Starvation en Emigration

**elcid627** · May 20, 2010, 07:30 AM

Hello you all,

So I've played this game for one week now and Medieval Total War 2 for some years, and I must say, this game is way harder.

I started as the United Provinces, and completely destroyed France. However, after taking the Leeward Islands, the Islands beneath these islands (Mauritian I believe, cant remember the name

), French Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, I immediately destroyed all their fishing ports and turned them into trading ports, because of what I thaught, would give me extra income. However, after 20 'in game years' i found out that in these regions there is now none or very little food production, causing Starvation and Emigration. The reason of course, was the fact that there were no fishing ports anymore, but there also aren't any farms, and there isnt any room for farms. During this 20 years, in each of these regions i build my trading ports up to commercial ports and upgraded all my sugar plantations several times. I tried to (if this is spelled right) ''exempt'' them from taxes, but still, the growth in these colonies is nearly negative.

Is there a way to keep the colonies growing without turning my trading ports into fishing ports? and if there isn't, will I still trade sugar (overseas) from my plantations if I turn my trading ports into fishing ports? And final question, if there is no other way, should i demolish every trading port and turn it into a fishing port in all those regions, or is their some way that i can turn one trading port into a fishing port and that this port will send food to the other colonies?

I really appreciate help, and I must say, i find it very dissapointing that there isnt a good tutorial in the game!

I tried to explain you with the best English I got what's going on.

Grtz, elcid627

**ginger_hammer** · May 20, 2010, 07:53 AM

Heya, I'm on a UP campaign now doing similar things. I have trading ports in Dutch/French Guyana and T&T, which you need if you want to send sugar/coffee back to the capital. I don't think you need to worry so much about starvation/emigration, as long as you're making money from the cities. Fishing ports are generally a bit crap I think, as you're better off with either trading port for income bonuses or dockyards for better ships.

You can check the little town count-down timer in the bottom left of the settlement screen and see if any towns are growing. If there isn't any more to produce then there isn't that much point trying to get a bigger population, besides tax.

Personally I would demolish fishing ports and replace all with trading ports, besides a few for dockyards. Hope that helps

**elcid627** · May 20, 2010, 08:13 AM

Thanks for your quick reply and help.
So you are saying that there is no other way to make money of Sugar without trading ports?
I looked to the upcoming villages thing, there are none. Currently these regions have like 5.000 inhabitants each. If i take your advice and do not turn my trading ports into fishing ports, sooner or later my inhabitants will be 0, or at least very low. Aren't there any consequences by having so few inhabitants other then low tax income?

**Lord_Slop** · May 20, 2010, 08:31 AM

The only impact is the low tax, which is metigated by the high trade income

**ginger_hammer** · May 20, 2010, 09:17 AM

Yep, these small regions will only generate a small amount of tax revenue due to low population and the vast proportion of income will come from tradeable goods such as coffee, sugar, etc so you need a trading port to shift them back to your capital.

I don't think the population will ever reach 0, there is probably some built in tolerances that stop this from happening. If you hover your mouse over the dotted trade line you can see how much trade is going back, along with the Trade tab on your government screen that shows amounts/prices so you can see what makes the most money. From early game it seems that ivory & spices make the most money, but that could depend on which faction you are.

**eXistenZ** · May 20, 2010, 09:26 AM

Well for those little Islands (leeward, windward, Curacao), it doesn't matter that much that the population is rising or going down, because there are no more towns to develop, and their impact on your global population is very low. Also, islands can only trade if there is a trad eport, so you did the right thing

For the other colonies in south/ central america, the mostly have farms, and once you research some industrial techs, food production will go way up.

Have fun, UP is a very interesting faction to play with