Trade Routes 101

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by zeace
If Lizzie switches to Merchantilism, then she gets no foreign trade routes. One of the patches fixed it so that if she can't trade with you, you can't get trade routes with her either.

Good catch - that seems to be the answer - thanks.

RJM

[fed1943]

So, trade routes are now paired?

Best regards,

[Diadem]

No, they aren't paired. But mercilantism now blocks all foreign trade routes into your empire as well.

Makes it more useful. It still hurts you, but now it hurts the rest of the world as well.

I've had games where all the other AIs were running mercilantism. Pretty much forced me to switch as well. Not that I minded, I love specialists.

[sachmo71]

I'm having a hard time deciding when to go for the trade routes and drop the specialists. I just had a huge war with the Russians and have a ton of rebuilding to do. the specialists are making more of a difference than the extra cash is, but in a few turns it might not be the same.

[binTravkin]

I'm having a hard time deciding when to go for the trade routes and drop the specialists.

I wonder how are trade routes related to specialists.
The only thing I can imagine is a city's growth being slowed or halted by upkeeping specialists, but then again, you only have specialists at one city with National Epic and that city usually has less hapiness than it can feed..

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by binTravkin

I wonder how are trade routes related to specialists.
The only thing I can imagine is a city's growth being slowed or halted by upkeeping specialists, but then again, you only have specialists at one city with National Epic and that city usually has less hapiness than it can feed..

I think this is a reference to switching from Mercantilism (which gives you a specialist in each city) to Free Market (which gives you an extra trade route).

Typically good trade routes to foreign cities will give you a lot of commerce and hence more beakers than you get from the specialists. But if the rest of the world is still running Mercantilism all you get is one extra low value route to one of your own cities. You need to keep an eye on the civics being used by anyone with whom you have open borders and if there are enough cities available for trade routes, then switch.

RJM

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers


I think this is a reference to switching from Mercantilism (which gives you a specialist in each city) to Free Market (which gives you an extra trade route).

Typically good trade routes to foreign cities will give you a lot of commerce and hence more beakers than you get from the specialists. But if the rest of the world is still running Mercantilism all you get is one extra low value route to one of your own cities. You need to keep an eye on the civics being used by anyone with whom you have open borders and if there are enough cities available for trade routes, then switch.

RJM

This is made more complicated by the synergy that representation offers adding 3 additonal beakers to each of those free merc specialists.

It seemed to take an eternity in that game before my research without merc+rep was able to match my research rate with merc+rep as judged by looking at how many turns to unresearched techs in tech tree before and after changing those civics.

[Jaybe]

For future reference, it's much easier to judge how your research is going by checking out your F2.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Jaybe
For future reference, it's much easier to judge how your research is going by checking out your F2.

ok

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Geronimo


This is made more complicated by the synergy that representation offers adding 3 additonal beakers to each of those free merc specialists.

Under Representation, a scientist is worth 6 beakers (plus 3 GPP and 2 culture - where did these come from?) Under mercantilism, a city will typically have 2 small trade routes.

Under Free Market, a city could have 3 trade routes, worth 6 each.

So the potential gain is 16 commerce at the cost of 6 beakers.

If there are enough foreign cities to provide routes to all your cities, it's a good swap. But if most of your cities still end up with domestic trade routes, then you will be gaining 1 commerce at the cost of 6 beakers - not a good swap. So it seems to depend on the size of your empire and your relationship with the rest of the world.

Small empire with many open borders and nobody running Mercantilism = go for Free market; large empire, no open borders or everbody else running Mercantilism = stay with Mercantilism.

RJM

[Thedrin]

(plus 3 GPP and 2 culture - where did these come from?)

3 GPP is standard. 2 culture is from the Sistine Chapel.

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Thedrin


3 GPP is standard. 2 culture is from the Sistine Chapel.

The Sistine Chapel - Ah, yes; I forgot I'd captured that.

(Wouldn't it be nice to have those old Civ 2 messages - "our troops have captured the Sistine Chapel".)

RJM

[Foxhawk]

Has anyone- on any site- written up a more detailed piece about how trade routes are physically established? I was hoping BtS would have some sort of explicit graphic/indication :/

[alva]

I remember DeepO writing something up about the importance of harbours along time ago, so it might be very hard to find (he didn't start the thread either).

[rjmatsleepers]

Here is the total of my personal knowledge on trade routes. AFAIK, this information is what you need to make strategic decisions in game. It does not tell you what is going on "under the hood".

RJM

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers

Trade routes are established between cities automatically and provide you with additional commerce. You can only have one trade route to each foreign city, but you may have more than one route from one of your own cities. Trade routes are lost if there is no city available to trade with. Trade routes between your own cities need connection to the trade network. Trade routes to foreign cities require an open borders agreement in addition to connection to the trade network.

The number of trade routes
Each city begins with a maximum of one route. The maximum number of trade routes per city can be increased by discovering new technologies, completing wonders or buildings or adopting civics.
Discovering Currency increases the number of trade routes in all your cities by 1.
Discovering Corporation increases the number of trade routes in all your cities by 1.
Building a castle increases the number of trade routes in that city by 1.
Building an Airport increases the number of trade routes in that city by 1.
Building a Cothon (Carthegenian special building) increases the number of trade routes in that city by 1.
Adopting Free Markets increases the number of trade routes in all your cities by 1.
Passing the United Nations single currency resolution increases the number of trade routes in all cities in the world by 1.
Building the Great Lighthouse increases the number of trade routes by 2, but only in your coastal cities.

The size of trade routes
The size of a trade route depends on three factors.
Whether the route is from a foreign city.
The size of your destination city.
The size and location of the source city.

The route producing the greatest commerce will be from a high population foreign city located a long way away. If your destination city has a harbour (or in the case of Carthage, a Cothon) , the size of the route will be increased by 50%, but this is rounded down, so a route of size 1 remains size 1. Building the Temple of Artemis increases the value of trade routes in that city by 100%. If you are using the civic Mercantilism, you will only have trade routes to your own cities. Similarly you cannot have trade routes to an AI that is using Mercantilism.

Allocation of routes
All available foreign routes are listed by size. All destination cities are listed by size (modified by possesion of a harbour) and date of foundation. Routes are allocated in turn from the first list to the second. If there are no available foreign routes, allocation is completed using domestic routes. This means that when you gain additional trade routes, the distribution of these routes will change. Similarly the distribution of routes will change if you build a harbour.

[Edit] V3 revised to include date of city foundation. [/Edit]