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unmerged(1270)

unmerged(1270)

Corporal
Feb 26, 2001
28
0
Hello. I just got the game yesterday and have been playing non stop after a little trouble installing. But it works perfectly now. I read the manual several times through, but cant really understand it. (The manual doesnt even have a table of contents?!) anyway, heres my questions

A) Whats the deal with this merchants and Center of Trades? So far, all i do is press Send Merchant(is that what it says correctly? i cant remember right this second). I just wait and hope my merchants do something. Can anyone explain how they work, and how to get a monopoly or at least what to do with them?

B)I've played two games onthe GC, once as Portugal, and once as Russia. It seems as though EVERYONE hates me, i dont think any other nation has a relationship of +10 with me. How do i get people to be my ally etc. I dont really look at diplomacy very often when i play, i'm very busy micromanageing a war or colonization, so i often neglect the diplomacy button. I try giving those tributes and letters with 200 money units, but they dont work to often.

C)This question goes along with A)... when i was playing Portugal in the G.C., I had set up several colonies in 'Brazil', as well as more colonies on the west coast of Africa, slowly going down to southesat africa. Are they helping me any? what am i getting from them? I had a level 6 Trading post with Sugar (in brazil), when i clicked on the territory, then clicked on the church oin the town window, and got territory info, it says the income was very low (2) and had a little bit of coins next to it. When will i start getting revanue and such from colonies/trade posts?
Also, I read in the manual that Center of Trades could be changed in my favor without merchants, but by making colonies or something... can anyone explain this further? i didnt really understand it.

Thanks for anything you can help me with.
 
OK, diagnostic

A) the merchants you send to a center of trade don't arrive immediatly. After a delay( I don't really remeber how much), they will either take a share of this market or compete with someone else or be lost. Each center of trade can only have 20 traders so, that's why you have sometimes to compete. A succesful installement of your trader will provide you some revenue which will be desplayed in the trade screen between paranthesis next to the value of the center of trade. Note that this value will vary and that your efficiency will depend of your Trade level.
As for monopoly, you need to reach a certain trade level to be able to access it and it will give you additionnal revenue.

B) First Portugal and Russia are not very great country as for diplomacy. Their monarch are not very bright in that area. But certainly, the main reason why there is so much people that don't like you is your Badboy value. Don't look for that in your manual. It has been implemented with the improvements coming with the patches. So what is it. Well, this value has been implemented in order to counter too aggressive countries and to help the AI to identify these countries. Indeed, many players play it with a 20th century mentality of total war. It was not the case in that period, you needed a Casus Belli to wage war against other countries in order to not be seen as a threat to European stability or Barbaric nation; especially against nations of the same faith than you and if you annexed provinces from other nations. So if you act like that your Badboy value will increase and every country will start to distrust you and if it continue, everybody will hate you. so the solution is to restrict your wars to the necessary ones and if you declare war to somebody, it's far better to have a CB.

C) Well, when you are in the economic display orin the province info tab, click on the ressource, it will give you an idea of the offer and demand for that product. As for Trading posts, they are only useful to produce the ressource of the province; the revenue of the province itself will only start to become interesting and higher that if you transform your trading post (only merchants trading with the local population) in colony (settlers).
As for your portugese strategy, yes, it is interesting but the real goal as for your possessions in Africa (where the provinces themselves are poor) is to stage some colonies in order to have ports along the way to Asia which is the real juicy prize for Portugal.
concerning center of trades, as you develop your empire, other Centers of trades will appear later and existing ones may also move. It is interesting to control the province where a Center of trade is located for additional revenues.

Hope it will help, do not hesitate to ask other questions.
Kind rgards,
Crusader
 
Thank you for your reply Crusader. It really cleared my view about diplomacy. hehe, i kept playing the russian games until 1600 or so, and all nations were -200. I know why now, cause i was declaring war on little nations around the caspian sea every other year or so! I guess i'll need to try some new strategys.

I still have a question about colonies and trading posts. The why you say it makes it sound trading posts dont give much money back. Other than there cheap price, is there any reason to make a trading post?
Also, After i make a colony (or trading post) should i send more settelers to that colony? Is the population somehow linked to the income? (little symbol of coins an a 'None to Very High scale' with a number). And does that income go to me? (either yearly or monthly)

Also, as i was playing, I had a lot of revolts at one time. This to was during my russian game. I controled 2 providences of Sweden, annexed the golden hordes and another small nations next to me, something with a K?.. and had taked enough land to start exploring east toward Siberia and eventually china... i was about 3/4ths the way to china, and rebillions would spring up left and right. It was harder to fight these Rebel Scum than it was the other teams. Is there anything I can do? I had a stability of +2.. actually now that i think of it, i had less rebillions when i was at a stability of -3 or -2.

