A question about internal trade routes

hardcore_gamer · Jul 14, 2013

I know that I can use trade routes to trade within my own empire. However there are 2 things which puzzle me a bit.

1. For some reason my trade units claim that only food is traded between cities. Why can't I trade production as well like I am told I can?

2. Is the food and the production a pure bonus that I get as a result of the trade route or is it literally taken from one city and given to another?

DemonMaster · Jul 14, 2013

1. You need a granary in the city to have an internal trade route that gives food and you need a workshop to give production.
2. The food (or hammers) is a pure bonus.

Adjuvant · Jul 14, 2013

1. Need a workshop in the sender-city.

2. I haven't looked at the numbers closely, but it didn't seem to hurt the sender production. Guess I should check. When I've used it, it was only 4-6 production each caravan, anyway, so I wouldn't really miss it.

Luis_Ah_Hoy · Jul 23, 2015

DemonMaster said:
2. The food (or hammers) is a pure bonus.

Does the production level of the origin city affects the amount of the bonus?

To elaborate:
City A has higher production level than City B. So it's better to use City A as the origin city for production trade?

Mesix · Jul 23, 2015

It is almost always better to have food caravans in the long run. A food caravan which provides 6 food will allow you to work 3 mines which provides 9-12 production (greater than having sent a production caravan). As long as you have surplus happiness, more food translates into faster growth which is in turn more production, science, etc.

The only time I use production caravans are when I need to rush a few wonders in a particular city and my happiness is near 0 (so I don't want to grow anyway). Otherwise, always food!

Luis_Ah_Hoy · Jul 23, 2015

What I was asking was this:
does the "Production Trade" have a fixed value for the bonus, or it depends on the origin city's level of production?

Luis_Ah_Hoy · Jul 23, 2015

Think I found the answer to my own question:

"This is simply a bonus for trading between Cities, and nothing seems to impact yields but the Era."

Skurn · Jul 23, 2015

The bonus depends on the era, I think it's 4 + 0,5 * ERA for land trade routes, and twice that for sea trade routes.

redwings1340 · Jul 23, 2015

Mesix said:
The only time I use production caravans are when I need to rush a few wonders in a particular city and my happiness is near 0 (so I don't want to grow anyway). Otherwise, always food!

I've done this too for a while, but I'm starting to wonder if sending a production cargo ship or caravan to a new city in the mid/late game could be a good idea, just to get up buildings faster and make the city self sufficient really quickly, especially if you're building things like aquaducts/granaries/workshops in the new city. I think it also might be better than a food route or an external trade route sometimes if you are lower on happiness. What are your guys' thoughts about that strategy?

Aenthin · Jul 23, 2015

redwings1340 said:
I've done this too for a while, but I'm starting to wonder if sending a production cargo ship or caravan to a new city in the mid/late game could be a good idea, just to get up buildings faster and make the city self sufficient really quickly, especially if you're building things like aquaducts/granaries/workshops in the new city. I think it also might be better than a food route or an external trade route sometimes if you are lower on happiness. What are your guys' thoughts about that strategy?

Sometimes, cities are sufficient enough that they have the citizens, but not enough buildings to make the city even more efficient. In this case, a production internal trade route is much better. Another case is if you need to finish that Oxford University and it's taking a city too long to build a university...

I'll also send hammers if a city has little to no production tiles whatsoever, so little that sending food won't solve the problem.

Dushku · Jul 23, 2015

hardcore_gamer said:
1. For some reason my trade units claim that only food is traded between cities. Why can't I trade production as well like I am told I can?

You need to have a Workshop in the city sending the trade route for an internal production trade route.

Another interpretation of your question might be answered by this: You can only have one trade route from city X to city (state) Y. This means if you're already sending food from X to Y, you can't also send production from X to Y. Also it means if you're already sending a caravan from X to Y, you cannot also send a cargo ship from X to Y.

Kriogen · Jul 24, 2015

redwings1340 said:
I've done this too for a while, but I'm starting to wonder if sending a production cargo ship or caravan to a new city in the mid/late game could be a good idea, just to get up buildings faster and make the city self sufficient really quickly, especially if you're building things like aquaducts/granaries/workshops in the new city. I think it also might be better than a food route or an external trade route sometimes if you are lower on happiness. What are your guys' thoughts about that strategy?

Jungle city. Lots of food from bananas, lots of science ... but would take 50 turn to build university and I'm low on gold.

A question about internal trade routes

hardcore_gamer

King

DemonMaster

A.K.A. Fenhorn

Adjuvant

Emperor

Luis_Ah_Hoy

Chieftain

Mesix

The Allfather

Luis_Ah_Hoy

Chieftain

Luis_Ah_Hoy

Chieftain

Skurn

Warlord

redwings1340

Emperor

Aenthin

Warlord

Dushku

Prince

Kriogen

Warlord

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