Trade routs, whats the deal?

[Xy1on]

If you begin a new campaign as the English, you start out on turn 1 with a sea trade rout from Caen to Portugal, and from Caen to Denmark. You dont start with trade rights so apparently they are not needed for sea trade. What wierds me out is that these trade routs (and other trade routs) will vanish without reason. Ive sailed the waters from port to port looking for pirates. The ports are not blockaded. No war was declared. Whats the deal?

[TheFluff]

Ya i been trying to figure the trade out myself. Luckly in the settlment managment window, you can actually click another button and it shows you the exactly income from trade and where its going and where its comeing from and if its a sea or land trade. Suprizeingly to me, 400 trade income doesnt seem like much, but you have to rember alot of citys make like 1000-2000 income with out sea or land trade. Suprizeingly it seems that as your empire grows you can get more trade routes to your own citys (even in war time) but i like you still cant figure out what makes it tick, and how the level of income is actually figured out. It seems like alot of varabiles, and not every castle/town seems to make any money from trade, its werid.

[Oaty]

Trade rights gives a ~10 percent trade bonus with that faction. So it's well worth it. Not sure what the correct percentage is.

[Sir SillyDuck]

Can u actually make or pick trade routes? or are they made random or does it automatically pick the most profitable?

[Zenicetus]

Can u actually make or pick trade routes? or are they made random or does it automatically pick the most profitable?

If it's like RTW (and I think it is), you can't control this. The game just auto-calcs the most profitable trade routes. You can boost the volume of trade over land and sea, and the number of sea routes, by upgrading roads and ports.

[Zoltan]

Lol, I'm having problem with trade routs all the time too. My merchants seem to turn tail and flee screaming at the mere sight of an enemy.:laugh4:

[Bob the Insane]

The reason for them disappearing is either war (you can't trade with them) or the target port being blockaded.

As above trade rights gives you bonuses to any trade with that faction...

[HughTower]

I've two observations on this:

1. I'm about 80 turns through a Venetian campaign (m/m) and I've just managed to beat off my enemies and consolidate every coastal city & castle on the North Med coast from Marseilles to Thessalonica (bar Rome, because he's a Venetian, as is half the college). I've actively focussed on getting as many trade rights as poss, and upgrading all the marine buildings to as high as possible. As a consequence, the trade routes are packed full and florins are coming out of my ears. It's deeply satisfying. Taking Marseilles & Naples was especially helpful in assisting this process.

2. The Merchant's Wharf / Warehouse line of buildings attribute you what the stat pages calls 'trade fleets' (increasing in number up the chain). It would seem reasonable to assume that these increase the traffic on the routes.

Since I'm at war with almost all my neighbours, my land trade is almost exclusively intra-faction, so the sea is my saviour.

Which for Venice is historically accurate, so well done CA again.