Heres another question. Normaly, i make all infantry for my army. (russians get infantry for 2 thingys a piece! I couldnt believe it). So i would have a large army of about 50 to 80 Infantry... no calvary and sometimes some artillery, but thats expensive. well, is there any tactical advantage or, anything really i should know about these 3 units? And going along with military, is it possible to raise a leader/commander's rank either by winning battles, or maybe some button i havent found?

Thanks again. You dont know how much your helping me
 
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Trading posts will increase the possible revenue at a COT. So your trading posts in Africa and South America are making the COT of Portugal (Tago, right?) worth a lot more than it normally would be. So yes, there is a point. And yes, you should send more colonists. Eventually a colony can become a city and the natives will join the population, making the place a lot more worthwhile taxwise.
 
The cheap price is the number one reason to build trading posts. Colonies are very expensive to place, but large amounts of trade posts can be built at little cost and they bring in a large income. When building colonies, it is usually best to try to get the city up to a population of 700 as fast as possible. When the city population reaches 700, the colony becomes treated like a normal province and you can build fortifications and raise armies. Thus, they are necessary to protect your defenseless trade posts (which can be burned to the ground by enemy troops). Also, note that in some locations provinces have negative growth rates until they reach a certain population (often about 1,000).

You can check the revolt risk of provinces in the province information screen. If you hold the mous over the revolt risk percentage, you can see a breakdown of the factors affecting this risk. Religion is one of the most important things affecting it; you can of course set religious tolerance using the slider bars. Also, if you are at war for a long time, you will begin to get a 'war-weariness' factor that increases revolt risk.

Leaders don't raise ranks. Cavalry in battle is a very helpful supplement to infantry. It is possible to lose battles at very good odds in pure numbers because the enemy has more cavalry. Russia, of course, has extremely cheap infantry and so needs cavalry less than other nations, but it should still use some. I normally have a 4:1 infantry:cavalry ratio. Artillery is essential to taking fortifications by siege and eventually helps in battles.
 
Originally posted by Caesar Augustus
Which one is the one inhabited by the Simpsons? Kentucky?
Click to expand...

Illinois, I think?

Trading posts, besides making a bit of cash for their COT, are also a useful way to plant your flag in a province you plan to develop more later. However, they're defenceless so this only stops nations that aren't at war with you taking that province. Better keep some troops around if possible!
 
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Springfield

Actually, the Simpsons' creators have never revealed which actual Springfield (if any) the characters live in. In fact, they keep putting in hints, as people keep asking this question.

Keep watching the show!

One thing is certain, there is a Shelbyville quite nearby (which narrows it down to about 4 real Springfields and of course 1 imaginary) :)
 
People have already mentioned that the trading posts (well, the trade income from any province, be it colony or trade post) will not be given to you directly but go into the local Centre of Trade. Looking at the Trade map every province will be shaded to show which CoT it is supplying. As more and more CoT's open up you will often find your trade is going into a neighbours CoT. Do not be afraid to send merchants to compete in those markets. Once you have 5 merchants in any CoT you own (6 with the tech that allows monopolies) look around the map for lucrative markets elsewhere. Venice is usually so hotly contested that it is difficult to make money but others can be very profitable. Russia can make a lot of money in the Persian market, for example. Increase your trade tech levels to improve the rate of return. Once you can get a monopoly many foreign CoTs will make you buckets of money.

Russia has a problem with diplomacy because it only gets one diplomat a year. That makes it very hard to distribute state bribes and keep alliances going. In the short term I think you have to accept that your major neighbours (Sweden, Poland-Lithuania and Turkey once you expand south) will always dislike your strong expansionist nature and seek to whittle you back even if you direct all your attentions at the Khanates in the southeast. I've found it best to obtain allies behind them to ensure a two front war splits the opposition. Denmark, Bohemia, Austria and Moldavia are all possible candidates. Some good results with 100 ducat bribes can see a strong alliance form up quite quickly and remain positive in their outlook toward you. You will need it in place before you fight the Golden Horde because annexing them is normally enough to ignite a war with PL and see Astrakhan, Sweden and others jump on the bandwagon. Make sure any territorial gains in the west are granted to your allies where you can. Taking many provinces from PL is a sure way to see repeat wars every time it can manage a declaration. Remember to keep an eye on the alliance expiry date. You need to distribute bribes and then save up diplomats in the years approaching re-election. Having no diplomats available when it ends is worse than not having one for a DoW :)
 
Thanks again everyone for the help.

About the revolts, i was thinking, i remember that I was fooling with the religous sliderbars and moved orthodox(russians religion) to Reform. I must not have moved it back after experiementing! How silly of me.

About Springfield, well unless your part of the Flat Earth Society ( http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm ) and really think that, then there is only 1 Springfield. I actually dont live in a Springfield :D

I'm still not 100% clear on CoTs... but its getting clearer! When you say that a trading post adds to my CoT, does that mean the overall amount of money in it (the large number over the smaller number which my merchants get) or just more land that is controled by my color. Also, how do you expand your CoT (the colored map if your click economical) without taking providences of your own? Again, on my russian game, the Netherlands gained independence... soon after they created a new CoT. After 2 years, their CoT covered all of england, Norway/Sweden, themselves (of course), Denmark, into german states, and parts of france maybe more, it was huge, in so little time.. and yet it was only a small nation of 3 states. My CoT was huge also, but thats cause i had expanded my borders 5/6th the way to China through that little path of exploreable land :)
I think my CoT was also a small part of Sweden and the eastern part of Poland- Lith that was close and borderd me.

