Problems with Protecting Trade Routes

[Jelhead]

I'm France, and I'm basically rolling through North America, but because of Spanish succession or whatever I'm at war with Britain, Holland, Austria, and a bunch of Germans. This being one of my first games, I almost completely neglected a navy, and although the trade routes had been red or yellow for a long time, I'm just now only making around 1500 per turn, down from around 7000. I just looked at my trade and it says my entire American trade is blockaded. The Brits blockaded Acadia, but I still have at least 3 more in North America so I'm a little confused.

Is there anything I can do? I have 3 fleets of around 3 ships each, but there in different parts of the world, and even combined they can't really take the blockade. Are they also blockading the routes themselves and I just can't see them? I've almost knocked the British out of North America, but without any trade, I won't be able to make enough for a fleet.

[En_tu_Brute]

To be hoest the awsner is pretty simple ; build a navy... or start over...

[Rudovich]

try to give them a useless region for peace, you might lose a region BUT your trade will be better again and you earn more money.
ofcourse, trying to fight them first works better.

[Underarmour]

try to give them a useless region for peace, you might lose a region BUT your trade will be better again and you earn more money.
ofcourse, trying to fight them first works better.

I would agree. Since you're in dire need of gold, I would give them an offer they can't refuse in return for peace. Having a respectable navy is important in keeping your trade routes open. Also, be aware that if an enemy navy blockades your Capital trading port (in your case Paris) your trade income will go to zero, so as you can imagine, it's a very important one to protect

[Malkuth]

Build a navy.

Want to play a normal game with no AI cheats then build the best ships you can and go fight the Blockaders.

Wanna game the AI and give yourself a nice little navy build only 5th rates and use chain shot on enemy ships keeping out of range (5th ratss have longer range then 4ths and down) and demasting them.

For every fleet you destroy this way the chances of you capping a brand new fleet is about 75% to fight with.

Good luck.

[Rudovich]

Build a navy.

Want to play a normal game with no AI cheats then build the best ships you can and go fight the Blockaders.

Wanna game the AI and give yourself a nice little navy build only 5th rates and use chain shot on enemy ships keeping out of range (5th ratss have longer range then 4ths and down) and demasting them.

For every fleet you destroy this way the chances of you capping a brand new fleet is about 75% to fight with.

Good luck.

Well, he only makes 1500 a turn, would be enough but not for a large fleet. A ship like that might cost 1k or so, and 300 a turn(not sure)

Maybe there is a chance that you 'd got enough money when you ask for alot of tax just one or two turns(don't make them rebel!) or sell some techs to enemies of britain.

[stolpie]

Either get more trade routes over land and therefor make peace with the UP Austrians and the German states and keep fighting the british and find a way to clear the blockades. (One way to make britain go away is taking the British islands. However you will need (massive amounts of) money for this.

Or, as has been mentioned before, sue for peace with Britain, give away a region if needed, get your trade lanes up and running and build a navy to rival that of Britain and go to war again with them.

Of course what you should always do is to invest in your local economy, so make sure you build up your farms, iron factories, weavers etc. Then you have more goods to trade and more income to tax. (Also, dont set your taxes too high, this sounds counterintuitive, but the higher level of tax you have, the less wealth stays in the towns and the less money they have for you to tax.
Eventually if you keep your tax level on normal or lower you will gain more income through tax. )

[British-Bulldog]

Request peace, I find in my games the AI normally accepts peace for about 5k, have a development stage where, if you haven't already, get some naval technology and build a couple of fleets to take on the British Navy, my nation will not back down so easily though!