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Trading Ships - What's better?

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Pnzr68	Trading Ships - What's better?		Lead	[-]
Posts: 42 05/16/09 21:43:54	Tags : trade fleets, merchanmen, galleons I'm about 3/4 of the way through a new campaign since the latest patch came out, and so far this campaing has really forced me to take a look at re-balancing my economies. Pre-patch I didn't really pay attention to money as I had tons of it and I'd just build stuff cuz I could afford it and didn't pay attention to maintenance costs. For example if I had a battle with the pirates, I would capture their galleons or flyuts and then use them as my own trade ships. (I should mention I usually play GB) So once repaired I'd just through the captured ships into a trade port and be happy with the extra income. Then I started playing this round and my trade fleet consited of about 40% captured ships and 60% merchantment, the problem was I still wasn't making a lot of money even though I had a big trading fleet, and I also noticed my naval upkeep was pretty high. So I finally started to look at the upkeep costs of individual ships and noticed that a merchantman has an upkeep cost of about 44 while a galleon is around 370. Wow, what a difference. So I replaced all my Galleon's and captured ships with Merchantmen and noticed a 10000 increase in profits. So my question now is what's the point of other merchant ships? I used to love capturing a galleon because of the extra firepower, but I'm now thinking that I can afford to build 7 merchantmen for the upkeep cost of a galleon. Once in a trading port they both seem to generate the same amount of income. So why would I choose a galleon over a merchantman? Is there somehting I'm missing here? Last Edited By: Pnzr68 05/17/09 10:24:14. Edited 1 time.
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Hidden Gunman		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 955 05/16/09 22:12:08	No. You've said it all, pretty much.
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IndoMe		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 25 05/16/09 22:36:45	The extra firepower of galleons & fluyts would theoretically make it easier to defend your trading nodes. That is, if the AI actually attacked trading nodes. I suppose galleons & fluyts might possibly be useful if you wanted to drive off an enemy fleet raiding a trade lane and didn't happen to have a battle fleet nearby. Galleons are about as good as 5th rates, I think?
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AviramG		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1575 05/16/09 22:44:09	Yeah I've wrote about this before. it doesn't really make sense that a trading ship would cost more to maintain than it could ever bring in profits
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Daniel Boone		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 186 05/16/09 23:31:03	Galleons are useless as trading ships, you should ignore that ability and think of them as combat ships. They are approximately equal to a fifth rate but move slower and take longer to build. Once you have a dockyard or better there isn't much reason to build galleons. Fluyts don't have so high a maintenance cost, you can make a little money using them as trade ships but indiamen will generate more money.
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Pnzr68		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 42 05/17/09 10:23:46	Thanks for confirming my suspicions. So Galleons and to a lesser extent fluyts are essentially warships capable of trading but in order to re-coup some of their upkeep costs they have to remain static in a trading port. For me this essentially means they are not worth keeping when captured and I'm better off taking the booty and sinking the ships instead of putting them into my fleet. I had thought about keeping them as warships but due to the extra speed and reloading skill of a fith rate, I think I'll build the fith rates instead. My goal is now to have 4 main fleets, one in N. America, one in India, one in the English Channel, and one that raides the trade lanes and responds to other fleets raiding my trade lanes. All merchant fleets will be merchantmen, no more using captured galleon's for trading purposes.
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Randall Turner		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 263 05/17/09 10:31:50	If you're going to keep a fleet on the trade routes, galleons and fluyts are more attractive. Keep them on station at the trade nodes and recoup some of their cost, then sally to clear the trade route and bring them right back. I've got three galleons at Madagascar doing just that, end up only costing about half as much for upkeep. Also, re: 5th rates vs. galleons & fluyts - if you play some other faction besides GB, they'll whomp 5th rates consistently. (GB frigates have a "hidden" reload rate advantage over other countries.)
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Pnzr68		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 42 05/19/09 20:56:32	Randall Turner wrote: Also, re: 5th rates vs. galleons & fluyts - if you play some other faction besides GB, they'll whomp 5th rates consistently. (GB frigates have a "hidden" reload rate advantage over other countries.) Interesting that's probably why I'm now finding my 5th rates such a valuable resource as GB. They may not pack the firepower of a 1st or 2nd rate but they're fast and they fire quickly and they're cheaper to operate. As I said the latest patch really made me re-look at my naval forces as an expence and I'm now using a lot of frigates.
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subachuck		#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 82 05/19/09 21:41:39	Don't be afraid to send in a brig or sloop RIGHT NEXT to an large, expensive enemy vessel. If/when they hit your magazine and your small ship explodes RIGHT NEXT to their large ship it will catch on fire and quickly perish. Other than ferrying troops about it's the only really good thing to use them for. Of course, they're great for taking that scholar who just spawned in Venezuela all the way back to the UK where he'll do some good in a university.
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tokeefe2088		#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 107 05/19/09 22:38:17	subachuck wrote: Don't be afraid to send in a brig or sloop RIGHT NEXT to an large, expensive enemy vessel. If/when they hit your magazine and your small ship explodes RIGHT NEXT to their large ship it will catch on fire and quickly perish. That happened to me today. The broadside from my 2nd 5th rate exploded a spanish sloop and then my 5th rate caught fire and routed lol
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Cheeseinator		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 140 05/19/09 23:30:22	I just got this game a couple days ago and I have a question relating to this subject of trade fleets. Does having more merchant ships in a trade fleet increase your profits? This doesn't seem to be the case when I played around with my fleets while keeping an eye on my trade income. Also does occupying more than one trade port in the same region increase profit? And finally how can tell which trade resource that trade theater has? Just from playing I've figured out that the East Indies = Spices and the Ivory Coast = Ivory (Duh) but what about Madagascar and Brazil? Is there only one resource per region? Different ones for each port? Do they change over time? Some answers would be appreciated.
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WIC1138		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 643 05/19/09 23:46:58	@Cheeseinator See here: http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/56569
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Cheeseinator		#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 140 05/19/09 23:59:13	Ah! Many thanks!
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