Ship Chain Strategies

Are there any secrets to forming ship chains and using them effectively ?

I've made a very long ship chain of about 40-50 caravels, from friendly port A to trading destination B, about 80 tiles away. They are spaced about 2 squares apart, on average, but not carefully - there are some bunches and gaps of 3 or 4 squares. I generally have more than enough vans at port A to load onto any boats arriving there (about 3 vans load per turn). I don't create vans anywhere near B, so boats at B return empty.

As far as I can tell, there are some bad ways to run the chain (such as creating very large gaps) but most other ways are about the same. In any given turn, about 50% of the boats will carry 3 vans forward, and the rest will be empty, moving back. Or, some boats will move back 2 steps and forward 2 steps in the same turn. Also, I don't make any special adjustments when the boats improve (eg when building Magellan's, etc) - I just wing it. Is there a "right way" to manage large chains ?

Also, I seem to be more-or-less stuck in monarchy, since I have many more boats than ports. I've researched republic and democracy, but would probably have to disband many boats to switch to one of those. I haven't built SoL, and can't switch to Fundy/etc til then. I'd prefer rep/dem, for the growth, but am not sure how to support my boats. What's the best option?

That's a great question! Unfortunately not one that I can answer.... I am eagerly awaiting the answer though as this would help me out as well!

I have never tried to build a ship chain out of caravels. I try to do some overseas trading before learning invention or navigation, but my use of Triremes for that is a catch as catch can affair and is usually limited to 'vans from my SSC. One reason I do not use trireme or caravel chains is the exact problem you are having with happiness when going into representative government. The best solution to that is to build Leo's Workshop, then discover your way to magnetism. Leo's will upgrade your ships to Galleons, which have 0 attack power and therefore cause no unhappiness. If Leo's is unavailable, the only way around the happiness problem is to replace the caravels with galleons manually.

Regarding the broader issues of making efficient ship chains, there is no real secret here. Space the ships out one full move apart and use as few as possible to reach the destination. The last ship in the chain should be just off the coast of the destination civ so that it can get to a couple of different cities. I have tried experimenting with branching ship chains and I still think that would be a good way to go, but as a practical matter, I always get the the ships jumbled up. Same with two way ship chains. I just pick a port to be the embarkation point to a particular foreign civ and build a ship chain to a convenient shoreline or bay surrounded by that civ's cities. If my cities are spread out on different land masses, I just use ship chains from those outliers back to the main body of my empire and then ship 'vans from the outliers out through the designated ports. This is also convenient for shipping food 'vans back and forth for use in Wonder building.

I play kind of the same as Terrapin with one or two exceptions. When building a SSC city and it has enough shields I let build it Shakespeare. Rehoming triremes to the SSC will not cause unhappiness so I rehome as much as possible and still have enough shields left for building new things. The other thing is that I also try (when playing on a round world) one shipchain which goes around the world. This means that it starts in city A end will end in city A. The moment this is possible is most of the time after the discovery of industrialization. Those ships have (with all the wonders) 7 moves. I also try to have the ships on max distance. Having the lighthouse is important (no sinking ships) to get the ideal chain. Without it you need most of the time a few ships extra.

I haven't tried the Galleon idea because Magnetism cancels the Lighthouse [my games don't usually go that far into the tech tree anyway, since I usually play for early conquest]. Maybe a new govt is worth some loss of speed, though. Interesting.

EDIT: [Oops.] Since Galleons move further than Caravels, there is no loss of speed. So, with Leo's, this idea is definitely good.

"Space the ships out one full move apart and use as few as possible to reach the destination." Well, I play the opposite way - with as many ships as possible, with irregular spacing! It's a bit chaotic, but I think I can move more vans that way. This can be important if you are using a Hides strategy [make as many hides vans as possible, since they don't get blocked, and send them all to the same destination].

In my game, I've recently built Magellan's, and added a few more caravels to the chain, so now it works like having 2-3 normal chains. Last turn I delivered about 8 Hides vans on the same chain (but the average might be about 6 per turn). I like the flexibility of having excess ships, so that some can always be diverted for wars, or settlers, or rehoming. Also, ships get upgraded several times in the early game (LH, Mag's, Navn), so "as few as possible" changes.

I don't get to transports very often. But I think "as few as possible" works well then. Transports are SUPER-efficient, and will never be upgraded. IIRC, the main naval issue at that stage is avoiding enemy attacks on loaded transports, and ship chains are pretty safe, for the passengers, at least.

