Merchant school...

[tallstark]

HI all, I have come to the conclusion that merchants are one of the most important aspects to the game if used correctly, and I am not sure I am using them correctly!

I say they are super important because in the middle game when its still in the balance, without the extra 5-7K income from good merchant trade you are always a few stacks smaller than the AI. Also due to quite limited AOR recruitment of faction units, it becomes about who can afford mercenaries and their upkeep.

So my question is, specifically, how does monopoly, trade rights, etc... work? I know all the basics, distance to capital, trade rights with as many as you can etc... but in practice there is some dynamic I am not getting. For instance, as Kypchaks, I send a merchant to India, on elephants, and its 60 florins per turn. What can be further or rarer than that? But Seljuks send a guy to sit on some furs, and spies tell me he is generating 2,021 per turn. I send a merchant to silks by Baghdad and its pretty good at 600, but Abbasids send a guy to slaves in my area, even though they have them in their home provinces, and they make 1,500 per turn. same distance, AND they have the same resource, but triple the income. I go ~ and max a merchant, and he has a 35% chance to acquire another guy who is 4 stars worse than him. Is it because I am on Vh/VH?

If I did a toggle_fow and found somehow I had EVERY single fur resource blocked, does that drive the price up like crazy? Would EVERY merchant get the monopoly trait? I thought it was by region but it doesnt seem to work like that. Does it matter what total trade is in each province?

I know the put a fort on it trick but prefer not to use it. I routinely get 4-5K per turn so I am not doing bad per se, but from spying on other factions I see the AI making HUGE cash and I wanted some pointers if anyone has them. Also tired of seeing my 8 chivalry leader have 6 dread 15 turns later because I am ordering 2 hits every turn to kill the other merchants LOL...

[Dago Red]

I'd like to know more about this as well. It seems that different resources are valuable to different factions. Some prefer silk, some prefer silver over gold or slaves. As the Abbasids it was ivory that made me the big money. As the Ayyubids it's silk (much closer and easier to obtain)

[Vaz]

Hm... Well, we still have the Merchants guild available, as far as I know.

However, the trade process is currently undergoing a massive overhaul. Until we see how that plays out (due to the different variables, we don't want certain factions to become powerhouses by controlling access to certain areas (or rather areas containing multiple capabilities of the type in development), along with not wanting the AI to become too weak, but still noticeably so when they lose a one of those certain areas), it's not too wise to add in yet another variable to this in depth system.

Rest assured though, that Wudang, myself, and several others are having a close eye on the trait and ancillary proceedings, to take note of what is where, and whether it's a) functioning historically, b) functioning adequately.

[Spider1110]

i've written down my knowledge of mercheants in this post.

to directly answer some of the questions you raised:

the monopoly trait is picked up when there are two occurences of the same resource in one region. but not if an enemy merchant occupies the other one.

the difference in value for the factions comes mainly from the position of their capital. the distance between your capital and the closest occurence of the particular resource plays a huge factor in detemining the value of the resource.

[Dago Red]

the difference in value for the factions comes mainly from the position of their capital. the distance between your capital and the closest occurence of the particular resource plays a huge factor in detemining the value of the resource.

Great info.


On the "closest occurrence" point, that makes so much more sense to me in general -- but that doesn't fit with the Ayyubid experience I'm having, with silk being the cash crop. Silk is right there in Damascus, not far from the capitol at Qahira (sp).

[Spider1110]

that's still some distance. silk is one of the most valueable resources and also has many double occurrences. the only problem is that most factions are sitting right next to some and don't get much out of it.

[metsikhovne]

that;s is a reallly problem, I can not get more than 1500 gold coins per turn by merchant playing kingdom of Georgia

[Spider1110]

do you mean 1500 by one merchant or with all your merchants? because 1500 for one merchant wouldn't be too shabby. anyway georgia start out with an inland castle as capital which is basically the worst case disregarding the distances to the trade goods. on top of my head i'd say try moving your capital to a city east or west on the coast. that may help. or just read the post i linked earlier in the thread and learn how it works. then you can figure out a good candidate for yourself. finding a good capital is often the first and most important step.

[metsikhovne]

thancks I'll try IT

[Borgoroth]

Something I learned just recently, is the power of stacking merchants. I've always known that merchants can merge with armies, but I recently noticed that you can also build forts ontop of resources. Almost every faction, not sure if all is the same but the Ivory on Calula is worth most in the game. In the pictures I've included you can see my merchants alone brings in 20,268 gold per turn and a single merchant with 2 traits from full brings in 2375 gold per turn. Kinda lame tactic I guess, but it's for sure effective.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Spider1110]

i've known this for quite some time and others as well. it's just that most peaple consider it exploiting. with the way the other merchant mechanics behave i think it's pretty safe to assume such behaviour wasn't intended. if you choose to use it though you can make pretty easy cash. with your merchant trade income equal or even greater then your normal trade income. all you need is a single double resource with a high value. in Broken Crescent for most factions that would be ivory. but not every for everyone (Makurians) and not every one can reach it as easy (Kypchaks).

[Borgoroth]

true true, I consider it exploiting aswell

[wudang_clown]

I don't think it will be possible in BC3; we will use permanent stone forts.

[Borgoroth]

one could still stack merchants with a loyal general, any way to avoid that?

[Spider1110]

probably not. but for a veteran player the game is usually easy enough, so why use it?