Merchants and Assassins

[Didz]

My merchants are total shite. If I send them to a resource, they are smacked down by enemy merchants. If I send them after enemy merchants, they are smacked down too. What can I do to make them better? I am training them all in one city to get Merchant Guild bonuses, but it doesn't help much at all.

These questions have been answered in more detail in other threads and guides.

This is my favourite, if you want to read one:
http://forums.totalrealism.net/showthread.php?t=2798

However, to answer the two keys issues you raise above.

If I send them to a resource, they are smacked down by enemy merchants.
Yes...They will be....the AI specifically targets merchants standing on a resource. So ,as soon as you stand a merchant on one consider it a target.

The solution is micro-management unfortunately, never leave a merchant standing on a resource blind. If it is operating in foriegn territory it has to be accompanied by a spy with a decent sight range so that you can see the hostile merchants closing on your location.

When an hostile merchant gets within striking distance, simple move your merchant off the resource. The hostile merchant will instantly lose interest and wander off. Once he has 'pissed-off' stand back on your resource point and carry on trading until he returns.

If I send them after enemy merchants, they are smacked down too.
Well there's no excuse for that. You should get a clear statement of the % odds of success before you send the merchant in, but the AI is notiously fickle about its resolution. My own advice is to basically cheat....I check the combat odds for a successful takeover and if its 85% or 95% I don't expect to lose my merchant doing the dirty deed. So, I do a CTRL+S quick save just before the attempt and if the AI thinks its being funny by killing my 8 Star merchant with its 1 Star noob trader I teach it whose really boss by reloading and making it think again. I have a sort of unwritten code of honour that says that if I get a NIL-NIL result I let it stand, and if the AI kills my merchant 3 times in a row on the re-rolls I accept it as a rare result. But having your Alan Sugar super-merchant taken out by some Dell Boy from the local market is just some computer programmers idea of a laugh, but I don't think its funny so I won't accept it.

[Captain Pugwash]

On the same vein its just as bad when your 8* merchant is taken out by same said 2*merchants

[Didz]

On the same vein its just as bad when your 8* merchant is taken out by same said 2*merchants

Well as I say if you are micro-managing your merchants then this should not happen as you just move them off the resource and the hostile merchant loses interest.

[_Tristan_]

Well as I say if you are micro-managing your merchants then this should not happen as you just move them off the resource and the hostile merchant loses interest.

Without going as far as the fort exploit (search forums for explanation), you can anyway join your merchant with an army stack thus making it attack-proof from enemy merchants...I tend to use remnants of units to do this...

Of course, this only works on hostile territory when at war or on your own...On neutral territory, leaving even a 5-man unit will sorely lessen you reputation with the owning faction...

[Didz]

Without going as far as the fort exploit (search forums for explanation), you can anyway join your merchant with an army stack thus making it attack-proof from enemy merchants...I tend to use remnants of units to do this..

Never thought of that, in fact it never occurred to me that merchants could join armies.

I had a look at the 'Fort Expliot' thread and it looks like quite an interesting idea. Building a fort on the resource and then inserting a merchant in it sounds like an expliot to me, but then if one is going to protect ones merchants by moving them off the resource everytime an enemy merchant comes close, paying 500 florins to get the AI to protect them instead does not sound too much of a cheat. It would certainly help in the early stages of training merchants ready for dispatch to foriegn lands.

[TevashSzat]

Captain Pugwash, if your 8 finance merchant is near a 2 finance one, you should be the one to take the offensive and try to aquire him