Can't seem to get into the game...

[Ramo]

I love trading; it's a great mini-game.

If you have a shot at getting a monopoly, take it! That's where you get your profits (I make 300-500 D each, at several non-Euro COTs - ~1590). If possible, protect your Asian monopolies with your life (or rather, your subjects'). Keeping the smaller, central European COTs (Venice, Genoa, etc.) are generally not worth it, as a multitude of states try to compete with you. Flanders can be worth it, considering the huge value of the COT, relative to the rest of Europe, but it's a ***** to hold on to. If you insure that most of your rivals are spending their merchants somewhere else, take Flanders. Likewise, Novograd can be worth it, if you are lucky. I've also found that trying to keep most Western Europe major power COTs are exercises in futility - they just keep sending merchants to their respective COTs.

Trading also has the potential to give you a nice Casus Beli. If you overload a certain COT, the owner might block your trade. As the Ottomans, this allowed me to attack Portugal, Spain, and the Moguls.

[Reichw]

Im wondering how to establish a center of trade in my own country. I've started play (just got the game) as England and I'm part of the Flanders CoT. Can I establish a CoT for England and Scotland separate from the continent, and if so, what tech level do I need? The book for this game is terrible. It only tells you what things are and not the specifics of how it works. Not like the SMAC manual which explains the workings of game elements so well.

rw

[Par4]

London get's one at about 1500-1510

Anyway I'm not sure but it works ok, whenever I get about 10 colonies above 2000 people and about 5 goods factories I ususally get one in north america. As england, most of the time it's in the biggest colony which is delaware most of the time but I've gotten one in roanoke, carolina, penoscot, and manhattan a couple times.

As spain I usually get one in mexico city(where technoticalan(sp)) is and one somewhere in inca land.

[Grumbold]

Competitive trading is poorly explained in the manual a bit like an adventure game. The atmosphere is explained at length but the mathematics and mechanics glossed over. Go to the europa-universalis site FAQ forum if you want some more clinical answers.

Your traders can do one of four things:
- Increase your own market share by 1 (5%) up to a maximum of 5 provided there are free spaces in the centre of trade (CoT.) Your merchant appears in the CoT. If there is no-one else in the CoT this will always happen.
- Attempt to kick a rival merchant out of an occupied slot and fail. Your merchant is lost. Success chance is dependant on comparative trade tech.
- Attempt to kick a rival merchant out of an occupied slot and succeed. Both your merchant and the opposition are removed. Success chance is dependant on comparative trade tech.
- If you have high enough trade tech you can gain a monopoly by placing a sixth merchant in a CoT. This is where the big profits are made. You gain all the unowned trade in the CoT. Unless the CoT has 20 merchants in it (rarely happens outside the big European ones) you will earn much more than 30% with your 6 merchants.

The cost of trading is dependant on who owns the CoT and its distance from your capital. To make a profit you must ensure that on average your merchant remains in the CoT for enough months to recoup the initial investment cost of placing them. Since minor nations start out with better tech levels than the major powers (balance reasons) it is best to tread carefully until you have invested time and money into research. If you play a power with early exploration opportunities, colonising and opening a CoT in India or China can be astonishingly lucrative.