Company Man's Guide to ETW Economy

[coman]

Thank you for the extensive guide, coman. It's easy to see that you have put much time and effort into your research. I didn't realize until reading your post the depth and immersiveness of the ETW economy - it really adds a whole new layer to an already engaging game.

My question: Is it possible to see how many trade lanes individual trade ports are utilizing? I want some more detail on my ports to see whether an upgrade is necessary or if the current limist has not yet been reached. Is this possible?

Broadside, you're welcome. Thanks for the post.

As to your question, I do not know of any integer or way to determine other than visually. You can check and see the trade lanes going into your port. You can also count the number of shipping trade agreements you have.

The total number increases per the guide, technology building advances + the number of trade ports central to your home region. Additionally for land trade routes, any new neighbors will be eligible for trade.

So if you have two basic trade ports = 4 total trade agreements. You'll know when you run out. There is a tooltip for trade information in the diplomacy window.

Mouse over the trade icon in the diplomacy window. Will tell you more details about who can trade, when a trade route is blocked, or the entity has no ports, etc. Early on I saw a number here, but I haven't seen it since the first patch. Either I'm doing something different, or it's changed.

coman

[coman]

My thread has had 10,000 views! First time ever.

I nearly made it all the way through the enlightenment tech tree before my game pissed me off tonight. Believe it or not, I've only played through 1750 as Prussia and usually stop by 1738 with all other countries. Dozens of campaigns now.

My own protectorate keeps attacking me, even though I defended them and gave them their provinces taken by the United States. So I decided, ah heck, I'll keep playing.

Then the game crashed when I was merging units again and I saw this once I reloaded... and now all is clear.

IT'S THE SIGN OF THE DEVIL!

See screenshot attached, courtesy of Fraps.

[Broadside]

Early on I saw a number here, but I haven't seen it since the first patch. Either I'm doing something different, or it's changed.

coman

Thanks for the quick response. As to your statement above, if you open negotiations with another faction and mouseover the trade agreement button you can see how many port slots each party has open.

Now I have another question for you. I'm playing as Britain and I have no current possessions in Europe proper. I also have multiple trade routes open, including some with the minor Italian factions and Persia. I can see my trade routes flowing into their ports, but when I look at the trade screen it shows a wheel and says these trade routes are being hauled overland, which is clearly impossible because I'm on an island. Is this because the trade is flowing into Scotland or Ireland and then being hauled to London? I just realized that I could probably mouse over the routes flowing into those ports to see, but I'm away from my gaming computer and unable to do so at the moment.

[the_mango55]

Not sure, but you can mouse over not only ocean trade lanes, but also main roads to see who is using them, and how much they are making. And I have noticed some of the roads in Britain are indeed being used, both by myself and some of my trading partners.

I'm not sure if you can steal from them with land armies like you can with navies though, anyone tried this?

[Rotaugen2009]

This was a VERY useful guide, as I like to use a strong economy to build the large army and not live at a poverty level. I saw it in parts in the game (via tooltips mostly and just trying to put the pieces together in my head), but this is great because it is all in one place. As a financial analyst, I always find the economic models in these games interesting, as I try to picture how things must operate in "game reality" for these numbers to take effect.

+rep !

[coman]

Is this because the trade is flowing into Scotland or Ireland and then being hauled to London?

Yep, you answered it yourself!

Thanks for the rep. 1 Guide brought me 2 crowns. Took 3 more to get the third crown. Most early readers were happy to Rep, seems the other 7,000 or so viewers weren't so eager!

Have a good day,

coman

[víkingur]

Excellent guide!

[Parzival]

I personally prefer to play ETW as a non-expansionist in Europe. My background in history and economics show that there was very little ever gained after the medieval period in actually doing this... Now the colonies! That's a different story.

I look forward to trade wars, diplomatic arguments of imports/exports and may end up spending time looking at that myself or simply waiting until a later game.

Is there the capability for the AI to care about trade posts and trade revenue? I am concerned that perhaps not, since there is no "land" to take. I have seen the AI aggressively pursue them, but never fight over them.

I have a similar play style. I like to play as the Dutch and usually only go to war when my trading partners/allies trade routes are raided/blockaded and it's hurting my economy, which brings me to your last point.

This is all fine and dandy provided my trade partners protect their ports, and if not, well, game over. Port blockades are fine. I can send in a fleet and lift it myself. When a friendly port is, or has been occupied, on the other hand, the port remains property of the enemy and the AI simply will not reclaim and fix the port so as to resume trade.

In one of my Dutch campaigns, for example, the Brits, arguably my most important trade partner/ally, have had their most important port, Greenwich, occupied by the Swedes. All they have to do is send a unit of militia from London to boot them out and repair the port. Fat chance. If I understand the game mechanics correctly, in essence, the Brits now have no trade income whatsoever.

The loss of one major trade partner isn't so bad you might say. Trouble being the same thing happened to my other top trade partner in the same campaign. Twenty years later and neither have been reclaimed and repaired. Very frustrating.

Hope this doesn't sound like a rant. I mostly just wanted to thank you for the excellent guide.

+rep

[Vagabond]

By 1715 i made around 350 k per turn ( wtf , i don't even know why) and by 1730 my BE made 1,5 m per turn ...

[coman]

Hope this doesn't sound like a rant. I mostly just wanted to thank you for the excellent guide.

+rep

After hundreds and hundreds of hours of playing the game over and over again, I'm in the same place as you. I'm in love, but I hate. I hate deeply. I hate so bad, I can't actually play. And that hurts and I hate it for that.

