How to build a trading fleet ?

[ichi]

Gah!, I keep forgetting that not everyone is running 2.01.

As I said in another thread, VI is worth the cash, short of that run 1.1.

ichi

[edyzmedieval]

VI is definitely worth the upgrade...

New units, fixed bugs.... But most of all, improved trade....

[EatYerGreens]

Thanks for the follow-ups, guys. Nice to know even 1.1 has the fix.

But did I read somewhere that the v1.1 patch is inappropriate if you're intending to install VI right after MTW?

Or put another way, what is the correct install sequence?
Is there a different patch which I need to apply after an install sequence of MTW, <don't apply v1.1 patch>, then VI....?

[EatYerGreens]

Improved trade is something I certainly look forward to. Not just for my own benefit but to stabilise the AI sides against one another.

So far, I've only tried the English, Byzantines and Almohads. In-game glitches and HDD crashes have thus far prevented me from finishing any of them. Twice when I was the English, the Byz totally collapsed and get holed up on Rhodes. When I was the Byz, the Almos wiped the floor with Egypt, the Turks, Spain, France and UK and were busily coming east to meet me across Europe instead of from the south. Now, as the Almos, the Byz are thriving on a diet of Novgorod, Poles, Hungarians and HRE. It never makes any sense.

I hope they added a feature whereby the landlocked territories with things to trade can at least export to all neighbouring land provinces where the neighbour is neutral or allied - that would make so much more sense.

I still find it peculiar that you cannot trade with other territories belonging to your faction. Common sense says that this intra-empire trade is going on but the game regards it as 'tax-free' transactions and your treasury is unable to take advantage of it.

I would have to suppose that it's entirely in the interests of game balance in that once one side gets a slight lead in trade capacity, the snowball effect would mean that they'd just get totally out of control and be unbeatable. Or, if the player is 'winning', the endgame becomes far less of a challenge.

When you think about it, trade - and the protection of it by military means - is what the whole game is about. The trouble was that people weren't so neighbourly in those days. Once suitably tooled-up to defend what was theirs, there was an awful temptation to give them something to do other than sit around getting paid for doing nothing...

That commandment about 'not coveting thy neighbour's ass' has always struck me as a bit off the wall. So much so that, in the context of what I've just written, I can't help thinking that it was originally about his lands. Only they had to reword it in later centuries so as not to make sinners out of all of Christian soldiery as it could be taken, figuratively, to mean nations as well as literally the person owning the farm next door.