I don't usually build a SSC. Not sure how an SSC would change my thoughts about chains. Well, thanks for the ideas!

Peaster,

I realize this response is a bit late, but I'll throw in my opinion anyway. Keep in mind that I'm a landing player, so this comes from a different perspective, but perhaps a different view will help anyway. My personal strategy for ship chains/trade is as follows.

As soon as I get Marco Polo's, I set up ASAP a short ship chain of triremes to the nearest continent that has AI on it. I feel that getting caravans delivered ASAP is more important than spending 10+ turns getting it further away, especially since pre-navigation/invention, the trade bonus can trip the 2/3 cap anyway, for any demanded commodity, with not too much distance to the other civ. At the same time I send out one trireme with two settlers to a far-away island (which I've located by first trading maps with every AI, and then black clicking to find a reasonable land mass that's far away and big enough to support my colonies, typically 4-7 cities depending on the map size) to start the colonies. I typically keep it to one trireme per city, as I play early republic, and you're only allowed one of those per city. As my SSC develops and invention is discovered, I re-home triremes to the SSC, as trade is slowed in this period. The SSC vans still get delivered because the Colossus boosts them so much. Vans from other cities that are demanded are also delivered, as they can still bring a handsome return. Other vans are diverted for wonders. Re-homing triremes to the SSC also allows for the pending switch to Democracy without trouble. The other alternative is to Build J.S. Bach's, which allows each city to support a trireme/caravel without a penalty, although I usually avoid this in landing games. I used to use J.S. Bach's all the time, but my current strategy avoids off-path techs.

By this point I'm usually high-tailing it to industrialization. You're right, transports are VERY efficient, and are the first step in the revival of trade. The corporation is the second step, as freights both give an increased bonus and are easier to deliver because of their increased movement. As soon as I have industrialization I try to get every city in my core (6-9 cities) to build a transport. This is usually more than enough to bridge the distance to the colonies. I try to set this up perfectly as soon as I can, although I often let each transport have an extra space (if they have 7 movement points I put them six apart). I then pursue an alternating strategy like Solo describes in his EL game strategy guide (I'm sure that you're familiar). I partially rush buy the valuable freights, because they aren't returning enough to justify complete rush-buying. I try to maximize a city's shield production, then switch the worker's to sea just for the delivery of the van. The final revolution in trading, and for me the point that sets my landing date, is superhighways. With superhighways in both cities, even undemanded freights get a bonus of 600 gold (provided you've put them far enough away). This is enough that a freight can be rushed from scratch for 215-235 (Barracks/Diplomat/Engineer/Freight) and delivered for a return of approximately 400%-1600% ( counting the science, and depending on whether or not it's demanded). This kind of return, immediately reinvested, establishes the power democracy that Andu and Starlifter have spoken so much about. At this point the game is won and is incredibly easy. The turns take a while, rush buying everything and delivering the freight, matching up the right cities and unblocking commodities, but the returns give so much cash that you're empire can just balloon as fast as you want it to, and you can buy anything you want.

I'd love to write a detailed exposition on my current strategies on how to set up trade, but they're not as good as many other of the better players on here and so much has already been written. They're also not too relevant to your EC style.

One last thought - I think that there's a significant amount of luck in AI civ locations. I've played games where after trading maps with every civ, there aren't nearby civs ripe for fast caravan deliveries. Those first deliveries pre invention/navigation really make a huge difference early on, and if the nearest civ is too far away it can take a lot longer and hold you back a lot more. I'm actually interested in things from the other side. I never play EC and have little understanding of it. I know the basic ICS, Marco Polo's, Lighthouse, Elephant, etc, but I haven't, in general, heard many people talk about trade much in the context of early conquest. What's your specific trade strategy?

Banach - When I wrote my guide to Early Conquest, most EC players didn't trade at all. I knew nothing about trade and didn't even mention it in the guide. Then SlowThinker played an impressive EC comparison game at Poly that relied heavily on trade in Hides. He conquered in approx 1AD at Deity, many turns ahead of the pack. Note: he rehomed all his vans to a STC, which is illegal in CFC GOTMs, but it was OK in that game.

I've been experimenting with trade in my EC games since then, but have no clear conclusion on it. It seems to be a waste of time on small maps (Grigor's "lean" approach to EC seems best there), but it may pay off on large maps, where you can expect a longer game. Also, with small land masses, it is harder to get tribute, and trade is a good economic alternative.

