Is it ever a good idea to NOT grab the trade nodes?

[gauch0]

I'm still on my first campaign (Chokusabe), and I've held all of the trade nodes since the beginning of the game. I'm wondering whether, in my next campaign, I might enjoy not bothering with them. Are they really critical to a winning strategy, or is it possible to develop a strong economy without them?

[Monk]

Trade is good but relying on it too much will lead you into the negatives. I found this out he hard way in my latest game. I snagged two trade nodes early and built up two big stacks with the income they provided. Unfortunately.. once i ran into a clan who had a powerful navy? Yep.. bye bye trade routes! I was raided and blockaded near to death. If it wasn't for some quick budget slashing and a few key naval victories my campaign would have ended right then and there.

Farming and tax income however is about ten times more reliable. I think any economy should be built on a balance of trade and farming, since in all likelyhood you might lose most (if not all) of your trade income when you go up against a tough clan.

[MCM]

As some clans it's really hard to get them, like Oda/Tokugawa/Hojo. The other clans will get there first, and you're farther away than they are when it comes to a naval fight, and you need more troops for your many-sided land battles.

But yeah, as, say, Shimazu, there's pretty much no reason not to get them. Obviously you need to be able to survive without them, as the computer does go after the nodes sometimes. But given that, it's pretty much always good to get them.

[quadalpha]

Also, I think it's much harder to get trade partners if you have no goods to offer. There was a big war in Kyushu in my Tokugawa campaign that left four trade nodes unoccupied. When I had those, even unfriendly and hostile clans wanted to trade.

[therother]

Since MTW, I've generally used trade income to fund the navy (ports/upkeep/recruitment), taxes to fund the army (upkeep/buildings/recruitment), with a slush fund for special construction/recruitment (in MTW, that usually became enormous!). That way, if you lose your trade routes, your land forces are largely unaffected if you downsize your navy accordingly. It's not a hard & fast rule: an enclaved vassal is more reliable a trade partner than most, so I'll usually take that into account. Plus there are a lot more land trade routes in this game, as I'm finding out with Uesugi... But yeah, taxes for supporting core armies is definitely the way to go IMO.

[Tyrac]

Is it ever a good idea to walk past a small pile of gold and let your sworn enemy pick it up? If your goal is to make your future fights harder then yes, let them have the trade nodes.

[hamysho]

If you consider operating cost, it may be more useful to reinforce a node close to your base you already own than float across the map for 5 to 10 turns to find the node occupied. But that's the only situation I can see passing up a node.

[antisocialmunky]

When you don't have any vassals and all your neighbors turn on you.