Trade Routes worth it or not?

[Sherlock]

I just connected my 1st two cities. 4 Roads, 1 gold each for a total of 4 gold cost per turn.

Benefit to trade route? 5 gold.

Seems like a lot of trouble for 1 gold (and yes, it's nice to have units move faster).

If the city is farther away does the benefit go up? Or is there another way to get the Trade Route benefit?

Any comments on trade routes welcome.

 

[Ghonasiflaids]

Well with a certain liberty policy you gain +1 hapiness per trade route. Combine that with the order opener and thats basically an automatic +2 hapiness per city. Also, I believe the money gain from trade routes depends on the size of the city.

 

[AfterShafter]

If it were 1 gold a game all game, it would probably still be worth it long term - especially when paired with the logistics value of the movement bonus in your empire. To boot, cities get larger and produce more. Paired with the many bonuses you can get for trade routes that Ghonas pointed out, it makes them very worth it.

But, connecting trade routes immediately won't always be a priority. If your workers have productive improvements to do, best to prioritize them and focus on trade routes more in your down time.

Also, harbors are oftentimes far cheaper than roads for trade routes. I make most of my cities coastal anyways for a variety of reasons, and being able to connect distant cities with harbors can be quite helpful.

 

[Waywocket]

The benefit goes up as the size of the city (and your capital) increases. The usual rule of thumb is that it breaks even when the city size is equal to the number of roads you have to build.

 

[compwiz1202]

If it were 1 gold a game all game, it would probably still be worth it long term - especially when paired with the logistics value of the movement bonus in your empire. To boot, cities get larger and produce more. Paired with the many bonuses you can get for trade routes that Ghonas pointed out, it makes them very worth it.

But, connecting trade routes immediately won't always be a priority. If your workers have productive improvements to do, best to prioritize them and focus on trade routes more in your down time.

Also, harbors are oftentimes far cheaper than roads for trade routes. I make most of my cities coastal anyways for a variety of reasons, and being able to connect distant cities with harbors can be quite helpful.

I always love how roads backfire on the enemy once i can get one of their cities. They have a whole trade network that lets my units just wipe them out quicker.

But, yea, the bigger the city, the more gold the trade route gives you. Plus i like it for being able to mobilize workers between cities faster, especially if the ownership of two cities doesn't touch yet and barbarians are lurking.

 

[A Rabid Dopsis]

This article in the War Academy is amazingly comprehensive about this subject: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=438745

 

[cain3456]

Trade Unions, one of the starters on the Commerce track, cuts road maintenance by a third.

 

[Ighten]

Trade Unions, one of the starters on the Commerce track, cuts road maintenance by a third.

Devs clearly didnt think of trade unions in the UK sense then.. The roads would go on strike every year

 

[The_Quasar]

Devs clearly didnt think of trade unions in the UK sense then.. The roads would go on strike every year

and in France they'd hardly work at all

Seriously, having a good road network, then rail network, is more and more important as the game goes on, and as you move up in difficulty... Harbours, also, are especially good, as they don't have to be updated for railways, but not a substitute for roads, except when a long way off.

 

[SirIsaacNewton]

If your capital is on a coast, and another city is to (and it's al long distance between the two), I usually build harbors to form a trade route. This way you have all the benefits of a trade route, and you cut some costs on road maintenance!