Merchants.Advice please.

[zekic]

So again i am here asking for advice .I started new grand companing with Kingdoms grand companing mod and got few merchantas with however my merchants got only lv 1-2 then i am "attacked" by merchants from all side with levels 4.They "Kill" my merchant always when i build new ones..Anyone can advice how to make merchants more effective,save them from stronger merchants and increase theyr lv...

[Bowden]

you could try to recruit merchants in the towns with the highest level of the market-building (and probably port-building), and a merchant's guild works aswell for me.

You could try to Acquire some merchant's assets by yourself, find some low-level merchant and "kill" him.

You could try to stay on a low-profit tradable good, so your merchant is less likely to be attacked, and when he is more levelled up, move him to a more profitable one.

[painter]

Enemy merchants normally only attack your merchants when your merchants are on a resource. On several occasions, they ignored my low-level merchants even when he was within their attack range because he was standing away from the resource. So I would set my merchants to work on resources in the middle of my lands, far away from the borders, giving me at least a turn to react when a foreign merchant approaches my merchants.

[shikaka]

Compared to kills with your own merchants It gives you no profits, but if you find enemy merchants annoying, you could always use them as training practice for a few assasins.

[zekic]

you could always use them as training practice for a few assasins.

Just started this comapnig however when my assasin reches lv3-4..Well to all foregin merchants will happen misterius accident .

you could try to recruit merchants in the towns with the highest level of the market-building (and probably port-building), and a merchant's guild works aswell for me.

As i sayed i just starting a companing but well when will develop cities more gonna try and see if this more effective

You could try to Acquire some merchant's assets by yourself, find some low-level merchant and "kill" him.

Problem is that all merchants i had met are lv4 min.. is that becouse mod? ;/

Enemy merchants normally only attack your merchants when your merchants are on a resource. On several occasions, they ignored my low-level merchants even when he was within their attack range because he was standing away from the resource.

I guess its only solution right now..But i got 2 ambers near me which with at least lv1 gives me 100g thats why i want to get good merchants


Btw 2 my merchants in a row got negative trait (dont remember name now but somthing about not very legal business) Is it becosue of somthing or i just got unlucky?

[eXistenZ]

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.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=230023

[zekic]

Slightly Crooked (-1)

Exactly!
Well thanks for info i guess no more recruiting merchants without city hall.
And thanks for that guide.

Btw ppl can anyone tell me how to give rep?,alots of ppl helped so would like at least somehow to repay.

[eXistenZ]

Exactly!
Well thanks for info i guess no more recruiting merchants without city hall.
And thanks for that guide.

Btw ppl can anyone tell me how to give rep?,alots of ppl helped so would like at least somehow to repay.

Under the avatar you see a green "plus" symbol. But when you are new, you can't give rep untill you are two weeks registered and a minimum of 25 (or 50 i don't know) posts, so if you gave it now, it wouldn't count

Well you can give, but it's not counted as real rep

[Plagio Maxim]

I usually do not use merchants too much in the early game but after things are going well I build them in large numbers. What I have found to be a reasonably successful approach is to build 6-10 merchants at a time and send them out all at once. Then ~10 turns later send out another wave of 6-10 merchants. Rinse and Repeat ever so often.

You will still lose more than half but the AI struggles to keep up with them all and some will eventually stick. Also, as your empire grows, the AI will have fewer regiojns to produce thus fewer to cause your merchants trouble. Also, if the AI is building merchants then they are not building military units which indirectly affects their ability to defend their regions. Usually the merchant income stays around 1000 per turn using this method.

Also, as somone else mentioned, use assassins to get rid of their merchants to open up the resource you want.

[Fireright]

I prefer to keep my merchants well clear of the 'action' say Central Europe, where they seem too vulnerable to too many factions. Ideally I try to get em on a boat and straight down to Arguin or Timbuktu where all the big money is and its a quieter life. Similar with the islands in the Med where they can do their stuff without much hassle.

