Trade Routes Explained... please?

[Innawerkz]

Still getting the ropes of Civ IV and unlearning the 'tried & true' of Civ III.

One thing I would appreciate some help with is Trade Routes. I've read the manual - not word for word, but intent on finding a clearer explanation of them. I am trying to understand how much these affect your economy so I can place strategic weight on them.

Does 1 Route = 1 gpt? Is that one route for each city in your nation = 1 gpt? Doesn't seem like it, but maybe I am overlooking something. If so, is that for EACH city hooked up to your network?

And then Foreign Trade is more lucrative - that I read... but by what modifier?

All the best!

 

[dh_epic]

Sea trade routes are more lucrative.
Trade routes between prosperous cities are more lucrative.
Trade routes between far away cities are more lucrative.

You don't ever have to hook up the trade routes yourself. The trade routes automatically optimize themselves. But in order to maximize the benefits of trade routes, you need a few things:

- Open Borders: opens up trade to far off lands, and generates more gold for your trade routes

- Civics: Mercantilism disables all foreign trade routes, meaning that most of your trade will be internal. Your trade routes will all generate one gold, which isn't exactly great. On the other hand, free market opens up another trade route, which makes open borders that much more powerful.

- Buildings: harbors and the great lighthouse let you benefit more from trade routes

- Technologies: currency and corporation give you an additional trade route per city


I unfortunately can't tell you the exact math, but I can tell you they're valuable. This does make things harder on the warmonger, who ends up costing his self a lot of open borders agreements. But you can win the game with or without gunning for the trade route technologies. There are many ways to play.

 

[Innawerkz]

Thanks for the reply, dh_epic. I thoroughly enjoy your posts as they are always well-thought and clearly illustrated.

So essentially, they are valuable, but we're not sure EXACTLY how much. That works for me. Just wondering how much weight to put on Wonders and Civics that offer +1 or more Routes when considering a new tech to learn. I'll just classify it as - do I need money or plan to war/peacefully expand? If so - yes learn/build it.

Thanks for the added 'catch' to warring. Hadn't considered the very real potential of my enemy and all his allies ceasing trade with me and stunting my campaign shorter then planned.

Thanks again!

 

[spa]

Also noteworthy on trade if you play in the modern era is airports. I believe that they give you an extra trade route rather than increasing the yield of existing trade routes by 50% like the Harbour does. It probably doesn't have time to make much of a difference for most people, but it does for me because I turn off culture and space ship victory to force a one world government scenario (conquest or diplomacy). So I end up playing a fair bit in the modern era when airports can actually make a use for themselves.

 

[Gufnork]

The first thing I think about when considering trade routes is if I will be going Mercantilism or not. Occasionally I like to play Philosophical, try and get Angkor Wat, Statue of Liberty and Sistine Chapel and go Representative + Mercantilism. If so, trade routes are worth little. If not and I plan on keeping peaceful relations with most of my neighbours, they are.

 

[dh_epic]

Often the best way to know how your economy is doing is to take a look at your tax rate.

As a general rule (there are exceptions at the top and bottom end, but this should work):

90-100: You can afford to spend more
70-80: Normal
50-60: Caution
0-40: Do something drastic

Your budget will start to cave from:
- More Cities
- Bigger Civics
- More Military

The great thing about extra trade routes is they automatically generate money. If you're in trouble in the ancient era, you can make it to currency and add a single trade route in every city. That's at least one gold per city. If you have open borders, it can be much more.

Always adjust your technology/civics/wonder needs to what's going on in the current game. Not just to make up for weaknesses, but enhance strengths! Don't just build the great lighthouse if you're in trouble. Build the great lighthouse if you find yourself with a lot of coastal cities and you want to put that money to work!

 

[Innawerkz]

Thanks all. This has helped a lot.

And playing to strengths comes naturally. Not simply using Traits to offset weaknesses or to weaken my development in said area, but become a raging juggernaut at said Trait - Leaders if Philosophical and more money if Financial and so on.

I just did not see how significant the impact of trade route additions (+) were in a clear cut way. Still abstract at the moment, but the tips on increasing revenue quickly are greatly appreciated.

And yes, nothing is more telling then the 40% or less research. STOP EXPANDING & BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE!

