up the process of earning the gold medal by playing and completing only the last three scenarios.

There are four wealth medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. These medals are awarded based on the amount of gold coins accumulated and the selected difficulty in continuous play.

• Playing continuous play with easy presettings and earning more than 500.000 gold coins will earn you the bronze wealth medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with normal presettings and earning more than 500.000 gold coins will earn you the silver wealth medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with hard presettings and earning more than 500.000 gold coins will earn you the golden wealth medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with hard presettings and earning more than 999.999 gold coins will earn you the platinum wealth medal.

There are four inhabitants medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. These medals are awarded based on the amount of your inhabitants on the map and the selected difficulty in continuous play.

• Playing continuous play with easy presettings and getting more than 10.000 inhabitants will earn you the bronze inhabitants medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with normal presettings and getting more than 10.000 inhabitants will earn you the silver inhabitants medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with hard presettings and getting more than 10.000 inhabitants will earn you the golden inhabitants medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with hard presettings and getting more than 25.000 inhabitants will earn you the platinum inhabitants medal.

To earn the Platinum medal, it is recommended to use the hard preset without any opponents. This ensures that you have access to the entire map from the beginning. Additionally, careful planning is essential, especially regarding finite resources. For example, colonial goods should be collected rather than consumed. For efficient planning, refer to the table in my other guide Production of Goods.

There are three independence medals: Bronze, Silver and Gold. These medals are awarded when you achieve independence in continuous play mode, either by defeating the Queen in battle or by paying her tribute.

• Getting independence in continuous play with the easy presetting will earn you the bronze independence medal.
  
• Getting independence in continuous play with the normal presetting will earn you the silver independence medal.
  
• Getting independence in continuous play with the hard presetting will earn you the golden independence medal.

There are four colonial goods medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. These medals are awarded based on the quantity of a single type of colonial good stored in one warehouse during continuous play, as well as the selected difficulty level.

• Playing continuous play with easy presettings and getting more than 200t of one type of colonial good will earn you the bronze colonial goods medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with normal presettings and getting more than 200t of one type of colonial good will earn you the silver colonial goods medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with hard presettings and getting more than 200t of one type of colonial good will earn you the golden colonial goods medal.
  
• Playing continuous play with hard presettings and getting more than 600t of one type of colonial good will earn you the platinum colonial goods medal.

There are three campaign medals: Bronze, Silver and Gold. All three medals are awarded for completing the campaign on different difficulty levels.

• Finishing every level of the campaign with easy difficulty will earn you the bronze campaign medal.
  
• Finishing every level of the campaign with normal difficulty will earn you the silver campaign medal.
  
• Finishing every level of the campaign with hard difficulty will earn you the golden campaign medal.

1. This[www.annomuseum.de] is a German forum discussion about getting the golden medals.
   
2. This[www.annomuseum.de] is a German forum discussion about different requirements for medals.
   
3. This[www.annozone.de] is a German forum discussion about how to get the golden time medal faster.
   
4. This[www.fileplanet.com] is a blog post regarding the Patch 1.02. The Patch 1.02 added the platinum medals.

Feel free to reach out, if you need help regarding certain medals or strategies.