Automating Wagon Trains

[conmcb25]

How does it work, I press the button ingame, and it appears to do nothing?

What am I missing?


Thanks?

[snoopy369]

You have to go to the F1 menu and then Import-Export. Create some trade routes by telling cities what they should be importing/exporting.

I'm not particularly happy with how these work, to be honest, though I see why it was done this way. Trade routes in Machiavelli/Merchant Prince 2 were much simpler (and that was a Col 1 - era game...) where you selected "begin trade route" with a ship, told it what city to start with and what to pick up, what city to go to next and what to sell/pick up, city 3, 4, etc. I also don't see a way to have a trade route go to Europe...

[conmcb25]

OK maybe thats what Im missing, I set up the export but didn't set up the import.

Then after that do you just click the start trade route button for the wagon train?

[snoopy369]

I think you pick a trade route. I haven't really used it yet because it's not very user friendly... I should probably give it a shot though.

[conmcb25]

OK Ill dink around with it tonight.

[Dale]

After setting up some imports and exports, just click "fully automate" and your wagon trains take care of the rest. You can also assign a wagon train to a specific route, but I prefer just the general fully automate as then a wagon train will perform all routes.

[conmcb25]

Originally posted by Dale
After setting up some imports and exports, just click "fully automate" and your wagon trains take care of the rest. You can also assign a wagon train to a specific route, but I prefer just the general fully automate as then a wagon train will perform all routes.

Good to know, thanks Dale

[Dale]

Just make sure for every export a city is importing it, or it'll never move.

Oh, and make sure the importing city has PLENTY of space! Warehouse + expansion is useful to this city to ensure you don't go over the threshold.

I like to set my main city (the one my galleons take stuff to Europe from) to import everything except food and wood, and then have the other cities export to it.

[conmcb25]

OK Ill try this out tonight.

I fear Im way behind the power curve but the first game was to get the feel of the game anyway.

[Ellestar]

Originally posted by Dale
Oh, and make sure the importing city has PLENTY of space! Warehouse + expansion is useful to this city to ensure you don't go over the threshold.

In other words, there is a usual 4x problem: you may set it to auto, but if you want it to be efficient, do it manually and prepare for a lot of micro :/

[Byteblock]

Originally posted by snoopy369
You have to go to the F1 menu and then Import-Export. Create some trade routes by telling cities what they should be importing/exporting.

I'm not particularly happy with how these work, to be honest, though I see why it was done this way. Trade routes in Machiavelli/Merchant Prince 2 were much simpler (and that was a Col 1 - era game...) where you selected "begin trade route" with a ship, told it what city to start with and what to pick up, what city to go to next and what to sell/pick up, city 3, 4, etc. I also don't see a way to have a trade route go to Europe...

To get a trade route to Europe going with the Auto Mode you can do 1 of two things.

1) Export something with none of your towns Importing it
2) Export something with your towns that also import set to a Export threshhold. (So it is checked Import and Export, and then give it a number to keep)

All of the excess goes to Europe. Naturally this works best if you have a Boat in Auto Mode with your Trains.