waiting for the florins to roll in

[Rufus]

Just got the game, love it, it seems dangerously addictive, but anyway: playing my first campaign in VI as the Northumbrians. I think I have all the ingredients for overseas trade to get going: port and trading post (not just trader) in Dere, boats linking Dere to the Mercian province to its south (forgot the name), where they have a port (but no trading post). Reading the manual, it sounds like the foreign province has to have a port but not necessarily a trading post for overseas trade to start (but you have to have a trading post). Yet my trade revenue through the Dere post hasn't changed from the minimal domestic amount. Am I misreading the manual - does the destination province have to have a port AND a trading post?

thanks

[meravelha]

Hi Rufus
Congrats on post #1.

As far as I understand it, the destination port does not need a trading establishment.
You do need a line of ships connecting the two ports though...

[meravelha]

and while you can share that maritime space with allied or neutral shipping, ships of enemies will break the trade link until you shoo them them out of that space or destroy them.

Thus your trading income is liable to be cut in times of war and (depending on how much trade you are getting) this will be a big factor in your diplomatic decisions.

[Mouzafphaerre]

-
Welcome to the ORG Rufus.

The below thread must help you:

MTW Economics 101 (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=16077;hl=economics+101)

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif
_

[Rufus]

thanks for the advice, all - I think I was just impatient. Started seeing a lot more cash in the trading provinces within a round or two.

[nick_maxell]

welcome to the org Rufus

another point for trade is that you can only trade with neutral/allies and never with rebels - a point you might want to consider when alliances are offered (eg if playing somewhere west be friends with italy and Byz in early to have free accesss to the eastern med) and you should think hard attacking the italians unless you have a strong fleet in place or your tradenetwork will be down in 2 turns.

happy trading

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

nick

[Ludens]

In fact you can trade with rebels. However, the game treats rebels as one faction, so if you attack one rebel province, you are at war (and cannot trade) with rebels all over the map. You do get auto cease-fire if you don't have a border with them and get all your ships away from their coastline (I believe you also must remove agents from inside their borders, but I'm not sure about that).

However, it does takes some effort for money to start rolling in. Just one trade route is not enough, you better have multiple exporting and importing provinces if you want to make up for the investment (and the upkeep) of the ships. In the VI campaign I seldom found it worthwhile since there are so few ports. But in my current Egyptian campaign my fleet dominates the Mediterranean and I have so much money I don't know what to do with it.
In fact, I've gotten dependent on it. I really need to destroy the Byzantines, but they are my mayor trade partner If I attack them, my treasury will collapse

[Xiphias]

Trading does get a bit excessive in the Medieval campaign. You can easily get 6K from your best provinces.

When I'm playing a medieval GA game I usually end up with a few million florins by the end of it.

[katank]

@ ludens, this is why you must not get addicted to the trade income. it can vaporize in times of war.

hence, keep your armies cheap and small if possible.

safe islands or internal provinces can be guarded by a peasant or two while cheapo defensive units that do the job and low in upcost are good for defence.

for example, as eggy, use AHC as your medium/heavy cav and liberally use nubian spears etc.