Raided Trade Routes

[Grriffon]

I've been trying to browse threads for answers about this, but am having mixed results. So, I'll go ahead and ask a few probably dumb questions, and hopefully you can help me out.


When your trade route is being raided, do you lose all the income it would generate, or only part of it?

When a trade route is being raided, do you have to look along every trade route on the map until you find the offending party? Sometimes the looking glass won't take you there, and there is no obvious blockade.

If a trade route is in an almost constant state of being raided, are you better off canceling the trade agreement and trying to forge a new one?


I'm currently playing as GB, and have a pretty decent navy, but several of my trade routes are almost always being raided, and I can almost never find the offender. I'm sort of at a loss on what to do. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Prussian to the Iron]

1. When your trade route is being raided, do you lose all the income it would generate, or only part of it?

some of it, but it increases the more turns it is blockaded

When a trade route is being raided, do you have to look along every trade route on the map until you find the offending party? Sometimes the looking glass won't take you there, and there is no obvious blockade.

just check where you are losing income and send over a navy; ive nver had the magnifying glass not work......

If a trade route is in an almost constant state of being raided, are you better off canceling the trade agreement and trying to forge a new one?

depends:

are you getting lots of money from them without raids?

is the trade route to them different than the trade route being raided?

do you have a sufficient navy to protect the trade route from the regular income?

I'm currently playing as GB, and have a pretty decent navy, but several of my trade routes are almost always being raided, and I can almost never find the offender. I'm sort of at a loss on what to do. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

try making peace with the nations currently at war with you; they can be a nuissance.

odds are you are being attacked by pirates. try taking their settlements and killing them off and their navies will die instantly

[Didz]

When your trade route is being raided, do you lose all the income it would generate, or only part of it?

No! If you check my opening post in the 'Trade Route Monitor Results' thread you will see the data for my trade from the East Indies whilst the trade route is being raided. The data shows that the pirates are actually stealing 20% of the spices being transported along the trade route.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=117356

What I haven't established yet (because it hasn't happened) is whether these losses a cumulative. e.g. if a second pirate fleet or an enemy faction raided the same trade route would I lose a further 20% off the cargo that managed to avoid the first raiders.

If the answer is Yes, then it would make more sense to place a series of single vessel fleets at intervals along an enemy trade route then place them as one large fleet. But I don't know if thats the case yet.

When a trade route is being raided, do you have to look along every trade route on the map until you find the offending party? Sometimes the looking glass won't take you there, and there is no obvious blockade.

This is a major shortcoming of the trade window as things currently stand. It would be nice to be able to click on the 'Your Trade Route is being Raided' symbol and be taken to the spot where the trouble exists, but as things stand all you get is the looking glass on the original report.

Sometimes it can be quite difficult to work out why the trade has been interupted, but the only way I know of doing it is carefully tracking the trade route from destination to source to look for the cause of the problem.

If a trade route is in an almost constant state of being raided, are you better off canceling the trade agreement and trying to forge a new one?

Not if its being Raided, as probably as much as 80% of the goods are still getting through.

However, if a trade port has been blockaded, or worse if the trade port has been captured or destroyed and no goods are getting delivered to your trade partner then you might want to consider cancelling your trade agreement and freeing up your trade port to allow you to enter into a trade agreement with a new partner.

As a matter of policy its always best to try and seek trade agreements with factions that are not at war, or who have powerful navies capable of keeping their ports open. Also be aware that trading with factions in the med is always going to be problematic due to the Barbary Pirates.

I'm currently playing as GB, and have a pretty decent navy, but several of my trade routes are almost always being raided, and I can almost never find the offender. I'm sort of at a loss on what to do. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Bear in mind that there is a difference between a 'Trade Route Being Raided' and a Blockade.

If your trade route is being raided you will see the trade from that trade theatre (e.g. Ivory Coast, Madagascar, East Indies or Brazil) greyed out on the Trade Screen. This will almost always be an enemy fleet sitting on your trade lane flashing the pirate flag, so its just a case of checking the entire route screen by screen till you spot it. Then get the navy over there and send them to Davy Jones.

However, if its a blockade, then the problem will appear in the lower section of the trade screen and will only affect one specific trade partners. The first place to check in my expereince is your trading partners trade ports. The chances are that their trade ports have either been captured, destroyed or are being blockaded.

