My merchants are wusses

[jackbush]

Some seem to be safe in their positions but others -- further away -- keep getting bumped off and their assets seized. How can I build them up so they can resist and even knock off other merchants?

[Macunaíma]

Get them experience. I'm not sure the most effective way to do it, but I know that they gain experience just by doing what they do (trade resources). Usually I put a zero-skill merchant in a distant resource (like the Timbuktu gold) and by the time he dies his experience has grown significantly.

[Double A]

Attempt to acquire the assets of other merchants when at all possible, and run for the hills if you can't. Enemy merchants will always go for the most valuable resources - this is probably regardless of whether or not they're valuable to their faction, like how silk is worthless to the Byzies because it's in their capital, but that doesn't stop their merchants from hogging all of it - so if you position yours carefully, you won't have to deal with the AI destroying your merchants.

I do this with every agent because the RNG: Always quicksave before attempting a mission. That way you can reload if things go south. Because of the way the TW RNG works, you also need to do some other stuff (like fight a battle, bribe an army, or use a different agent) before you'll get a different RNG result.

[Aeratus]

If you play VH campaign difficult, it's essentially impossible to permanently prevent the AI from seizing your merchants, unless you use exploits like building a fort on top of a resource and putting the merchant inside the fort.

[Drachos]

One time i got pissed off and sent my elite-assasin to deal with the foreign merchant, since then i place 2-3 assasins near my valuable merchant.

[jackbush]

One time i got pissed off and sent my elite-assasin to deal with the foreign merchant, since then i place 2-3 assasins near my valuable merchant.

Yes! That's what I was thinking, too. Now if I can only figure out how to make an assassin....

[tudor93]

also, Merchants that are trained in settlements with a Merchant Guild built in it tend to have nice traits
for example, in my Byz campaign I have a Merchant HQ in Tesalonica and I trained a merchant that is only 28 and has almost full finance (I think he has 9)
oh, another thing, if you have a high level church in the settlement that you train your merchant he has big chances of getting bad traits that give "-" to finance

[Marsonus III]

I don't tend to use Merchants much simply because it's an additional thing to manage, and unless you send them to distant corners of the world you don't get much return. They're also open to rival Merchants too as stated. I find managing your cities efficiently to be more profitable, and a Merchant income would be just icing. It could make a difference I suppose if you manage them correctly, but I guess I don't give them much priority due to the risk/reward they present. Most of the time the risk outweighs to reward quite considerably, and there's the extra management as mentioned.

[Drachos]

Muslim factions : Shisha den/inn idk
Christian factions: I don't really remember

[King William the Conqueror]

Muslim factions : Shisha den/inn idk
Christian factions: I don't really remember

Christian Factions: Inn

[stratfiend]

I don't bother with Merchants on most campaigns unless I'm playing Egypt or the Moors (lots of Slaves/Ivory). They cost 500, yet most of the common resources only return about 20 florins a turn. Thats ~25 turns just to pay their cost, not to mention the AI might send in their merchants and kill them off. Just not worth the effort through most of the game.

The only time I find them viable is if I can seclude them from enemy agents. Using a fleet to block the sea passes like Gibraltar, Constantinople, and the Baltic, for example. If the enemy is on the other side, they won't be able to get over to harass your merchants. The other option is of course spamming Assassins and keeping a close eye on killing off enemy merchants, but this is of course causes dread.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Get guild headquarters. It's something like a +2 skill bonus for training them there, as well as a +1 factionwide skill bonus. Also, send your merchants to Timbuktu. Other factions merchants don't frequent that region, and it has really valuable resources.

[Sitalkes]

I don't bother with Merchants on most campaigns unless I'm playing Egypt or the Moors (lots of Slaves/Ivory). They cost 500, yet most of the common resources only return about 20 florins a turn. Thats ~25 turns just to pay their cost, not to mention the AI might send in their merchants and kill them off. Just not worth the effort through most of the game.

