How does one Increase Trade Node Power up to/Beyond 75%?

[Q]

Afternoon Chaps,

I'm having some trouble with the Dutch, I'm playing as the English/British. I currently have 61% of the English Channel trade node, however I want to bump this up to at least 75%. The Dutch currently control the remaining ~40%.

I have all of The British Isles (England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland) but no territory on the continent and I have 35 light ships protecting trade around the channel node.

I've been building trade buildings, but these seem to make a minor diffrence. I have a minority of trade power in the Americas but a majority in West and South Africa.

I would rather not have to go to war with the Dutch as they're my ally and I dont want to hold any territory on the continent (I find it too tricky to defend, and I have an oversears empire to build!).

I've only bought the vanilla version of the game, no DLC.

Any tips or help would be cracking.

Cheers,

Q

[kaiyl_kariashi]

After a certain point, your only option is to remove the competition.

The quickest way to get most of the trade power is to get all the centers of trade in a trade node.


A somewhat risky venture is to war your former ally, get him in a trade share aggreement and then reform the alliance before the truce expires.

With sufficient good relations they'll generally leave the trade agreement nearly forever, even if economic factors would normally result in them breaking it.

that will give you 50% of their trade power and knock your biggest competitor down.



But the english channel has a lot of it's centers of trade on the continent, so there's not much you can do about that unless you go for the North Sea as your primary trade Node (moving your capital to somewhere in Scotland).

But that's gonna put you at odds with Norwary/Denmark since they have the other half of the centers of trade. Though that lets you beat them up for trade power more easily, though you may have to periodically redo the trade share agreement whenever they cancel it.

[僕の名前 (仮)]

Many light ships or many lands with markets. U can go war with them and kill their ships or blockade ports.

[Mr.M]

Trade ideas + send merchant to different trade nodes - you get +10% trade power in your end node if you have merchants sending trade there if i recall it correctly

Get one of the naval ideas - raises your fleet cap. Also build naval buildings, they give +2 and later even +4.

Then just get 100 trade ships. I think you dont even need the ideas to get to 75%, 100 light ships should be enough.

[billy]

The english channel is a trade node you wont get really high percent on usually without war and getting the other trade nodes or trade transfer. 60-75% there is a decent number.

i personally wouldnt go silly and stick a 100 trade ships there as poster above mentioned , there should be something better you could be doing with those ships. Depending on the year i think having 35 there is a lot. I guess a lot depends on the year your in and what else you busy doing.

I would always rather be stealing the spice islands or india than fighting the dutch and EU for land like that , you make way more money with a lot less effort elswhere.

[Mr.M]

Challenge accepted, Billy.

[billy]

Originally posted by MrMonokel2000:

Challenge accepted, Billy.

lol , i like your style.

I'd still rather send a small fleet to the spice islands steal it all and be richer than the english channel. Fighting people armed with mangos while i squish them with cannons is the type of fights i like.

[Frozenkhan]

Originally posted by kaiyl_kariashi:

Wow, I never thought of that strategy of forcing a trade agreement with an ally, thanks. I'll make sure to try this sometime.

[billy]

Originally posted by Witch-king of Angmar:

Originally posted by kaiyl_kariashi:

Wow, I never thought of that strategy of forcing a trade agreement with an ally, thanks. I'll make sure to try this sometime.

honestly its not a great tactic , even if you make it happen and thats far from certain they will ally with you again (they probably wont) , having an ally like that isnt worth the likely hassle . When your dragged into another war to defend a weak ally its just not worth it.

You would be much better spending your time overseas fighting far easier battles for much bigger gains. I supose it alldepends on the situation your in.

[Mr.M]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1411141833

Okie so i managed to get to 85%

With ma precious 100 trade ships ofc <3 and trade ideas

Besides those i also got 30 transports and 30 heavys, no colonies

Its still early and Netherlands havent formed, gonna be interesting how much trade influence they will get

[billy]

Originally posted by MrMonokel2000:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1411141833

Okie so i managed to get to 85%

With ma precious 100 trade ships ofc <3 and trade ideas

Besides those i also got 30 transports and 30 heavys, no colonies

Its still early and Netherlands havent formed, gonna be interesting how much trade influence they will get

cool , 85 is alot . I've never actually played as England apart from my very first game when i knew nothing. , but i've owned England as France and used the english channel. Not sure what my highest % is , dont think ive had 85 even with owning britian and france and maybe the burgundy bits there. . Think i usually sit at around 70% with 20 trade ships owning a lot more of the trade zone.

It might even creep up more than 85 for you over time and if upgrade your trade ships before they do. not sure.

edit - wouldnt it creep up a bit more if you put a merchant there? i know merchants in home trade isnt ideal but sometimes i do it when i have loads of merchants and nowhere else to put them , i think a merchant in a home trade node still does something .

[Mr.M]

I will get more and more since

1. Trade ships will upgrade
2. I get another merchant from Global Trade
3. I get more and more mercantilism (currently 50%)
4. I COULD get colonies, that would easily double the trade value in 100 years and give me more merchants
5. I could simply build even MOAR trade ships (my naval forcelimit is 160 without naval ideas)

Tho in this pic Burgundy has control of most of the provinces in the English channel - they suck at trade and collect outside their main node, which means Netherlands would surely get around 20% influence

Merchant in home node only gives a 5% bonus, traders steering towards home node give 10% bonus

[billy]

I've never had english channel as my home trade node , so not sure on the max.

My goal is alway to get cape verde first for good expansion into other places ( which isnt likely as england )

and more imprtantly to get the cape trade node (south african trade company) , a free merchant for one colony.