Internal vs. External Trade routes

Tyrvos · Jul 13, 2013

When is it better to use a trade route for food or hammers rather than gold? I'm guessing it would depend on the civ you are playing? I've only played Morocco and Venice since the release so I've only been using them for gold, but I'm wondering about the times national trade routes override the gold in importance.

IdiotsOpposite · Jul 13, 2013

Well, when I built a new city in a barren desert, I redirected two trade ships to feed it production so it could shove out a Petra in record time. That city later became one of my top 5 (of 19).

So... it can be helpful for pushing out location-restricted wonders or getting a city past the painful early sizes, I suppose.

XboxAddict77 · Jul 13, 2013

Early game especially if I go liberty for a quick expansion, I build use granerys to build a quick "big 3" group of cities then production and science comes as I start expanding into other civs territory, around the Renaissance era.

Maniac · Jul 14, 2013

IMO internal sea > international sea > land. The catch is that you need many coastal cities to benefit from internal sea routes, while you need only one or two to get the best international trade routes.

Blitz Spearman · Jul 14, 2013

International is definitely better before medieval era, because the amount of science they generate is extremely relevant. You can get a 4 science trade route before you can get a library done, when your science output is generally around 8, so it is a 50% science boost.

Later in the game, I think internal routes can be more powerful.

VirtuallyJesse · Jul 14, 2013

I always try to have one internal pumping food into my capital. With the guilds being so important for culture now you really need your capital to grow. The only other times I use internal is I'll switch one from gold to hammers for World Fair or International Games.

Rambuchan · Jul 14, 2013

Internal first: To get your cities over the early development hump. (Though it's a good point Blitz Spearman makes about the early science benefits from external trade routes, I find pillaging barbs a problem if other civs are located far away.)

External: Once your cities have developed to an acceptable level. That cash (and religion and science and tourism) can't be ignored.

joncnunn · Jul 14, 2013

Jumping on the band wagon of internal first. Especially Cargo Ship food. (It appears to need the nerf bat in a future patch)

Once you have Market Places up is the time to consider international routes; especally if you have East India Tea Company.

As to production routes; there's a couple of uses of them:
1) Acquire a city that needs a lot of infrastructure after your core cities have Forge. (Austrian/Venice UA or conquest)
2) Ran out of decent international routes.

CoolLizy · Jul 14, 2013

Whenever I found a new city, especially when it's near another civ, I've begun to favor establishing a trade route with it to get it up and going ASAP.

In my first BNW game I plopped a city down on a new continent right next to an established civ sometime around the renaissance/industrial area. By the time the city was founded the other civ owned most of the land tiles in the area, and although there were a number of grasslands to eventually grow the city, there wasn't much in the way of production tiles. Not wanting the city to be easily taken if the AI got antsy before I was firmly established, I starting sending food and hammers by sea as soon as possible. Even before I got a worker up there to start prepping tiles it was a sizable, productive city that was could churn out contemporary units if need be, even after sending my cargo ships elsewhere.

Being able to get a city like this up so quickly so late in the game is indeed powerful, and well worth the gold per turn lost by diverting your fleet from their normal trade routes.

Bad Wolf · Jul 14, 2013

Internal is sometimes your only option early on if you're not close to anyone, but that's okay - you can get your cities up and running quickly. Sometimes it is useful to have an internal trade route or two going, particularly if you've just founded a new city - trade routes have really made getting new cities going much easier.

That being said, international trade is a major (usually the main) source of gold, so you can't neglect it. And certain civs have bonuses that make international trade routes far more profitable than internal trade routes. Portugal's UA makes it very difficult to justify internal trade routes (I only used one, along with a purchased aqueduct, to get a city on another continent up to 9 pop almost instantly; then I switched it back to international). They get so much money from international trade it's really crazy. I imagine only Venice beats them in this department.

Morocco is another civ which really incentivizes you to go international as opposed to domestic - you get bonus gold and culture for each different civ you're trading with. However, there's one caveat to this - Morocco's UA incentivizes other civs to trade with it, meaning they get huge bonuses from international trade even without committing their own units! Meaning they can spare a few internal trade routes. I've got an Epic Portugal game still running (been playing this one a few days now) and virtually all of my most profitable potential trade routes are with Morocco. They were useless at first because I started so far away from their capital (right beside a desert, which they haven't used AT ALL lol), but as soon as they set up a couple of port cities it was time to trade.

Arabia also benefits more from international trade than other civs (if they have a religion). Arabia could really dominate the religion game now - and have a healthy economy as a sweet side benefit.

As for Venice, you need to focus mostly on gold since that's Venice's lifeblood, but since they have so many trade routes by end-game, it can't hurt to have a couple of them supplying Venice with food and production.

Tyrvos · Jul 14, 2013

Bad Wolf said:
Internal is sometimes your only option early on if you're not close to anyone, but that's okay - you can get your cities up and running quickly. Sometimes it is useful to have an internal trade route or two going, particularly if you've just founded a new city - trade routes have really made getting new cities going much easier.

That being said, international trade is a major (usually the main) source of gold, so you can't neglect it. And certain civs have bonuses that make international trade routes far more profitable than internal trade routes. Portugal's UA makes it very difficult to justify internal trade routes (I only used one, along with a purchased aqueduct, to get a city on another continent up to 9 pop almost instantly; then I switched it back to international). They get so much money from international trade it's really crazy. I imagine only Venice beats them in this department.

Morocco is another civ which really incentivizes you to go international as opposed to domestic - you get bonus gold and culture for each different civ you're trading with. However, there's one caveat to this - Morocco's UA incentivizes other civs to trade with it, meaning they get huge bonuses from international trade even without committing their own units! Meaning they can spare a few internal trade routes. I've got an Epic Portugal game still running (been playing this one a few days now) and virtually all of my most profitable potential trade routes are with Morocco. They were useless at first because I started so far away from their capital (right beside a desert, which they haven't used AT ALL lol), but as soon as they set up a couple of port cities it was time to trade.

Arabia also benefits more from international trade than other civs (if they have a religion). Arabia could really dominate the religion game now - and have a healthy economy as a sweet side benefit.

As for Venice, you need to focus mostly on gold since that's Venice's lifeblood, but since they have so many trade routes by end-game, it can't hurt to have a couple of them supplying Venice with food and production.

I've played only Morocco and Venice, so that'd explain why I've felt international trade better at the moment. The+9 food from coastal internal trade is tempting in my Venice game though.

Internal vs. External Trade routes

Tyrvos

Cu Chulainn

IdiotsOpposite

Boom, headshot.

XboxAddict77

Wonder Spammer

Maniac

Apolyton Sage

Blitz Spearman

Warlord

VirtuallyJesse

Chieftain

Rambuchan

The Funky President

joncnunn

Senior Java Wizard

CoolLizy

King

Bad Wolf

King

Tyrvos

Cu Chulainn

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