The power of early food trades

Blitz Spearman said:

How do you guys manage the happiness cap to abuse it so much?

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Yeah, you went wide too fast. Happiness is harder to come by now, especially in the early game. You need to start tall, and try not to expand until you've got excess Happiness. Use as many caravans as you can for income, work luxuries ASAP (just don't neglect food), and pick Religion tenets/Social policies that boost Happiness when available. Try to match those up with the luxuries you're already working.

And try to play nice with your neighbors, at least in the beginning. Wars really sap Happiness, even without puppeting/annexing cities. If you do have to go to war, raze their cities for now. Which is actually not so bad, when you consider that it's likely to become an archaeology site later.

Yes the "Food trade" is so nice ! Food is so needed in our lovely cities!

Food trades seem to have buffed India considerably. I'm quite keen on putting that theory to the test. If this new feature trully is unbalanced it would be in the hands of them.

Cargo ships might be a bit extreme in the ancient era, but caravans offer an interesting choice in my opinion.

Devell said:

Whats the best way of protecting trade routes? Is it possible to assign an escort that stacks and travels with the caravan/cargo ship?

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Trade routes can be pillaged at any point along the trade route (ignore the graphic of the caravan or cargo ship - just eye-candy). As Budweiser notes, sea trade routes can be easier to protect before Astronomy by bottling up key coastal tiles. For caravans, you need to affirmatively sweep for barbs and clear camps near or along the route and consider posting a scout with extra sight promotion in uninhibited territory to prevent more camps from spawning. This is the single best reason IMO for building a second or even third scout and prioritizing sight promotions vs. defensive promotions for scouts.

I must have missed it: How do you set up Food-based trade routes? When I see the other cities I can trade with, I see things like gpt, spt, religious pressure, but, not food per turn. I must be looking in the wrong place?

Regards,

Marc

JohnYoga said:

I must have missed it: How do you set up Food-based trade routes? When I see the other cities I can trade with, I see things like gpt, spt, religious pressure, but, not food per turn. I must be looking in the wrong place?

Regards,

Marc

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You need a Granaryin the city to send food. For production, a workshop.

You need a granary in the city from which you want to send food. Once you have that, internal food routes will be an option. Same with hammer routes when you have a workshop.

Edit: Ninja'd

Montov said:

You need a Granaryin the city to send food. For production, a workshop.

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Thank you, Montov and Browd! Hey, good to hear from you again, Browd. You helped me on another thread.

Regards,

Marc