You forget that the value of a merchant increases over time - the longer he sits on a resource, the better he gets at his business. I usually find that a merchant with a 4 Finance rating will easily bring in 350 florins a turn if you put him on the right resource, and those sort of resources are not hard to find (at least in a Kingdoms campaign anyway). It's also easy to improve their rating if the AI is throwing merchants at you - sometimes they are uber merchants but often they are ones that you have about a 50% chance of defeating in a merchant takeover attempt - just save the game, make the attempt, and try again if you fail. If you succeed, that merchant will be able to defeat similar AI merchants on future attempts (and further increase his rating every time he succeeds). I think that using merchants improves trade generally in a region though I have no proof of this. Using assasins wastes money - succeeding in an aquisition is worth money and experience for your merchant. Finding resources isn't that difficult - If you buy a map from a diplomat then the resources of his country will be shown as well as everything else.

You can get monopoly traits just by building in a town with a guild. I don't think you can get monopoly traits by trading all or most of a commodity - this was discussed on a previous thread where it was said that getting a monopoly in a commodity doesn't help.

[Sweger]

Yes, merchants only seem to be worthwhile if you manage to get all resources in Dongola, Arguin and later in the new world. The resources in the new world give enormous amounts, and the AI never travels there. I discovered in the Amreicas campaign that you as New Spain have good use of merchants, but that seem however to be the exception that confirmes the rule. By the way, does anyone know whether the Native faction in the Americas campign can create merchants?

[ccgr1121]

Yes, merchants only seem to be worthwhile if you manage to get all resources in Dongola, Arguin and later in the new world. The resources in the new world give enormous amounts, and the AI never travels there. I discovered in the Amreicas campaign that you as New Spain have good use of merchants, but that seem however to be the exception that confirmes the rule. By the way, does anyone know whether the Native faction in the Americas campign can create merchants?

I don't think they can. Also, resources are usually more worthwhile in all the kingdoms factions I find.

@Jackbush: Muslim factions: shisha bar or above (that line anyway)
Christian factions: inn or above.

[Bloodly]

There's a few things. Make sure they're trained in a town with a Town Hall or better, to have a chance of +finance traits. Training them in a town without those gives a chance of -to finance.

Second, work on monopoly traits. Find a region in your territory with multiple of the same resource and park them on them. Over time they'll gain +finance. Minables count. Once you've got them built up, start hunting for more valuable things.

Third, protect your merchants by putting them into armies, preferably small ones. They can still trade if the army moves onto the resource, and are shielded from enemy merchants this way. This also means you can have a stack of up to 20 Merchants trading a resource. Of course if the army goes Rebel of deserts, you lose the lot.

Fourth, regarding how much you earn from resources-the amount you earn in based off distance to the capital; the closest instance of that resource in the world determines the price. This is why Wine in Ajaccio, though it has a high base value, doesn't give much for Italians, because it's so close to home.

Last is the certainty of a Merchant's Guild. All those ports and markets and roads are earning you points to get these offered to you. There's no reason to wait unless you're hoping to get it in a specific city. Remember the Master Merchant's Guild and Merchant's Guild HQ are One-Per-Faction and one-in-the-world.

[Bloodly]

Be aware that the Inn line is dangerous if you seek good generals-there are bad traits associated with hanging around it. The Shisha line does not suffer this.

[Double A]

You guys sound like you aren't using merchants right. Sure, there's only a few really, really good resources, but the uncommon ones are still pretty good. It takes, what, 10 turns to pay off a merchant?

And if you play SS, they're even more useful due to the greater quantity of valuable resources and the general increase in value of trade goods.

[Bloodly]

More like 20, at least at game start, which is where the bad times start. At the same as they aren't necessarily earning much due to bad Finance, the A.I is being really aggressive against player merchants and killing them off. It takes time to develop them to a point where they can resist and fight back-and every loss puts you out of pocket and makes the winner harder to beat.

Lack of knowledge is a big part of it. You don't know where the good stuff is.

[Sulfurion Blackfyre]

give_trait this GoodMerchant 4
give_trait this Merchant 3
give_trait this LegalDealer 2
give_trait this NaturalMerchantSkill 3