Trade Guidance?

Plague cuts off land and sea trade.
Siege cuts off land trade.
Blockade cuts off sea trade.
Rebels cut land trade by 50% on a particular route. Note the AI does not seem to distinguish between routes that actually have trade and those that don't (they can appear on a road to an enemy city).

Land trade:

Will terminate at the first city on a particular road.
Will follow both legs of a fork (but apparently only one leg of a second fork).
The level of trader does not appear to affect the number of trade routes from a city.
Something else does appear to affect the number though :) For instance I have seen cities with a Great Agora have 6 routes (Artaxarta) or 5 (even when others are available).
Anomalies: Palmyra to Hatra has no trade route either way. Lepcis to Cyrene no trade route either way.

Sea trade: Selected by closest port with the proviso that there is no land trade. For instance Sardis and Pergamum don't export to each other (but do accept imports from the other).

Seems like trade routes are hard coded. If a city can't trade with the predetermined destination it won't trade elsewhere. For instance Kotais won't trade until Chersonesos and Nicomadea are available. Phraaspa will only trade with Sakae and Arsakia with Alanni - so the cities around the inland sea do not require an upgraded port.

Unfortunately, for Black Sea ports, that's true. The North Sea acts in the same way, as does much of Iberia. Other cities seem to use other routes when one becomes unavailable. There are three great trade nodes in the game...Salamis for the Eastern Med, Crete for the Central Med, and Caralis for the Western Med. Later in a game, you will see four or even more trade routes that run through these port cities. They aren't all being used, so it seems others open up when certain ones become closed. Blockades become especially hurtful if you close any of those ports, because certain ports get bypassed due to not having anywhere to trade.

You can see all the trade routes to ports, right? I know that some ports will have grayed-out routes, I don't know if they become blue if you take the port they go to (or an ally), or if a blockade grays it out, I believe it is the former. The most lucrative trade area seems to be Greece, and right, Kydonia on Crete is awesome for trade. In my opinion, Athens is even better, I have seen Athens at over 12,000 (I understand that number it shows is not always the profit from that city, though many times it is). What with everything in Greece and then Turkey, the Aegean Sea seems to be the best area. Also, I try to take Tarentum very quickly, and expand, either into Greece if coming from the west, and farther into Italy if from the east. Tarentum becomes the most lucrative settlement in Italy, in my experience.

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Originally Posted by Vincent Butler

some ports will have grayed-out routes

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My eyesight isn't great so I've been staring at Kotais which has a shipwright but no sea trade. I can't see greyed-out routes - maybe I'm using a different version.

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I've been staring at Kotais which has a shipwright but no sea trade.

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You have to have a trade agreement with another faction to start active port trading. If you look in your city's econ folder, you'll see that some trading actually is going on, trade agreement or no. But when you get a trade agreement, the amount being traded goes up dramatically and the active trade route appears. So if Tanais is in Scythian hands, for instance, and you don't have a trade agreement with them, Kotais will not show an active trade route to Tanais.

The greyed out routes are either from a blockade on that ports only other trade partner, or from unused routes. It's not unusual to see four or five routes radiating from Caralis, but only three will be active, provided there is a dockyard there. The value of a route is dependent on the distance to the next port being traded to. The further away the next port is, the higher the income from that particular route. The number of trade items also factors into the value, either by sea or by land. The more goods available to be traded, the higher the income. I've always thought that province-specific goods are under utilized in TW games. As an example, if you want to build an armory, you need iron (duh!). If you have no iron mine in that province or any adjacent province, you could open trade with another faction who does have it, and thus get your armory built. No iron---no armory. Would make trading partners much more valuable, IMHO:shrug:

I am looking at an old game and have finally spotted a greyed-out lane, Rome to Carthage (numidian in revolt). I own almost all of the map. Caralis has 3 out and 1 in (Massala) but as far as I can tell no grey. Kotais must be a special case - in my last Parthia game I owned Sinope which trades with Tanais but Kotais has no sea routes active greyed out or not. Chersonesos is not on the map yet and Nicomadia is enemy controlled.

Maybe Chersonesos and Nicomedia do not have ports yet. Chersonesos starts out rebel anyway. I don't think Kotais trades with Sinope by sea, I have noticed that myself. Probably it only does land trade. I am pretty sure that I see Kotais doing trading, I don't imagine the version matters, I am using 1.5.

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Rome to Carthage (numidian in revolt)

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Numidia is still around? They usually get wiped out fairly quickly with me, though with my Greeks they have all of North Africa barring Cyrene (Macedon) and the Egyptian starting towns. They had an army by Caralis when I landed, and when I took Caralis from Julii they attacked several turns later.
RS, is one reason the unused routes because that town does not have enough trade fleets? I don't think a trade route appears, grey or not, if that route goes to an enemy.

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I don't think a trade route appears, grey or not, if that route goes to an enemy.

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I'm pretty sure that is the case. The unused routes only show those that are potential or blocked.