Going tall with internal trade routes

Right now I have a fairly small empire of 4 cities (standard map IIRC). Because I went for coastal cities and my neighbours have none, all my trade routes are internal. I have managed to survive gold-wise, probably mainly because I have 7 gold tiles.

My thoughts now are to keep internal routes, except maybe when I want to curry favour with an ally. I am pretty sure I can get up to 8 routes (7 at least), which could allow me a food and hammer trade to each of my 4 cities. That sounds like a fantastic boost.

Has anyone tried this, and does/would it work?

Internal trade routes are always great, but personally I'd suggest doubling up on food rather than going food and production. I only really use production trade routes when I need to rush a wonder or international project, otherwise I think it's a bit of a waste of hammers.

A lot depends upon the nature of the city itself.
I will prioritize getting a city to work all the good tiles via adding more food over production; but at times a given city will run out of new tiles to work. And if the said city is has a huge backlog of intended buildings, then some hammers tend to be a good idea.

I don't tend to mix food & hammers going to the same city unless I'm planning on removing the old type going to that city as the routes expire. (Like right now in my current game I am running 2 food + 1 hammer route to my capital; that is because until very recently it was 3 food routes, but now it is finally working all the tiles it needs and these old food routes are now being phased out.)

I am currently trading hammers as I was just in a war with Babylon. It is over now, so maybe I'll go back to food.

It is interesting, the need for food over hammers. I guess I am in Cic 3/4 'production mode'. Food will give me specialists and therefore GP, I guess.

Hammers usually isn't worth it unless you're building a Wonder. Or your city really needs it. Growth is always good no matter what victory it is.

End of the day though you need some gold from trade routes. A balance of food/production/gold.

I've played a couple games where I just send as many food routes as I can to the city with national college. The science gets pretty crazy. 50 pop city last game.

I also tried this out, but I had 4 internal food routes to my capital (Camels) got the city to 54, by end game. Now I'm trying the same, but with boat routes. As it's double over the internal camel routes. City is currenty 25 early industrial (about 230 turns), but I've only used 2 boat routes. The capital also has the hanging gardens. So its growing quickly. I'm hoping to beat my last game, city of 54.

It will always depend on the nature of the game but growth is probably the best choice of trade route but least flexible since its capped out by happiness.

I've always wondered is it better to have coastal capital and cities to go tall (at the expense of workable improved tiles vs sea/coastal tiles)? I've noticed land trade routes don't yield nearly as much as sea trade routes or am I missing something like rivers improving yields?

ezbutton said:

I've always wondered is it better to have coastal capital and cities to go tall (at the expense of workable improved tiles vs sea/coastal tiles)? I've noticed land trade routes don't yield nearly as much as sea trade routes or am I missing something like rivers improving yields?

Click to expand...

Nope, you missed nothing. Land routes suck compared to sea routes. One of the main reasons to make sure you get at least one coastal city.