Returning player - need some guidance

[Brynjar]

That's what I disagree with, the two part of the post. First, either the Indian trade does not flow and you don't control Zanzibar, and then the Cape brings like 3 ducats, and it is usless, or the Indian trade flows and Zanzibar will always be more interesting to collect in than the Cape (easier to monopolize, you don't need to colonize anything and there is no "transfer from traders downstream" so long as you colonize one province, The Cape). And then, imho, to slow down the other colonizers, colonize just The Cape and let the other provinces there empty, Spain will usually colonize them one by one and lose decades.

As I stated in the post you are quoting, colonizing the Cape is best used as a stepping stone to get range in to Zanzibar. Before you get the trade power you need there, it may very well be more profitable to collect in the cape than putting a merchant in the Ivory Coast as you suggest (we are still talking about the early game). Sure, a bunch of light ships in the Ivory Coast node may be better, but they would probably be better employed in Europe in the first place.

Your post before the one you are nagging about:

Just saying that you don't need the Cape if you have Ivory Coast. Cape flows in Ivory Coast only, noone collects in Cape, so feel free to ignore Cape, that's a waste of time and a common mistake. Let Castile/Portugal lose time colonize it, they will steer towards Ivory Coast, focus on controlling Ivory Coast instead.

You basically said. "Don't colonize the Cape, your colonizers are better used elsewhere. Leave it for Castile/Portugal". Please, let us know where you want to send those colonizers in stead. Your post indicates that you would rather colonize all those 3-5 development provinces without any trade power modifiers in the Ivory Coast.

 

[Brynjar]

So if I understand this correctly, if I am playing as an Indian nation, it is imperative that I conquer Zanzibar trade node provinces, colonize Cape, and move my trade capital to Zanzibar and collect from there?

I wouldn't say it's imperative, as Indians generally have loads of money anyway, but it sure can be very profitable for just about any nation.

 

[Sfan]

So if I understand this correctly, if I am playing as an Indian nation, it is imperative that I conquer Zanzibar trade node provinces, colonize Cape, and move my trade capital to Zanzibar and collect from there?

No, the interest of Zanzibar is that it controls trade from Malacca without having to pass by all of India, so that it allows to control the Indonesian trade without having to conquer all of India. That's very precious for an European midgame, because you probably can't colonize the Americas, Indonesia, Africa, and conquer India by that point. Late game, Zanzibar is interesting because it concentrates trade from Arabia, India and Indonesia. At that point it can be valuable for an Indian nation that expanded all over Asia.

You basically said. "Don't colonize the Cape, your colonizers are better used elsewhere. Leave it for Castile/Portugal". Please, let us know where you want to send those colonizers in stead. Your post indicates that you would rather colonize all those 3-5 development provinces without any trade power modifiers in the Ivory Coast.

Quote me on that. I said only owning the CoT and putting 100 light ships is enough for what OP wants to do, which is to play a casual english game. I never talked about colonizing those atrocious provinces. What I would rather do is securing 10 provinces CN in America and all the CoT and estuaries that I can colonize, anywhere.

 

[Brynjar]

Quote me on that. I said only owning the CoT and putting 100 light ships is enough for what OP wants to do, which is to play a casual english game. I never talked about colonizing those atrocious provinces. What I would rather do is securing 10 provinces CN in America and all the CoT and estuaries that I can colonize, anywhere.

I already did, but sure, I can do it again. Your second post in this thread:

Just saying that you don't need the Cape if you have Ivory Coast. Cape flows in Ivory Coast only, noone collects in Cape, so feel free to ignore Cape, that's a waste of time and a common mistake. Let Castile/Portugal lose time colonize it, they will steer towards Ivory Coast, focus on controlling Ivory Coast instead.

"You don't need the Cape", "Feel free to ignore the Cape, that's a waste of time", "Let Castile/Portugal lose time colonize it, Focus on controlling Ivory Coast instead."
The guy is asking for advise for a colonial game, he picked exploration as his first idea group. You already need to colonize a couple of provinces in the Ivory coast node to reach the Cape. Which single province would you rather colonize that gives a better return on investment than the Cape?

 

[Sfan]

You still don't quote wherever I said that you'd better colonize those 3-5 dev provinces in Ivory Coast, but whatever.

What I simply said is that as a non-blobbing England, for a returning player with low expectations besides having fun, if you had to chose between controlling the Ivory Coast node and the Cape node, you would rather control the Ivory Coast (because a non-blobbing England will only control the Channel, not Genoa as well because he won't PU France).
It's obvious a player with high expectations wants everything, and will prio the Cape over Ivory Coast if he can collect in the Channel AND in Genoa, and it's obvious The Cape is a better province than the 3 dev tropical jungle provinces in the Ivory Coast without any trade modifier. Once again, I don't think I implied otherwise.

You can argue about what I said and explain in which situations which node is preferable, but don't try to make me look ridiculous by implying I say that you need every Ivory Coast province before thinking of something else.

If you want to answer about my opinion, my reasoning is more or less that:
The less you tryhard, the less work you want to have before seeing the profit, and also the slower you'll conquer and colonize. Therefore, it seems unrealistic for a returning player to outpace the other colonizers in Northern America (the place that brings the best immediate profit if you colonize it as England), Mexico and Peru (gold), the Caribbean (needed to control the Americas), the Ivory Coast (needed to steer Brazil + Indian trade towards the Channel and not Genoa), the Cape, and the Indian ocean. I don't mention the rest of Southern America, I would abandon it. If I had to abandon anything here, that would be the Cape node, which brings the smallest net profit of all of these imo. As we all agree, the Cape gives an extra merchant and is useful to lock Zanzibar as an endnode. The first one is excellent, but any area can give you the same kind of profit. The second one is extremely valuable if you have built a massive Asian trade network including at least India and Indonesia, and maybe China as well. Once again, someone not tryharding can't do that until very late into the game.
Now, if we argue about what's best in general as England, it is obviously to PU France and to destroy the Iberians to monopolize colonization. This removes the need of controlling Caribbean and Ivory Coast who act as "dispatchers" of trade between Sevilla-Genoa and the Channel, because you'll control both roads. But in OP's situation I'd heavily prioritize these dispatcher nodes.