Help on sea trading in MTW!

[Lord_PH]

Hello,

I am relatively new to MTW and i find the game fascinating. i was wondering how i could raise my annual income, apart from better farming, mining and higher taxes. i built some trading posts and upgraded them, but i hear that the best trading comes from sea trade. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

from my experience in STW, i build ports in strategic areas and they raise my income considerably. therefore, i built ports in MTW. but, when i click on the port icon, it says 'this structure generates an annual income of: 0. how come? do i need ships around the ports/docks and connecting to other docks/ports? is there some link between the trading posts and ports/docks and ships? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif

please explain any help is appreciated http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Sir Robin]

This is a pretty common question with MTW.

The basics are as follows, IIRC. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

You must have one trade building of at least Merchant level.

Provinces with trade buildings must also have ports in order to trade with other nations.

You cannot trade with provinces in your faction, only provinces belonging to other factions.

To trade with another faction their provinces must have ports and be allied, ceasefire, or neutral with you.

You must have at least one of your ships in each sea/ocean/strait from your province with trade building/port, to their province with port.

Any faction ship that you are at war with will cut your trade route from working beyond the sea they are also occupying.

You can generate alot of money thru trade. However once you get to the point of having an AI superpower, their inevitable declaration of war can quickly put you in the red.

In other words, its a nice extra income, but don't rely on it lasting forever.

[ichi]

Lord PH:

Brave Sir Robin just gave one of the most concise answers I've read in a long time. All I can add is that you can check on the status of your sea lanes by pressing the V key; green is controlled by you, red is blocked by enemy.

ichi

ps my favorite color is green. I don't know the capitol of Assyria.

[MalibuMan]

Yep, excellent summary. One tiny mistake: you don't need a merchant level building to trade overseas, the basic trading post will do.

[MonkeyMan]

Hi Lord_PH good to see that you have been taken care of. Welcome to the org http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[some_totalwar_dude]

Hi Lord_PH.

I see you've been helped out already but for some further tips cheak out this tread in the mainhall. Trade (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=7;t=8161)

This tread contains some usefull advice about setting up trade routes.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[MrWhipple]

Just a couple of extra tips. I always put my ships in pairs, one slow one fast ship. This makes it easer to defeat enemy ships and also has the advantage of leaving a lane open if you loose a ship due to war or storm. When available get deep water ships like caravels and put them in the n. atlantic, atlantic and central and western Med. From theese 4 positions you can get to almost any place on the map in one turn. Try not to dominate costal provences, leave them to your alies so you can trade with them. Except for a few scattered around the map to keep upkeep costs down. And sit back and watch the florins flow in.

[Razor1952]

Just note about trading with rebels.
If there are lots of rebel states to trade with then it may be best to leave the rebels alone. ONce you have committed a hostile action on a rebel faction, then you are technically at war with all factions for ever and then will never be able to trade with them..ever(well till your next game anyway)... why is this so , just a quirk I guess..

Also if you want to trade seriously then grab the provinces with lots of goods(like antioch which has 4) you can get almost 10k florins /year out of one province with maxed trade links/highest acumen governor/maxed trade buildings.

[hrvojej]

Your ports will only show income if other factions have a viable sea trade route to them, in the same way that you have to have yours set up to trade with their ports. The income from port imports is negligible (single digit numbers usually), but it exists, and that's why the ports are showing it. The actual income you get from your own trade routes will appear on a parchment of your trading post/merchants/etc.

[bighairyman]

another tip, sorry if it had been metion before.

the ideal(sp?) province or ur trading province should be a province with a lot of trade things http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif . ex- constandiople(sp). because let's say ur trading province only have food, then ur not gonna make a lot of money.
ex- let's pretend that greece sells food and it's trading w/ constanmdiople, which also have food on it's list of trade objects. constandiople will not buy food from greece because it have enough food and it's also selling food.

sorry for bad spelling, i'm never a good speller.

and hope everyone understands this http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Knight Keimo]

Quote[/b] (Razor1952 @ July 02 2003,02:31)]ONce you have committed a hostile action on a rebel faction, then you are technically at war with all factions for ever and then will never be able to trade with them..ever(well till your next game anyway)... why is this so , just a quirk I guess..
Not forever. I guess that Rebels are just like any other faction, so if you dont anymore share a a border with them, they will soon become a neutral to you. That works with AI factions also.

Thanks, I´v never know before that Rebels would trade.
That´s nice http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Are they really as good to trade with as real factions?