Blockading and alternate trade routes...

I'm playing French and the British fleet is blockading one of my trade ports on the western coast of France (Nantes I believe). That's very easy for them to do, well within range of their fleet. EVERY TIME they blockade that port I lose all my trade coming in from Africa, where I have trade ships gathering spices and ivory.

Thing is I have ports along the southern coast of France that actually touch the mediteranean and I would think that they're easier for the African trade ships to reach than western coast of France. They're open, so why isn't my ivory and spices arriving there instead?

The game is set up so that trade passes through the port that is the shortest distance from your capital city, regardless of what the distance is along the sea route.

Most people that play France employ the strategy of destroying all northern trade ports, or converting them to dockyards. Once all of your northern trade ports are gone, you'll see that the trade will go through one or more of your Mediterranean ports.

This is one of the annoying features of CA's trade systems. Currently in my French campaign on VH I was bankrupted by a British fleet blockading Calais.

But then again. You can do the same to the AI and only need to block on routhe and then keep a large navy there insted of breaking it into small groups

Regarding MPC you might just stop tradespots to gain money, especially when playing against GB. Having an independent economy can get you almost the same amount with more security.

I had the same problem when playing Franc on big campaign at H/H. Did not know that I could close la Havre, but its a great idea.

Capt Sharpe, Green Jackets

On a similar subject you can also deter invasions by stationing militia along the coast. This is particularly handy in keeping Corsica.

You dont need to destroy or convert ports to change the route of the seatrade, when the enemy is blockading.

In my last French game, Antwerp was blockaded by Nelson in august 1805 and my trade with Denmark and Portugal stopped. After waiting a couple of turns to see if they would leave, I canceled my trade agreement with Denmark and Portugal. My trade with other nations went up from 11.000 to 14.000 with the goods that didn't reached Denmark and Portugal under the old agreement.

Next turn I got a new trade agreement with Denmark, but because Antwerp was blocked the route was over land, boosting my trade to 15.000. Same thing with a new agreement with Portugal,- this time the trade went into Nantes port.

So just cancel your old agreements and make new,- now Nelson was blockading a port with no trade going in!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by PhallosMaximus

You dont need to destroy or convert ports to change the route of the seatrade, when the enemy is blockading.

In my last French game, Antwerp was blockaded by Nelson in august 1805 and my trade with Denmark and Portugal stopped. After waiting a couple of turns to see if they would leave, I canceled my trade agreement with Denmark and Portugal. My trade with other nations went up from 11.000 to 14.000 with the goods that didn't reached Denmark and Portugal under the old agreement.

Next turn I got a new trade agreement with Denmark, but because Antwerp was blocked the route was over land, boosting my trade to 15.000. Same thing with a new agreement with Portugal,- this time the trade went into Nantes port.

So just cancel your old agreements and make new,- now Nelson was blockading a port with no trade going in!

Cheers,

That's a great lesson for trade agreements. But does it also work for the trade GOODs, e.g. ivory, spices, etc? Can you try it? I'm not being blockaded anywhere to try it myself...

Maybe you might have to take your trade ships off for a turn, then return them to get their trade re-routed to an open port, assuming it works the same, of course

Originally Posted by feanor68

That's a great lesson for trade agreements. But does it also work for the trade GOODs, e.g. ivory, spices, etc? Can you try it? I'm not being blockaded anywhere to try it myself...

Maybe you might have to take your trade ships off for a turn, then return them to get their trade re-routed to an open port, assuming it works the same, of course

It has nothing to do with what kind of goods you have, and you dont have to "take trade ships off". Read my post closely:

When you make a trade agreement, the game uses the nearest route between the trading nations that is free. When that route gets blockaded, you have to make a new agreement, and then the game will use another way to reach the other nation, if possible. If there is no other way, you can not make a new agreement and your goods will be destrib. to your other trade partners, instead of going to waste.

So always have several trade partners, and if you get blockaded for an extended time, cancel the agreement or you will loose money and your goods will go to waste.

Originally Posted by PhallosMaximus

It has nothing to do with what kind of goods you have, and you dont have to "take trade ships off". Read my post closely:

When you make a trade agreement, the game uses the nearest route between the trading nations that is free. When that route gets blockaded, you have to make a new agreement, and then the game will use another way to reach the other nation, if possible. If there is no other way, you can not make a new agreement and your goods will be destrib. to your other trade partners, instead of going to waste.

So always have several trade partners, and if you get blockaded for an extended time, cancel the agreement or you will loose money and your goods will go to waste.

No, I understood your original post, but I don't think you're understanding me. Assume you have no trade agreements that rely on a SEA ROUTE, playing as France for example. You have trade agreements with several nations, but they're all over land...

BUT you DO have trade goods that MUST pass through a port. Does the blockading "solution" you mentioned still work and re-route the goods to your capitol in that case?!

Originally Posted by feanor68

No, I understood your original post, but I don't think you're understanding me. Assume you have no trade agreements that rely on a SEA ROUTE, playing as France for example. You have trade agreements with several nations, but they're all over land...

BUT you DO have trade goods that MUST pass through a port. Does the blockading "solution" you mentioned still work and re-route the goods to your capitol in that case?!

If there is a possibility to reach the other trade nation, the game will re-route all the goods, but you have to cancel the old agreement and make a new one. A trade agreement is fixed to a specific route at the time of agreement, and if that is blocked later in the game, then all goods to that nation will go to waste.

In the above ex., my goods for Denmark and Portugal was coming in to Antwerp port, and exported by sea out of Antwerp port again to Denmark and Portugal. By canceling the agreements, that import was re-routed to Nantes port and exported to my other trade nations, using other exsisting routes, instead of going to waste (thereby boosting my trade with other nations by over 3.000).

A new trade agreement with Portugal made a new export-route out of Nantes port by sea. A new trade agreement with Denmark made a new export-route by land, because that was closer than a sea-route.

In that way, I could maintain my trade with Denmark and Portugal without a loss, and make Nelsons blockade of Antwerp worthless!

But you have to cancel the old agreements,- as long as you try to export to a nation that you can't reach by sea or land, you loose all income from the exported goods.

Can you see how it works now?

And the problem is that they don't stay blockading the same port - normally the Brits have one fleet which keeps switching from Antwerp to Rotterdam.

So I'd end up having to renegotiate trade agreements every turn.

Plus I dislike NTW diplomacy so much that I've taken to destroying and occupying factions rather than liberating or making peace with them - so after a certain point there aren't many factions left to trade with that I am not at war with already.