I was wondering if anyone could give examples of one of the least mentioned economies, the trade route economies.

I'm assuming that temple of artemis or great lighthouse are important and an academy, as are currency and monarchy. It should work mostly for higher levels on pre-BTS.

It should work mostly for higher levels on pre-BTS.

Post BTS is even better I think because of the custom house.

Interesting that you mention Monarchy. I guess it means big population, and that in turn creates better trade routes.

Snaaty a while ago on Warlords had a demo game in which he didnt build any cottages but used trade routes and sea tilesto get a good lead.

Here's thelink. It's nt specifically trade route Econ, but it has a lot of relevant stuff.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=217029

double post

Post BTS is even better I think because of the custom house.
Allegedly the AIs grew larger cities before BTS.

Madscientist recently had a trade route economy going in this thread...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=247553

Well, if going for a TR economy, coastal is kind of a must;
The Great Lighthouse +2 trade routes in all coastal cities
Harbor +50% Trade route income (Carthage UB +1 traderoute)
Currency +1 Trade route
Castle +1 Trade route
The Temple Of Artemis +100% Trade route yield
Customs House +100% income on intercontinental Trade routes
That's all I can think of atm

Dug up another one. It's Aelf playing Warlords , Emperor, going for a trade route econ with Roosevelt

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=187982 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=187982)

For the trade route economy it is probably better to go after the colossus ealry rather than ToA. The extra priest specialist can really mess up the GP pool.

What's so bad about prophets?

The trade economy works best with as many trade missions from great merchants. Any other type of economy I like prophets.

Settled merchants and prophets in a Wall Street city give you much more gold (and thus more beakers from your trade routes / water tiles) than a trade mission until late in the game.

It's not hard to sustain a 100% science rate this way.

The trade economy works best with as many trade missions from great merchants. Any other type of economy I like prophets.

Erm, not an obvious statement.

Thanks for the links. It seems that snaaty's and madscientist are playing very different styles.

For those who haven't read through, snaaty was doing a handful of early cottages, and a hard great scientist GP farm, early on fueling economy through a standard bureaucracy/cottage capital. No wonders, but it was deity. Working mostly farms and focused on growing his cities and using the whip on a handful of buildings (threatre/library, courthouse, market). He switches to nationalism once the trade routes come online, and focuses on getting free market and trading it.

Madscientist eschewed his namesake, and went Great lighthouse, temple of artemis and was relying much on the incredible 4 commerce sea tiles.

Oh yeah, there are natural problems with domination/conquest wins, because you run out of cities to trade with.

Trade routes link:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=159047

The basic Formula for the value of a Trade route seems to be

[(1+F)*(5*(Pop-10))+100+Cap)* (Minimum ([T*50%], [D*70%]))*20%/100]

F is 150% (1.5) if it is a Foreign Trade Route, 0 if domestic
Pop is the Pop of the city Getting the trade route
T is the Pop of the City the Trade Route is With
D is the Distance to the City
Cap is 25 if one of the cities is a Capital, 0 if not
[] indicates rounding down


- - -
So trade routes should start shooting up once you make it past size 10.

I haven't seen whether markets do or do not influence foreign trade route acquisition (doesn't affect yield) is correct. Anybody know?

I'm thinking that if you're going to grab over 1/3 of the world, you should cottage or farm inland cities and try to keep coastal cities to (# of AI tradeable AI cities) / # trade routes. Cottages are probably best, because
1) representation might limit growth over hereditary rule, and you don't want to run up the culture slider, 2) large inland cities take away lucrative trade routes from coastal cities, which have bonuses.

The Carthaginian Cothon makes trade route enhancing buildings very attractive. I once had a game with Hannibal where I had both the Great Lighthouse and Temple of Artemis for a massive number of highly lucrative trade routes in my capitol.

A sick thing to do, talking about working water tiles, is picking a financial leader of the portoguese and build Colossus, resulting in 5:commerce: from sea tiles - 6 if you're in golden age. Also, this works fine with Hanibal of Carthage, ofcourse 1:commerce: lower, but you have the traderoutes to support it.