Merchants - Protected by Military

**Fisherking** · 12-16-2006, 15:56

Indeed they do! Often enough to make one worry about it. But like I said, I have never had units go rebel with an agent with the army. Usually they are priests and spies but who know....a merchant may do the job as well.

So far as generals going rebel. As I said he had more than respectable loyalties and was my best general in combat. All my generals in that game had come down with a bad case of royally extravagant and were kept outside cities. I won't pretend to know all the pitfalls in this game but as one gets nearer to victory all sorts of little things seem to pop up just at the wrong time....

Humm....well if you have had them rebel...who can say

**Kraxis** · 12-16-2006, 16:57

Interesting strategy there...

But I would call it an exploit. The AI doesn't do it, and I really doubt it was intended to be like this. However, you can argue your point, that it is just an escort.

In any case it is up to your yourself to find out what you consider an exploit.

**KARTLOS** · 12-16-2006, 17:47

i have heard you can actually put the merchant in a fort! never tried that myeslf, but units in forts do not seem to rebel so a good solution their.

ideally you could garrison the fort with some kind of nearlly dead unit with say 9 soldiers left as the upkeep for theunit will be very low.

**katank** · 12-16-2006, 18:35

So you rationalize the fort as a trading post? Cool. Though that's more investment so it'd better be a worthwhile resource.

**Shahed** · 12-16-2006, 18:37

BUAHAHHA! Talk about camping the resource. You probably won't be able to do that on gold mines I suppose.

**Fisherking** · 12-16-2006, 18:49

WOW! I haven't been that devious..but considering that each merchant is a 500f investment it isn't that bad and an agent can hold a fort. Seems it would keep those 10 agents from offing the poor guy. It may be worth a try but definitely sound like creative playing...after all the manual says that forts can be used to wall of an area...

Of course you can only get away with in in your own lands unless you are willing to cause your diplomatic standing to drop by sending the merchant around with a general.

**Slaists** · 12-16-2006, 20:04

Originally Posted by katank

So you rationalize the fort as a trading post? Cool. Though that's more investment so it'd better be a worthwhile resource.

Well, the key here is "a double resource" in a province. A double resource camped by your faction's merchants will allow them to raise their skill fast through the monopolist/market controller line. Once they are above skill 5/6, they become hunters themselves or can more or less safely travel to high-yield resources on their own (a level 10 merchant does not have a high success chance in a takeover of a level 6 merchant).

So, I would see a couple forts on a double resource a "merchant training school": a good investment in the long run. Well, it would be more fun if I didn't have that nagging feeling this was an exploit actually :)

**Kraxis** · 12-16-2006, 20:15

Well, have anybody actually tried the 'trade post'? Can the merchant still trade from inside the fort?

Yeah, I know the AI seems to knock off merchants quite often, but generally this is where the resources are near roads that are welltravelled. I have accidentally done so myself a few times.

**Musashi** · 12-16-2006, 20:28

Wow, this is a nice trick. I had considered surrounding a merchant competely with peasants but 9 units of peasants cost 810 in upkeep per turn which would take so much profit out of even a master merchant that it would be impractical.

ONE unit of peasants on the other hand...

You can argue it's an exploit but honestly, it makes sense in real world terms. You've simply provided a valuable agent with a military escort, or built a fort to guard a valuable resource and house a trading post (As was certainly done in real life).

**Slaists** · 12-16-2006, 20:00

Originally Posted by Kraxis

Interesting strategy there...

But I would call it an exploit. The AI doesn't do it, and I really doubt it was intended to be like this. However, you can argue your point, that it is just an escort.

In any case it is up to your yourself to find out what you consider an exploit.

Actually, the AI does at least part of this strategy/exploit (probably, unintentionally): it frequently knocks my merchants off resources by placing its troops on the northeast corner of the resource my merchant was harvesting. I have not borthered checking the composition of those stacks (whether there was a merchant of their own in). This frequently happens near Milan/Venice which are high traffic zones though.