[C3C] Connect rival civs to trade network by road

[SebT27]

Newbie question - I'm sure I knew this, but I've just picked up CivIII again after years.

I want to make some (more) money. How do I open up trade (in luxury or strategic resources) with neighbours on the same continent?

a) I've got Galleys and the Great Lighthouse - but anyway, we're connected by coast. I've built some Harbours (for other reasons), but I can't just wait for them to bother to build one themselves.
b) The obvious answer: build a road (through the boring, unsettled miles of mosquito-infested jungle which separate us). But where to? Can I connect just one of their cities to my road network to open up trade? Or does it have to be their capital? Their border cities tend to be unconnected to their other cities.

The manual constantly refers to a "Your Trade Network" section which doesn't exist!

 

[justanick]

Being connected to the capital is required.

Your best course of action is probably inaction. You just need to wait till AI builds a viable harbour. If AI lacks the needed tech you can gift the tech so AI can build the needed harbour.

Also you can build a road to a border city of them and wait till AI connects this city to its capital. This does not take very long at the higher difficulty settings, but at the lower difficulty settings AI is slower to grow to the point where it has enough workers to do the job.

In the end you simply have to wait. Emperor might be a reasonale compromise for a difficulty setting.

 

[SebT27]

Being connected to the capital is required.

Your best course of action is probably inaction. You just need to wait till AI builds a viable harbour. If AI lacks the needed tech you can gift the tech so AI can build the needed harbour.

Also you can build a road to a border city of them and wait till AI connects this city to its capital. This does not take very long at the higher difficulty settings, but at the lower difficulty settings AI is slower to grow to the point where it has enough workers to do the job.

In the end you simply have to wait. Emperor might be a reasonale compromise for a difficulty setting.

Thank you!

I'm a dirty humble Chieftain-level player right now to learn the ropes again (don't hate me!), so the AIs are... well, hopeless. They all have MapMaking but they might get round to building a Harbour sometime in the late 23rd Century (they love trying to build Wonders in 3/4-shield towns). They're not even fun to crush. I think back when I was in practice Regent or Monarch was my favourite fun level.

As an alternative to Harbours, I was thinking of imitating the current (real-world) Chinese Belt and Road Initiative to connect their capital. If I have right of passage, can my Workers build roads on enemy territory?

 

[justanick]

If I have right of passage, can my Workers build roads on enemy territory?

Well, you can build roads without rights of passage in enemy territory.

With rights of passage it is not enemy territory and you can move freely and even use the roads for faster movement.

I'm a dirty humble Chieftain-level player right now to learn the ropes again (don't hate me!), so the AIs are... well, hopeless. They all have MapMaking but they might get round to building a Harbour sometime in the late 23rd Century (they love trying to build Wonders in 3/4-shield towns). They're not even fun to crush. I think back when I was in practice Regent or Monarch was my favourite fun level.

You should at least switch to Regent. Below Regent AI is penalized strongly which makes it so weak that is becomes painful to watch.

At Regent it is at least a fair game as AI gets neither boni nor mali compared to the human player. Monarch and Emperor are only slight bumps in difficulty setting. The step to demigod however is steep, so better stay away from it.

 

[SebT27]

Thank you. Going to move to Regent ASAP. Didn't realise that about roads.

 

[CKS]

You can also send a settler with a worker (and an escort), build a town near to the rival civ, rush a harbor in that town, and then road from your harbor town to their road network or capital. This can be speedier than roading many jungle tiles.

If you don't want to deal with the far away town, you can give it to the rival civ after the harbor is built, but you risk them losing the harbor and cutting the trade route.