trade carts, trade lines, ships

[tallstark]

Hi all, sorry if I am asking a ton of questions, I just got the game last week and have been devouring all the posts on here and learning a ton so I figure why keep making mistakes if you guys have figured out how not to!

trade lines - as I understand it, if a rebel stands on a road between say antwerp and its port, they are cutting off trade so I need to sally forth ASAP and kill or move them, right?

Does this also apply to the dotted lines that connect ports? i.e. if a rebel navy is on the line between London and Antwerp does that mean trade is blocked?

I have stood on the road in enemy territory and the little carts seem to pass right thru me. Is it not possible to send out groups of horsemen/bandits on say all roads leading to Paris and in effect kill their trade?

Does the amount of little carts reflect the amount of total trade or just goods in your area that merchants can use? I have a city that has tons of little ships going all over the place but almost no little carts, any ideas?

I love the variety of issues one can focus on in this game, it has amazing detail. Now if I could just understand it better LOL. One bash would be the manual is almost worthless, I learned more in one hour on the forums than I did doing the tutorial and reading the manual twice...

[HANDsolo]

The number of carts and ships moving around is just a general indication of how much trade that route is generating.

I don't think enemy ships on a sea trade route blocks trade. The enemy has to blockade the port for that.

I don't know about whether enemy troops standing on a road blocks trade. I assumed that it did not, but never proved it to myself. Judging how CA made a lot of things random, with no method or realy poor reasoning on why things happen, I would guess that standing on a road does not affect trade for the simple reason that it would have been too 'complicated' for CA to implement, if you understand what I mean.

[pwijnands]

Troops standing on your territory cause devestation (you can see this in the settlement's details scroll). Perhaps standing on a road will cause more devastation then standing on a tile next to a road. I don't know wether or not standing on a road will prevent trade, I hope not. Imagine being Russia and somewhere along your long roads is a rebel army, you'd spend lots of troops/spies trying to find it.

[tallstark]

Yeah I thought it did thats why coincidentally my very first campaign WAS as Russia and I spent a lot of money putting up watch towers LOL

What does devastation do?

[Pyrebound]

Hmm, when i was changing turn i noticed how the sound for destroying an enemy navy completely played, and it showed my ship on my enemys sea trading line.

I suspect it may cut off a small piece of the trade, because the ship only crosses it but the turn system makes it look like the ship was there for 0,5-2 'years' :p

[HANDsolo]

Yeah I thought it did thats why coincidentally my very first campaign WAS as Russia and I spent a lot of money putting up watch towers LOL

What does devastation do?

Devestation is the black, scorched area on the campaign map that an enemy army creates when standing on a rivals territory. If you look under the income and expenses in that settlement scroll, for the settlement that is in the region that has devestation, you will see an expense aptly named 'devestation'. Whooo! Creapy huh? I assume its to symbolise the lose of income due to the invading army destroying the land of the people in the area and the raping of the peasants' daughters.

[tallstark]

Only I have the rights to rape my peasants daughters. Sally forth you prospective Men of the Hour and show no mercy! OK, too much cough medicine, but seriously thanks for the feedback. The more I read the more I realize this is WAY more micromanager based than I thought, I will try a VH/VH game and actually pay attention to detail instead of running around attacking everyone...

[N3rull]

Only I have the rights to rape my peasants daughters. Sally forth you prospective Men of the Hour and show no mercy! OK, too much cough medicine, but seriously thanks for the feedback. The more I read the more I realize this is WAY more micromanager based than I thought, I will try a VH/VH game and actually pay attention to detail instead of running around attacking everyone...

+rep for the first part of the post, down to the medicine overdose theory. I think it's just your inner self speaking a little too loudly
As for the micromanagement... nah. Build your stuff, make money, train stuff, go to war. Rinse. Repeat.
But yeah, this game is way more enjoyable when you put it to vh/vh and seriously look into every aspect of the game. It kinda sucks you in. Going one on one with everyone isn't nearly as much fun as making alliances and fighting alongside your friends.
Even when the stupid AI comes up with backstabbing you for the sheer sake of putting some idiocy into the game.

[HANDsolo]

But yeah, this game is way more enjoyable when you put it to vh/vh and seriously look into every aspect of the game. It kinda sucks you in. Going one on one with everyone isn't nearly as much fun as making alliances and fighting alongside your friends.

Some rare praise from my favorite TWCenter member. Are you feeling okay? :-)

[N3rull]

Some rare praise from my favorite TWCenter member. Are you feeling okay? :-)

No, nothing's wrong brother. Fear not for me It is all but true, though I was in a hurry and didn't add the rest of the story:
playing the game to its deepest, compared to playing it as a strategical Quake, is way more fun...
...
... all until:
- your beloved ally sends his king alone on a suicidal attack against your mightiest Citadel...
-- and your second most trusted ally decides to stay allied with the aggressive dude istead of you, just when you're about to fight off an enemy army besieging his city...
- or your 400 heavy infantry get screwed, when fighting on a wall, by 120 of their enemy's (less experienced) counterparts. Namely I had 4 units of Feudal Knights , two with ladders, together they attacked a section of wall with 1 enemy unit of Feudal Knights. 480 vs 120 ended up at 100 vs 80 when my dudes ran for their lives...
- etc...

[tallstark]

Thanks for feedback! I really am rolling the cough medicini with codeine so life is great sitting at home on a sick day planning my world conquest.

Your response raised a question: lets suppose I am HRE and allied with Milan. France attacks Milan. Unlike in the Civ series I don't remember seeing any requests for me to declare war on France from my now beseiged ally Milan. Can I attack France and not lose reputation since they attacked my friend? Does it matter if its on French earth or Milanese? Or do I lose more reputation for being a paper ally if I do nothing? This rep thing still has not clicked all the way.

Man that manual sucks LOL.

[Pyrebound]

Declaring a war isnt that big hit on your reputation. You lose some rep for declaring a war, but who cares. It'll regenerate soon, as youre not like backstabbing someone.

[N3rull]

Stave off the army besieging your friends, it may even rise your rep.
Basically, if your and France's first battle will the one where you are Milan's reinforcements, it should not hit your rep at all.

Oh and yeah, there is a diplomacy option of requesting/offering assistance against a faction ("Attack Faction" demand/offer), but I've never seen AI offer/demand it.

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

Since this is about trade, I thought I wouldn't spam TWC with trade threads.
What does the blinking trade icon mean?

I know greyed out means that this is soon to be (normally because a market/port/trade building is being built) and the blinking is supposed to mean that the blinking is what it was but because of something it is going down, right?

Take Mumba in my BC campaign (sure its a mod, but the gist should be the same, right?)

The full colour trade is 484, but the blinking part is 798. The general has a trait that means he is bad at trade, and so I moved him out, but there is still the blinking 400 more than the solid, just the minimum/max raised up.

What causes it? It isn't a huge province and I can see all the roads.
Does anyone know?

Thanks in advance. If it helps, +rep for you!