Silk Road reward

[Lightwell]

Is there any benefit to restoring Europe's access to the Silk Road? Playing Venice. 1533, and I've got every province near Constantinople in my possession. I'm ready to completely neuter the Ottomans, but I want to know what I get from doing so. Like, conquering Egypt gets me easy access to Indian trade, regardless of what I do with the Ottomans, and the Constantinople node isn't super rich. Is there a point to restoring the Silk road? I mean, the whole exploration period of EU4 began as a result of the Ottomans taking Constantinople, and gouging Europe on trade. If a coalition dismantles them, what then?

 

[mechanical_Critter]

yeah, you can make insane money out of the asian trade if you own enough trade power in constantinople (and it will snowball as you conquer tradenodes), which is downstream of the extremely rich Persian and Aleppo tradenodes.

 

[Lightwell]

Does that still work if you're a Merchant Republic?

 

[damnt512]

Does that still work if you're a Merchant Republic?

You could just use the trade company mechanic instead of fully conquering them.

 

[Lightwell]

You could just use the trade company mechanic instead of fully conquering them.

Trade Company mechanics only apply in certain regions. Going to be using Alexandria for most of my trade.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Trade Company mechanics only apply in certain regions. Going to be using Alexandria for most of my trade.

Not in the next patch

 

[Lightwell]

RIP Merchant Republics.

 

[AlazkanAssassin]

RIP Merchant Republics.

Why?

 

[Lightwell]

Why?

Merchant Republic Goods Produced bonuses don't stack with Trade Company bonuses. Additionally, if there's a country with a Trade Company in a node where the MR can't make a Trade Company, he's at a disadvantage, due to the TC's bonus to Trading Power. It's even worse if its in the MR's collection node, as Merchant Republics get no bonuses to their trading power in their Trade Capitals.

 

[AlazkanAssassin]

Merchant Republic Goods Produced bonuses don't stack with Trade Company bonuses. Additionally, if there's a country with a Trade Company in a node where the MR can't make a Trade Company, he's at a disadvantage, due to the TC's bonus to Trading Power. It's even worse if its in the MR's collection node, as Merchant Republics get no bonuses to their trading power in their Trade Capitals.

Why wouldn’t those issues hit a regular empire of similar size in the same way?

 

[Lightwell]

Why wouldn’t those issues hit a regular empire of similar size in the same way?

For the first problem, no. It takes a feature unique to Merchant Republics and makes it obsolete.
For the second bonus, yes, but Merchant Republics come with a heavy penalty for having too many states, so they're still heavily penalized.