23 Holdings versus 20 Holdings + 2 Trade Posts

[Naughtius Maximus]

So, I have decided to put my Persia game on hiatus and reset to another game. Same area.

My goal is to maximize yield in what will be my primary kingdom of Persia.

In my old game I had Hamadan and Estafan as my two duchies. I have discovered however that Khorosan bordering the two is immensely richer.

It has about 23 holdings on top of three silk road provinces. My goal us to have that as my secondary duchy.

However, that leaves Hamadan or Estafan as my primary duchy. Estafan has less total holdings (20) but has two provinces on the Silk Road. Hamadan has about 3 more holdings but has nothing on the Silk Road.

So the real question is whether two trade posts are richer than three holdings (probably cities.)

 

[CaptainPolyp]

I'm not sure.
Two trade posts allow to extend the size of your trade zone (if they connect with your Khorasan trade posts), increasing the trade zone bonus on each single trade post. Note that if you build your major trade post on one end of the trade zone, you should be able to build a lvl 2 or lvl 3 trade post on the other end (not another major trade post though), and probably a lvl 2 trade post at the center of the trade zone. This can increase you income a bit.
Also check for the number of cities in the Esfahan silk road counties; If I recall correctly, Esfahan has 2 cities but I'm not sure for the other county. The cities on the silk road are more valuable and increase the trade yield from the trade posts. Maybe you will be able to build a second city in some of the trade zone's counties (dunno if there are a lot of 5 holding counties though)

The maths are hard to do so it is difficult to say which option is the best between optimized trade posts and more city holdings (not on the silk road). Cities give a more consistent yield whereas trade posts give probably a higher yield but which is reduced in the winter and nullified if there is a war around Samarkand or Qochan (and Qochan can have a lot of civil wars when they are not waring against nomads).

I prefer building my trade zone around Baghdad and Basra since at this location, the silk road has two arms so in times of war, the income is reduced but not nullified... but it is not in the Persian Kingdom (if I'm not miskaken).