Odd merchant behaviour

[Thorin Oakshiel]

* I'm not sure if this is a bug or WAD, reason why I post it here. If a mod things otherwise, feel free to move it. *


Playing as Muskowy in HttT, I noticed very strange behaviour of my merchants.
For some reason I'm unable to auto place any merchant, without it loosing its position within 3 months; UNLESS I'm involved into a war.

I began noticing this behaviour during the 1st Muskowian / Novgorodian Trade war, when I was able to auto-place each and every merchant I got.
As soon as the war ended, the merchants were gone from the CoT's within 6 months.
Same happened when allies of mine went to war. Each time I got involved into a war, my merchants got strong footholds in other CoT's; but the moment the war was over, they're gone from the CoT's in 3-4 months.
IMHO this behaviour was the other way a round in NA / IN: Fight a war and your placed merchants would loose position, be at peace and they're able to gain a foothold.

What made things even more fuzzy - at least for me - is that I've got the trade-slider currently at +2; thus increasing my tradechance, as well as having 2 - now 1 - trading advisor giving me another +4% competechance as well.
The current level of my trading"skill" is low - lvl 4 if not mistaken - compared to other nations, whereas most have lvl 5-8 with only a few having lvl 3-4.
Yet, being able to have your merchants gaining access to CoT's when you're at war, while being unable in peace time, seems odd to me.

Anyone able to shine a light at this??



Thorin

 

[Darkrenown]

You said you had the Muskowian / Novgorodian Trade war. Trade war is a CB you normally get from either leaving a trade league or being embargoed. Novagrod isn't embargoing you when you're at peace are they? Although even then the embargo not should be lifted until you win, not while you're at war.

But in general, it's quite hard to keep merchants in league CoTs if you;re not a league member because all the league nations use their leader's compete chance and do not compete with each other, so they tend to keep kicking out outsiders.

 

[Thorin Oakshiel]

You said you had the Muskowian / Novgorodian Trade war. Trade war is a CB you normally get from either leaving a trade league or being embargoed. Novagrod isn't embargoing you when you're at peace are they? Although even then the embargo not should be lifted until you win, not while you're at war.

Yup, Novgorod was embargoing me, which gave me a good excuse to smash them into a much smaller state. (pun intended)

But in general, it's quite hard to keep merchants in league CoTs if you;re not a league member because all the league nations use their leader's compete chance and do not compete with each other, so they tend to keep kicking out outsiders.

That might be the reason then, considering most CoT owners have a higher level of trade as I do.
What I did notice - as I moved on and managed to conquer Novgorod completely now - is that the moment I owned a CoT, placing merchants at other CoT's became a lot easier.
So perhaps what I found out is WAD indeed.

Thorin