How much trading have you been doing in v1.3?

[al Roumi]

What experiences have you had of trading in v1.3? Anyone held trade nodes since 1700? Or have most people wimped out like I did and gone for the shelter of dry land and a continental campaign?

The first campaign i tried when v1.3 came out last week was a UP one. In my first turn I did the (then) normal thing of building indiamen in all ports accross the globe and fragmenting my trade fleet in the East indies, claiming all but the 1 trade spot the pirates were guarding and sending the Fluyts off to madagascar. I then smugly ended the turn.



Indeed. The pirates in the E Indies attacked and chased-off 2 of my ships from their trade nodes in the same turn. I tried to move them around and trade whilst avoidingt he priates but lost 2 indiamen in the next few turns. Meanwhile, my fluyts arrived in Madagascar and were set upon by the resident pirate fleet, only just managing to get away back to the indian ocean.

I then canceled my queued indiamen and built a couple of fluyts in Ceylon instead, hoping to use them to destroy the fleet of Xebecs in the East indies and return to "normal" business claiming trade nodes.

I destroyed the Xebec fleet and send my damaged fluyts back to Colombo to be patched up. however, in the same turn another pirate fleet popped up and set upon my defenceless indiamen like a fox in a hen house. Realising that the game had changed in a more than imperceptible manner, I decided to put my UP on ice and start an aclimatisation campaign with Spain.

The Spanish campaign has been going well, although I've made no effort whatsoever to claim trade nodes, concentrating on resources from plantations for trade. As the pirates are now least active in America (especially after taking Trinidad), the main threat to my shipping has come from Moroccan and Barbary state galley fleets blockading my ports in the western mediterranean and GB and UP blockades in the Atlantic.

I've now turned a corner, having built up my navy enough to pressure my Naval foes on their shores. In doing so, I've captured a fair few dromons and have launched a squadron of 3 3rd rate ships of the line. Finaly, in 1735, I am going to send a trade fleet to the ivory coast...

[Slaists]

What experiences have you had of trading in v1.3? Anyone held trade nodes since 1700? Or have most people wimped out like I did and gone for the shelter of dry land and a continental campaign?

The first campaign i tried when v1.3 came out last week was a UP one. In my first turn I did the (then) normal thing of building indiamen in all ports accross the globe and fragmenting my trade fleet in the East indies, claiming all but the 1 trade spot the pirates were guarding and sending the Fluyts off to madagascar. I then smugly ended the turn.



Indeed. The pirates in the E Indies attacked and chased-off 2 of my ships from their trade nodes in the same turn. I tried to move them around and trade whilst avoidingt he priates but lost 2 indiamen in the next few turns. Meanwhile, my fluyts arrived in Madagascar and were set upon by the resident pirate fleet, only just managing to get away back to the indian ocean.

I then canceled my queued indiamen and built a couple of fluyts in Ceylon instead, hoping to use them to destroy the fleet of Xebecs in the East indies and return to "normal" business claiming trade nodes.

I destroyed the Xebec fleet and send my damaged fluyts back to Colombo to be patched up. however, in the same turn another pirate fleet popped up and set upon my defenceless indiamen like a fox in a hen house. Realising that the game had changed in a more than imperceptible manner, I decided to put my UP on ice and start an aclimatisation campaign with Spain.

The Spanish campaign has been going well, although I've made no effort whatsoever to claim trade nodes, concentrating on resources from plantations for trade. As the pirates are now least active in America (especially after taking Trinidad), the main threat to my shipping has come from Moroccan and Barbary state galley fleets blockading my ports in the western mediterranean and GB and UP blockades in the Atlantic.

I've now turned a corner, having built up my navy enough to pressure my Naval foes on their shores. In doing so, I've captured a fair few dromons and have launched a squadron of 3 3rd rate ships of the line. Finaly, in 1735, I am going to send a trade fleet to the ivory coast...

I guess, it depends on what faction you are playing. The colonial powers (Brits, Spanish, French, UP, also Marathas, Mughals, Turks and Russians) have the advantage of having significant amounts of trade goods produced in their territories (tea, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton, spices, furs). These factions can generate significant trade without the need to fight for the 'anchors'.

Playing as the Brits I managed to grab quite a few of the trade nodes after the initial trade node rush by the AI. Ironically, the Pirates destroyed the AI fleets in the process, but got wiped out in the process themselves... So, by 1715, the British fleet could roll into many trade nodes unopposed. Subsequently, I took out the pirate islands and thus the grey pests ceased to be a problem.

My biggest trading 'bottleneck' came in 1730 when Spanish, Prussians, and Marathas all declared war on me at once. All 3 of them had been significant trade partners of mine before + they are able to block my remaining trade... I even had to disband some troops and older ships to be able to afford further development. An interesting game.

