Trade Port Help needed!

[Quixote07]

So I've been playing as Sweden, and I sent my starting fleet and an indiaman down to the Ivory cost to make some money. I put them on a Trade port and then left them alone for about 4 years. I go back down there and notice something odd - All of the other nations using the Ivory Coast have a trade route connecting their trade port to their homeland. I didn't have any trade route.

I also noticed in my trade menu that I didn't have any ivory listed anywhere.

I also moved my warships to take out a pirate fleet in one of the other trade ports in case they were blocking it, took them out and captured a fluyt, but I couldn't merge back with the Indiamen I left in the Ivory Coast.

I remember reading earlier this morning that Trade Port income shows up in the Other category in the faction overview. My Other income is still at 3000!

Help! Why can't I get ivory!

[Korvus77]

Yeah I'm still scratching my head over trade ports. Do you only want them in your capital region or not.

[Evan]

Yeah I'm still scratching my head over trade ports. Do you only want them in your capital region or not.

Well, you can only create trade routes from the trade ports in your capital, but other nations can create trade routes from their capitals to trade ports not in your capital region.

[Korvus77]

Well, you can only create trade routes from the trade ports in your capital, but other nations can create trade routes from their capitals to trade ports not in your capital region.

Thanks, tried looking at the steam manual pdf but it is a bit sparse.

[nreo]

I've conquered most of the East Coast of the Americas and as time has passed ports have grown.

Trade routes can only form ( from what I've gathered in my games) with tradeport/commercial ports. Look for all the green lines that connect to eachother through the seas - they ONLY do so to commercial/trade ports.

So ideally you'd want trade ports in resource rich provinces, but most of the time more than one port spawns if the colony/region grows large enough so you can have multiple.

An interesting discovery I've made is if you stack Indiatrademen (or any cargoholding ship) onto trade spots in the trade theatres - you make more money.

Hope that helps.

*EDIT* In your case quixote make sure you have a commercial port and that your ship's flag in the ivory coast is flashing. You'd also want to go up the trade line and find if any of your enemies are raiding and blocking your trade!

[Kitridge]

How does it work for plantations that don't have a trade port? I've captured Antigua but the port there is a military shipyard. What happens to all the sugar that's harvested by the sugar plantation? Is it wasted or is it counted towards the trade routes even though it isn't in a region with a trade port?

[Pushbutton]

How does it work for plantations that don't have a trade port? I've captured Antigua but the port there is a military shipyard. What happens to all the sugar that's harvested by the sugar plantation? Is it wasted or is it counted towards the trade routes even though it isn't in a region with a trade port?

You captured Antigua? How? I cant land a bloody army there. Damn invincible pirates...

[ilikeicehockey]

You captured Antigua? How? I cant land a bloody army there. Damn invincible pirates...

Wasn't that hard. I had a decent navy land them in while the coast was clear. I had an Admiral Third Rate, 2 Second Rates, a third and a fourth rate.

[tonedog]

where are these trade ports/anchors i keep readin about? ive sent my indiamen right down the coast of america and havent noticed any anchors. if i right click on a port i get a "do u want to declare war" message.

are the trade ships just meant to be left in the transition areas at the edge of the maps?

[jaguar8311]

where are these trade ports/anchors i keep readin about? ive sent my indiamen right down the coast of america and havent noticed any anchors. if i right click on a port i get a "do u want to declare war" message.

are the trade ships just meant to be left in the transition areas at the edge of the maps?

Although I am but a noob, I think the trade ports and anchors are in Brazil, Ivory Coast and Madagascar

[Culhwch]

where are these trade ports/anchors i keep readin about? ive sent my indiamen right down the coast of america and havent noticed any anchors. if i right click on a port i get a "do u want to declare war" message.

are the trade ships just meant to be left in the transition areas at the edge of the maps?

If you open up the "world map" you have the 3 large theaters, Europe, Americas and India. You also got a few smaller ones, you see them as round orbs on the world map, if you send ships there, to the ivory coast, brasil, madagaskar etc. You can set up traderoutes with the tradesman at the "anchors" if they are not occupied, in that case you need to take out the ships there first, more tradeships = higher income from what ive seen.

[LordLaban]

where are these trade ports/anchors i keep readin about? ive sent my indiamen right down the coast of america and havent noticed any anchors. if i right click on a port i get a "do u want to declare war" message.

are the trade ships just meant to be left in the transition areas at the edge of the maps?

If you sail your ships into those transition areas you will get a popup screen where you can choose destination. Apart from the three large theaters (Europe, India and America) there are also trade theatres (Brazil, Ivory Coast, Madagascar Strait, and East Indies). It's in those trade theaters that you will find these anchors, place trade ships on them to establish trade.

Edit: Culhwch beat me to it... 2edit: and jaguar, I need to remember to update my browser before posting...

[Ishoss]

You captured Antigua? How? I cant land a bloody army there. Damn invincible pirates...

I landed my troops on the island were their port is located, I didn't manage to succesfully land troops on Antigua itself.

[Boris616]

I landed my troops on the island were their port is located, I didn't manage to succesfully land troops on Antigua itself.

[Quixote07]

The ship's yellow flag is flashing, but I don't have a single gold coin of income from ivory.

I know that the trade lane is clear because I have a trade agreement with the Marathas that I'm getting money from, so it's clear from Sweden to India

I just can't earn any money! It's really quite frusterating.

[spanish_emperor]

show pic maybe?

[Reiver]

Has anyone seen the AI attack a ship on a trade port? All of them seem to be filled now and Spain, the Pirates and the Swedes all have ships sitting in different theaters waiting to go onto one but they just sit there rather than attack. Even when they're at war witth the nation currently occupying them.

[Rhaegor]

Whenever I try and trade with someone it says I do not have enough trade routes in my capital. I have like 3 different trade ports in various regions and I am not sure what I have to do to my capital to expand the number of land based trade routes I can run. I am playing Russia and the only person I am trading with is Poland and only because I was trading with them when the game started. I can not figure out how to trade with anyone else.

Anyone help?

[Alexandrov]

The two ways you can do it is have commercial sea ports. As these develop they can have multiple routes each. The other is you can set up trade deals across all countries to the colonies if there is a land route. I did that with Poland. Traded with ottomans/Persia and was able to transport goods from there over land.

At the end of the day just make sure you've got the right type of ports built. Construction docks and fisheries wont do it. And the way to make great cash on the trading theaters is to have 3 heavily armed escorts and the rest of the stack trade ships. big bucks there to be had that way.

[leinad312]

Yeah seems to be bugged for Sweden. Indiaman trade routes not showing up, worked fine when I was GB though.