A Trade Question

[bamff]

In my current campaign as the Danes, I have secured control over the coastal provinces in the north (Normandy to Finland) plus Sweden & Norway. I have also managed to "engineer" rebellions in most neighbouring provinces, then I destroy all buildings and pull back to my territory.

This gives me a "buffer zone" - to get at me, any enemies have to come through the rebels first, giving me time to deploy troops, etc...Also, anyone taking on these provinces (rebels included) have to rebuild all from scratch.

Just wanted to check (because it appears to be this way) that the rebels are still happy to trade with me after I pull out. It strikes me as curious that I can waste their province, they rebel, I pull out, and then they are happy to turn the other cheek and buy from me...other factions won't do that, so why the rebels? :inquisitive:

[Mooks]

The rebels arent a faction. I think that they have no goverment (notice how they get no taxes when you play them) So they cant really control who buys what.

[bamff]

Yeah, I suppose that would explain it - I just thought it was a bit strange...

A follow on query - having never played as "Rebels" before - if you cannot raise taxes, how do you finance stuff? Just via pillage, plunder, and looting?

Sounds kinda fun although not entirely practical...yeah okay, so I'm definitely not descended from Viking stock....

[Geezer57]

If you've never directly attacked the Rebels (anywhere, not just in a particular province), then they'll be neutral towards you and trade is possible. It's important not to destroy the port and trade buildings in a captured province, should you want to trade with it later.

If the Rebels are hostile towards you (due to an earlier attack on them by you somewhere), it may be possible to "force" a cease-fire on them by vacating your ships from all adjacent sea areas and giving up any shared land borders. This isn't always feasible or practical, but (usually when turtling) I've done it a few times when my campaign emphasis is on trade.

[Animal]

Why not just occupy the towns you take over instead of raze them and retreat. This town can still be considered a "buffer" if you remove all the military buildings and just build up economic buildings. By creating a "buffer" it might keep your enemies further away, but it does more damage to your expansion possibilities...IMO

[bamff]

Really I suppose it boils down to (a) keeping other factions at arms length while I build up; and (b) then being able to expand without incurring any papal interference (ie because it is rebels that I attack when it IS time to expand.

I doubt that I would use this approach if playing as a Muslim or Orthodox faction (and when I finish this campaign, I aim to try my hand at the Turks).

[Kralizec]

You'll become neutral to a particular mini-faction of rebels if:

-you have no land bordering to them
-you don't have any ships in any waters adjacent to them
-(not entirely sure about this one) you don't have any agents in their province(s)

Essentially you must be totally cut off from them. Works with normal factions too.

If you're raiding these provinces and retreat to trade with them, it's vital that you leave the port intact. Sometimes it will be destroyed upon conquering it, you'll just have to rebuild it. Trade buildings don't need to be present in the provinces of your trading partners.

[bamff]

Thanks for the tips, Kralizec! Will check it out on my current campaign - it may well be the set of "common denominators" that explain what is happening!