Early Trade Routes

SammyKhalifa · Jul 9, 2013

chazzycat said:
No, I don't think having a military unit on every space would be cost effective, and isn't necessary. Basically you have to proactively clear barb camps, and watch the shallow water approaches.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. To hear about it (having not experienced it myself) it sounds like someone could/will sweep in along any unoccupied point in the route almost immediately.

Evanescence · Jul 9, 2013

SammyKhalifa said:
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. To hear about it (having not experienced it myself) it sounds like someone could/will sweep in along any unoccupied point in the route almost immediately.

If you just clear out the occasional barb camps and don't overextend your trade route outside of your territory, the trade routes rarely get interrupted. I haven't had a single interruption in my first game.

oopsy poopsy · Jul 9, 2013

For these routes don't you have to rely on the AI clearing FOW to some extent? If they've got open space on any side and you can't patrol into their borders, then a barb can just walk in from the back if the AI isn't doing its job, right? That part sounds scary to me, 'cause from what I remember of V I wouldn't trust the AI to do anything.

Kwami · Jul 9, 2013

Yig said:
If this is true then its a indirect buff to Germany. This would allow them to have more choice over what units they want to try and take from the barbs by luring specific ones back into their camps.

Barbarians have always acted this way. The buff is that barbarians have better units than they did before (e.g. horsemen).

elijahfire · Jul 28, 2013

Evanescence said:
If you just clear out the occasional barb camps and don't overextend your trade route outside of your territory, the trade routes rarely get interrupted. I haven't had a single interruption in my first game.

You haven't played on deity

they send in kamikaze explorers just to kill your routes.

Chiatroll · Jul 28, 2013

adwcta said:
Yep, playing as Ottoman now. Having a use for all those galleys sure is nice... even if they're only useful for taking out other galleys and providing sight. Although, to be totally honest, I didn't have much use for those trade routes in the early game. I sent one to a city state, mostly as a means to force it to adopt my religion (and just so I could say "look, my ships are useful!"). It took a while.

Yeah I'm playing an Ottoman game right now. It's so nice between protecting trade routes and plundering them.

Roxlimn · Jul 28, 2013

The sea routes can be chancy if you don't have a planned destination - even one of your cities will do nicely, but there has to be one. The land routes are more assured of finding a capital to get to, so they tend to ramp up in GPT a bit sooner, but cap lower.

SicklyAlbatross · Jul 28, 2013

One problem with early trade routes is whether the target civ' has enough of a military to protect the routes on their end. I just had a situation where my Legion could only watch as a barbarian handaxe parked himself next to Venice as my caravan slowly marched to it's death. Should've had a ranged unit nearby.

Glassmage · Jul 28, 2013

the trade units cost so much to build and when people declare war on you you lose all of them.

Bechhold · Jul 28, 2013

Play it safe. Trade with the closest City States extra gold doesn't hurt early game.

Early Trade Routes

SammyKhalifa

Deity

Evanescence

Timeless Mochi Lord

oopsy poopsy

Warlord

Kwami

Deity

elijahfire

Chieftain

Chiatroll

Warlord

Roxlimn

Deity

SicklyAlbatross

Chieftain

Glassmage

The Desert Flame

Bechhold

King

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