Banach, you have a much more refined trading strategy than I do. I'll probably try some of your methods. My basic principles are -

* Make Hides, Hides, Hides. Find a distant AI city that demands Hides and start sending boatfuls there ASAP. Eventually make a shipchain - or, a double shipchain is even better. This plan can go bust if the AI city changes demand, so I prefer a PAIR of nearby AI cities that both want Hides, which always seems to work out OK. I may use some AI cities closer to home at first, as you do, until all this gets going.
* Build the LH ASAP, to do all this with triremes on open seas. I rarely get to Nav/Caravels, and the LH never goes obsolete on me. Of course, build MPE ASAP too, to get the AI maps.
* If one of my Hides cities is placed well (many arrows, growing nicely), I may make a mini-STC out of it. I may throw in a few settlers or food vans to build it up to size 8 - and maybe build the Colossus, a courthouse, temple, etc there, to help it celebrate in Monarchy. I may disband warriors into it, and IRB, to make one van per turn there. But I very rarely include an aqueduct, to get past size 8, and in a short game I'll skip the STC (and maybe even skip trade completely). I don't build a SSC (libraries, Cope's, etc) since EC doesn't really require much tech past Polytheism.
* I've done this in Republic a couple of times (with LOTS of port cities for support), but usually I stay in Monarchy til the end.
* I usually avoid Nav/Inv, unless I'm done with trade, and I need Magellan's to speed up a conquest. When restarts are on, for example.
* While all this is going on, I am usually growing a biggish ICS civ, with outposts near the AI's, and all along my shipchain. I rarely alternate (I guess this means using the chain to move vans back towards home?) , since the payoffs seems small, and I'd rather use my distant cities to make war. I often build Mike's vs rioting. But usually not Bach's, now that I avoid Feudalism. That is another thorny question (is Sun Tzu worth it?).

Peaster said:

* While all this is going on, I am usually growing a biggish ICS civ, with outposts near the AI's, and all along my shipchain. I rarely alternate (I guess this means using the chain to move vans back towards home?) , since the payoffs seems small, and I'd rather use my distant cities to make war. I often build Mike's vs rioting. But usually not Bach's, now that I avoid Feudalism. That is another thorny question (is Sun Tzu worth it?).

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Yes, alternating means using the chain to move vans back towards home. This is primarily useful in the mid-to late game, following automobile. You get a penalty for trading with your own cities, but having superhighways in both cities MORE than makes up for this, because superhighways in both cities both increases base trade in both cities by 25-50% (depending on the amount of sea/land), and because the superhighways give a 50% boost for source and 50% boost for destination to the delivery bonus, so the bonus by far outstrips that penalty. In my GOTM 82 log, this is visible clearly between 1260 and 1290 AD. My SSC was producing hides, and in 1260 AD two of those freights were delivered to Bremen (my biggest colony) for 212 gold each(Undemanded). In 1290 AD, with superhighways in both cities, two more hides freights were delivered to Bremen from my SSC for 550 gold each (Undemanded!). So roughly speaking, it increases the payoff by a factor of about two or so. Of course this isn't relevant to EC games, which is your preferred method of play, but it's absolutely critical to Landing games, particularly in this month when purple was missing and MASSIVE amounts of beakers must be generated for an advance per turn. Late Game advances were costing me over 4,000 beakers. Getting an advance a turn from city science is difficult in this situation(although others such as Magic_gorter may have achieved this with massive early game expansion), but it is a cakewalk once the superhighways are set up and the freights are rolling non-stop. I was very happy with my trade system in this GOTM post automobile. Within a few turns of automobile I was rush building everything in every city from scratch, every turn, including wonders of the world, while simultaneously getting an advance every turn and adding at least a few thousand extra gold to my treasury. I was rolling up on Space Flight with 20,000+ gold. Continual WLTPD growth throughout this whole period. I was doing all this with just 15 cities. Careful trade pays off enormously for the landing player. I say this acknowledging that I still have a very long way to go in my trade and landing skills before I can consider myself a good landing player. I'm just excited to be learning and improving my game through this site, and I was very happy with how I played this GOTM.

Even before superhighways, alternating trading can pay off just because it lets you bring in vans from far away cities and deliver them to your SSC. With the Colossus, this allows for very large bonuses. Very careful landing players calculate wildcards to set up perfect supply/demand partners for the SSC on far away colonies. I have yet to add this strategy to a game, but I've read about it and may try to add it next month.

