Anybody have tips for building a Mercantile Empire?

[Tijgersag]

I'm just started playing Civ V. I'm about to start my second game, actually.

(yes.. at 2:26 AM GMT+1.. why not? Just another peek..)

Does anybody have any useful suggestions for building a mercantile empire based on trade, trade and more trade?

I want to be the richest, have tons of ships like the East Indies Company and have a small but effective strike force for expiditionary assaults. I'm really new.. but have played other Civ games all the way from Civ I.

Which Civ? Which social policies? Etc.. etc

 

[King Jason]

I'd suggest China. before you know it you'll be rolling in the dough.

You'll want to get both big ben and the mercantilism policy to make rush buying easier.

trade post spam your tiles and get your food from Maritime city-state investments.. It also might be wise to have 1 or two military CS allies also.

Also fun in a roleplaying sort of way, look for city-states that have gone to constant war with neighboring civs. Gift them a sizable force and you'll enjoy the fruits of good trade with a civilization while simultaneously destroying them by proxy.

In one game I created The Great Empire of Brussels by sending my musketeers and foreign legions to fight on their behalf. Persia and Egypt were destroyed with out my direct declaration. Eventually, Brussels had an empire of about 10 cities; The second largest in the world (small earth map) to my empire of 15.

 

[Trickster7135]

Play Arabia. they get double! luxury resources for trading purposes.

A gold economy is a sure fire win for a diplomatic victory.

 

[Zenstrive]

I seconded Arabia. Explore the map. Kill two or three civs closer to you with the horseman and archer combo. Make two or three cities to secure resources. Connect all of your cities to your capital. Slingshot to medieval (Chivalry?), get commerce-patronage-pious policy. You'll be rolling in dough and can still make huge empire with huge army. Gold is the key.

Befriend maritime city states for the boost on growth. More growth = more gold. Befriend the cultural for faster way to get policies. Befriend the maritime to get occasional military units (sometime the ones that you can not even build yourself!)

 

[pi-r8]

when you say trade, do you mean trade routes or trading with the AI? because those are pretty different. Actually they're almost polar opposites, because trading with the AI encourages lots of small cities to claim resources, while trade routes encourage large cities.

 

[aimlessgun]

I think the Arabs are very good, and fit the roleplay to a T. Just keep jumping on any luxuries you see with settlers, and once you get Bazaars you will be swimmin' in dough. You may also be able to get every possible luxury resource, putting your cities in eternal "We love the king" day.

 

[Surgeon]

This is 100% luck based but as China I managed to get 2 cities with multiple gold/silver. One 3 silver, one 3 gold +1 silver. In that situation a mint = awesome

Note that if one of them is 3 hexes away you will be waiting a fair while to get full value of your city.

 

[delra]

Surgeon: Purchase tile.

 

[evanbgood]

If you're looking to put an emphasis on the naval portion of things, perhaps England? Really, any civ has the potential to play a good financial tactic, whether its by direct bonuses, or subtle effects (like France's increased culture to rush social policies, thereby strengthening the economy that way).
Beyond that, whether we're talking international resource trade or local trade routes, I would use an expansionist tactic. Take land (by force, if necessary) that has good access to rivers and luxuries. Gold and silver are particularly good to get a hold of, though most will provide a pretty good boost if worked. You can also take gold from natural wonders and, of course, spamming out trade posts. Fish are also a huge boost if you can find a good supply of them. Some of my best gold cities have had four or even five fish tiles worked. Done properly, every additional city under your control can have the potential to be more profit than expense, which means more cities=more money! This also gives you heavy monopolies on luxury resources, which can result in massive profits.
And of course, don't forget growth (and the happiness required from there)! Trade routes are based on how much population is in the trading city and the capital, in addition to the obvious fact that you need population to work your gold tiles.
Throw in a few golden ages, a few good allied city states, a modest military to keep it all safe... you should be golden!... Ugh, I can't believe I'm ending this message with that pun.

 

[King Jason]

This is 100% luck based but as China I managed to get 2 cities with multiple gold/silver. One 3 silver, one 3 gold +1 silver. In that situation a mint = awesome.

Funnily enough, as China, almost every single one of my cities had 3 sea resources, none with less than 2... and one had a whopping 5.

They're great tiles without seaports, but once navigation came along... yeesh. I also got the +3 prod to coastal cities. Which gave nearly every city in my empire 9 base production.

Definitely changed the way I look at the ocean, I now search for places where I can reach 3 seafood in some configuration. But I've digressed.

 

[alpaca]

The most important thing to do is to sell stuff to the AI. Happiness resources you don't need, strategic resources they don't need, open borders. The AI will buy everything.

Otherwise, spam trade posts and buy some maritime city state allies so you don't have to build farms. I think both China and Arabia are fine, Arabia is better if you play on Archipelago and can sell a lot of stuff to a lot of AI nations while China is better if you play Pangaea and run a high risk of war. If you want to go a bit more funky, I would say the Songhai are good to get lotsa money by conquest and Persia is good if you want to focus on Golden Ages.