I'm not so blissfully unaware that I can ignore 20,000 Spanish standing in Brittany because the AI is so broken it can't get the troops to England, so it breaks the entire economy and power of Spain and really just ruins my fun.

I'm tired of those things, so sadly I must put the ETW toys away until tCA fixes these issues. Each day without an update I become more and more irate with them. The love is fading. Yes, I've had my money's worth, but they have lost me as a customer if this is what the next title will be like. M2TW was to me, unplayable, until 1.2 was released. I need to do the same thing here and just... move on until sometime in the future.

Be well and thanks for the kind words and your kind rep.

coman

[coman]

By 1715 i made around 350 k per turn ( wtf , i don't even know why) and by 1730 my BE made 1,5 m per turn ...

I've heard that people playing with stolen copies of the game, because of specific functions removed in cracks, experience frequent trade and income bugs. I've never seen this in either of my legally registered versions.

[Vagabond]

I've heard that people playing with stolen copies of the game, because of specific functions removed in cracks, experience frequent trade and income bugs. I've never seen this in either of my legally registered versions.

Nope, mine is almost legal ( i think, i didn't buy it with my money though ... )

But i really think it's a bug or smth, because the trade with Ottomans alone brought me 1,2 m per turn .Don't know what to say ..

[mir24]

Some very good posts and exchange of ideas here everyone! Rep to Coman and Jim (if I could).

Thamis, I'll be impatiently waiting for those patches with baited breath. Hope they do come in good time and fiz the issues as you say.

Query regarding trade posts and monopolies:

In my first few turns playing Ottomans, I rushed some dhows to Madagascar to "reserve" my trading spots. At the time, tusks were priced at 35 gold per tusk. Within a few more turns, the price dropped to 25.

1. Is this because other nations are trading it as well? Thus, creating over-supply?
2. If I controlled ALL the trade spots, would I then have a monopoly on tusks and thereby increase the price?

[coman]

Some very good posts and exchange of ideas here everyone! Rep to Coman and Jim (if I could).

No answers until I get that rep!

At the time, tusks were priced at 35 gold per tusk. Within a few more turns, the price dropped to 25.

1. Is this because other nations are trading it as well? Thus, creating over-supply?
2. If I controlled ALL the trade spots, would I then have a monopoly on tusks and thereby increase the price?

Just kidding;

1. Yes. But I think demand grows with the size of the national income and population.

2. Price will not go up if you have a monopoly, but ALL the money is yours. As far as I can tell the market generally goes up after a certain point, but I doubt the prices are calculated globally. I think it's simply based on X% imported and Y% exported. If everyone has all the exports they need, the price will hold average. Only when it is in short supply will the price remain high. Thamis can correct me if it's more complicated than that, but simply put only expanding economies will push prices up. "Consumption".

[Thamis]

Prices are global. The price will drop because other factions start producing more of it, thus increasing supply, which makes the price drop. The price will then increase again as soon as the demand rises, which depends on the total wealth of all regions of all factions and their town wealth.

[mir24]

So if you have two basic trade ports = 4 total trade agreements. You'll know when you run out. There is a tooltip for trade information in the diplomacy window.

Regardless of number of ports I have, it still says: "Your home region capacity is full". Even though I've upgraded my "home" port in Rumelia (playing as Ottomans).

PS. Thanks for the answers to my questions. Rep to you now! (Finally unlocked thanks to umpteen posts!)

[coman]

mir24,

Remember that ports need to be connected by land and adjacent to your capital to make use of the sea ports. So the only thing that makes a difference is the trading ports in your capital or directly connected to it via a land trade route.

If you continue to have problems, upload a save game file somewhere and I'll look at it and see if I can help.

coman

[adamsleath]

yes, i basically have a playable campaign now thx to the trade tips...

i also set up as many protectorates as possible in the early game, and of course friendly relations with as many nations as possible.

i am just starting to foray into Mughal territories and American Indian territories, thanks to large trade income, I can actually afford colonial armies....i also have spent a fair bit on making massive navies to shoo away pirates in the trade theatres.

im at 1738 playing the British....I have very few territories. Only UK, Florida, Punjab, East Prussia, and Georgia and Courland.

i have 125000 in the treasury, and very few enemies to maximise trade opportunities. Bascially i am establishing footholds in U.S. and India and European mainland...and see what happens after that

playing second most difficult.

i played hardest campaign setting and found it 'nigh impossible' with check and mate mod.

[mir24]

mir24, Remember that ports need to be connected by land and adjacent to your capital to make use of the sea ports. So the only thing that makes a difference is the trading ports in your capital or directly connected to it via a land trade route.

Thanks again for the help Coman. I discovered the actual problem - it's not me. It's my potential trade partners! My home port is ok. With the upgrading and so on, I believe I can still trade with other nations. But those nations also have a limited number of trade lanes - so if they've made trade agreements with other nations then I can't make trade agreements with them.

This can be seen from the diplomacy screen when you scroll over the "Request Trade Agreement" button and it's greyed out. A tooltip appears to show the reasons why you can't have a trade agreement...

[Lord Leopold]

Just as a note, the game's auto-construction does a fairly decent job at managing the economy (At least gigantic ones.)

As ottomans I pretty much managed to take over most of Europe by 1770, so I kept clicking the turn button to reach 1799. Before I encountered some major CTDage, I was making around 1 million gp/turn and growing by 1780.

Wow I am lucky to get 7000 to 8000 a turn year 1760 but I have been at war the entire game. Just took Greece after a long heavy battle. They beat me back twice and then finally I nailed them. Poland I made a huge mistake and let them grow. Now they are terrifying. That will be tough to stop them.