I was curious about this so I crunched the math. Trade Confederacy grants +1 influence to a CS you have a TR with, up to +5 per TR.
So how much is that actually "worth" in terms of yields?
If we take a game where the policy is starting to ramp up, the late renaissance where I have state craft fully unlocked, enjoys going, my printing press a moving. This is where a lot of influence motion is happening in the game.
Envoys: 400 hammers (discounted due to 286 hammers based on my discounts, granting 90 influence). Or its a 490 gold purchase.
Note: This is for my capital envoys which is maxxed on bonuses. In most games, I am often generating envoys from multiple places. On the flip side, yields now are better than yields later, so getting a lump of influence now is stronger than later. Further TRs are always at risk to be sniped and killed (envoys can too but I find TRs are more commonly hit throughout the game). Overall I am not factoring everything here, so using the best envoy as my comparison is a way to compensate for some of that.
+5 influence per turn will get me to 90 influence in 18 turns. So every 18 turns I am generating 5 envoys worth of influence across 5 trade routes. In other words: 286 hammers per envoy * 5 envoys / 5 trade routes / 18 turns = ~16 hammers per trade route are "added on".
*Past 5 TRs, the bonus does not increase, but stays constant. You produce more envoys worth of influence, but spread over more TRs.
So how much is that actually "worth" in terms of yields?
If we take a game where the policy is starting to ramp up, the late renaissance where I have state craft fully unlocked, enjoys going, my printing press a moving. This is where a lot of influence motion is happening in the game.
Envoys: 400 hammers (discounted due to 286 hammers based on my discounts, granting 90 influence). Or its a 490 gold purchase.
Note: This is for my capital envoys which is maxxed on bonuses. In most games, I am often generating envoys from multiple places. On the flip side, yields now are better than yields later, so getting a lump of influence now is stronger than later. Further TRs are always at risk to be sniped and killed (envoys can too but I find TRs are more commonly hit throughout the game). Overall I am not factoring everything here, so using the best envoy as my comparison is a way to compensate for some of that.
+5 influence per turn will get me to 90 influence in 18 turns. So every 18 turns I am generating 5 envoys worth of influence across 5 trade routes. In other words: 286 hammers per envoy * 5 envoys / 5 trade routes / 18 turns = ~16 hammers per trade route are "added on".
| Trade Confederacy: Effective Yields per TR based on Influence Gained (Envoys) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Trade Route Number | HPT per TR | GPT per TR |
| 1 | 3.2 | 5.4 |
| 2 | 6.3 | 10.9 |
| 3 | 9.5 | 16.3 |
| 4 | 12.7 | 21.8 |
| 5+* | 15.9 | 27.2 |