Something i'm still foggy about: How do you get monopolies after your research the technology? Is there any real stratetgy at sending (pushing the button) merchants. When I do they line up at the lowest and go to the top. What I do personaly (out of not knowing what to do) is just click the button 6 times and hope they do something. I get messages that say other counties push my out of markets and stuff, how do i do this to them and keep it there. And how do you get a nation with a monopoly out?

Many thanks!
 
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The CoT has a sphere of influence. All the trade values from all those provinces is totalled and becomes the potential pool of money for merchants to obtain. This is shown as the CoT value. The game handles which provinces deliver goods to which CoT, and it changes dynamically as more CoT's open up around the world in successful colonies. No-one ever comes close to getting the full amount because their trade multiplier is very low. Each increase in Trade tech increases it.

A CoT has 20 slots worth 5% of its value. Each merchant you send to a CoT can do one of three things. It can occupy an empty slot if there is one. It can remove a foreign merchant from a slot. It can try and fail to remove a merchant from a slot. The better your tech v their tech, the better the success rate. You have an advantage on your home turf too.

The maximum number of merchants you can put in a single CoT is 5 until you get Trade tech 3 and can build a monopoly. That allows you to send merchant 6. Once you get a monopoly you don't get 6/20 shares of the trade, you get all the shares not taken by anyone else. So if you are the only person there, you get 100%! If someone else has 5 merchants, you get 75%. A heavily competed CoT will see every slot filled so you only get 30% for your 6 merchants and probably have to keep adding more merchants to fight off the opposition seeking to topple you. IMO it is best to get a monopoly in a few CoT's than fight (and lose) for many. Experience will show you which ones you can sneak a few merchants into for years on end though without causing trouble but will soon lose if you try for monopoly.

One hint: If you play Russia, build a port on the Siberian shoreline as soon as you reach China. You steal some trade from your home CoT but you get lots more from China and beyond when it forms a new CoT.
 
I think I got the CoT stuff down. Thanks for all your help.
But some more questions arise :)

I started to play my portugal game again after learning what everyone had to say about trading posts/colonies. Well, i made my way around Africa, and I have explored the horn of Africa and plan to sent up a colony, so that I can have a port, which then i can use to jump to India. My problem is when i send a settler to a neutral area, it makes a 'bum bum' sound and tells me that the settlers were unable to set up a colony. This has happend at least 4 times, and sending a settler there is very expensive! This isnt the first time this has happend, but this is first time i've really notices it :) Well my question is, why does that happend? and how can i get around it?

My second question is about providences/colonies/trade posts. When you click the Church in the town screen, it gives you info about that establishment. Where does the different incomes go to? One is a Taxincome, which is very high in colonies/cities, but None(0) in tradingposts. Then theres the trade income, which is usually high if the special trade unit (ie: sugar, spices, etc) is high. do they both go directly into my expendable money? or do they go into my CoT?

Also, one last thing about CoTs. Grumbold, you said that if I'm the only nation in a CoT, i would get 100%... well I have a monopoly in my native CoT (Tago) but i believe Spain and England both have 1 merchant in the lowest area. Is there a way to force them out? I dont think i could send any more merchants out (it was greyed out, even though I had the money and available merchants)
 
Each Colonist has a percentage chance to succeed. The better the terrain the higher the chance. Africa being more hostile than say, Ireland means Colonies will fail more often. Some areas also have a negative growth rate so you'll need to top them up till they reach 1000. On the Colony map when you're choosing where to send them there's a percentage chance to succeed just above the cost. Having a trading posts seems to improve this chance slightly.

The different incomes are what goes to you directly and what is generated for the COT which means if you have lots of colonies generating cash for a particular COT you want to send your merchants there.

Generally you have to send more merchants. A monopoly doesn't mean 100% but that you 'collect' any empty slots. Its also unlikely to 100% of the COt value as your tech level is a factor. Not sure why it was greyed out, normally means no cash or merchants available.
 
mmh can't quite remember from memory but i think the left hand figure is what you collect in taxes and the right hand side is what goes to the COT (or is the other way round ?) Generally a trading post will generate lots for the COT but very little direct income and a City more for your direct income. I think if you let the cursor hover over the numbers it should explain or breakdown the numbers.
I've actually found the cursor help a lot more useful then the manual which is pretty poor.

It might also be easier to establish colonies if they're adjacent to an existing City. I'm guessing here though and never quite had enough cash to experiment. Otherwise try building a few levels of trading post before sending your Colonists in.
 
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