Tips for trade

[lancelot]

Hello all,

Ive finally picked up ETW, and am playing my first game as Britain.

Are there any tips for ramping up my trade income?, at the moment I have approx 3 indianmen in the trade spots off brazil and a few on the west coast of africa spots and thats about it, I will be looking to expand into other places shortly.

What should I be doing/where should I be going, to really cash in on trade?

Which is better, more spots or should I be maxing out ships in the spots I have?

[Hoplite]

Every trade ship at a trade post after the first one suffers from diminishing returns, adding less trade goods to your empire than previous ones. Therefore, to maximise your income, first try to get as many trade posts occupied as you can, and then start adding more trade ships to occupied trade posts. Take note of the value of the trade goods transported by the ships. If a trade ship's upkeep should be greater than the value of the goods it transports, it obviously isn't paying for itself. The east indies spice trade tends to bring in the most money, but is beset by pirates from the start of the game, and is troublesome to patrol early on due to its remote location.

Make an effort to post actual battle fleets to the trade theatres, as the computer is rather fond of attacking your trade ships whenever possible. (The AI likes to man its trade posts with large fleets combining both trade ships and war ships, but I prefer to patrol trade theatres with separate fleets)

[rvg]

Hello all,

Ive finally picked up ETW, and am playing my first game as Britain.

Are there any tips for ramping up my trade income?, at the moment I have approx 3 indianmen in the trade spots off brazil and a few on the west coast of africa spots and thats about it, I will be looking to expand into other places shortly.

What should I be doing/where should I be going, to really cash in on trade?

Which is better, more spots or should I be maxing out ships in the spots I have?

Trade is good, piracy is better. Go to war with Spain, France and the Marathas, then park a bunch of warships on a trade route near the Moroccan coast, and you'll rake in far more money than trade would bring.

[jaspritsingh]

Question

If I am playing as Marathas (who have loads of Tea and Cotton plantations) does it make sense for me to upgrade those to the max level or is there some concept in the game that increased production leads to drop in prices ???

If there is a drop in prices can it be used as economic warfare ? I mean i spam so much cotton so that some other cotton producing nation loses money its making due to drop in prices ?

The point over East Indies is quite valid, but isnt that the same for all trade routes ? I means as the Marathas I went nuts when countries neutral to me blocked some other country's route to My ports just because they were at war. I picked up costly wars with Ottomans and Spain just to clear my trade routes. ( Nevermind it didnt work, I lost money on trade and also a great deal of money to maintain the new fleets and armies that I had to make to beat those buggers - but then no one messes with the Maratha Samrajya )

[Fisherking]

You have tea, cotton, and a couple of spice plantations in India. Yes upgrading the plantations helps.

I don’t think there is a price drop you can use to your advantage. Getting rid of others trading the goods is the better method. At least reducing their trade ships.

The trade rout thing is unavoidable. It only gets worse if you go to war over it. The God of the game AI hates the player. Anything that will hurt the player is fair game. In ETW you just have to live with it.

[jaspritsingh]

Completed the Maratha Campaign as a Monarchy .. dint change the govt ( am no fan of democracy). Managed to hold on by not researching some civic techs and removing schools. Ofcourse it meant I could not get a first rate in time but then I managed pretty well with second rates.

Finally saw some good thinking from the AI.

Britain to my great surprise and annoyance did not invade me (I kept a full stack in Goa to greet them all through the game.) I saw them load ships full of men and then sail around but they did not come to India. Instead I went to Europe and feuded with the Polish. To my huge huge surprise, Britain did not support them, instead went to war with the Poles. At the time the Poles had greater prestige (they had civic techs) and we are both terrifying and spectacular in terms of power and wealth.

Question is - could the huge trade bonus have something to do with that ?

[Fisherking]

I don’t remember seeing the AI factions going to India unless they actually honored an alliance and got sucked into a war.

That is one of the reasons that the AI Marathas are such a pain and take over so much.

I can’t remember playing as Maratha. Did you ever undergo the time in the game when everyone is against you?