Trade Strategy for Castile

[Heindrich]

I've never played a nation with multiple End Node possibilities before, so some advice would be appreciated.

Context

I am playing a multiplayer game vs a friend who is playing Ming. I need to get much richer soon if I am to compete with his massive edge in development. I did get the Iberian Wedding, and currently lead Aragon, Naples and Ferrara in personal unions.

Question

It seems pretty obvious that after I form Spain diplomatically, I should move my trade capital to Genoa and try to dominate the rest of that End Node. However, Naples gives me a foothold in the Venice node, and I could potentially expand into the English Channel node too... I know it's normally not worth it to use merchants to collect trade when you can steer it, but would collecting from a rich end node mitigate that and make it worthwhile for me to expand into those regions?

 

[Dunya]

I don't have a complete answer for you but some general tips:
1-As you said, move to Genoa and focus on dominating that
2-As a colonial nation you will find yourself with more merchants than you need (2 base + 1 from expansions ideas + 1 from global trade institution + 1 for each colonial nations with more than 10 provinces + 1 for each trade company with more than 50% trade power in the node). The first ones you get are genereally better to use to send money to genoa (from tunis, Paris, maybe even ragusa or alexandria) and specially from outside of europe to sevilla (such as ivory coast or the caribbean). But at some point (maybe after 4-8 merchants, and depending on how much you control of other nodes) it can be more efficient to send extra merchants to collect trade (probably in venice). Again this all depends on the proportion you hold and actual values of trade. The provinces you hold from Naples shouldn't be enough to have a good proportion of Venice, but if you expand (for example, into Venice itself) than it surely is worth it

 

[Kergan]

As (colonial) Spain, you can ignore Venice completely. Give the node to a Milan march or something.

The Venice node is interesting when you're playing a warmongering Italy. You can then share your main node, Genoa, with a vassal or two (e.g. Catalonia and Provence) that take care of steering value in there, while you focus on controlling Venice and feeding Egypt and beyond inside it. This the only scenario where I've ever seen Venice become a more important node than Genoa - other times it's basically puny, and as a colonial Spain you'll be steering what goes through Aden at game start around Africa anyway.

Given that your friend is playing Ming, be sure to rush East Africa and Malacca.

 

[Heindrich]

As (colonial) Spain, you can ignore Venice completely. Give the node to a Milan march or something.
Given that your friend is playing Ming, be sure to rush East Africa and Malacca.

lol my friend grabbed Malacca in the 1450s. It's ~1477 and he has nearly 1600 development and embraced Renaissance before me. He may very well get Colonialism too since Ming has a massive coastline. Ming post-Mandate of Heaven is absurdly rich and powerful, I am in no position to contest land anywhere near him any time soon. I am hoping that forming Spain and controlling an end node might give me some income parity in the future...

 

[Bouchart]

As Castile you should ignore the Venice node, since you can't direct colonial trade there.

If you should get the Burgundian Inheritance then you have the option of directing trade into the English Channel node. To do that you'd want to conquer London, which is not easy to do unless England failed big time. You could try vassalizing an Irish minor and working your way through Britain from there. England is usually allied to Portugal, if you haven't conquered them yet.

 

[Dunya]

lol my friend grabbed Malacca in the 1450s. It's ~1477 and he has nearly 1600 development and embraced Renaissance before me. He may very well get Colonialism too since Ming has a massive coastline. Ming post-Mandate of Heaven is absurdly rich and powerful, I am in no position to contest land anywhere near him any time soon. I am hoping that forming Spain and controlling an end node might give me some income parity in the future...

You sure got the short end of the stick there

But hey, it will feel much better if you beat him as the underdog