Your trade strategy is very interesting - since I never play EC I find this fascinating. If I ever do play EC I'll certainly take your advice to heart. Thanks for sharing! I'm wondering - do you produce hides exclusively, or will you produce some other commodity if the opportunity arises? Furthermore, do you ever find yourself in a game where another civ has the Colossus and you can take advantage by funneling all your caravans into that city, reaping huge rewards? I feel as though this is even better than re-homing to a city of your own with the Colossus, because all of your cities get that big ongoing route bonus.

Yes, Banach is just a screen name. My actual name has nothing to do with mathematics. I'd noticed before that Ali is a mathematician, but didn't realize there were others.

Your methods seem very successful. I'll probably try them next time I play EL. That isn't too often, actually, but I've done it once or twice, when GOTM rules forced me to. I used ICS, as usual (not so much the ELG), and it worked out OK. I thought the key factor was how quickly you get to the one-adv-per-turn stage.

I'm wondering - do you produce hides exclusively, or will you produce some other commodity if the opportunity arises? Furthermore, do you ever find yourself in a game where another civ has the Colossus and you can take advantage by funneling all your caravans into that city, reaping huge rewards?

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Probably at least 90% Hides. My first few vans might be Dye/etc, but later on I'm trying to move maybe 15-20 vans per turn (and deliver maybe 3 or 4 per turn), while thinking mainly about EC, not trade. It's just MUCH simpler if they are all Hides, all going to the same place. Also, I often grow my Hides cities a bit, to size 3 at least, while using my "lesser" cities to make Settlers/etc for ICS/EC. If I don't have Hides cities, I usually won't plan on much trade in that game.

Unless an AI builds the Colossus in a city that demands Hides, I usually ignore that city. Since EC games end by about 500AD, the AI cities never grow much, and most of the total arrows must come from the human cities -even if the AI has the Colossus.

Also, I guess most of your deliveries to the AI Col City are undemanded goods. I almost never deliver those in an EC game. A trade bonus less than about 125g is a loss (since beakers don't really matter in EC, and the ongoing profits are peanuts). I think it's hard to get much over 125g, undemanded, before 1AD. Dunno for sure - but I only deliver those vans when demand dries up unexpectedly, and the results are not pleasant.

I don't suggest that anyone follow my trade strategy. It seems good enough for my EC games, but I haven't put a whole lot of thought into optimizing it. And I rarely get those HUGE bonuses that landing players enjoy!

Peaster said:

Your methods seem very successful. I'll probably try them next time I play EL. That isn't too often, actually, but I've done it once or twice, when GOTM rules forced me to. I used ICS, as usual (not so much the ELG), and it worked out OK. I thought the key factor was how quickly you get to the one-adv-per-turn stage.

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Thanks for the compliment, although I am working on one further refinement. You're absolutely right, by the way. The trick is how fast you get to automobile - I find the game incredibly easy after that, as I can easily bring in way more gold than I can even spend in a turn. I'm much in need of early game refinement, it's something I've been thinking about. I'm pretty sure I have that late game down pretty good.

Peaster said:

Also, I guess most of your deliveries to the AI Col City are undemanded goods. I almost never deliver those in an EC game. A trade bonus less than about 125g is a loss (since beakers don't really matter in EC, and the ongoing profits are peanuts). I think it's hard to get much over 125g, undemanded, before 1AD. Dunno for sure - but I only deliver those vans when demand dries up unexpectedly, and the results are not pleasant.

I don't suggest that anyone follow my trade strategy. It seems good enough for my EC games, but I haven't put a whole lot of thought into optimizing it. And I rarely get those HUGE bonuses that landing players enjoy!

