Caravan - supply and demand / Growth??

[Gurney]

I have a huge problem with my trade (caravan) route,...

I'm at War with everyone (playing Prince level), and I don't want to (or can't/ haven't tried) a caravan with my enemies because I plan on destroying them)

The only option I have is to establish trade routes with my own cities. The problem is that most produce the same product that I do.

The only cities I have found (faraway) that require my supplies are still level 1-4.
Does the amount made from the caravan increase as the cities grow larger, or is it established (with no increase) as the cities grow larger?

 

[Stegyre]

The trade arrows generated each turn by a trade route increase as the size of the two cities increases. The amount of gold (and science beakers) received from the initial delivery of the caravan is, of course, set at the time of delivery and is a one-time payment. FYI, extensive research has already been done on calculating both numbers (the turn-by-turn payoff and the one-time payoff) and resides in the Appolyton (sp?) forum. If I knew how to post links, I could send you there, but you will have to get that info from one of the more experienced players.
Incidentally, I will regularaly establish trade routes with my own cities (I usually run a small and insular civ), so what you plan is not too unusual. The best players, however, seem to swear by frequent caravans to distant tribes.

 

[funxus]

Here's a link to how to calculate one time payments.
I couldn't find how to calculate amount of trade from established routes though. You could search on apolyton
However, calculations and formulas tend to make my games boring to play, so I've hardly ever used them.

 

[Old n Slow]

Two thoughts -- One is to use your boats -- have a camel board a boat in a city & disembark from the boat to the destination city (like a marine). It never sets foot on land, so it is safer even though you’re at war. Second would be to escort the camel to its destination over land with an appropriate unit (like an alpine) -- Camel moves (no ZOC, like a dip) Alpine follows (can always move onto a space with one of your own units). Deliver the goods, get the bigger bonus, take the city & have a trade route that comes with it.

Another thought might be to only fight some of the people some of the time, but that is another story.

 

[ElephantU]

Originally posted by Gurney
Does the amount made from the caravan increase as the cities grow larger, or is it established (with no increase) as the cities grow larger?

The Bonus Payment is a one-time event at delivery. Ongoing Trade Route arrows are based primarily on the combined number of arrows generated by each city, and can be changed at any time by anything that changes the number of Base Trade arrows, such as moving your workers to tiles with different amounts of Trade arrows. There are modifiers to the Trade Route formula such as Different Continent (+100%), Same Civ (-50%), RD/RR (+50%/100% IF critical path!), Improvements (Airport in both cities +50% same continent/100% different continents, SuperHighways +50% one city +100% both cities) and Tech Age (before Invent OR Nav +100%; after RR -1/3, after Flight -2/3).

Ongoing Trade DOES change as cities grow larger. The problem with Trade Routes with AI cities is that the AI favors Food tiles first, then Shield tiles. It does not use a high-Trade tile at all: I have seen the AI turn a Gems tile into Grass for the increased food. They WILL Road Grass and Plains tiles, more for connecting their cities than for the Trade.

One "trick" you can play to increase the Delivery Bonus is to move all of your workers to high-trade tiles before the caravan enters the city, even if this makes for Food or Shield shortages. Don't forget to move them back afterwards; as long as things are right at the end of your turn you will not lose food or shields. Early in the game moving workers to Ocean tiles will sometimes double the Delivery Bonus!

 

[Darth Civ]

Originally posted by ElephantU


Ongoing Trade DOES change as cities grow larger. The problem with Trade Routes with AI cities is that the AI favors Food tiles first, then Shield tiles. It does not use a high-Trade tile at all: I have seen the AI turn a Gems tile into Grass for the increased food. They WILL Road Grass and Plains tiles, more for connecting their cities than for the Trade.

Which explains why the AI are always behind in science.Oh well the computers dumbness is our gain .