Merchant hell

[sharky4u]

Help I am in MERCHANT HELL!

I am slowly being driven insane creating and moving Merchants across the globe only to have them acquired, i recreate new ones and no matter what i try they get acquired again or when trying to acquire others it back fires.

I am a firm believer in not cheating, but can't ignore merchants for losing the income they bring in. Endlessly pushing the Del-boy Trotters around the map is ruining my gaming

Can anyone please answer the below, I feel sick having to stoop so low but cheating, I fear, is my only option.

1) Is it possible to manual creating merchants?

2) How can I easily max out my merchants traits?

3) What are the best traits, where can i get a traits list?

I know some trainers max traits but I might as well just use the add_money cheat which would be a complete sell out. I am using Kingdoms 1.3 and there are no trainers out yet anyway…..OMG yes I have already looked, that is how desperate I am!

All I want to do is give my Merchants a fighting chance instead of being food for every nation on the campaign map.

[Vor]

I think you can put a merchant inside an army, and then put the army on the resource spot and still get the bonus. Just make sure its a low upkeep army, of say 1 unit. Could pass it off as a detachment sent to make sure trade supplies are not interrupted.

Problem with that is, unless you have military access, the faction who owns the region will eventually get angry with you.

[sharky4u]

Good tips but I have tried that, marching even a small force across the continent without permission upsets everyone and even if i get the force there by land or sea it draws more attention than the merchant on there own.

Thanks for the tips anyway

[sharky4u]

Build Forts over the Resource to get their skill up. THEN DEMOLISH THE FORT OR YOU ARE CHEATING .

7th Commandment: Thou shalt not Cheat in thy Medieval 2 Total war.




Just putting an army on it is bad because they will rebel.

Now thats interesting, forts on resource....do the merchants get nailed should the fort be taken by a native or invading army?

[Don in the North]

dont think there is any, the resources in a region are still traded via Markets and shipyards etc so a merchant is really just siphoning scraps

[FuriousSpurius]

I used to have that problem too, so what I did was I always send my merchants to areas that aren't busy. If you've got merchants sitting in Spain or France of Germany, they're as good as dead. Take the extra time and send them off far, far away where they won't be bothered.

England is a good option since they've got pretty good Tin resources there that you can make some cash on. Otherwise I highly suggest Timbuktu, which is near the south-west corner of the map in Africa. Down there near the city (which is almost always rebels), is a deposit of Gold, Ivory, and Slaves, all which can seriously boost your cash.

The only way to have your merchants gain their states is have them survive long enough to trade, which can be tough. I've also realized that you're more likely to be acquired if you are just sitting there. If your merchants go on the offensive, you have a better chance of surviving, because it seems liked the AI almost always succeeds and stealing your resources.

[sharky4u]

I am going to give the whole build a fort on the spot hint later, but only for a short period....well i will endevour to be strong and not exploit. (that subject is on another thread and so i won't start the debate here)

It does seem odd to me that you can do the create_unit thing on units but not agents. I am not into modding or know the first thing about do so, but it seems that it must be possible as agents are almost a differnt type of unit?

I shouldn't worry about these things anyway, as to have the ability to make thousands of priests or merchants etc would only be amusiong for five seconds and ruin your game completley. Entertaining but pointless.

Apprciate the responses!

[Garnier]

Merged the duplicate threads, cleaned them, and took all caps out of title.

[Casius Cherea]

Yeah timbuktu is good for merchants 3 skill merchant can give you 350+ coins per turn
I was playing portugal and have conquered timbuktu and built fort on gold, my merchants were generating quite good income (like 80+ coins per turn) and when I moved cpital from Lisbona to Cordoba then price of resources went up (avarage 500 per merchant ) same happend on my moors campaign when I moved capital to Algiers, i dont know how it is working but it is working
btw I checked all the resources on the map (for capital in Cordoba) and in timbuktu the price was most expensive

[Angrychris]

i dont even use merchants

[kelvintyk]

My merchant's skill level never rises......but the enemy ones skyrocket like crazy......

[Kalos]

My merchant's skill level never rises......but the enemy ones skyrocket like crazy......

You need to have them take over other merchant's businesses or have them control an expensive resource and have a monopoly over it. If another merchant is on the resource somewhere else in that region then you aren't going to level up your merchant because he's not controlling the trade.

[kelvintyk]

You need to have them take over other merchant's businesses or have them control an expensive resource and have a monopoly over it. If another merchant is on the resource somewhere else in that region then you aren't going to level up your merchant because he's not controlling the trade.

What do you mean by controlling trade? Besides, the enemy's skill rises soooo fast that mine gets aquired instead when i try to aquire them.

[Kalos]

I mean that they have to have a monopoly on that resource for that region. They have to be the only merchant collecting it. If another merchant is sitting on another node of the same resource in that region then you're not going to get your skill up really.

[Ravenfeeder]

Although I'm still a newbie at M2TW (been playing EB for too long), I thought I'd put my oar in.

I too cannot hold on to merchants and am finding it annoying, especially as I'm playing as Venice. I haven't been able to build a fort on resources, whenever I try it tells me that this is not a suitable spot.

If I could do it though, I wouldn't regard it as a cheat as long as it's on your own land. Just an exercise in Protectionism, which was the norm for medieval trade.

[aadgarven]

I'm not an expert, but I would use some assasins, this always helps

Ah, another one, when you travel, use the ships and armies as long as you can.

When you find Timbuktu, never sell or gift your maps.

AI only attacks you if you're using the resource, so have a spy nearby and then kill the merchant when he approaches, or leave the resource, and then kill the merchant.

Attack always from behind (even merchants).

Kill every merchant on your kingdom (except maybe allies)

Or don't use merchants, this is my option as I feel the game is not fair in this part of the game

[FuriousSpurius]

Attack always from behind (even merchants).

Does that actually increas the odds of success, or just a personal preference?

[kelvintyk]

Does that actually increas the odds of success, or just a personal preference?

For as far as i know, no matter where you strike, the success rate is the same.

[snuggans]

1. create merchants from cities with merchant guilds, and they will have more starting experience as they will be apprentices of the guild. (you might not need to recruit merchants from a city with the actual guild building once you have a 2nd tier merchant building or if possible an HQ as these have global effects)

2. leave a merchant trading a resource for many turns to build up their experience. you might not see an improvement super fast, but believe me, they will get better.

3. you dont really HAVE to stick to the plan of sending merchants to very far away places because resources in your own territories suffice, atleast for leveling up. then once you think your merchant is ready, send him out to sniff for rich resources and other merchants to seize assets from. tip: go for monopolies.

[mischief]

Very good advice, Waynehmarls.

The key thing with merchants is to not send them out like lambs to the slaughter. Toughen them up first, by getting guilds and monopolies. for good resources that are a bit off the beaten track, for the north europeans there are the amber(?) mines in Scandanavia, or the wine in france, or the slaves south of the nile delta, or near timbuktu with the gold.

As soon as you can get em, pile all your youngish merchants on ships over to the new world. they'll be able to bring in upwards of 1000 florins each per turn. Follow up with armies to get a hub on a nearby island, and your money worries are over.

I didn't bother to invade the new world, just stopped anyone else doing it and brought in my merchants. Very satisfying.