Trade

[mcveigh]

If you have 2 ships in a traderoute does your merchants make more money then?
More ships > more cargo > more money?

[rasoforos]

no , not really....it doesnt matter on the number of ships as long as your traderoutes are green.

[PseRamesses]

Hi and welcome to the Org Mcveigh. I´m afraid it doesn´t but if you keep several ships in a sealane without making a stack out of them your enemies will have a hard time breaking your chain of trade ships. I often use this for low-graded ships and it also alows my fleet of battleships to reach the area of conflict before my trade-chain is broken.

[mcveigh]

Thats what i wanted to know
cheers mate

[mcveigh]

So its best to keep the ships next to each other rather then keeping em in a bunch < except for warfare ?
Rammesses Its nice to be here..thx.

[fruitfly]

It&#39;s the level of merchant building and the number of friendly (ie non-hostile) ports you&#39;ve got linked up to your trading network that determines your income (the acumen and trade-related V&Vs of your king and province governor also have an impact). The number of ships in each sea lane doesn&#39;t affect this at all.

The main reason for keeping your ships in fleets of one is to ensure that you don&#39;t have them all sunk at once if the AI declares war on you, as any one stack can only attack one other at a time. However, keeping your ships stacked increases the chances of you winning the naval battle, since weight of numbers seems to be more important than most other factors.

The presence of just one enemy ship in a sea lane will cause a blockade and stop you from being able to trade or transfer armies along that route regardless of how many ships you have there yourself. That means it&#39;s good to have your stacks of ships broken up if you&#39;re losing the war as it maintains your blockade of the AI for longer and gives you a chance to move and regroup your fleets for a counterattack. I always try to have far more ships than the AI though, especially near my own coasts.

[katank]

I would try to have a single ship in every sea zone first and then try to have two in every zone. This can not only help you in small naval wars but also prevent storms from destroying your trade routes.

storms can only sink one ship so having two ships can prevent the trade lines from being cut. even if it&#39;s for one turn, it can really hurt if you are a big trading empire.

deep water ships help with this somewhat as you have more chances to bypass the route and still keep most of the route in tact but having 2 in each zone is still highly advisable.

beware of upkeep costs though as they can be quite hefty. make sure to grab as many islands etc. as you can to lower support if you are a major trader nation.

[mcveigh]

Thanks. really helpfull.

[motorhead]

I always build my trade routes with pairs of ships. The AI gets very aggressive when you have single ships sitting off their shores. I can&#39;t count the number of times the italians or sicilians would sink just one ship off their coast. Now at i&#39;m at war with them, lose trade income, and have to scramble to get a ceasefire back in place.

[katank]

motorhead is right about that. I was build my traderoutes near them the last, even if I&#39;m allied with them. darn pirates. if I do build a trading network near them, I would always have a stack of three lying around with which I can punish the darn pirates if they attack my trading.
another solution is to be a pirate yourself build say a stack of three and freely attack any ships you see this stops AI trading fairly well and can curb the itlaian, sicilian threat. however, don&#39;t venture into the straits of siciliy where each may have easily a dozen ships. instead, sink their ships every where else adn then lure those ships out.
they often send extra ships one at a time (suckers)

[Nowake]

Quote[/b] (mcveigh @ Mar. 05 2004,15:30)]So its best to keep the ships next to each other rather then keeping em in a bunch < except for warfare ?
Rammesses Its nice to be here..thx.

Always have 2 ships in order to avoid confusion in case of storm.