Playing as French in 1710 I am mostly doing 'raid-run' kind of trading. With several Indiamen roaming the theaters. Once the pirates attack, I run (for another theater) to trade somewhere else... Given the low upkeep of the Indiamen: it seems to work so far. I am scrambling to send some army to deal with the source of the problem (in the Caribbean) though.

[Hosakawa Tito]

I've played Prussia for the first time since owning the game. I tried sending two Indiamen to the Ivory Coast to grab a piece of the ivory trade. I snuck by the pirate fleet and grabbed a vacant trade node, but next turn the pirates destroyed me. I haven't bothered with a navy since then and concentrated on Germany & eastern Europe. It's 1720, I'm allied with Austria and have taken Saxony, East Prussia, Courland, Warsaw, Vilnius Lithuania, Bavaria. I'm at war with Poland, Russia *just declared after I took Vilnius from Poland*, and Westphalia. I've been trying to develope my industries & farms and am trading with Denmark, GB, Austria, Ottomans, Sweden, Portugal, Hannover. However I just can't seem to make any money, maybe 1500 per year if I'm lucky. Westphalia & Wuttermberg are so strong that I can't attack and hold either without opening up Brandenburg or Saxony to invasion by either or their ally Hannover, who has quite a stack of troops also for a 1 region faction. I'm kind of stuck and can't decide what to do at the moment. I'm trying to ally with Sweden in hopes their big navy can help me out and put pressure on Russia, but so far no dice.

[Slaists]

I've played Prussia for the first time since owning the game. I tried sending two Indiamen to the Ivory Coast to grab a piece of the ivory trade. I snuck by the pirate fleet and grabbed a vacant trade node, but next turn the pirates destroyed me. I haven't bothered with a navy since then and concentrated on Germany & eastern Europe. It's 1720, I'm allied with Austria and have taken Saxony, East Prussia, Courland, Warsaw, Vilnius Lithuania, Bavaria. I'm at war with Poland, Russia *just declared after I took Vilnius from Poland*, and Westphalia. I've been trying to develope my industries & farms and am trading with Denmark, GB, Austria, Ottomans, Sweden, Portugal, Hannover. However I just can't seem to make any money, maybe 1500 per year if I'm lucky. Westphalia & Wuttermberg are so strong that I can't attack and hold either without opening up Brandenburg or Saxony to invasion by either or their ally Hannover, who has quite a stack of troops also for a 1 region faction. I'm kind of stuck and can't decide what to do at the moment. I'm trying to ally with Sweden in hopes their big navy can help me out and put pressure on Russia, but so far no dice.

BTW, post 1.3, unit costs do differ across difficulty levels. It seems much harder to generate high per-turn profit on VH.

[Daveybaby]

I'm currently playing a marathas campaign, and didnt bother sending out trade fleets during the early stages, instead concentrating on taking out the mughals. While i was doing that i noticed that the AI factions have been giving the pirates a pretty comprehensive beating, to the extent that the pirates are a spent force, every ship they spawn gets taken out the turn after it appears.

So now i'm in the situation where most of the trade theatres are free of pirates, and there are still plenty of trade spots available as a result of inter-faction fighting. As i'm fairly isolated down in the indian subcontinent i'm not at war with anyone except the remnants of the mughal empire (and they dont have any fleets left, and no ports to build any ships with) i have a free reign to go out and start filling up those trade spots.

[FactionHeir]

Most any Western nation that has oversea holdings can take out the pirates by turn 8, so you won't need to send escorts with your merchants anymore.

[al Roumi]

Most any Western nation that has oversea holdings can take out the pirates by turn 8, so you won't need to send escorts with your merchants anymore.

Indeed, i was in a position to deal with them by turn 10 (in my spanish campaign), but focussed instead on completing the New Spain mission and then rolling up the British islands.

I've actually got no idea what the situation is in the trade theatres, but I think there is at least one large Pirate fleet roaming accross them.

I'd been leaving the pirates, perversely relishing the challenge (obviously not so much relish or i'd have carried on as the UP...) to setting up trade from the nodes.

[Slaists]

Most any Western nation that has oversea holdings can take out the pirates by turn 8, so you won't need to send escorts with your merchants anymore.

You'll regret that decision once most other Western Nations declare war on You ;)
I've had Spanish galleon fleets give my Indiamen thorough trashing a turn after the Spanish justly (I had taken Cuba from them earlier in the game) declared war on me (the Brits)...

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Indeed. I had almost a monopoly on spices and ivory when France decided to attack me. At first my Spanish galleons were able to keep the French fleet away from the trade nodes. But after a while a French squadron slipped through and annihilated my monopoly. After that I had one galleon on each node but a surprise DoW from Savoy caused me to loose an other node. At the moment I have 9 out of ten ivory nodes and five spice nodes. The strangest thing is that I only started to sent in Indiamen from turn 10. By then I had destroyed the pirates, but strangely all the nodes were empty.