Normally I build a COT if I can but in these circumstances I don't know if it is a good idea. I am playing the Byzantine Empire in DW. It is about 1453 and I own all my cores except Crete (just haven't gotten around to them), a few more Balkan provinces, most of Southern Russia (Tambow, Sarai, Astrakhan are my border provinces), the Caucasus, all the east Med coast to/including Alexandria, Southern/Central Italy (Roma, Romagna are my border provinces), Verona and Lienz. Alexandria has finally gotten over 800 ducats so Thrace, which trades through Alexandria, can now form a COT, or it should be able to, I need to check to be sure it can. Should I buy one? All my provinces except a few Italian ones trade through Alex or Astra so I don't think I will gain in total trade but I am not sure. Will it benefit me to build a COT in Thrace? I'll own Venice eventually as soon as I get the mission so I would have 4 COTs competing for trade.
Build a COT or not?
- Thread starter DABegley
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Build it. CoTs add flat tax value and manpower % to the province they are in based on their value. This also means you'll gain force limits.
A note: You don't have to wait for Alexandria to get valuable enough to split from. Just temporarily embargo The Mamlukes so that Thrace trades through Venice and you can split it from there.
A note: You don't have to wait for Alexandria to get valuable enough to split from. Just temporarily embargo The Mamlukes so that Thrace trades through Venice and you can split it from there.
it depends i would say. if you are mercantile then generally there is no point in making loads of cots because it is harder to keep a monopoly over them. if you are free trade and are getting tons of merchants then the extra tax might be valuable.
Mercantile trade through their own CoTs getting a bonus for every province that they own and trades through the CoT. So it also works if you own most of a CoTs provinces but don't actually own the CoTs.
You own Alexandria there is no need to build another one. Spend the 500 Ducats to build trade buildings and boost its value even farther.
Of course you should build one, the extra tax make Thrace far more valuable than anything else. And from my pesonal experience it will be worth over 1000 Ducats trading value quickly. I played Byz quite a lot.
But then you won't have a very good chance of trading through the cot... You need to be free trade to efficiently trade through other peoples cots
Nope!
You need provinces that trade through given CoT to succeed in that CoT. Owning provinces around CoT is better than just CoT as it give bonus to merchant placement and survival chances. In other words. You will loose to FreeTraders if you own only CoT, but you will win against FreeTraders if you own most provinces that trade there, and then you do not even need to own that CoT.
Though since CoT give such fine bonuses its always good to own CoTs.
PS FreeTraders get malus from owning non-core CoT, otherwise they just can keep CoT and forget about provinces around, as they do not give any bonus.
Thank you przemo you said it much better than I did.
Ok so why I think he should not build the COT in Thrace is. He owns Alexandria already. It is taking income from the majority of the empire sharing the rest with Venice and Astrakhan.
Both of those are soon to be on the conquest list.
Advantages to making a New CoT. the far nortern Provinces may flip from Astrakhan to Thrace or may not depending on his Mercantile slider. The province giving to Venice will also flip. Maybe adding 100-200 ducats total trade maybe more depending on who is in what trade league.
Disadvantages 500 ducats is a large cost which can be used to build tax buildings at the Alexandria CoT and trade building to boost the power of existing CoTs. The tax building point is moot since Thrace is also a strong tax region and should get at CoT.
Since Venice and Astrakhan are near conquest the boost income boost from a new CoT will be temporary and wont cover the cost of building the CoT. So overall I say conquest of existing CoT and not worry about new ones. The AI does that for you.
Ok so why I think he should not build the COT in Thrace is. He owns Alexandria already. It is taking income from the majority of the empire sharing the rest with Venice and Astrakhan.
Both of those are soon to be on the conquest list.
Advantages to making a New CoT. the far nortern Provinces may flip from Astrakhan to Thrace or may not depending on his Mercantile slider. The province giving to Venice will also flip. Maybe adding 100-200 ducats total trade maybe more depending on who is in what trade league.
Disadvantages 500 ducats is a large cost which can be used to build tax buildings at the Alexandria CoT and trade building to boost the power of existing CoTs. The tax building point is moot since Thrace is also a strong tax region and should get at CoT.
Since Venice and Astrakhan are near conquest the boost income boost from a new CoT will be temporary and wont cover the cost of building the CoT. So overall I say conquest of existing CoT and not worry about new ones. The AI does that for you.
Well in every merchant republic campaign i've ever played i have tried to have as few cot's as possible
CoT in byz trace though may help gain edge over ottomans in naval limit 
But that is early game.
And generally if you have strong opponent and no chances for expansion CoT or two can help a lot. Specially if placed for stealing from other cots.
But that is early game.And generally if you have strong opponent and no chances for expansion CoT or two can help a lot. Specially if placed for stealing from other cots.
You want to have as many provinces trading through as few COTs as possible--and then you want to have monopolies in those COTs. So for placing new COTs, the question is: will this center of trade steal a lot of provinces currently trading through a COT I don't own, or will it mostly take provinces that are currently already trading through one of my COTs? If the latter, you usually don't want to build a new COT, unless you're worried that a new center might pop up randomly because there's more than 40 provinces attached to a single one.
It seems evenly split on whether to form a COT or not. Alexandria is at ~920 right now so I saved and did the test of forming a COT. I own Astrakhan already but not Venice. After formation of a Thrace COT, Alexandria dropped to 147 but Thrace was at 970, most of the change was movement from Alexandria to Thrace. Astrakhan was unchanged. So total trade went from ~920 to ~1120 in Alex/Thrace, a gain of 200. I am about to annex Cairo which will boost Alexandria a bit. The Mamelukes were annexed by Funji so I can take Cairo and leave the rest. Thrace also gives me a place to put 5 more merchants. I can only place merchants in Alex and Astra right now as my other placement % are below 10%. I really don't know why they are all so low. I have made only one move to free trade, the rest to Cent (I am where I need to be to Westernize now) and Innovative (I am at 0 now). So I am basically Mercantile and have been kicked out of the Venice trade league. I might be able to rejoin now that I am not at war with Venice but haven't checked. So the test says I get ~200 more trade and spots to put 5 more merchants, is that enough to justify a COT?
Beeing Merchantile AND behind in Trade tech kills your merchants outside of your CoTs....
In general trading in fewer CoTs is better for both Merchantilist and Free Trader. Former have easier time to maintain total monopolies, later have better compete chances due to fewer placed merchants. Few bonuses in one province don't compensate for global loss and generally reduced trade income.