Advice + Tactics for using Merchants

[Conan's Might]

Hi guys,

Does anyone have any advice or tactics when using merchants?

Its just seems I spend ages getting my merchants to decent earning resources to only have them gobbled up the next turn by an AI merchant! I'm currently playing Denmark but I get this problem with all factions I play.... the only counter tactic I can think of is escorting your merchants with good assasins to take out AI merchants before they get to you!

[cezarip]

Get the Merchant Guild HQ + high level market (and low level church) should insure your merchants start with at least 4 finance. Till I reach this point I do not bother with merchants outside my territory.

[Spartan90]

OP, there's a really, really good guide on Merchants, use the search function

Other than that, I'll try and find it for you anyway, because I'm in a good mood...

[Spartan90]

Taken from Rebel6666's Great M2TW Informative Thread.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Glory of Merchants
by Landtuber

What are Merchants used for?
Merchants are used to provide a flow of extra florins by sitting on, or "trading", the various trade resources scattered about the map. The amount of florins a merchant can generate from a resource is based on three things, his Financial Rating (discussed below), the value of the trade good and the distance to your capital. The farther a resource is from your capital, the more florins you can make from trading it.

The resources, and their rough value ranking from 1-5, are listed below:
Amber (3)
Chocolate (5)- This is only available when you reach the Americas.
Coal (2)
Cotton (2)
Dye (4)
Fish (2)
Furs (1)
Gold (5)
Grain (2)
Iron (2)
Ivory (4)
Marble (3)
Silk (5)
Silver (3)
Slaves (4)
Spice (4)
Sugar (4)
Sulphur (2)
Textiles (2)
Timber (1)
Tin (1)
Tobacco (5) - This is only available when you reach the Americas.
Wine (4)
Wool (2)
)

Recruiting and Training

1. Production

A merchant can be produced at any city that has built at least the first level of trade buildings, a Grain Exchange (requires 2 turns to build, 600 florins). Once a Grain Exchange has been completed, a merchant may be trained for 550 florins.

You can train 1 merchant per trade improvement you have throughout your entire empire. So if you have 7 cities with a Grain Exchange (or higher) built, then you can train up to a total of 7 merchants.

2. Training Financial Rating

Financial rating is a merchants ability to work with money. When created, a merchant starts with a random determined amount of finance between 1-3, with 3 being quite rare. This rating determines how many florins a merchant can make trading.

There are 3 ways to increase a merchants finance rating.

A) Use your merchant to "Acquire" another factions merchant. By right clicking your merchant on an enemy merchant, you can attempt to steal that merchants business, which can result in 3 things:

Success, which entails you gaining a random amount of florins (between 500-4000 in my experience, based on your merchants financial rating) and the enemy merchant being removed. If your acquisition does succeed, your merchant gains one point in finance (up to a max of +4).

Failure, in which your acquisition fails and both merchants remain in play. Whenever you fail to acquire an enemy merchant, your merchant has a chance to lose a point in finance and your enemy has a chance to gain one.

Backfired, in which your merchant exposes his own business so badly when attempting to steal your enemies that he loses his own in the attempt. Your merchant is removed and the enemy merchant has a chance of gaining a point in finance. Note that if your attempt backfires you don’t lose any florins.

B) Place your merchant on one of the many trade resources scattered throughout the map and leave him there for as long as possible. By simply sitting there and trading passively for you, he has a chance (which increases the longer he is sitting there) to gain financial rating.

C)Build certain buildings or acquire a Merchant Guild to improve traits on creation of the merchant. This is explained in more detail below.

3. Gaining/losing extra Financial Rating or other Traits

Gaining Finance:

Trait: Bean Counter (+1)/Bold Barterer (+2)/Commercial Conqueror (+3)/Robber Baron (+4)
Each time you successfully acquire an enemy merchant you gain +1 finance, up to a maximum of +4.

Trait: Legal Nouse (+1)/Legal Expert (+2)
You have a chance to gain this trait by training a merchant in a city with the appropriate level of government building. You must have a Town Hall or better to have a 50% chance of gaining the Legal Nouse trait. If your merchant does gain this trait and the settlement has a City Hall or better you then have a 33% chance of gaining the Legal Expert trait, which gives you a total of +2 finance.

Trait: Secure Assets (+1)/Protected Assets (+2)
If your merchant survives an acquisition attempt by an enemy merchant, he has a 50% chance of gaining a level in this trait, providing up to a total of +2 finance.

Trait: Knowledge of Customs (+1)/Graceful Traveler (+2)
Whenever your merchant is farther than a distance of 40 from your capital and is trading a resource at the end of your turn, he has a 20% chance to gain a level in this trait, up to a maximum of +2 finance.

Trait: Merchants Guild Apprentice (+1)
When a merchant is created and your faction has a Masters level Merchants Guild or higher anywhere in your empire, he gains 1 point in finance.

Trait: Financial Training (+1)
If the city that creates a merchant contains any level of Merchants Guild, he gains +1 finance.

Losing Finance:

Trait: Loyal to Coin (-1)/Self Serving (-2)
Whenever your merchant is trading a resource at the end of your turn and is at least a distance of 60 or farther away from your capital, he has a 3% chance to lose a point of finance. Yes, it sucks I know since distance increases profit.

Trait: Quite Religious (-1)/Dogmatically Religious (-2)
When a merchant is created in a city that has a 4th level religious building or higher (Cathedral for the West) he has a 50% chance of losing 1 point in finance. If he does lose this 1 point, he has a further 33% chance of losing 1 more point. Making money and being religious apparently don’t go well together in this game…

Trait: Slightly Crooked (-1)/Shady Dealer (-2)
If you create your merchant in a settlement that does not have a City Hall or higher then he has a 50% chance losing 1 point in finance on creation. If he does lose this point, then he has a 33% chance of losing an additional point. Note that since all religious people in this era were completely honest, your merchant cannot be both crooked and religious. Good old historical accuracy.

