Great Britain - game allows too many trade routes?

[chrish007]

Ok, so my understanding of foreign trade routes is that you need to be able to link your capital with the trade partner's capital, up to a maximum of the number of trade routes your ports can support (5 for Great Britain, at the start of the campaign).

However, when setting up diplomatic relations in turn 1 I find I can actually trade with many more than 5 factions, so far I have:

United Provinces
Austria
Hannover
Denmark
Thirteen Colonies
Muratha Confederacy
Mughal Empire
Ottoman Empire
Venice

I don't get why I can trade with this many factions. Is this a bug??

[sassbarman]

Don't forget you have land trade routes aswell which obviously doesn't require a port.

[chrish007]

No, I realise you can have land routes as well.....only Great Britain is an island, and has no land routes to its capital.

[sassbarman]

check out the section on trade http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/48849/t/Spraetter-39-s-Guide-to-Empire-Total-War.html

[Servius]

Each Level 1 Trade Port provides 2 trade fleets. In addition, your primary port just to the east of London is a Level 2 Trade Port, which provides 3 trade fleets. I can't remember their names, but you basically have...

Level 3 Trade Port (east of London) = 3 fleets
Level 1 Trade Port (Bristol) = 2 fleets
Level 1 Trade Port (Cork?) = 2 fleets
Level 1 Trade Port (Glasgow) = 2 fleets
Total = 9

There's your 9 trade agreements.

[chrish007]

ah - so if you have additional trade ports that not in your capital region, but that are linked to it by a land route, these also count towards your total.

Ok so why if I build up 9 trade agreements does none of the trade routes go to Cork/Glasgow. Instead I get like 4 going to Bristol and 5 going to London. I guess they all go to the capital anyway, even if the extra ports are in other regions - confusing!!!!

Also, when getting trade agreements the game says you have 2/5 sea routes left, you have 1/5 sea routes left, not 2/9 1/9 etc. Again v. confusing. So basically when I have 1/5 left, make a new agreement, I can still make more because actually i have 5/9 not 1/5.

[chrish007]

Please someone help - is this a bug in the game, or am I not understanding something correctly?

[Fisherking]

It is the way it works. Not every port has a trade route but every port counts for available trade routes.

[rvg]

It is the way it works. Not every port has a trade route but every port counts for available trade routes.

Which is why the Ottoman Empire is able to trade with everybody and their brother.

[Servius]

It's also a risk though sometimes, because for the AI nations, it seems to direct ALL trade to a particular port. If that trade port gets blockaded, no trade for you, even if you have other trade ports that the trade could go to.

For example, even if Russia holds St. Petersburg, all of Russia's trade goes through Sevastopol, which means through the Med, which is full of pirates and naval states...

[Fisherking]

It's also a risk though sometimes, because for the AI nations, it seems to direct ALL trade to a particular port. If that trade port gets blockaded, no trade for you, even if you have other trade ports that the trade could go to.

For example, even if Russia holds St. Petersburg, all of Russia's trade goes through Sevastopol, which means through the Med, which is full of pirates and naval states...


It is changed from the 1.1 & 1.2 system. Overland trade is unaffected. Some overseas trade is redirected and some going to other ports is also unaffected. Port size also makes a difference of where the trade goes.

In my last campaign in 1.4 I noticed ports switching on and they suddenly had trade routes going to them. Some I still can’t explain. I was Austria but I had trade going into Portugal and Spain which were not contiguous with the rest of my lands. I did have land routes with the countries in between but that has never happened before.

[Kantalla]

The trade system changed 1.3-1.4 from what I could see.

What I believe happens now is that when a trade agreement is formed, the closest two trading ports that are either part of the relevant Capital regions, or with a direct land route to the Capital regions are linked together, provided they have spare capacity.

In some circumstances, it is possible for goods to have two sea stages with a land stage in between. For example, if you start a game as the Ottoman Empire, your trade route with the Mughal Empire comes in to Basra in Mesopotamia, then goes overland to Anatolia, before crossing the Aegean Sea to Thessaloniki in Rumelia. Likewise your cotton from Egypt and Syria is exported from Syria to Rumelia rather than take the land route. I presume this is how Fisherking was seeing that trade from Portugal when playing as Austria.

Two trade ports in a single province can do odd things sometimes too. Playing as Spain I had a second port appear in Hispaniola, and when that happened, all my American trade came into the western of the two ports and went out the eastern port. That suddenly meant my entire trade income from the Americas could be cut off by a single pirate sloop blockading either port!