a quick question

[Marshall Thomas]

Will signing a trade agreement reduce the chance of a declaration of war by the country you signed with? Are nations you are at war with more likely to embargo you or at least cancel a trade agreement? Is it realistic that a nation you are at war with will allow you to trade at it's CoTs?

 

[unmerged(40258)]

At least from my experience, if you are at war with a country that has trade 4, that country will always embargo you. Seems pretty fair and historical.

About trade agreements, 6 out of 6 tries, the following thing happened: i signed a Trade Agreement with a country, then DOW one of its alliance members. The country i signed TA with always dishonored the alliance. So i think signing TA reduces the chances of DOW.

 

[lgonggr]

If you can get a trade agreement with a great power that owns a CoT it is well worth the penalties on your trade research. They almost never cancel one. It is not easy to get one tough, but Russia often agrees quite easily. Never make trade agreements with a nation that doens't own a CoT. If you have the highest trade tech in the world, never sign new trade agreements. Try not to get monopolies in CoT's of great powers, they will always embargo you. Stick with keeping 5 merchants in all the foreign CoT's and monopolies in your own. Of course if the nation owning the CoT doesn't have enough tech to make a trade embargo you should go for a monopoly . And if you need a CB against a nation, the easiest way is to go for a monopoly in his CoT, they'll embargo you and you can kick their ass .
Cheers,
Lodewijk

 

[Marshall Thomas]

When a country embargos you, do you automatically embargo them- if so, with or without a stability hit? If you embargo them will they automatically embargo you? Is it ever wise to have a trade agreement with a nation which does not own a CoT, but has many competive merchants in the CoTs which compete with your own merchants?

 

[unmerged(4211)]

When a country embargos you, do you automatically embargo them- if so, with or without a stability hit? If you embargo them will they automatically embargo you? Is it ever wise to have a trade agreement with a nation which does not own a CoT, but has many competive merchants in the CoTs which compete with your own merchants?

Go plutocratic, research trade, build refineries, trade maps to uncover CoTs and send your merchants all over. Adopt a big dawg mentality, you want to compete with everyone's merchants.

 

[Thistletooth]

When a country embargos you, do you automatically embargo them- if so, with or without a stability hit? If you embargo them will they automatically embargo you? Is it ever wise to have a trade agreement with a nation which does not own a CoT, but has many competive merchants in the CoTs which compete with your own merchants?

I never embargo, myself. But I might take advantage of embargoes to get free CBs. I might sign trade agreements, but only if someone controls a very lucrative CoT. If someone doesn't have a CoT but has very competitive merchants, I usually prefer to leave them alone. The AI usually doesn't invest too much into trade tech, and if their merchants are so efficient as to drive all of my merchants out of my own CoT, then their land tech is also probably pretty good (better than mine), so I wouldn't want to provoke them. Besides, you can make a pretty penny off of trade tolls, even if your merchants can't compete.

I don't think there is any connection between embargoing someone and them embargoing you back. As far as I can tell, embargoes are not initiated due to poor relations, but due to trade dominance. Spain can hate your guts, but if you don't have many (if any) merchants in any of their CoTs, they probably won't embargo you.

 

[TheLoneTaco]

actually i'll go against the grain with an exception. if you have dominating trade tech (as just about all humans will against AI), signing TAs with a handful of AIs prevents your merchants from competing everyone out. This can be useful if you would otherwise lose the COT. I tend to play small-scale peaceful nations, so this strategy is nice for my playing style.

I would also imagine that nations like Meckleburg or Genoa might want to sign TAs just to reduce the chance that others DOW them

-Matt