Trade Goals / How valuable do the Endnodes usually become?

[Lordkaiser]

So I wanted to play a game where I try to create an awesome trade-empire.

But I dont really know, what to do different than usually. I mean, in a WC also you try to capture the CoTs and to get the colonial nations before/from your enemies and you also conquer the trade routes (and in the end even the whole world).

So I thought, maybe there could be a goal like trying to make the end node (e.g. english channel) as valuable as you can and collect all of it. Maybe also try to control the other nodes not by owning everything, but partially and instead by ships(??).

BUT i dont know how to measure the success. How valuable does e.g. the English Channel get in the end anyways?
Is it always more or less the same amount or does it range a lot in different games?
(Did maybe someone try that and can tell how much worth he was able to send in the end to the endnode?)
What would be a worthy goal for the amount of ducats in the endnode in the end of the game?
Or what else could become the focus for a trade (+colonial) empire?

 

[makaramus]

1)still colonize trade nodes: they are way too important(if you are not gonna pick exploration idea you can skip this but it means you gonna get there too late and begun trading late too)
2)Pick maritime idea group and make too many light ships also build ports(when playing netherlands I had no exploration ideas because all coastline of america was colonized . I decided to force trade into me )
3)starting by controlling your trade node step by step conquer chain belongs to your trade node with massive light ship army

(you may want some galley and heavy ships while doing this tactic)

by the way if you want ONLY trade without any colonization I advice playing aragon. You can form spain without changing ideas and conquer entire meditarrian sea and send trade to genoa(dont change your capital too )

but yea if you are not gonna play meditarrian trade empire you need to pick exploration for full value
but not %100 required

 

[YuriiH]

Watch this:

Trade did not really changed much in recent patches, so you can achieve 70k.

 

[EthanZak]

On my last England run, by 1791 I was collecting 241 per month from the English channel - that was with a full set of colonies, all the african coastal trade company areas and dominance in malacca/moluccas/phillipines.

The amount coming into any trade node will vary massively depending on the trade set-up of the nations using it - with the English it's usually important to get control of the caribbean, ivory coast, chesapeake bay and south africa nodes asap, once you do you should be approaching having the most valuable trade node so you get to spawn Global Trade institution (not that it doesn't spread rapidly anyway).

I like to see how small and weak an army I can get away with using as Great Britain, and maintain control through a ridiculously large Royal Navy (historical accuracy ).

 

[Lordkaiser]

Are there, by the way, relevant features for a trade/colonial empire in Rights of men and/or Mandates of heaven?

 

[I_am_Nemo]

It'll depend to a great extent on whether everything upstream is 1) colonized, 2) stacked with manufactories. It'll also depend on whether you have a monopoly on all upstream nodes, thus funneling all possible trade income to the end node, or whether trade value is getting retained here and there. In my Nepal > Bharat game, there's about 138 raw trade value in my primary node of Bengal. There's only about 118 in English channel, but that's with nothing from beyond the cape getting there, and since I chewed up France + England, there's nobody really with the resources + incentive to monopoloize upstream and steer into EC - I'm actually collecting in Nova Scotia, which means there's value there that isn't getting to EC. Also ducats in Champagne node that are flowing into Genoa, etc.

In other words, if you're playing a standard England game, 200 + raw value in EC is probably pretty reasonable. Focus on dominating the Americas + Africa + India + W Europe, I'd guess you could get 3-400 raw value in the channel.

 

[trojan1234]

Are there, by the way, relevant features for a trade/colonial empire in Rights of men and/or Mandates of heaven?

This is a number from my last wc in Mandate of Heaven patch :

2865 total trade income
English channel 1234 raw value / 2653 income.

Didn't do any of idea/policy optimization. Only placed merchants along the way right after wc.