Are Indiamen worth bothering with?

[Le Comte]

I have about four Indiamen on one trade route, and a few ships guaring them. This is giving me about 1,000 gold a turn, and barely makes up for the upkeep for the fleet I keep on the trade route. Combined with the initial cost of the ships, and the effort of having to send them all the way over to the trade route, it hardly seems worth the effort. Am I missing anything?

Also, do you get more money from having multiple Indiamen on the one route? Haven't experimented yet.

Comments will be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Pugman]

I believe the resources you get from those routes also adds to the value of your trade agreements with other factions (exports). And yes, you do get more money for each trade ship you put in the stack. I did notice a bug though that sometimes it doesn't show up on the trade route until you switch to another map then back.

[x0teutonic0x]

I think it's pretty overrated. In my Dutch campaign, I sent the fleet at Ceylon to merge with the merchants and their fleet in the East Indies. Naturally, a pirate fleet of like 4 ships comes up and demolishes the whole navy in one turn..

[Mediteran]

i always have a lot of them, and they are worth it

[Lord Justin]

I've had an Indiamen hanging out near Brazil for like 15 years with no guardian fleet; no one seems that interested in Brazilian trade haha. So for the upkeep of 50 I get like 600 or something per turn. I guess I got lucky with the region's general tranquility though

[Stokes52]

Playing as Great Britain, I have found that indiamen, along with ample trade agreements is pure gold!

I make way more money in trade than I do in taxing my population, in fact I often lower taxes to promote growth since my trade routes more than pay for the upkeep of my army and navy and city construction projects.

Each ship generates more income on a trade route. The more ships, the more cash. Also upkeep for Indiamen is really low, although the initial investment is a bit costly, but seriously one or two turns and the Indiaman will pay for itself.

Trade routes are awesome. Now all we need is more factions raiding the trade theaters, although the pirates do seem to hassle me alot, but nobody else really does.

[Le Comte]

OK, I just created a broader and more general thread.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Moved to strategy discussions. PM me with questions.

[Steel55677]

Yes, At year 1730 I was getting about 37k from trade agreements and now at year 1761 I get about 70k but only 55k for real income.

[The Count(er)]

I've sent in over 30 indiamen to the various trade theaters and the trade route that's connects to those from London gets me well over 30,000 which is a lot more than those indiamen are costing me

[Grimstoned]

They are worth it. Just have to be mindful of the glitches.

[coman]

You really should be searching for, and finding - this.

[♔GrinningManiac♔]

I dont really use them anymore.

The effort to take any of the trade slots is too much.

Also, when they are on their own, Ottomans attack my Indiaman. I retreat, but then they use their MASSIVE movement area to just attack me again, and of course, it's NOT SPORTING to retreat against a superior enemy twice in a row!

WHATS THE POINT IN SHIPS RETREATING, THEN?

[Warspite_TW]

It is too easy to make money in this game, so it may be true that is not worth on focusing on indiamen... In fact the easyness of making a profitable economy ruins all the fun

[MadJackMcJack]

I've got 60 indiamen in Brazil, Ivory Coast and East Indies (3 trade ports, 20 indiamen to a port). They make so much money that I can easily afford to plonk 3 second-rates next to them to intercept raiders and still make a large profit. The only real problem I'm having is clearing out the Spanish from their spots so I can nick them (galleons are nasty in numbers).

[coman]

6 is the most I can stack on a trade post. How did you manage that?

[MadJackMcJack]

6 is the most I can stack on a trade post. How did you manage that?

Er, I combined the fleets as they arrived. If you're having difficulty, try moving the current fleet off, merging them all together, and moving them back on.

If you mean "6 is the most before they stop making money", it may be that you don't have enough trade routes in your trade ports. Also, if you merge fleets, the added money doesn't show up on that turn, but is added on the next (maybe to show the traders having to find buyers first?)

[keith moons liver]

I dont really use them anymore.

The effort to take any of the trade slots is too much.

Also, when they are on their own, Ottomans attack my Indiaman. I retreat, but then they use their MASSIVE movement area to just attack me again, and of course, it's NOT SPORTING to retreat against a superior enemy twice in a row!

WHATS THE POINT IN SHIPS RETREATING, THEN?

Yes, the naval retreat seems entirely broken to me, faster ships should be able to retreat regardless against slower ships, and slower ships should not be able to retreat from a fleet of faster ships.

[badhaggis]

as long as you destroy the piret faction they are good

[Flavius Silvanus]

One thing, you do not need to guard Indianmen that are already on a trade node. But take note, if you have an Indianman that almost gets to a Trade Node occupied by your other Indianmen, if that ship next to the node is attacked, it will pull the ships off the node and into the battle.

You really only need one fleet to go around protecting your different trade routes.

On your first turn with any country it is possible you should start building as many Indianmen as possible and grab those Trade Nodes.