Merchants : how to (get 20,000 florins a turn)

[Musashi]

I think it's actually tied to how much money that merchant has made in his career.

[Kraxis]

Well, that sort of is the same thing. Mostly... He could of course jsut be a level 5 newborn Merchant from an HQ with a good starter Trait.

[Shahed]

Thanks for the locator help Sinan.

Pleasure.

For the rest, I've never made less than 550, and 550 is usually the major exception. Usually it's 2000 because I always train up my merchants and once Finance +10 then I go hunting for the big fish. And I've seen more than 30 merchants on the map before it's no biggie. It's common that there are that many on the map by 1120.

Still don't have a merchant's guild which is really annoying, I would be making a lot more if I had that guild.

Merchants are extremely viable as the way they are now.

[Darkmoor_Dragon]

"You can get an easy 1-2k florins from buying out a rival merchant alot of times. You've also denyed the computer the income from him and made them lose the 550 investment."

The most I have ever gotten from seizing another merchants assets is 550 florins which is the cost of the merchant itself.


As for 20,000 florins a turn--BS. You would have to seize about 40 merchants to make that amount. There isn't even that many on the map that I have ever seen--not including my own.

Merchants are not worth the money.

20k is around 10 takeovers in one turn - you're obviously targeting the wrong sort of merchants and not using the many guides that are around the place.

Having a fixed income of around 3-5k from 6-8 merchants just from resources is no problem and requires no micro-management.

THe minimum takeover is 550 florins (never seen lower) and 2k is pretty common unless you keep going for total noobies all the time.

[GreatWarrior]

I'm just wondering is this bug fixed in the new patch? The one that doesn't recalculate capital distance after a reload?

[holycow]

merchants are def worth it, and there's zero upkeep, here's how i work them

send out one or a group of merchs w/ a spy or two and scout for a resource far away, have the merch's camp at resource till they get ~4-5 skill, start sending them back to around milan/venice where it seems allfaction camp their merch and try to take them over usually nets 800-1200 flrins/enemy merch, your spy is to keep an eye or for other faction merch that will try to do the same to you, and they will especially if your merch is below 3,

if you keep your merch camped on a resource, then thy're not worth the initial expense.

[Musashi]

They are on the right resources. Unless you don't consider 1000 florins per turn per merchant worthwhile...

[Shahed]

I can't seem to get every single one at 1000 though, some die before the get there. Usually have 3 on 1000. Any tips ?

[Darkmoor_Dragon]

if you keep your merch camped on a resource, then thy're not worth the initial expense.

what rubbish

In a new game i have 6 merchants earning 3974 florins a turn and haven't lost a single one to takeover (and have done 5 takeovers myself)

how is that "not worth the initial expense"?

[Aelwyn]

tip: around timbouktu in Africa are some very good resources; 2 yvory and 1 gold. i play as moors and the region isnt mine yet.
the merchant that trade gold make 237 / turn and the two other that trade ivory make aroun 120 /turn
almost 500 gold/turn only with merchants
until now, almost 40 turns, nobody tried to assasinate or buy them

Where exactly are these in Africa? I am playing the Moors currently, and could only find Iron through Africa...unless I'm not far enough. I've taken over from the Iberian Penninsula to Alexandria currently.

[Shahed]

.... Timbuktu is here:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A candidate question for the sticky FAQ i suspect.

[Basileus]

For a while i stopped using merchants cause i got bored with all the micromanagement but when i started playing as Venice i noticed something, depending on your faction you can get alot of cash from merchants...ok i trained 4 merchants and i had them all in Viena trading silver and dyes 100+ for silver around 60 for dyes, so i thought i would check out some other resources and i remembered seeing a HRE merchant in the stockholm region trading amber for like 200+ on an other campaign..so there i am in scandinavia with my 4 merchants and i trade amber for 500+ each and one is trading for 600+..its working good for my Egyptian merchants aswell, trading silk for 400-600+ in bagdad and Nicea region.

[Kraxis]

A candidate question for the sticky FAQ i suspect.

The new "how do I get to Ireland?"...

[gardibolt]

And there are two gold mines in Timbuktu, not just one. Very tasty leveling up, and any wandering merchants who come by are easily acquired.

[Shahed]

LOL the get to Ireland is a funny one... errr see the green arrow there on the map ? ;) ;P

I'm finally going to own Timbuktu soon enough. On my way across North Africa right now. It's great though, that you can't just stroll across the Sahara like a madman. Makes the whole coastline so much more strategic. You can really starve reinforcements to cities by hitting the roads with a fast cavalry army. Awesome !

[Kraxis]

LOL the get to Ireland is a funny one... errr see the green arrow there on the map ? ;) ;P

Unleet use of smilies, and as such I'm going to respond as if I didn't see them.
I used the term 'new' as in... well, new. New as in 'more recent than the often posed question of how to get to Ireland back in MTW'.
Take that!

I'm finally going to own Timbuktu soon enough. On my way across North Africa right now. It's great though, that you can't just stroll across the Sahara like a madman. Makes the whole coastline so much more strategic. You can really starve reinforcements to cities by hitting the roads with a fast cavalry army. Awesome !

