Merchants

[easytarget]

So, often times I find myself sending out my merchants to locate good trade and after only a few turns a rival merchant from one of the other nations shows up and buys him out, my merchants rarely win this little turf battle.

As a result, because I find this rather annoying, whether because I sent to the trouble of sending my guy half way across the planet or because the other nations also proceed to invade my homeland with merchant spam, I then proceed to recruit an army of assassins and proceed to lay slaughter to anything and everything that moves and claims to be a merchant, otherwise I never have mine stick around long enough to rank up and be able to successfully compete with rival merchants.

Once I get some merchants developed I ease up on the assassin business and use merchants to take over the other nation's merchants.

For those of you who prefer not to take the hit on your traits by the use of assassins how do you deal with the waves of never ending merchants coming at you?

[jackfruitguy69]

put merchants on a boat...send them to denmark/timbuktu/anything with a land bridge...send them to the resources....block the land bridge with your boat.

[easytarget]

Thanks, I'll keep that trick in mind when it's possible, but narrow application I'm afraid. What other solutions are there more generally other than killing them off constantly?

[Gregoshi]

I've not run into my merchants being killed or put out of business yet. Guess I have something to look forward too. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to use them.

[easytarget]

Yeah, it's not that major of an issue, not remotely game breaking as it is in Rome 2 (where due to agent spam and the refusal after 12 patches to fix it by CA I've stopped playing the game altogether).

Here you just have other Nation's merchants often just appear out of nowhere and buy out either your merchants out in the field or inside your own provinces right under your nose.

I've taken to killing them, which leaves my leader with a bit of a reputation. ;) And I suppose I could just ignore it, it's not like merchants are my main source of income, but I don't know why, but I just can't seem to ignore having this happen, I find it particularly annoying that merchants from my allies poach up all of my merchants.

So, figured I'd hit the forum and see how others handle it.

[Myth]

Just park a unit on them. And don't place more than one merchant on a resource with a unit or fort on top of it. It's called merchant fort and it's a very game-breaking exploit.

[easytarget]

Hmm, so you can plop a single unit next to the merchant or on top of them and that prevents rival merchants from closing them down?

Interesting, but as you said, an exploit, so I'm not likely to put it to use.

Short of an exploit what does everyone tend to do?

[Myth]

Cut off access to the province. Have assassins roaming around. Also, I've found that killing the Ai is the most effective method of stopping its agents.

[easytarget]

Ok, cut off and assassins, that's the ticket then, been doing plenty of the latter already.

Not sure I follow on the killing off of the AI, every nation is doing this, so while I suppose killing them off is indeed the solution, but that's the same solution for preventing them from doing just about anything, haha

[Gregoshi]

I've not run into my merchants being killed or put out of business yet.

I spoke too soon. Two bought out right after they setup shop. Rather annoying.

[Myth]

Ok, cut off and assassins, that's the ticket then, been doing plenty of the latter already.

Not sure I follow on the killing off of the AI, every nation is doing this, so while I suppose killing them off is indeed the solution, but that's the same solution for preventing them from doing just about anything, haha

Hehe, that was a joke. Also, try to recruit them all from a city with a Mercahnt's Guild. The stronger they are when recruited the lower the chance of them losing to an AI merchant.

[Gregoshi]

Last night one of my merchants actually fought off a buy-out attempt. In fact, he did so well, he put the attacking merchant out of business. Not that I really did anything to assist this miracle, I was just surprised as it seems like the attacker has the advantage in buy-outs.

[easytarget]

Yep, I've had my guys win a few as well, always surprised by it as most of the time they disappear. Shortly thereafter an assassin catches up with the offending foreign merchant and they pay for their greed with their lives.

[TeHpWNaG3]

Last night one of my merchants actually fought off a buy-out attempt. In fact, he did so well, he put the attacking merchant out of business. Not that I really did anything to assist this miracle, I was just surprised as it seems like the attacker has the advantage in buy-outs.