I reckon I'm cursed...my guys seem enemy merchant magnets otherwise

[EmperorDan]

May I take I wild guess and assume you`re playing as the Danes or Novgorod?

Anyway, here's an extra tip: moove you're merchants deeper in your teritory, so they will be as far as they can from the borders and try to recruit as many of them as you can in the same citiy...still, if they continue to get kill, stop recruting them, as 100 florins per turn, won't compensate you for your loses

And don't exagerate on using assasins as your king might get dread traits and thus lowering your faction's reputation...and that's a pretty bad thing at the beginig of a campaign....And good luck!

[shikaka]

And don't exagerate on using assasins as your king might get dread traits and thus lowering your faction's reputation...and that's a pretty bad thing at the beginig of a campaign....And good luck!

For one, dread alone doesn't decrease reputation, at least by a visible amount. After I learned how to maintain high rep (enough allies, no extermination, not many wars at one time, etc.) I have no problem using assasins.

Also, and that is the main thing, your ruler develops traits with authority bonuses when using assasins and spies, which is useful, especially in mods.

[painter]

Your faction leader's dread does not have a direct link with your faction's reputation. I almost had an immaculate reputation even when having a dreaded king.

[EmperorDan]

I remember reading somewhere on this forum that a chivalarous king impoves your reputation while a dread one decreases it :-? .... I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong on this one mate

[eXistenZ]

I remember reading somewhere on this forum that a chivalarous king impoves your reputation while a dread one decreases it :-? .... I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong on this one mate

yeah it stood in a guide on reputation:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=3908523

Having a high chivalry faction leader increases your reputation.
Having a high dread faction leader decreases it (So best to keep your main bloodline as high chivarly generals, and let some other line of the family be the bastard enforcers).

It's a real pain that using assassins causes your faction leader to dread up.

[painter]

You should analyse the reputation rules given in the wiki. Aldgarkalaughskel's tips on reputation is perhaps based on personal experience, as that is indeed how it may look like to a player. But it is not how the game engine works.

In the game engine, it will penalise your reputation for being at war. It doesn't penalise you for using assassins or having a dread faction leader. Guess what? If you use assassins a lot, your faction leader will gain dread traits and, unless you cheat by reloading, eventually one of your assassins will fail their mission and cause a war. If you were allies with that faction, you will take a massive reputation hit. In any case, you will start losing reputation for being at war with that faction. If you are at war with too many factions, you will start losing reputation over time. But if you're at war and you release prisoners (especially if you release more than 80 prisoners or named generals) and occupy settlements instead of sacking, your reputation actually increases. In fact, done right, your reputation can increase greatly during a war.

As you can see from the above, the game rules can make his tips on reputation look correct.

And by his tips, wouldn't it be very difficult to play as an aggressive expansionist and still keep a good reputation? I have completed my vanilla long campaign objectives in less than 50 turns with a reputation of Very Trustworthy, just a step short of Immaculate, while being at war with more than four factions, made heavy use of spies and assassins, got a dread faction leader because of the espionage and destroyed a number of factions.

[EmperorDan]

Still, it would make sense for a faction reputation to go down if it would be ruled by a cruel king....

[tudor93]

Still, it would make sense for a faction reputation to go down if it would be ruled by a cruel king....

yes, but chivalry sucks, can't use spies/assassins/sack/exterminate because it decreases
can't set taxes on high/very high because chivalry decreases, now you'll say low taxes are good because your cities grow, but screw the growth, what do you do with big cities if you don't have enough money to build the big stone walls ?
maybe you set the taxes on low very late in the game when you have 100k + in your treasure
chivalry decreases when you execute, why the would I release the enemy prisoners ? to fight full stacks again and again ?
so overall, dread is better

[EmperorDan]

Nobody denies that, still, executing lowers your reputation and so you'll have to fight yet more wars, to execute more prisoners and to lower your reputation even more...it creates a vicious circle...

[painter]

Guys, we have gone terribly off-topic. I propose that before Ishan shows up, in that ferocious tiger form of his, we take this discussion into one of the dormant chivalry vs dread threads or start a new one.