Any way to reduce the need to build so many trade ships?

One of my least favorite parts of the game is the tedious process of building an endless stream of trade ships, sending it off to a trade theatre and moving it to a trade node. I eventually stick 7 to 9 trade ships in each node (is that efficient, heh?). Over the course of the game, that's a HUGE number of ships I have to individually micromanage, especially since there doesn't seem to be rally points and the game doesn't let you queue up units without paying for them in advance.

Is there any way to make this process less tedious? Can I make the trade ships more effective, so I only need to build a couple ships per node?

(I'm new to this game and this series, so if there is a better way ingame or I'm just doing it wrong, please tell me, heh.)

Sometimes I get a glitch and I can't get my ships off a trade node.

Quote:

---

especially since there doesn't seem to be rally points

---

Yes, there are rally points in this game from buildings. I'm not 100% sure if they work across theaters however.

i prefer to make 2 strong fleets in the uk and usa and own the spanish/pirates and steal there flyuts and galleons XD

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ferv0r

especially since there doesn't seem to be rally points and the game

---

Just recruit the ships at the fleet itself instead of at the ports, that way they will sail to and join with the fleet automatically.

Thanks for the gameplay tips!

I've been fiddling around with the .pack files and found the setting to raise the amount of commodities carried by each ship from a trade node. As long as I don't abuse it, I can build far fewer trade ships. It also gives the AI a monetary boost since it still builds the usual number of trade ships. I don't know about how badly this screws with the balance, but in my current game, it's funny because I tripled the value.

believe it or not, i never build trade ships when I play ETW. its an irrelevant feature.

Agreed. Even if I capture them in battle I usually just plunder and sink. It's worth keeping a stack of fighting ships to clear trade lanes, but trading ships? Blah.

Completely agree with the above.

You need to use a mod that alters the game economics. Vanilla doesn't make trade ships worth it, but there are mods that make money a scarce resource (at beginning) and make trade ships valuable.

I also never build trade ships. I don't even know what they do nor do I really care. They sound as useless as merchants were in M2TW.