Trait: Daft Dealer (-1)/Easy Target (-2)/Open Purse (-3)
Each time you fail to acquire an enemy merchant and survive the attempt, you have a 33% chance of losing a point in finance.

Gaining/Losing Personal Security:

Once a merchant gets above 4-5 financial rating he is extremely hard to remove through acquisition. You would then be required to use an assassin, whose chance of success is affected by his own skill and the merchants Personal Security, which can be modified in several ways.

Trait: A Few Enemies (-1)/Several Enemies (-2)/A Marked Man (-4)
Whenever a merchant successfully acquires another merchant, he has a 25% chance of gaining one of the above traits, up to a max of -4 in security.

Trait: Hires Guards (+1)/Employs Security (+2 PS, -1 Finance)
If a merchant survives an assassination attempt, he has a 50% chance of gaining a point in personal security. Note that if he survives too many he loses one point in finance to trade off for the extra point in security. Someone has to pay those guards he hires.

Monopolies

Many people who are curious about merchants wish to know how to create a monopoly. After much in-game testing, I have come to the following conclusion.


Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
You Can't.




The Monopoly trait does exist and you can help your merchants acquire it, but you can acquire it in any region with any trade resource. It appears to be a trait that you can gain randomly whenever you are trading a resource, and is not connected to any in-game events.

I have had multiple merchants gain the trait by staying for many turns on one resource in a region that has other resources of the same type, different types and regions that have no other resources. The only connector appears to be that the longer a merchant stays on a single resource, the higher the chance he has of gaining a point in this trait, listed below.

Trait: Capitalist (+1)/Market Controller (+2)/Monopolist (+3)
If you want to gain this trait, park your merchant on a resource and leave him there till he dies. I’ve never seen Monopolist on one of my merchants who is under 45, it seems to take many, many turns to get to the final level of this trait.



Strategies for effective Merchant use


Once you understand the basics of merchants, they are pretty easy to create and use effectively. I recommend following several simple steps.

Create your merchants in a city that meets the following 4 characteristics.

1. Does not have any guild in it other than a Merchants Guild.
2. Make sure the city has a Town Hall at minimum, preferably a City Hall to increase the chances of getting the Legal Nouse and Legal Expert traits.
3. Do not build level 4 religious buildings or higher so your merchants can't obtain the Quite Religious or Dogmatically Religious traits.
4. The city should be a high income trading city, for as you acquire higher level Merchant Guilds they will increase your income proportionally.

Note that you should create all your merchants in the same city if possible, for every merchant you create increases your “points” towards acquiring the next level of merchant guild. Later game with a level 3 Merchant Guild and the proper buildings, it is not uncommon to have new merchants created with +5 or higher finance.

The Joy of Acquisition

Easiest way to train up your merchants skill is to send them out to wage “merchant war” on enemy merchants. This does not affect your relations with your target at all, you can wage this form of war on your allies just as easily as your enemies with no penalty.

The AI seems to gleefully use their merchants to try to acquire yours whenever your merchant has 3 or less financial rating, I’ve never seen an attempt when my merchant has 4 or more. Also, enemy merchants will only attempt to acquire your business when your merchant is sitting on a resource, they will ignore him if he is just standing beside it looking pretty. Use these two facts to train up your merchants.

The odds in an acquisition favor the defending merchant, so try to place your 1-2 finance merchants on resources that are close to the AI’s territory. At that point just hope you survive the acquisition!

Also use your +3 finance or higher merchants to snipe new enemy merchants that are just leaving their cities. Once a merchant gets to +4 or above, it is generally safe to send him off too far off lands to start raking in the serious cash. If your heading for a really good resource such as gold or silk, it is generally a good idea to send along an assassin or two just in case there is a high finance enemy merchant sitting there.

Also considering making “Merchant Fleets” to transport your merchants around. If your faction is near the Mediterranean Sea, put several merchants that you have trained up onto a small fleet and ferry them to the good resources (such as the silk by Constantinople or the gold by Timbuktu). This can dramatically speed up your merchants travels.

What should I trade?

When you first start using Merchants, they generally seem like a massive waste of time. Their high recruitment cost of 550 and low returns on nearby resources seem to make them a money sink you can’t afford in the early game (often a starting merchant will make less than 30 florins a turn). However, now that you understand how to make your merchants financial rating increase all you need to do is find the right resources to trade.

Keep in mind that the farther away a resource is from your Capital the more florins you will rake in. Refer to the list at the top of this guide for the approximate values of each trade resource, and only place your merchants on resources of value 3 or above. A merchant who is trading on a level 1 or 2 resource, has 7+ points in finance and is across the world from his capital will only make at most 100-250 florins a turn. That same merchant placed on a value 3, 4 or 5 resource can pull in 500-1200 turn.

Americas

When your game gets to the point where the world has been discovered to be round, and you have the ships available to sail to the Americas, send over plenty of merchants! Extreme profits are to be had!

North America
7 Gold, 5 Chocolate, 4 Tobacco, 2 Dye

South America
2 Gold, 1 Chocolate, 1 Dye

Resource Location

Check out the pictures below for locations of all the resources level 4 or higher on the mainland. Each picture has the mini-map still attached and at least one city as a point of reference for easy locating.

Gold /I vory / Slaves

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:









Spice / Sugar

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:






Wine / Dyes / Silk

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:






Hope this helps anyone who is trying to figure out Merchants!


Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Salisian for creating his M2TW Traits Guide. (http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/931592/50116)This guide provided me with percentage chances for acquiring traits to back up my own testing.