To upgrade light ships or...?

[gaius valerius]

Do I? I'm the TO and the date is 1550. Right now I'm fairly dominant in the Baltic node with 22 Barques, however Caravels are available... Do replace my older ships? If I understand correctly the more modern light ships get you more trade power and thus more profit. Right now I've replaced 10 of them by Caravels but rather than destroying those 10 Barques I have them patrolling the Novgorod node, to transfer more power. My question is am I ultimately better off with replacing them altogether? There is the issue of naval forcelimits, to much ships eventually result in lessened profits right? Is it a matter of quality over quantity?

 

[eugene171]

The difference is a 3.5 versus a 3, so you'll get more value from just building two more caravels as you would from replacing all 10, I think.

Trade is not my expertise, but that seems correct.

 

[Incompetent]

Just keep building light ships until the marginal cost exceeds the marginal revenue. At that point you can start thinking about scrapping old ships. Caravels are only slightly better than Barques in terms of trade power.

 

[Tigrislove]

I'd say it depends on how rich the trade node in question is and the total trade power in the node. 22 barques give you 66 trade power, while 22 caravels give 77, so if the total trade power in the Baltic trade node is several hundred, which I think is often the case, it is unlikely to be profitable. I rarely upgrade by trade fleet unless I have an excess of money.

Just keep building light ships until the marginal cost exceeds the marginal revenue. At that point you can start thinking about scrapping old ships. Caravels are only slightly better than Barques in terms of trade power.

Spoken like an economist. If I remember correctly, the cost is 20, so if you expect the new ships to earn this back I'd go for it, but it is likely to take some time. Upgrading your fleet is a long-term investment.

 

[HansBaer]

I usually upgrade them every second ship type, so barques, early frigates, heavy frigates. It doesn't make much of difference as stated, so having surplus money to spend is another factor.

 

[Gamerofthegame]

The information

It's less mindblowingly important then heavy ships, but if you have the time and money it probably would be a good idea. The Baltic sea isn't exactly the most heavily contested trade node, though, up until Sweden starts to get off the ground anyway.

 

[sinkingmist]

If you're still under forcelimits, better to just build more without scrapping.
If you're over forcelimits, you might consider scrapping older models for newer ones, but probably only ones that are more than 2-3 tiers behind the latest.

 

[Incompetent]

Spoken like an economist. If I remember correctly, the cost is 20, so if you expect the new ships to earn this back I'd go for it, but it is likely to take some time. Upgrading your fleet is a long-term investment.

New light ships do take a while to pay for themselves, but if you're talking about light ships you already have, you should never scrap them unless scrapping a ship will save you more in maintenance than you lose in trade income. If you've reached saturation point, you *may* want to scrap some and replace them with new ones, but as you say, it will take a long time to pay off as we're talking about a very small improvement in the efficiency of your fleet. Chances are, there are better investments you can make.

 

[Cavalry]

I often only replace ship if they are 2 tier obsoluted. And I think with current patch, trade without Trade Idea is only much better at Early Frigate, when you have more Trade efficency from tech (+10% in tech 16 & 17). So if you are short on cash and points, you can delaying invest more trade building & trade tech when you have the Early Frigate (tech 15, and with Galleon)

 

[Xara]

Whether or not they're likely to be faced with a sudden naval attack or if you want them to actually contribute to a blockade / naval fight is something to consider

 

[Faulty]

The only time I've ever scrapped ships is when I united the Holy Roman Empire and had 400/300 force limit. If the ship hasn't been destroyed in combat yet, it's still good enough to send into combat!