AGEOD Forums

I clicked the little statue on the left to enter the Decision Mode and was looking through the decisions and reforms. I wanted to do Merchants, but found that I could do this only in a few provinces that I controlled: only in the ones that had a population loyalty of 0% to 90%. If the province was too loyal, such as 100%, I could not stimulate economic improvement with the merchants decision... Huh? How does it make it a problem that my people there are too loyal to me to foster trade in the region?

I looked in the manual for answers and found:

Merchants. "Although agriculture remains the most important activity in the Ancient era, the rise of trade and craft industry in cities translates into an increased trading between the various provinces. The local markets also encourage trade of the regional specialities (like wine, iron, corn or wild beasts…)" (p 88)

Nothing there about being too loyal. Am I missing something?

This is a wonderful game, by the way. I am going to spend a lot of time here.

I thought the requirements were a little counter-intuitive as well. Not sure why it is this way.

There is nothing merchants like less than competition - I believe it is the custom of the disloyal traders that your new merchants are intended to capture.

its to make you put them where there is a risk - my interpretation is this is an expansion of your trade networks and your safe networks are already represented by the existing traders.

exactly Loki,

you have to think about that kind of merchants as a kind of "colonial trade" you need citizens which are not already taxed to the limit and sell the goods to them.
so you want additional money, its the foreigner you ask for. of course, once you seized his ground, the merchants will be harder to be played. thus to be substituted by taxes. rather clever, eh?

why that all?

[I]the developers dont like save harbors for money production. No more trade with Belgium, Germany etc,when the key is, that all that decisions should be destroyed by walking by military of the opposing side...[/I ]

once the enemy invaded you, you can play it even in your contested regions, provided foreign loyalty can be exploited

So what is the strategy for playing Merchants/Trading Posts?

Or other regional decisions, for that matter - the development options seem costly. They raise the development level by a percentage - how significant is that in terms of funds and troops availabe in the time frame of a game?

So what is the strategy for playing Merchants/Trading Posts?

its a military game, play the cards whenever you can and where ever you can... save the money for replacements and if you fall totally short of money use requisitions and enslavement for more money... and of course, concentrate on liberation of cities, especially which give you good supply and income, or loot-able treasures


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the loyalty impact, decision increasing it, depends on the scenario.

use it to compensate the malus of other decisions and RD card, use it to compensate events, use it to get more supply in areas if you plan to stay/fight longer time there

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for development, only the developers can tell you more....

seriously i played it more on base of loyalty enhancing and military control and of course, as more successful, as fewer need for the RDs

What are the best places to install merchants anyway? Does it have any meaning at all? Toolip says merchant will bring 5000 denaries, so it doesn't matter where he is? (in Alexandria, Carthage, Syracuse ect. - cities with big commerce ports or trading centers or in the middle of nowhere in Galia's forests?)

no it doesnt, part of the commerce is merchant ships in trade boxes, which shouldnt get lost, and events about the trade

just play it, where you meet the conditions and dont have to be afraid of getting t destroyed in the next turn. especially in the first time they are good for money, while later partially substituted by income from seized cities

In case of trade ships every turn in a message log we're informed how much did they bring into coffers this time. I never saw such info about my merchants sent to different regions. How to check if they are working and adding this 5000 denaries every turn?