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Early game the SSC gets three routes with a nearby AI city no matter what the commodities are. Other cities, I prefer demanded commodities and use cities that can't make demanded commodities to help build wonders. I make occasional exceptions, of course. Very early game even undemanded commodities in a republic can garner good bonuses. After the wonders are in place, and before freight, SSC caravans get delivered no matter what, and typically only demanded ones from other cities, unless I just want to set up a route with the SSC. Around the time of freight I try to get three routes in every city no matter what to ease celebration, using junk, undemanded commodities for this purpose. Once superhighways are in place, I match up supply and demand when convenient, but it's not necessary. Basically, every city builds and delivers a freight every other turn, at least. GOTM 82 there was a long stretch where my SSC was pumping out a hides freight every turn. Even undemanded commodities pull in 600 gold or so once the colonies have gotten to a reasonable size. Demanded ones easily pull in 1500 or so. I don't think early game I've seen much more than 400 (and the cap has to be kind of high for that), so I appreciate what you're saying. I get a rush when I pull in 2,000+ from a freight - the freight cost me 235 gold or so. Depending on whether or not you count beakers, that's a profit of 750-1,600%. It wasn't until I perfected that trade system that I fully understood Andu's compilation of and comments on Starlifter's writing on the power democracy.

I like to use a double chain which I can operate it every turn. With a single chain, I move it W - E in alternate turns. The big problem is forgetting. In real life, I usually end up having ship-chains which terminate in a city on both ends - if the cities are 3-5 moves apart the chains are shorter, which increases the chance of remembering. That makes it easier to remember. And since there is usually a problem with land masses and interior seas, the shorter chains often come up from necessity.

Grigor, it seems that you keep your shipchains fairly well-organized (as do most players apparently). I suppose your boats are equally spaced and you know what each one will do next turn. My chains are usually a chaotic mess, to be honest, but AFAIK they are approximately as efficient as organized chains (and also very flexible). For example, suppose an organized single chain of 20 caravels can move 3 vans every 2 turns, and an organized double chain of 40 can move 6 vans every 2 turns (same endpoints as the single chain). Then, I think a disorganized chain of 30 caravels could move approx 4.5 vans every 2 turns, so it's not really less efficient than an organized one. In other words, it's mainly the number of boats that matters, not the organization of them (I think).

I haven't completely sorted this out, though, and could be wrong. Also, since I don't "alternate", I completely left that out of my thought experiment - but that might easily affect the conclusion.

Hmm. I guess I try to organize the shipchains because it seems important to be able to control the timing of delivery. You may be right that the disorganized chain can move almost as many, but even so it will be at its own pace. Perhaps the real difference is between an organized 20-boat chain and a disorganized 20-boat chain.

Are you suggesting something like:
30 boats can deliver 90 vans (without chaining) in more or less the time it takes to set up an organized chain.
??

I would love for that to be the case, as I have always felt that ship-chaining was pretty darn close to an exploit.

grigor said:

Are you suggesting something like:
30 boats can deliver 90 vans (without chaining) in more or less the time it takes to set up an organized chain. ??

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Yes. I think all large scale systems are roughly equivalent - organized chain, chaotic chain or no chain. Each boat carries vans "forward" approx half the time (every other turn, in case of an organized chain) and it should back up most other times. I'm ignoring the "alternating" idea - not sure if that changes things.

As you said, an organized chain gives you more control. Some special van (or unit) can be sent across the map in a single turn, if you have an organized single chain [or a large-enough chaotic chain]. Perhaps that makes chaining an exploit, but IMO you have already paid a large price for that ship chain and you are not getting TOO much back for your investment. Of course, my games don't involve huge 5000g bonuses... a few of those might change my opinion.

Organization may also have some (probably small) benefits in terms of "interest".

Chaos has the advantage of flexibility. The "chain" can be gradually thickened as van production increases. Ships can enter/leave the chain for rehoming or detours, with little effect on the player's plans. No adjustment is needed for Magellan's etc. Also, my vans usually step from one boat to another mid-turn. This means they can't deliver that same turn, but the habit still adds a little to their average speed.

All this is just "IMO". It seems that nobody, including me, has completely figured all this out. But so far, I don't see a reason to avoid chaotic chains.

For some reason, been thinking about this again today. I think a choatic chain (C) lies somewhere between an organized chain (O) and no chain (N), in terms of efficiency. So, let's ignore C, and just compare O vs N. Let's look at the efficiency of a typical boat in each system. I'm assuming vans only go forward, no alternation. Also, that the supply of vans is ideal, so that every turn, each boat either goes forward (F) loaded, or backwards (B) unloaded. I'll assume the destination is 6 turns away.

No chain (N): A typical boat goes F 6 turns, then back 6, forward 6 etc, or
FFFFFFBBBBBBFFFFFFBBB.....

Org Chain (O): The average boat goes halfway to the destination, then oscilates with the other boats, or
FFFBFBFBFBF.....