Bear in mind that this might not be a fleet action, its possible the the enemy army has captured or destroyed the port. If so, there is really little you can do unless you want to go to war with their enemy. You can try feeding your trade partner money and hope they use it wisely to buy the troops and ships they need to re-open their trade, but they could just as easily spend it on wine, women and song and let their enemy keep their port.

For example: in my current game my trade with Sweden (1069 per turn) is being blockaded by a Danish Fleet parked on their Trade Port. So, I figured never mind I'll cancel my trading agreement with Sweden and make one with Denmark. But when I checked the Swedish fleet was actually blockading the Danish Trade Port. The two fleets were well within interception range of each other but neither moved to attack the other, they just mutally blockaded each others trade.

So, if it looks as though they are not going to do anything about it then you might want to cut your losses and cancel the trade agreement.

[Flavius Gonzo]

I think you probably got all the info you needed from Didz & John, but here's a few other thoughts:

Having your route raided is much different than having a port blockaded. First, if it's one of your home ports being blockaded, destroy the offending fleet asap, that can be a huge cash loss.

If it's a raid somewhere far away in a trade theater, that's a different story. Didz relayed plenty of details on how that works -- most likely the best move here is to tolerate it for a while until you can get a navy out to destroy it.

The third possibility is that one of your partner's ports are being blockaded, this is a bigger deal than a route raided, because you'll lose all the income from that partner. If you click the gov't icon, then the trade tab, you should see if this is the case in there, the entire line item for that country will be greyed out. The worst scenario here is the route is being blockaded by someone at war with your partner, but not with you. In this case, you have to tolerate it, cancel the route or start a new war.

So, you'll need to consider if the route is worth a war. If they have alliances or protection from someone else you are trading with, it's probably not worth losing one route for another. But in my recent campaign as the French, I kept losing money to Georgia blockading the Russian port in Crimea. I finally got fed up, declared war on Georgia, and stomped their navy. They rebuilt a few times, but mostly I'd end up facing a half stack of brigs, sloops, & galleys, which just ended up being good training.

I'd say cancelling the agreement might be an extreme option, viable only in rare circumstances. First, you'll lose the logevity bonus, which can get pretty big eventually. Second, as GB, you should have no shortage of trade routes to fill -- lots of ports in the London region and you get a new route for ever level of commercial port you build (e.g, you should not be constrained by the number of spots available in your home region.) The only cost is, those goods being raided/blockade would be reallocated to your other routes, however, I think in the long run, it would often be better to wait for the route to be clear than to lose a logevity bonus.

One final note: Pay attention to the AI moves after clicking end turn. You'll see a navy move onto one of your routes before you get the "trade route raided" notice, it is much easier to figure out where the problem is this way than tracing each of your routes later. And in the case of a home port blockaded by a party at peace with you, you won't get a notice at all, and watching the AI moves is the only way to discover this is happening.

[Grriffon]

Thanks for the info guys. It seems like it is indeed a problem with my trade partner's ports. A couple other possible dumb questions though, if you don't mind.


In the trade tab, if the whole line of trade is just red outline and greyed out, does this mean I am getting no proceeds at all from trading with them, since either their port is occupied, damaged, or blockaded?


If you cancel an agreement with a nation who can't keep their ports safe, will those goods be divided up and sold to your other trade partners, or will you most likely end up with too much supply and not enough demand?

I'm currently trading with almost every large nation except austria and france. The only thing stopping me from acquiring more minor trading partners seems to be a limit on their part, not mine. I'm eagerly awaiting the downfall of some of these minors so I can swoop in and sign agreements with the victors though.


Thanks again for any advice!

[anweRU]

1. If the trade line with a trading partner is red, then you are not getting that income. You can verify by looking at the total trade volume in the trade tab, which will be larger than the trade income in the summary tab. The difference is the amount that would have been traded with the blockaded nation.

2. If you cancel the trade agreement, then the good will be distributed among your existing trade partners. However, the prices might go down due to oversupply of existing demand. Prior to 1.2 the trade prices were determined globally. With 1.2 they seem to be determined by your trade partners.

[jsberry]

If the answer is Yes, then it would make more sense to place a series of single vessel fleets at intervals along an enemy trade route then place them as one large fleet. But I don't know if thats the case yet.

The answer is yes. If you have a 2-ship fleet raiding an enemy sea lane, split it into two 1-ship fleets and they will raid more. Don't know the percentage, but it is more.