Some questions from a beginner

[dimca10]

Can anyone tell me how to initiate a trade route by sea? I had linked several sea regions with boats, a mde everything what is rrequired but I can not simply initiate a trade route.

[Innocentius]

- Is the trading province your ally?
- Are there any hostile ships in your path?
- Is there a port in the target province?

Also, you can't see whether there's a trade route or not, you can only notice it by seeing an increased annual income in your own merchant-buildings (i.e. Trading Post etc).

[Sensei Warrior]

You beat me to it Innocentius. If you have everything you need then its probably that you can't see it. Go into your budget sheet and click on the provence that has the merchant building. I believe this will bring up a list of provences that that building can trade with, if there are foreign provences on the list congrats.

Oh remember other provences need a port. If your trying to initiate trade with England, there port provences like Wessex need to have a Port. I sometimes rev up the trade machine really early on and there is noone to trade with bacause no one has built a port yet. If thats the case be patient the comp will start building ports as time progresses.

[Kaidonni]

You don't need to be allied to have sea trade active.

To summarise...

a) You need a Trader at minimum, above all else. Only tradeable goods count. Resources such as iron deposits or silver deposits, if not on the tradeable goods line in the province information scroll, and only on the resources line, DO NOT COUNT.
b) You need a Port.
c) You need an unbroken chain of ships from the sea region your said Port is located in to the sea region the foreign Port is located in.
d) If you're at war with anyone, and if their ships enter a sea region of your trade link, they blockade it. Until they are either destroyed, a ceasefire is called or they leave of their own will, the blockade of that region will remain.
e) You can only export goods to a province that doesn't have those goods. If your province has furs and wood present, for example, it will only trade with provinces that don't have furs and wood. You can still trade with provinces that only have one and not the other of those trade goods, though, I.e. you'd be able to trade with a province that had furs and saltfish, but only the wood would be exported.
f) You don't need to be allied with the faction you're trading with. Neutral will do just fine. War...no trade (obviously).
g) Technically, you can tell if there is a trade route active. Press V and any sea regions your ships are present in and no enemy ships are present in will turn green. Yellow for no presence by you. Red for occupied by enemy ships (either their own sea region or blockaded waters). But this won't tell you which provinces you are exporting to - see above, point e.
h) If you open the finances scroll and click on the province that is trading, a new scroll will appear on the left side of the screen, showing you who you're exporting to, what you're exporting to them, and how much you're making for each province your exporting to (though, it doesn't tell you what the individual resources are worth, you must work that out yourself or see this link: http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...art=21&stop=40 - just scroll down a little, and you'll find a list of what each tradeable good is worth in vanilla MTW:VI).

[dimca10]

Thanks guys, I found it.
Do you know what means:" unit isn't alive(apparently)", because when I am fighting I can't select every unit?

[Don Corleone]

I'm afraid I've never received that one before. Are you playing a mod?

If your unit has broken and is routing (moral gone below a certain point, they're fleeing, icon has a white flag) they will not respond to any of your commands. The only thing you might be able to do is click the horn symbol in the upper left hand corner when they get close enough to the general. This is the Rally button, and it 'may' stop them from routing

[Adrian II]

Thanks guys, I found it.
Do you know what means:" unit isn't alive(apparently)", because when I am fighting I can't select every unit?

I have never seen the announcement, even though I have been a regular victim to routs ever since a certain incident involving a Kensai Warrior in Shinano.

Could it be that you have copied my kids (9 and 11 years old) version of M:TW? They have edited some text files so the on-screen texts I get in certain situations these days are, well, of an adult nature...