Merchants are underrated, IMO. When properly developed, they can each earn several hundred per turn. I usually spam merchant guilds, especially in port provinces, in the hopes for the HQ offer. To your point, attacking merchants have a much greater advantage over the resource squatter. Time and again, I've seen very small success rates being overcome by this exchange, but within reason; a level two will not take out a level eight and if he does, you're either VERY lucky or very unlucky. Two "free-range" merchants that meet seem to follow the success percentage more closely, with the attacker again having a slight edge. The takeaway is to always be the attacker. I make it a point to produce merchants ASAP and have them take out the rival neophyte merchants before letting them retire on a gold mine for the last 15 or so turns of their life span. Once the AI has a dominant foothold with their merchants, it is very difficult to establish a great trade game. It sucks to send a merchant across the map only to be taken out as soon as you find a good resource to sit on. Cripple everyone's capacity to establish trade via merchants and it will pay off big time in the long run. Unlike blocking a port, there is no transgression for taking over a merchant. Assassins work fine for this, but you don't get the doubling effect of stopping their trade whilst generating your own. I will only use a high-level assassin to take out a high-level merchant when that merchant is dominating a very rich area. Silk near Bagdad comes to mind. There are usually heavy hitters out there.

IME, rival merchants seek out your merchants only when you roost on a resource. If you don't have the movement points or clout to take out an approaching merchant, pull your merchant off the resource for a turn. Virtually every time, they will go in a new direction or sit on the resource you were on, even if they have the muscle to eliminate your merchant. On the next turn, you have a much better chance taking them out (again, within reason). I like to click on a rival merchant to check his remaining movement points to determine if I should pull my merchant off of a resource or let him sit until the next turn. The tight-knit trade area in northern Italy is awesome for this strat.

Without trade rights with another faction, their merchants typically won't step foot in your provinces and you'll earn less sitting on a resource within their borders. If you really want merchants to come to you (for easy hostile takeovers), establish trade rights. They should send plenty of freshly-minted noobs your way. For the most part, merchants can only be trained-up by sitting on resources (a slow process) or buying out other merchants (the fast way). Guilds, of course, get them more worthy right out-of-the-gate.

If every florin is important to you, hop from resource to resource until you get to your final destination. You may not get there as fast, but you'll earn some money every turn and experience points, too.

My last tip is the resource "pairings". Most resources on the map are laid out in pairs. I've noticed that having two merchants "dominating" both will generate more revenue. And, of course, the further the resource is from your Capital, the more valuable it becomes. This becomes clear when sending a dozen merchants to the New World to sit on gold mines without any worry of being taken over.

[easytarget]

Assassins and spies don't cost me much so I just send them with the merchant, I coddle my merchants, they get an escort service, haha.

[TinnedCan]

The problem is, that ive been putting merchants on, lets say, 10 florin per turn resources, only for a turn before moving on, and then I get bought out. Then the rival merchant just moves on. Whats up with that!?

[easytarget]

The AI appears to be of two minds on what to do with merchants. One is to hunt down the human players merchants and buy them out and the other is the more typical business of setting up shop and trading.

If you keep spies or watchtowers in the vicinity of merchants you have you can see the opposing merchants in time to do one of the following:

1. check them out and see how strong they are, if your merchant is higher leave them in place and dare the AI to try and take them out, or take them out preemptively with your merchant
2. kill the advancing merchant w/ an assassin
3. take your merchant off the trade item temporarily as the opposing merchant nears (I often do this by just pulling them into the nearest town or castle) where they cannot be bought out, shortly thereafter the opposing merchant will lose interest because it appears they are programmed more to hunt for human merchants to buy out than to track down that specific trade item near you
oh, or
4. never give the AI the choice of hitting your merchants and send them way off the map somewhere that pays quite well and is such a hike no merchant AI wanders down there (if you look down at the bottom of the map below Portugal/Spain in N Africa) you will find 3 trade items at the very bottom of the map, all three trade for 100-300