Diety - Venice - First Merchant of Venice

Hello guys,

quick question. I'm playing my first diety map with venice on a tiny island map and have only discovered two city states. one is really close, militaristic and has a gem. I've completed a couple quests and am allied with them. The other is RIGHT next to russia's capital so i dont want to puppet it i don't think.

question is what should i do with my first merchant? Wait until i discover another city state or plant it?

also, what exactly does a custom house do besides the tile improvements? I think i remember maddjinn saying something about it giving a boost to trade routes or something but i'm not sure as to exactly how much advantace it would give me...

little extra info, its turn 76, 975BC.


anyway thanks for any advice you might have on the subject. I think i'm leaning toward saving it until i find another city state but am still curious as to what the benefits of a custom house are.

I'd say either save it until you meet another CS or use it on the one next to Russia. It's a water map, meaning you'd have to seriously mess up to get killed early, so annoying Russia wouldn't be a big concern for me. Plus, it's better to use it on CS's that you're NOT allies with, so you continue to get the ally's benefits AND get another city (instead of getting a city but losing the benefits).

Customs Houses suck - they're like 4-5 gold. The MoV's Trade Mission (different than the Custom House ability) gives you double gold and influence (gold varies by age, IIRC, but it gives 60
Influence) compared to the regular Merchant one, but I would still use it to buy a CS. Overall, probably explore as quickly as possible, but buying that one CS next to Russia isn't a bad option either.

Edit: In case it isn't clear, the MoV has three options: buy a CS, go on a Trade Mission (double influence and gold with respect to the regular GM), and build a Customs House. The regular GM can do the latter two of those.

I like to use the 1st one to puppet the closest CS. I disagree with maddjinn about doing it really early though. I find tis better to wait until the CS has built some infrastructure and units. As a note here, try not to kill the barb camp near this CS. Not only will you end up with it allied, but the CS will not make any units if it feels safe. You can get anywhere from 5 - 12 units including a hammer free navy if you wait a bit.

I save the next one for the next closest or best strategically located one. After that I usually save them for as long as possible. Just do the quests and buy influence when you get double reward for it for as long as possible. I will occasionally use them as early as industrial, but they give good enough reward in modern to get the CS's slowly and steadily locked up.

screen shot... if not then what did you choose?

I ended up holding onto him for a bit then finding another city state to buy. For some reason though i thought the custom house might offer trade route benefits but i guess not.

Played the game a good amount today and thought i might squeeze out a domination victory after battleships by attacking all capitals simultaneously. buuuuut russia and another order civ DOWed me as soon as i switched ideologies.

guess i'll have to get my deity win another day.

joshua43214 said:

I like to use the 1st one to puppet the closest CS. I disagree with maddjinn about doing it really early though. I find tis better to wait until the CS has built some infrastructure and units. As a note here, try not to kill the barb camp near this CS. Not only will you end up with it allied, but the CS will not make any units if it feels safe. You can get anywhere from 5 - 12 units including a hammer free navy if you wait a bit.

I save the next one for the next closest or best strategically located one. After that I usually save them for as long as possible. Just do the quests and buy influence when you get double reward for it for as long as possible. I will occasionally use them as early as industrial, but they give good enough reward in modern to get the CS's slowly and steadily locked up.

Click to expand...

I think you might be right if you have any plans for an early war. a city state's units can be quite an infusion of units. I'm not sure if id hold out for too long personally though because of the need for science and culture.

I almost always use the first Merchant of Venice right away in order to get a second city to send food to the capital. The others can be used or saved depending on the circumstances.

Custom houses increase the amount of gold produced in a city, and the amount of gold produced in a city is a factor in determining how much that city's trade routes are worth. Still, the custom house is a really poor 'great tile improvement'.