Which boat does more work? They look about the same to me. As I see it, each F has about the same value to the player (maybe 20 gold or so?), and the B's have none. In the long run, both boats go "F" about 50% of the time. And on an "average turn", both have done about 3 more F's than B's.

I think the aspects I've ignored are fairly minor, Interest theory probably gives a slight nod to N, and it does not require the player to use a fixed number of ships. With O, the player can speed up a special delivery, of oil or crusaders or whatever. But I mainly have Hides vans in mind, since they can all go to the same destination for quite a long time.

Any other opinions?

My general opinion - organized ship chains take time to set up - you generally have to have some ships "waste" moves during the set-up, then they become perfect for landing games, where the one-turn delivery of freights is critical in the modern era (I've written enough about this part of my game strategy in plenty of other places, so I'll omit it here). You deal with a few wasted turns to have that set-up. Chaotic ship chains have no wasted turns, and arguably better overall efficiency if you let vans step from boat to boat. I think organized is better for landing, unquestionably, particularly because late-game you can have that one-turn delivery along with alternating trade. You have to have one turn delivery so that on the next turn you can unblock it and continue. Chaotic ship chains, are, of course, the way to go in conquest games, where you don't need to take the time for the organized set-up and don't care if it takes more than one turn for THAT particular van to get there - you're just delivering hordes of hides, crusaders, and diplomats. I may be wrong - so I'm open to discussion here.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what the hell is a ship chain?

What purpose could this possibly serve? To get units across an ocean in just one turn? Surely the land unit can only hop a maximum of 2 spaces each turn....

Unless triremes can survive in open ocean next to another ship? Can they? But even if this is the case, it would be much cheaper to build the lighthouse wonder than have 20 triremes all over the ocean?

It sounds to me that ship chains are a bit of a waste of resources, but maybe I am just ignorant?

GarethMann said:

Sorry for my ignorance, but what the hell is a ship chain?

What purpose could this possibly serve? To get units across an ocean in just one turn? Surely the land unit can only hop a maximum of 2 spaces each turn....

Unless triremes can survive in open ocean next to another ship? Can they? But even if this is the case, it would be much cheaper to build the lighthouse wonder than have 20 triremes all over the ocean?

It sounds to me that ship chains are a bit of a waste of resources, but maybe I am just ignorant?

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A ship chain is a line of ships linking two coastal cities. You have to space the ships one space less than their movement allowance so that you do not have to "move" the carried unit. You start a unit in a port city by putting it to sleep, than you move the ship to the space where the next ship is, than wake up the sleeping unit and move the second ship to the third ship repeat the wake up unit and move the third ship, etc. etc.. Using this method you can move a van/freight around the world and still have its movement available at the destination. Its hard to do with triremes, but as the ships improve, you can really move freight. And with a good Railroad system, you can move a freight from any city to your port, and ship it anywhere on the map in one turn. And, if your moving freight every turn, you need a double chain, ie. as loaded ships go one way, empty ships reset going the other way so that your ships are always available to move cargo.

If you use triremes and have to cross open ocean, you will need the lighthouse, cause the triemes will sink if not next to land. Yes, it takes a lot of ships, but the beaker bonus you get for frt deliveries will really boost your science. And, if you build Leo's workshop, all those little triemes will grow up to be transports which come in handy on a large map....

The real advantage to a ship chain is the instant movement of freight from your homeport to an overseas AI city for a quick payout of coins and beakers. When you get it really working, you can even set your science to zero, and with just one scientist in one city you can maintain one advance per turn! Just remember, its like everything else in Civ2, you must build it up gradually to make it work. Ie., a chain of transports hauling 7 or 8 frt per turn in a Democracy with 50+ cities linked by Railroads does much better than triremes hauling 2 vans from 8-10 cities linked by roads in a monarchy.

The ship chain lets you repeat the deliveries every turn where your 20 individual ships take "forever" to reach their delivery city and than each must go all the way back home again. Granted that the 20 triemes, each with a dip on board, are great for exploring the map, but the payoff is still better hauling vans.

Thanks for that, so you are saying that if I activate the sleeping land unit just before I move the ship onto the same square as the next ship. The computer will automatically move my land unit to the other ship without using its movement?

I had no idea there were so many little tricks to this game.

I'd love to write a detailed exposition on my current strategies on how to set up trade, but they're not as good as many other of the better players on here and so much has already been written. They're also not too relevant to your EC style.

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So much has been written about trade? Where can I read about this?

What is "EC style"?