Yeah I like that to. When I took Tripoli once I tought it was going to be a real pain hunting down rebels and brigands all over the desert... In the end it turned out to be a pain, but not like I thought.
Oh, and btw the bringands are smart. Libya has a few oasises for out towards Egypt. Well, I could see the brigands were hopping between them, not just sitting in the wastelands. No they actually targeted the productive regions (and were so far away I could hardly reach them at all... never did actually)

[Shahed]

I'm going to send all the unwanted lewd, demented, perveted, gambling, corrupt sons on a mission vs the rebels down there.

[Kraxis]

I'm going to send all the unwanted lewd, demented, perveted, gambling, corrupt sons on a mission vs the rebels down there.

I found that actually winning against horrible odds makes them come out as strong commanders (and they mgiht just get their penalties to morale cancelled by better virtues and ancilliaries). So I try to win those battles now, they might just have a few more services to do for my empire.

[Captain Pugwash]

I read the above and tried to fathom out exactly how this merchant aspect works. I opened the game as the english for a few turns i have a merchant in france and wandered over to where belgium would be and noticed a resource. How do you aquire rights. The prompts seem to suggest clicking onto it, but the next turn when i went further afield to another resource and followed the process again the trade aspect of the first resource was lost. Is this the norm or can you only trade one resourse per merchant and hence would need hundreds all over the place trading for a few florins a turn.

thanks

[sapi]

You can only trade one resource per merchant; as such it's not really worth bothering with them except on the resources which fetch a lot of gold, like those in Timbuktu

[Lorenzo_H]

The resources worth going for are:
Resource - (position and density) [value varies due to Merchant skill and how many turns you have been playing]

Marble - (Southern Europe) [50-300 Florins]
Gold - (South-west Sahara Desert 2-4 resources) and (New World, 2 in Brazil, about 10!!! in Mexico) [anywhere between 200-1000+ Florins per Merchant = most lucrative resource]
Silver - (Irregular, Sardinia has one) [50-500f]
Amber - (Sicily, Northern Europe, dense concentration in Russia, Poland) [slightly better than silver, slightly worse than gold, 200 - 600 florins]
Tobacco - (North America, Mexico) [300 - 700]
Silk - (Irregular, but mostly East and South on the map) [50-300 florins]
Ivory - (Africa) [50-400]

All other resources are not worth the Merchant's existence; by the time they have paid off their cost they will have died.

[TevashSzat]

And that is why most ppl such as me use merchants to takeover other merchants which nets at least 500 gold per takeover and increases finance

[Tristrem]

just to point this out, another worthwhile resource are the spices and the white cloth(forgot name) that are around egypt and anitoch.

[Northnovas]

just to point this out, another worthwhile resource are the spices and the white cloth(forgot name) that are around egypt and anitoch.

In the LTC v2.1 mod I know there are some adjustments but in Antioch I am getting 1,250 for the spices and cloths in that region. When at war with a region it is not as much but if you own it or obtain trade rights I feel merchants pay off quite well.

[Morgomir]

just to point this out, another worthwhile resource are the spices and the white cloth(forgot name) that are around egypt and anitoch.

the silver mines of austria and the gold mine of zagreb are also expensive goods. the gold mines of america does not generate big sums as merchants trained in the region gain bad traits for most of the time

[Didz]

The best guide to using merchants I have found so far is OG Gleeps here:

http://forums.totalrealism.net/showthread.php?t=2798

Though I am sure there must be others.

Based on my first game using them, I would say that they are worth it but that they do need a lot of micro-managing to realise their full potential.

I was making about 700 per merchant/turn on my lvl8+ merchants trading silk in Asia Minor and they were bringing in more or less as much revenue as my general trade income.

[gardibolt]

One important point not addressed in the training section there: you want to train merchants in an area where there are multiples of one kind of resource. Put a merchant on all of them, and they will get the Monopolist line of traits, which can add up to 3 coin to their skill, making them much more useful for killing and robbing. Or ordinary merchanting.

[Didz]

I'm just wondering is this bug fixed in the new patch? The one that doesn't recalculate capital distance after a reload?

I'm told that it has been, but I am only just starting my first game since installing it so I can't confirm that for sure.

Anyone who is uses the 1.0 version of the game and doesn't capital switch on reload is bound to think merchants are useless, as resources that should be delivering something like 220 florins per turn will only be delivering 38.

I'm hoping this has been sorted with the patch.

[gardibolt]

It is fixed in the 1.1 patch already. I trust they didn't break it in the forthcoming 1.2....

[Didz]

One important point not addressed in the training section there: you want to train merchants in an area where there are multiples of one kind of resource. Put a merchant on all of them, and they will get the Monopolist line of traits, which can add up to 3 coin to their skill, making them much more useful for killing and robbing. Or ordinary merchanting.

In my experience you train your merchants where ever you can. Preferably as far away from hostile merchants as you can get.

I don't know if its me but hostile merchants seem to be born with 3 stars and trying to train new merchants anywhere near them is impossible. Northern Russia was reasonably safe during the early part of my last campaign but eventually got invaded by HRE merchants later in the game. For a while the slave trade around Kiev was a good training ground but that also got infested eventually.

Once your merchants are 3 star traders then they become more resilient but I found being bloody minded and trying to train low level merchants in a high risk area just resulted in them standing around doing nothing for ages or worse got them eaten.