Shipping chain?!
- Thread starter BlueZebra
- Start date
You have your ships spaced out as far as they can move and end up in the same square as the next ship, you then click on all the 'cargo' units to wake them up, then click on the new boat and start moving it. It should take all the 'cargo' units with it. You can do this as many times as needed.
If you start in a city the "cargo" does not expend a movement point to "load". Just set each unit to "Sleep" and move the ship out. Finish the ships turn in the same tile as the next ship, "wake" up each transported unit, then move the next ship to the third ship's tile. If the next ship does not hold as many units as the previous one, only the top ones will be taken (ie Transport hands over to Galleon: only the top 4 will move on). On the next turn move the ships back to their starting points. Getting a two-way flow is really tricky; sometimes you have to park the ships side-by-side to correctly moderate which units get transferred where. If you have the ships, better to establish two parallel chains instead.
A good chain crosses half the map in one turn, because caravan/freight delivery bonuses are based partly on the distance between the sending city and the receiving city. Also minimized the likelyhood of the destination changing it's "demands", which multiply the bonus significantly.
Some of the older GOTM Results pages had screen shots of long or strange ship chains. Look back into the -Teens. They used to give "special" awards for odd situations...
A good chain crosses half the map in one turn, because caravan/freight delivery bonuses are based partly on the distance between the sending city and the receiving city. Also minimized the likelyhood of the destination changing it's "demands", which multiply the bonus significantly.
Some of the older GOTM Results pages had screen shots of long or strange ship chains. Look back into the -Teens. They used to give "special" awards for odd situations...
la fayette
King
IMO it is not tricky at all, provided that you don't stack the boats travelling westwards and those travelling eastwards.
I have just played the 'Colonies 3' scenario with a transatlantic shipchain of 8 merchant ships from Brest to New Haven + 8 ships back from New Haven to Brest, and it worked like a charm.
My advice: have at least one spare ship ready somewhere, in order to be able to rebuild your shipchain in one turn, if your foe destroys one of your merchant transports
.Main advantage of the shipchain if you are at war and you don't rule the seas: you can lose many boats, you NEVER lose a caravan/freight.
I was talking about a two-way flow of caravans on a single chain of boats; I did mention two parallel chains in the next sentence.
Advice well taken: the AI has an uncanny knack for killing the ship with the Gold freight aboard... I try to keep a few Destroyers around the chain just in case unfriendlies come visiting. Keeping a few Dips or Spies aboard the chain is also useful, if you have time to bribe before the attack...
Advice well taken: the AI has an uncanny knack for killing the ship with the Gold freight aboard... I try to keep a few Destroyers around the chain just in case unfriendlies come visiting. Keeping a few Dips or Spies aboard the chain is also useful, if you have time to bribe before the attack...
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