 

[Tactician Zhao]

I agree about the closed borders, though I found it almost required to keep them closed in some situations to avoid the AI grabbing land that you plan to expand to (on maps such as hub, etc where they will try to expand onto your area).. at the same time, the extra trade from open borders could allow you to expand more quickly and eliminate that problem

without seeing actual numbers, however, its tough to make such a crucial decision

 

[dh_epic]

Mercantilism is the closed borders civic. If you need to close your borders for any reason -- to prevent spies, to block religions, to declare war (you can't open your borders to an enemy!), or to keep enemy settlers from crossing over -- you'd be smart to use mercantilism.

Vice versa, if you switch to mercantilism, you benefit very little from closed borders. You might as well close your borders to other civs, because they'll be benefitting more than you do.

Really, it's an issue of knowing how much you're dependent on trade routes, and knowing how much you WILL need to depend on trade routes. If you plan on being a warmonger, those trade routes won't help you that much. Same thing if you want to combine mercantilism with other Great People strategies -- then your extra trade routes are doing you no good.

 

[Shillen]

Are your trade routes affected at all by trading resources to/from other civs?

 

[cleverhandle]

I just did not see how significant the impact of trade route additions (+) were in a clear cut way. Still abstract at the moment...

Well, to provide some numbers... (mid IA time-frame)

(edit: to be clear, these are just examples from my current game - not in any way are they "reference" values)

Domestic land route = 2-3 commerce
Foreign land route = 3-4
Domestic sea route = 3-4 (w/Harbor)
Foreign sea route = 6-8 (w/Harbor)

Those numbers are added to your raw commerce, before tax/science allocation and multiplier buildings. I have a 19pop, well-developed coastal city that has 4 +8 foreign sea trade routes (2 extra routes from Great Lighthouse) - those 4 routes account for nearly half of the city's raw commerce. So I'd say that extra routes are quite significant - the Great Lighthouse has effectively boosted that city's raw commerce by 33%.

I really like the trade route system the more I look at it, even though it never really jumps out at you in-game. It provides a nice push for isolationist warmongers to keep at least some ties to the international community, especially as the game progresses and you get bigger routes and better multipliers.

 

[Colonel Kraken]

Mercantilism is the closed borders civic. If you need to close your borders for any reason -- to prevent spies

Closed borders don't block spies.

 

[Shillen]

Foreign sea route = 6-8 (w/Harbor)

I've had 10 commerce per trade route in a coastal city before. I'd really love to know how the trade route value is calculated exactly.

 

[Ezy]

i am sure it is related to the distance between the towns
next town just locate that trade town on the map and count it
also, i think lvl of the town is important
(i think it something like Great Merchant" the bigger and farther the town u have a trade rout to the better for u)
well add in harbor so costal trade is always better

 

[Vizzini]

I really like the trade route system the more I look at it, even though it never really jumps out at you in-game. It provides a nice push for isolationist warmongers to keep at least some ties to the international community, especially as the game progresses and you get bigger routes and better multipliers.

I was warmongering through my last game and my economy was crashing (slider down to 50% at one point and still in the red)

Luckily Isabella was near-by and I asked her rather nicely, (If you consider torching all her tile improvements and cities nice ) to loan me some money to keep me afloat until my economy recovered...

 

[Elhoim]

A somewhat off topic question... Banks increase your total comerce or only gold output? I´m confused... Why they didn´t do the icons different...

 

[walkerjks]

A somewhat off topic question... Banks increase your total comerce or only gold output? I´m confused... Why they didn´t do the icons different...

Gold output only. Otherwise we'd all be aiming for currency and banking early to boost our science.

 

[Shillen]

Yeah they definitely need a separate icon for tax revenue and for commerce. For instance the palace gives +8 [gold icon] and the religious shrines give +x [gold icon]. But they're two separate things. The palace adds commerce and the shrine adds tax revenue only.

 

[gakkun]

Mercantilism is the closed borders civic.

I thought Mercantilism simply disables foreign trade routes but rival units can still enter your territory if if they have an OBA with you?? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[BeefontheBone]

No, you're right, you just misunderstood his point. He was saying that Mercantilism makes sense if your borders are closed for whatever reason since you'll benefit from the extra domestic trade without losing any foreign trade as that doesn't occur without open borders in place.