How To Earn Money Before Trade Route

[Senna]

So I bought an extra ox and upgraded a house to raise chickens. That left me with 5 gold. I built a trading post, but everything requires a trade route that costs more than 5 gold. Is there anyway to raise money now or is my play through screwed?

[LordTurki]

In the trading post, Adjacent the quantities to the desired quantities any surplus will be sold automatically. Don't forget to mark the item as "Export".

[Senna]

So I don't need a trade route? Then what's the purpose of a trade route? FYI, I did have enough for exporting firewood for money so I think I can climb out, but I apparently don't understand the trade route need.

[Ravon[17]]

You can still export/import without a trade route for most basic goods. Buying the trade route just means the trade happens regularly/more often.

[Senna]

ah ok thanks.

[TruXurT]

Minor trades will happen without a trade route but the trading post needs to be built on king's road for that (The road that originally exists in the region). For major trades or private road trading post, you need a route. Planks are good trading item early.

You can get some trickle of money if you upgrade your residential lots to lvl 2, Every lot above lvl 1 pays a bit to the town treasury.

The best way to make money early is to raid bandit camps (if you have that option enabled). Once you can put a unit of 20 milita spearmen, you should be able to do it.

[Senna]

Again thanks. Final question, do I have to staff the trading post as I'm short help, or will the trades occur without someone there. If so, then what good is the person working the post?

[Rove]

One tip I recommend is when you get your first development point to invest it into Trade Logistics in the blue section and immediately open up a trade route for Tools and sell all of your tools. Currently there's no use for them in the game and they rack up a decent amount of money to get you started.

If you're playing with Bandit camps activated, you should also take 10-20 Spearmen and take those out as they spawn and send the money back to your town. You should get a shipment of weapons and shields for free if you're playing on the default template. I generally set my spearmen to "Hold your ground" and they always win with no casualties but that could also be due to the bandits not posing much of a threat. Rinse and repeat bandit camps and you should have a pretty steady source of income just from that alone.

If you have a rich iron deposit as well it's worth setting up workplaces next to it to smelt the iron ore into slabs with the Bloomery, then the slabs into tools with the Smithy. Make enough to sell for a while until the export prices start to go down due to oversupply. This allows your workers to be used for other things instead of constantly having them making tools.

Generally you only really need as much food and fuel to keep your town going for about a full year, unless you plan to grow then you want to prepare accordingly. But if you're not looking to expand just yet, you can sell any resources that you have a surplus of for a bit of extra coin as well.

[Voltaire]

Originally posted by Senna:

Again thanks. Final question, do I have to staff the trading post as I'm short help, or will the trades occur without someone there. If so, then what good is the person working the post?

You need at least one family to transport the goods. If you establish a trade route later, it's good to have more than one.

[TruXurT]

Originally posted by Senna:

Again thanks. Final question, do I have to staff the trading post as I'm short help, or will the trades occur without someone there. If so, then what good is the person working the post?

Assuming you are on king's road, for importing you don't need to staff your trading post. For exports, you do, so those people can bring wares there.

[Senna]

So since it's now September and I still have foragers/farmers trying to work, should I wait until winter to take out Bandit camps? I feel like I will fall way behind on gathering food/firewood/farm work if I do it now?

[TruXurT]

Yes, if you still have berries there, smart play is to pick them up before winter, you may even want to re-direct some workforce there from other buildings. But once the berries are gone, you can rally the troops. Also keep in mind, the ladies will be still running the show while men are out fighting. Of course you will only have 1/3 of your workforce for every task, so things will be going very slow.

[Senna]

Again, thanks people, helps a lot.

[hasebrudi]

also biggest free money are then bandit camps

[redhongkong]

kill bandit is faster, tier 2 house+ give wealth slowly

[BanZ]

Originally posted by Senna:

So I bought an extra ox and upgraded a house to raise chickens. That left me with 5 gold. I built a trading post, but everything requires a trade route that costs more than 5 gold. Is there anyway to raise money now or is my play through screwed?

bandit camps and upgrading those 2 first burgage plots