Newbie trade question

[Knedz]

Hey guys,

I'm playing this game for the first time since I was a kid in the 90s, and I have a few questions. I've read through a bit of the essential reading, and I'm very surprised to see that so much info was compiled on this game, and that other people still enjoy playing it.

That aside, I have a few questions about trade, some that were probably overlooked.

1.) Is it important to space trade out when possible so that caravans arrive say every turn, instead of having everything arrive during the same turn?

2.) Right now in my current game, nearly all of my cities supply Salt, and when I go trade advisor, no city on the planet demands it. Should I just trade this stuff even when there is no demand for it?

3.) Any perks of trading with the food supplies, or is that just good so you have stuff to load on a caravan going to help build a wonder?

I'll think of more questions later I'm sure, but I'm very perplexed by question #2 in particular.

Thanks for the help

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Welcome to the forum. Trade can take a while to master, and it gets more effective as difficulty level increases (because cities will grow faster on tougher levels and payouts are capped at 2/3 science cost, which may be low at easier levels).

1.) Is it important to space trade out when possible so that caravans arrive say every turn, instead of having everything arrive during the same turn?

Caravan deliveries give both gold and science production. Generally speaking, having gold sooner is not a problem (unless you have more than 30,000, or are entering negotiations where the other civ will demand gold) so delivering caravans as soon as possible is advisable. On the other hand, caravan deliveries can only contribute to the current technology being researched, so if you have filled the "beaker box" (which you can see in the science adviser) you may want to wait until the following turn to deliver more caravans so that you get the caravans to contribute to the next technology.

2.) Right now in my current game, nearly all of my cities supply Salt, and when I go trade advisor, no city on the planet demands it. Should I just trade this stuff even when there is no demand for it?

All that demand does is increase the delivery bonus of the commodity in question (by a multiplier of 2-4, depending on the commodity); you can still deliver a caravan to a city that doesn't demand the commodity. Delivered to a large and distant city, non demanded commodities can still give a very nice delivery bonus, and are usually worth building if the city doesn't produce any commodities that are in demand. Related to question 1, if the science box is almost full, deliver a non-demanded commodity instead of a demanded one to fill it completely.

3.) Any perks of trading with the food supplies, or is that just good so you have stuff to load on a caravan going to help build a wonder?

Food trade routes transfer 1 food per turn from the source city to the destination city. Delivering a food caravan also gives a city enough food to fill half its food box. I rarely use them for anything other than wonder building.

 

[Knedz]

Thank you for the quick reply. I was sitting around waiting for demands to line up for deliveries, in my next game I'll be sure to trade early and often.

 

[mackerel]

32767 is a significant number for computers, sometimes. In Civ2, that's the highest amount of science progress (and gold) you can have at one time. The game doesn't stop you from getting more, though. It's just that 32767+1=-32768. I've only run into that feature when trying to buy a full spaceship in one turn.

That salt caravan, even undemanded, can establish a permanent trade route between cities. That translates to a free arrow or two every turn in the early game, increasing as the cities grow. In practical terms, having a few trade routes lets your cities celebrate without expensive buildings, and at lower luxury rates.

Food caravans are usually only used for wonders, or by accident. I've heard of people making mega-cities by delivering two food vans per turn. There's not much benefit to it other than the fun, but you can get to size 127 before you have to stop (127+1=-128).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

If I've got cities producing stuff there's no demand for, I tend to use those caravans for rush-building of Wonders.

And the only time I ever send a food caravan is when a city is in danger of starving, or if I click it by mistake.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

If you want to see a trading strategy (along with a lot of other strategy remarks) applied to a specific game, take a look at this succession game.

There are a lot of other interesting succession games in the Stories & Tales section (be sure to show threads from the beginning), although most of them had the saved games removed. I'm currently trying to start a new succession game here, which is open to players of all skill levels.

 

[stoferb]

Hey guys,

I'm playing this game for the first time since I was a kid in the 90s, and I have a few questions. I've read through a bit of the essential reading, and I'm very surprised to see that so much info was compiled on this game, and that other people still enjoy playing it.

That aside, I have a few questions about trade, some that were probably overlooked.

1.) Is it important to space trade out when possible so that caravans arrive say every turn, instead of having everything arrive during the same turn?

2.) Right now in my current game, nearly all of my cities supply Salt, and when I go trade advisor, no city on the planet demands it. Should I just trade this stuff even when there is no demand for it?

