[vanilla] How do trade routes/roads/railroads/harbours work? (vanilla)

[Veneke]

Veneke submitted a new resource:

How do trade routes/roads/railroads/harbours work? - How do trade routes/roads/railroads/harbours work?

How do trade routes/roads/railroads/harbours work?
Connecting your empire​

Introduction
Should one go by horse, carriage, train or ship?

This article goes through the basic mechanics of trade routes, roads, railroads and harbours. By virtue of explanation, some obvious strategies and clearly optimal paths begin to emerge and these are lightly explored throughout. The focus, however, is most definitely on...

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[MadDjinn]

Image uploads.

 

[Aristos]

Excellent work!

I was applying some of this knowledge, but only through sheer "observation", intuitively so to speak, never did the math.

Good!

 

[chukownu]

Thanks!

 

[Sneaks]

You can build roads in other empire's territory during war or open borders. This is very important to know for two reasons:

1. You can spam roads for faster troop movement at no cost to you and an upkeep cost for your enemy.

2. You can complete those seemingly impossible distant CS road quests using another civ's road network. Just build a connection between one of your cities to one of theirs, then to their closest city to the CS. Instead of needing 50 tiles of highway, you can cut it down to 10 or less.

 

[Lexicus]

If I knock an AI out of the game and raze all his cities (except the capital, of course) will I still be paying maintenance for the roads that are left?

 

[RedRover57]

2. You can complete those seemingly impossible distant CS road quests using another civ's road network. Just build a connection between one of your cities to one of theirs, then to their closest city to the CS. Instead of needing 50 tiles of highway, you can cut it down to 10 or less.

Interesting. I did not realize this. However, I do know that the CS will not consider your road to be connected to the capital if it runs through the borders of another CS. Also, the Iroquois UA (forests within your territory act like roads) is not recognized by the CS, so you would need to build roads on your forest tiles to complete the quest. Of course you can always just remove these roads after the quest is completed.

 

[Sneaks]

Cs borders are recognized if you are allied with said civ

 

[BSPollux]

If I knock an AI out of the game and raze all his cities (except the capital, of course) will I still be paying maintenance for the roads that are left?

Following the info in the opener it seems as if the answer has to be 'no': The roads in question are not inside your borders and you didnt build them.

Correct?

 

[RedRover57]

Cs borders are recognized if you are allied with said civ

Actually, they are not. Check out my post and screenshot in this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=437317

I was able to directly connect a road from my capital to CS ally #1 and complete their quest, but was not able to "daisy chain" the road to CS ally #2. In fact, the quest could never be completed for CS ally #2 in this game since the road would have to pass through another CS borders in order to link to my capital.

 

[Lexicus]

Following the info in the opener it seems as if the answer has to be 'no': The roads in question are not inside your borders and you didnt build them.

It seems that way, but I think that perhaps the ownership change of the city screws up the recognition mechanics or something. I could be wrong about this, I guess, but I would just like to know.

 

[elprofesor]

It seems like a bug to me, RedRover; I've seen a case where I completed a road to a CS that demanded it, but it crossed another CS territory, so they didn't give me credit. But once I befriended (or allied, don't remember) the blocking CS, I received the bonus influence with the CS that asked for the trade route (I may have received it the following turn, don't remember either).

This happened some patches ago, though. I don't believe it has been changed for balance purposes, so it's probably only a bug.

 

[Le Roi Soleil]

Actually, they are not. Check out my post and screenshot in this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=437317

I was able to directly connect a road from my capital to CS ally #1 and complete their quest, but was not able to "daisy chain" the road to CS ally #2. In fact, the quest could never be completed for CS ally #2 in this game since the road would have to pass through another CS borders in order to link to my capital.

I am fairly certain that insofar as this bug existed, it has been addressed in the latest patch. I have run roads through allied CSs multiple times in the new patch and never had any problem hooking up trade routes, completing quests, etc. so long as the thoroughfare CS was an ally.

The game seems to treat allied CSs as very much a part of your territory. You can see the map from their cities the same as from your own, and roads, etc. running through them function as normal. This applies for allies only. Friends status will not get it done.

 

[HalloweenWeed]

Excellent writeup Veneke. I was just wondering how much the railroad increased city prod, and tried it in game, and had Qs. You answered them, I love it.

 

[Don Promillo]

Excellent Smithers, Excellent! uhm ... Veneke

Is there a possibility to find out if the city is connected via railroad? Normal trade network is shown via icon underneath the city name, but railroads? (Or is there a mod?)

thx

 

[The Pilgrim]

Is there a possibility to find out if the city is connected via railroad? Normal trade network is shown via icon underneath the city name, but railroads? (Or is there a mod?)

Hover over production per turn info in city screen and you should see bonus modifier.

 

[Tsaghen]

Say I build roads in another civ's territory, they pay the maintenance ok. Now what if their city is razed and the roads I built thus end up in neutral territory ? Am I still considered the builder and thus get charged with maintenance ?

 

[Veneke]

I believe the game keeps track of the builder of the road and that this is only overridden if the road is in a different territory. That's my understanding of it. So to answer your question, yes you'll be changed the maintenance.

 

[Mesix]

Very nice writeup. Thanks for the analysis.

I would add one thing to the analysis. When I decide where to place my harbors, I often do so based on the number of sea resources near the city. If I build a harbor, I follow it up with a sea port. At this point, the sea resources are generating +2 and +1 . The bonuse helps to offset the maintenance cost of the two buildings. Generally, I try to have 3+ sea resources near the harbor cities.

In my mind, the harbor/sea port combo (in a 3 sea resource city) is costing me 3 to genreate 2 modified by other buildings (factory, etc.). The income from trade routes is gravy.

A more complete analysis is that the trade route is costing the net of the generation and cost of having the combination of the harbor/sea port.

 

[chrin67]

Very interesting article! bravo!

Roads increase movement x2 (x3 with Machinery). Railroads increase movement x10.

In fact, in current release 1.0.1.383, railroads increase movements only x5 (i.e. 0.2 MP/tile) and it seems that it only applies to slow units (2 MPs)