[Freeciv] Re: How the heck do I use a caravan?

["Bobby D. Bryant" <bdbryant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Christian Knoke wrote:

> How much? For how long? Rest of the game?

Answering from memory...

When you establish a trade route, you get an immediate cash infusion, plus
a smaller income stream every turn so long as the two cities remain in the
game.  See the message panel when you establish the trade route to see what
the initial value is.  See the "trade" button in the originating city to
see what the per-turn value of the trade route is.

Generally, the farther the destination city is from the city that built the
caravan, the more income it generates.  IIRC there are also bonuses for
going to an enemy city rather than to one of your own, and also for going
to a city on a different continent, whether yours or not.

But watch out -- enemies will often destroy the caravans before you can get
them into an enemy city.  Notice also that the value of trade to a city may
drop if you capture that city, both because of population losses and
because the trade with your own city is less valuable than it was with the
same city when it was not yours.

In general, "rich" destination cities are better than "poor" ones.  I don't
think you can see richness directly, but as a rule of thumb a larger city
will be richer than a smaller one, a city with more surrounding roads will
be richer than a city in undeveloped terrain, a city with lots of ocean
squares will tend to be rich, etc.  All else being equal, cities in a
Republic will be richer than cities in a Despotism, etc.  In general,
situations that would make your own cities richer will also benefit your
rivals' cities, so use your knowledge of city management to estimate how
rich a target city will be.

Also, I think the value of the trade routes increase as their target cities
grow richer, and decreases when they grow poorer.  (You can ruin a lot of
trade by nuking a city!)

Cities also have a limit to the number of trade routes they can establish,
and the number they can be on the receiving end of as well.  IIRC the limit
is 3 in both cases.  Also, a single city can only start a single trade
route with any other given city.

As a strategy, you should (IMO) send your early caravans to cities that can
be reached quickly and safely, even if the target does not rate well by the
criteria above.  This will get some initial income trickling in, and even a
few coins/turn really add up over time.  Then as your empire expands and
your nautical skills improve, you can start sending caravans to more
distant and riskier targets to generate higher incomes.  If you already
have the maximum number of caravans for a city and then start a new one
that's more valuable than the ones you have, the new one is supposed to
replace the least valuable of the existing ones.  (I think this only works
with the city of origin, not the target cities.)

I usually do not try to set up the maximum number of routes for each city.
One or two each is often sufficient, though you can build more when you get
stuck with nothing else worthwhile to build.  Conveniently, your
older/bigger/richer cities reach this state sooner and more often, so they
tend to have more trade routes than your younger/smaller/poorer cities.

For new cities I build on the frontier after I am fairly well established
in the game, I often build the first caravan just before building the
marketplace, and let the marketplace be building while the caravan is
making its journey.  This is because the new cities have a very low income,
and the marketplace modifier does not give you much advantage in absolute
terms.  But if you add 2-3 point for the caravan on top of the 2-3 points
the small city is generating, then the marketplace is more worthwhile. (The
bonus for marketplaces, banks, etc. are applied on top of the trade
routes.)

Some people don't bother with caravans at all, prefering solutions based on
conquest.

Bobby Bryant
Austin, Texas