[Vanilla] Trade Routes Guide

[Phoenix1595]

Thanks for this excellent report, Astog! I have yet to get the game, but I was very intrigued about the trade route systems employed in Civ6 v Civ5. I was hoping that the game developers would delve a little deeper with them in Civ6, and this guide really helped me see just how advanced the new system is. I rarely used domestic routes in Civ5, but now it seems imperative to do so in order to build a large, fully functioning empire via road building and trade posts. Trade posts, in particular, excite me a lot, because it is the first time developers seem to address a crucial component to the historic development of international communication and exchange between far-flung empires (I am thinking the Silk Road between Europe and East Asia).

Thanks again for the info!

 

[astog]

Typo corrections for the Trade Routes Guide:
...
The number on the left of the ‘/’ is the number of trade routes that (are) running currently, and the number on the right is capacity of trader routes you can run.
...
This is where the problem is (in) vanilla Civ 6 arises. Trade screens show the absolute distance, and not the turns remaining to complete trade route.
...
Hope is not lost though! There is another thing (that) affects the turns the trade route will take - the number of trips the trader takes to the destination. After testing for a few days there (, here) are the things I found:
...

• Number of trips is not affected by the current era, techs/civis (civics, policies?), buildings, districts.

Thanks for letting me know. Fixed them.

 

[Forbiddentwo]

Is there any benefit to, say... playing Harald, colonizing other continents early, then having trade routes between continents?

 

[God of Kings]

What about Poland's trade routes with its market replacement?

 

[View619]

Is there any benefit to, say... playing Harald, colonizing other continents early, then having trade routes between continents?

Yes, there's a benefit to establishing trade cities on separate continents. Since trade route range is limited by the number of outposts that exist between a destination and trading city (one the max distance has been reached), creating an early, small city to serve as your trade hub on a separate continent gives you access to a long distance outpost so you can establish trade relations with foreign civilizations earlier.

And you gain an early foothold on a second continent as well.

What about Poland's trade routes with its market replacement?

Market replacement gives additional gold for domestic trade routes and additional hammers for international trade routes. So, it basically serves to offset the disadvantage of selecting domestic vs international trade in earlier eras (you gain gold and hammers no matter what the destination city is).

 

[stallheim]

I have been playing the Viking DLC Scenario and since I have access to lots of trade routes (and maybe the rules are slightly different) I am getting really confused about how it all works. I have read through this guide and forum but haven't noticed my specific questions addressed so here goes:

1) I am assuming a trade route is a limited time event, yielding the income for the entire time that it takes for the cart to travel to the destination and back, but then it ends. Is this true or is the payout a onetime thing?
2) When I go to the trade route option screen I sometimes only see some foreign destination cities, what are the limitations on trade-route choice? Can I only have one route to Oslo from any city in my empire?
3) when I look in the report screen it lists my current trade routes but it is always way less than the number of routes I have been ordering, is there a choice I am making that is canceling my other trade routes accidentally, like having one city build a route to Oslo and then another city do the same, initiating a cancellation of the route?
4) Are domestic route limitations the same as foreign route limitations?

 

[KrikkitTwo]

1) true, it pays out every turn..then you get the route back

2) city A->City B can only be done once, but City A can go to cities B-Z and City B can receive from cities A, C-Z
However, trade routes have a limited Range. (if it goes through a city with trade posts, left from previous trade routes, then the range is extended)

3) Routes eventually expire, they can also be killed by enemy units/barbarians, or declaring war on the civ you are sending it to

4)..basically yes (except the no sending to a city of a civ you are at war with issue)..the yield is very different, but the range limits are the same.

 

[God of Kings]

To add to KrikkitTwo's point, Roman cities automatically have roads connected, complete with trading posts (if there's a direct land connection to Rome in both cases). This means that Roman trade routes can be very long (and profitable) from the get-go.

 

[Markus5]

I have a civ that spans 2 continents on a single land mass. I have problems running trade routes across the continental divide. It's mid-game. Is there an issue here?

 

[Victoria]

What type of problem? As far as I am aware there is no intercontinental trade route issue. Those merchants are too much of money grubbers to let anything like open borders be an issue, why should they bother with an imaginary line?

 

[View619]

I have a civ that spans 2 continents on a single land mass. I have problems running trade routes across the continental divide. It's mid-game. Is there an issue here?

You need to setup trading posts so your traders can travel further.

 

[Markus5]

What type of problem? As far as I am aware there is no intercontinental trade route issue. Those merchants are too much of money grubbers to let anything like open borders be an issue, why should they bother with an imaginary line?

It seems like only about half of my cities are available as trade route destinations. Which ones seems to be related to which city is source of the trade route. It's not mapping onto: continent vs continent; inland vs coastal; or, founded vs conquered.
I'm blaming a bug.

I've seen other weirdness in other games. In one case, I was getting attacked by units from a civ that I was at peace with. In that case, I had just updated the CQUI mod, and I initially blamed that. But, using Steam to check the installed files, there was some corruption. I'm not sure what happened.

In this case, yes, I just updated the CQUI mod. I'm assured that this shouldn't matter, but I think in some cases it does. So, that mod is getting the blame again. Steam verified the installed files are correct. So, actually, I'm getting the blame - I updated. I should know better.

I glad that there isn't any issue with continental divides. I never saw this before.

 

[Victoria]

Is it as @View619 said ... you are moving too far... there is only a certain distance you can trade first then one=ce that trade route is done you can piggy back off it

 

[Markus5]

Is it as @View619 said ... you are moving too far... there is only a certain distance you can trade first then one=ce that trade route is done you can piggy back off it

That might be it. In fact, I'm sure that's it. I was wondering why I couldn't send a route early in another game to a city-state that was certainly on the same landmass, but far away.

What is that 'certain distance'? Must be in the guide...

That might be it. In fact, I'm sure that's it. I was wondering why I couldn't send a route early in another game to a city-state that was certainly on the same landmass, but far away.

What is that 'certain distance'? Must be in the guide...

15 tiles if by land. 30 tiles if by sea.

So much I don't know.

 

[Victoria]

So much more you now do. The guides are good.

 

[Damus Maximus]

Great guide mate, thanks,
at the risk of pushing my luck, do you have any plans on creating a "diplomatic visibility guide" at any point?

 

[Victoria]

Diplomatic visibility is a few sentences. I'm working on a diplomacy guide but it's got a bit of detail that's not straight forward. Happy if someone else who knew did it, bit snowed ATM

 

[Moginheden]

What happens to a trade route when the source city or destination city is traded to another player, (or captured, or razed) while the trader is mid-route?

1.) Is the trader killed? Teleported?
2.) If the destination city changes between internal and external what happens to the yield of the trade route on turns following the change?

I took over a Russian city that had a trader in it at the time as part of a peace deal, and that trader never left until I killed off Russia completely over 100 turns later. During that time I wasn't able to send my final trader on a trade route anywhere, (it seemed the Russian trader was taking one of my trade route capacity) Has anyone else run across this bug?