okay, so how does trade work?

[solypsist]

do i just build a port, market, and some roads and everything runs itself?

[USMCNJ]

you need first level market to trade with your cities
you need to sign a trade agrement with another faction in order to trade with them
you need to build a port in order to trade via the sea
i think roads only speed up your trade.

this as far i know, i've only been playing for a day. (finally got it to work on my pc yesterday)

[Dorkus]

don't thinkk you need a market. market just (mildly) boosts trade income.

[The_Dude]

You need a trader I think to start earning some money. Then you can updgrade to market, forum....
Road and port allow to get new trade. I mean if you have a trade agreement with a faction, you will be able to trade by road and sea. Upgrading your road should give I guess a bonus to trade (haven't check yet).

[Dorkus]

i repeat: you do NOT need a trader building to trade. (And this time, i am sure; i just tested)\

Edit: let me reiterate that this INCLUDES THE FIRST LEVEL. Load up the julii claim and note that eturia has no trade building but around 200 in trade, including sea exports to carthage.

Each level of trader grants around a 10% increase in trade. Since exports are now capped at 1/level of port, this makes the trade buidlings absolutely terrible economic investments.

On the other hand, the first level grants an 0.5% bonus to pop, and all the trade facilities are necessary for some of the other upgrades (notably, the blacksmith line). SO you might want to build them for those reasons.

But if you're looking for income grwoth, look elsewhere. Trade can generate a nice bit of income, but building trade buildings is a waste.

[The_Dude]

And have you tested if road upgrade give an extra incom in trade?
I guess trade work by road too.

[Dorkus]

first level gives no boost.

subsequent levels give a piddling boost. Probably aroudn 10%. I haven't checked but casually i recall them being as bad or worse than the trade facilities.

i haven't tested how much they boost movement, however, since I do all my movement by sea anyways (no landlocked provinces). Might be worth looking into if you have a key province in, say, egypt, and need to get to the mediterranean.

[The_Dude]

Well if trade is that bad, how do you boost your income?
Do you need to get your port updgrade first?
In my first game I remembered that passed one point, when you have like 7-10 town you can make a lot of money, but I didn't check if building trade bulding increase that.

[Dorkus]

Well if trade is that bad, how do you boost your income?
Do you need to get your port updgrade first?
In my first game I remembered that passed one point, when you have like 7-10 town you can make a lot of money, but I didn't check if building trade bulding increase that.

ports aren't bad investments. i'm earning 1000 in sparta (pop 6k) from athens exports (on a 800 investment, this is a sparkling 125% per annum return!). What's weird is there are no icons. Athens is trading nothing to sparta and sparta is earning 1k off of it. go figure.

Still, since the game automatically chooses the best trade route first, each level of port, while doulbe the cost, will give less returns in trade income.

The best thing about ports is you need them anyways. Ships are an absolute must (in volume and quality), so you get both a far better return than any of the nominally economic buildings (farms, mines, trade) and troop capability too!

I always wondered why people struggled so much in the strategic part of htis campaign. Because I never had any problems, strategically, in MTW or so far in RTW (though my battle management is rather poor, hehe).

Reading some of these threads, I think the problem may be that people tend to instinctively build all these seemingly nice economic upgrades when in fact all they wil do is slow down the growth of your empire. You need to look at exactly how much the building is giving you before you decide to buy it. When you look at teh numbers, you'll think twice before you buy again.

edit:note the relevant prot is the ATEHNS port and not the sparta one.