The Invincible Ocean trade routes

[Brave Jay]

I was playing around with the idea of naval blockades against the enemy ai. I knew that I could cut off roads to an enemy city, and thereby disconnect it from the empire, causing it to lose all trade routes as well as resources. But I was unsure about ocean trade routes.

I went to an old game save and used the world builder only to find that it is freakin impossible to pull off a naval blockade on an enemy city. You can block them from using water tiles, and keep any navy they may have penned inside the city, but the trade routes are completely unaffected.


With this being the case, there is a huge advantage to building the capital and as many cities as possible on the coast. I hope we will be able to do naval blockades to stop lucrative trade routes in BTS expansion.

 

[Charou]

We will.
I heard that ocean trade route will appear on screen in BTS.

This will make naval units way more interesting and fun to use.

 

[Thedrin]

Brave Jay:I went to an old game save and used the world builder only to find that it is freakin impossible to pull off a naval blockade on an enemy city. You can block them from using water tiles, and keep any navy they may have penned inside the city, but the trade routes are completely unaffected.

Thats because trade routes can follow any and all routes. If the city was connected to another city via a land route then the trade routes it had would just be (by the CivIV trade route system) diverted along that alternative path.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

the only way to cut all trade route from a city is by occupieng all ocean sea bordering the city and cutting all roads to it. But if you can do that, then it shouldn't be to difficult to capture the city.

 

[Brave Jay]

the only way to cut all trade route from a city is by occupieng all ocean sea bordering the city and cutting all roads to it. But if you can do that, then it shouldn't be to difficult to capture the city.

In my little test that i did, I used the world builder to destroy all roads connecting to berlin. I even destroyed the river that was nearby just in case it was somehow being used for a trade route. I then created battleships and placed them in every coast tile next to berlin. then i created a spy and put in berlin. Went back in the game and checked inside berlin using my spy for about 4 turns (in case there was a delayed effect) and the city never lost a single foreign trade route. I also did this on another one of germany's coastal cities, just in case it was a capital thing. same results. However, I tried it on a land locked city by destroying all roads and one turn later, presto!! every trade route gone. I did this little test because after searching through the forums quite a while, no one ever seemed certain of whether you could or couldn't use a blockade (in conjunction with road bombardment) to negate ocean trade routes.

 

[clarktu]

If Berlin has Airport, then you can not distroy its trade route.