Trade Routes

[Irrelevant77]

Can someone please explain trade routes. I have 4 cities all connected either by road or river. When you look in a city screen city1 might be connected to city2, city3 to 4 and so on. It doesn't make sense. Do you have to enable something or have a resourse or tech. Thanks.

 

[Rane Khan]

Trade starts after connection and is fully automated, pretty much can't control it as far as I know. (Only thing you can do is open more routes through things like Technology, Wonders and Civics.)

The game itself calculates and uses the 'best' routes, those that give you the most money overall.

 

[tbd]

Foreign Trade Routes and Trade Deficit

I too wish the trade screen had more information ... like a breakdown of what that city is importing and exporting and for how much money on both accounts.

If you look at the Demographics screen in the game ... all the way at the bottom is a total amount (all city's) of how much is being imported and how much is exported. This allows you to see how lopsided or even your trade is with other country's. (don't make another Civ rich)

Once again it too lacks sufficient detail ... there is no way to discern which country is making your trade lopsided. So you end up cancelling open border agreements and then rechecking the stat - to see if you broke off the right country or not.

It's always good to sell more than you buy when dealing with the trade deficit - but 50/50 is about the AI average.
When i first noticed this stat my deficit was 293/89 ... they were living like fat cats at my exspense.
I cancelled open border trading with all but 2 (6 AI's in game - 4 border agreements initially) and got my trade to around 85/83 ... much better.

 

[Fragment]

TBD, this is most interesting. A rather tedious way of micromanaging foreign trade though, cancelling and re-establishing open borders.

I wondered how to manipulate trade routes from the city screen and about the differences in ealy an late games (+1, +2 early, +12 later) and if these can be helped in any way.

Someone got any info on this? Are there nations which are the most likely to have a trade deficit with, the financial ones?

Regards.

 

[Jaelstruth]

I have a question when trading resources. Often my available resources say (1 of 1). On the ones that I have more than one, clearly trading those extra resources is preferable. But, if I trade a (1 of 1) resource, have I just traded away my bonus and benefit of my only one?

 

[beestar]

I have a question when trading resources. Often my available resources say (1 of 1). On the ones that I have more than one, clearly trading those extra resources is preferable. But, if I trade a (1 of 1) resource, have I just traded away my bonus and benefit of my only one?

Yes, that is correct. So for example, if you trade away your only Stone, then you will no longer double the speed at which you produce Stonehenge.

Note that this discussion is about Trade Routes, which is a little different. Along those lines, has anyone determined how they work? I never realized that they could be to your detriment, I always try to have as many as possible.

 

[MyOtherName]

When i first noticed this stat my deficit was 293/89 ... they were living like fat cats at my exspense.

That's not necessarily a bad thing... think about tech trading:

In each trade, you are getting the short end of the deal, right? Wrong: The AI you trade with gets the best deal, you get a middle deal, and everybody else gets bumpkis. When you trade with everybody, you are the one who benefits most of all.

Maybe the same principle is at play here? While each AI may be making more money than you off the deal, maybe the fact you do it with everybody means you come out ahead!

Or maybe the AI will get as much benefit by trading with someone else instead?

I cancelled open border trading with all but 2 (6 AI's in game - 4 border agreements initially) and got my trade to around 85/83 ... much better.

But I suppose this is clear evidence that, at least in this case, you were giving out free money.

 

[Stalker0]

Its all about staying competetive. It is often a good idea if your the number 1 or 2 scoring nation to not trade with the other big wig, might help slow his economy down. This is especially true if you are using representation and specialists as a large bulk of your science or wealth output.