3.) Any perks of trading with the food supplies, or is that just good so you have stuff to load on a caravan going to help build a wonder?

I'll think of more questions later I'm sure, but I'm very perplexed by question #2 in particular.

Thanks for the help

1. If you look on the beaker on the right side it's color shows how close you are to get a new tech. If it's already red, then you should wait with establishing more trade routes this turn as the beakers you get from it will only go to waste when they could instead hurry your way towards next scientific advance. This is the main benefit of not making every caravan arrive at the same turn. That is ofcourse assuming you're not in need of urgent cash, or the caravans in danger of getting killed before they arrive, in which case the money is more important than the beakers and this advice can be safely ignored.

2. Yes you should trade it, even if not in demand long-distance trade is very profitable and often when a city is trading away it's third resource it's supply and demand will change. If it doesn't you send salt caravans to cities that can only can produce food caravans, and one or two resources will open up again.

3. Generally food caravans is for hurrying wonders. It's no fun when one trade-slot is stealing or adding one food from your city when it instead could generate alot of arrows. But every food caravan that is traded is one half of the foodbox filled so you can use it to grow a city much, much bigger than what it could ever possibly support (it can technically reach size 127). Also, food caravans can be used to free up trade commodities in other cities.

 

[Millman]

Hey guys,

I'm playing this game for the first time since I was a kid in the 90s, and I have a few questions. I've read through a bit of the essential reading, and I'm very surprised to see that so much info was compiled on this game, and that other people still enjoy playing it.

That aside, I have a few questions about trade, some that were probably overlooked.

1.) Is it important to space trade out when possible so that caravans arrive say every turn, instead of having everything arrive during the same turn?

2.) Right now in my current game, nearly all of my cities supply Salt, and when I go trade advisor, no city on the planet demands it. Should I just trade this stuff even when there is no demand for it?

3.) Any perks of trading with the food supplies, or is that just good so you have stuff to load on a caravan going to help build a wonder?

I'll think of more questions later I'm sure, but I'm very perplexed by question #2 in particular.

Thanks for the help

Without looking at other posts.

1. Depends what you're doing. Trade also helps science and you can overload it if you want. Probably doesn't matter but I've played the game less than 100 times and of those 100 or did I go far with 30 of them.

2. Help build the wonder when you can. If you don't have to trade I wouldn't. There's other things to do.

3. Wonder fodder and there's plenty to micro-manage with this game.

 

[jarhead_leif]

Is there an advantage when trading with foreign cities?

 

[mackerel]

Foreign trade pays twice as much as domestic trade. I'd call that an advantage.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Ture and it is not just the initial payoff that is doube; foreign routes are worth double the equivalent domestic ones as well.

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

Foreign is almost always better, but I have had cases where domestic trade paid better. But that was because my cities were five times bigger than any AI city and produced much more trade. Example: Domestic city producing 100 trade/turn may be better than foreign city producing 20 trade/turn.
Distance is also a factor, the bigger the distance is between the two cities the better. Both cities having Airport also helps.

 

[brutes]

I have another trade question. On the city view, I can see 3 trades (after establishing 3 routes) in the middle bottom box. Is this the maximum? Can more trade routes be established, even if we can't see them, since the box only displays 3 routes? If there can be more than 3 trade routes, which ones are displayed? First 3 routes, last 3 routes, biggest routes, totally random? Also if more than 3 can be established, is it possible to see all of them?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I have another trade question. On the city view, I can see 3 trades (after establishing 3 routes) in the middle bottom box. Is this the maximum? Can more trade routes be established, even if we can't see them, since the box only displays 3 routes? If there can be more than 3 trade routes, which ones are displayed? First 3 routes, last 3 routes, biggest routes, totally random? Also if more than 3 can be established, is it possible to see all of them?
View attachment 543109

It's my understanding that you can establish as many trade routes you want, between your own cities or between you and your opponents' cities. But the display will only show the three most profitable ones - which will change during the course of the game, depending on commodities and which cities might get conquered or lose people, etc.

BTW, your city needs more food. You should either have another city send it a food caravan, disband your unsupported unit, or have it supported by a different city with more food supplies.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Welcome brutes. Indeed 3 is the max. You can at most have 3 trade routes at any given point in time in any city. If you deliver when you have 3 routes, one of your existing routes may get replaced by the new one.