How is privateering different from protecting trade?

[FRISKE]

They both seemed to arm wrestle other nations for trade node power based on light ships. Whats the difference?

[Killer of Gems]

you can collect trade without a penalty in other nodes your capital isn't in i believe is the difference

[Val]

The goal.

I'm not an expert on that, but still:

If you have a fleet and a merchant steering the trade to the place you collect at, it is always more profitable to send them to protect trade, because it will increase your share directly.

Privateers don't increase your share directly, they actually decrease it, since they add themselve as a nation that trades in the node (collects their share). They send back to you 40% gold they collect. It is useful if you want to get gold from rich trade node that you can't steer trade from to the place you collect, say, baltic, hanse, antwerpen or venice.

Someone correct me please if I am wrong.

[Crewmember 123]

Originally posted by Val:

They send back to you 40% gold they collect.

Really? How they can collect something without having merchant?

to the topic:"Countries with low Trade Power share in a node benefit more from increasing their own Trade Power there than reducing the Trade Power of other countries. Likewise, countries with high Trade Power share in a node benefit more from reducing the Trade Power share of other countries than increasing their own Trade Power."

for exm. if you are dominating Trade node with.. erm.. 1k TP, but you have there competitors, increasing TP by sending 100 light ships would be less effective than decreasing TP of competitors.(by how much? Test it yourself!)

[ShadoWwolF]

Originally posted by ozonns:

Originally posted by Val:

They send back to you 40% gold they collect.

Really? How they can collect something without having merchant?

to the topic:"Countries with low Trade Power share in a node benefit more from increasing their own Trade Power there than reducing the Trade Power of other countries. Likewise, countries with high Trade Power share in a node benefit more from reducing the Trade Power share of other countries than increasing their own Trade Power."

for exm. if you are dominating Trade node with.. erm.. 1k TP, but you have there competitors, increasing TP by sending 100 light ships would be less effective than decreasing TP of competitors.(by how much? Test it yourself!)

have you ever used privateers? the point of them is to collect trade in distant nodes without a merchant. they generate trade power and collect from trade and you get a percentage of it. also sending privateers to a trade node you collect from will decrease your trade share as well. privateers dont directly decrease the trade power of other nations, instead they generate trade power for the pirate nation which will collect trade as if they had a merchant there.

[Kagemin]

Val has it pretty much covered, in addition to that (mostly copied from an earlier thread, so some of it was said already):

In general Privateers hurt your enemies more, while Protecting Trade helps you more. Privateering has a very good chance to decrease relations with everyone else in that trade node, and gives nation with a high trade share a CB against you.

There are certain cases where Privateers make more money than Protecting Trade would. Privateering ships generate 1.5 times the normal trade power, but you only get 40% of the gold generated that way (so basically you get 60% worth of the trade power of the light ships).
So one option is to sent Privateers to a node you don't have much of a presence anyways. You wouldn't get much money anyways, and you hurt your enemies there.

Another good option is to send them to trade nodes that are either on another trade stream than the ones you're collecting from, or downstream from a node you're collecting from.
The only way to make use of your trade power there would be to send a merchant and collect, but you get a 50% penalty for collecting in a node other than your home node. So not only would you save the merchant by sending Privateers, you'd even get more money (unless you have very high trade power modifiers).

So overall privateers are more for hurting your rivals than helping you, but under the right circumstances they can even make some more money for you than you'd get with normal trade fleets. They really sour the relations with everyone else in their node though, and can even give nations a CB against you.

[Crewmember 123]

Originally posted by ShadoWwolF:

Originally posted by ozonns:

Really? How they can collect something without having merchant?

to the topic:"Countries with low Trade Power share in a node benefit more from increasing their own Trade Power there than reducing the Trade Power of other countries. Likewise, countries with high Trade Power share in a node benefit more from reducing the Trade Power share of other countries than increasing their own Trade Power."

for exm. if you are dominating Trade node with.. erm.. 1k TP, but you have there competitors, increasing TP by sending 100 light ships would be less effective than decreasing TP of competitors.(by how much? Test it yourself!)

have you ever used privateers? the point of them is to collect trade in distant nodes without a merchant. they generate trade power and collect from trade and you get a percentage of it. also sending privateers to a trade node you collect from will decrease your trade share as well. privateers dont directly decrease the trade power of other nations, instead they generate trade power for the pirate nation which will collect trade as if they had a merchant there.

Have tried, but have not seen that effect - getting money from them.
Where can i check how much money they are transferring to me?

[Kagemin]

It's listed under "Spoils of War" in the economy tab (they really neeed to make it a seperate category...).
I think you can also see it in the trade window, when you click on the node.

[EQCR]

How is it different... That was the question
1) You can send Privateers (read Pirates) to any node, even if it is not a good trade node to do actual trade.
2) You don't get trade power from them, you get loot. (shows up as spoils of war income not trade).
3) You get more loot value per ship than trade value.
4) You can (read will) cause diplomatic events to fire (you are sending out pirates after all)
5) Best for last, sending priavteers against your rivals gives you 20 power projection (3 rivals x 20 projection = 60 (woot thats over 50 and you get +1 on all your monarch points).

[Crewmember 123]

Originally posted by Kageryuu:

It's listed under "Spoils of War" in the economy tab (they really neeed to make it a seperate category...).
I think you can also see it in the trade window, when you click on the node.

Thank you, good to know.

[Crewmember 123]

Originally posted by EQCR:

You can (read will) cause diplomatic events to fire (you are sending out pirates after all)
5) Best for last, sending priavteers against your rivals gives you 20 power projection (3 rivals x 20 projection = 60 (woot thats over 50 and you get +1 on all your monarch points).

This is nice, in my Japan campaign i have difficulties to keep it over 20, well it would be if not in my only available rivals are landlocked Hordes

[PFC Chamberlain]

Privateers are extremely useful if you are a naval power. Had no difficulty keeping +50 PP with them. Just make sure to rival countries that rely heavily on coastal or oceanic trade. Pirate ships suck inland :)

[FRISKE]

You guys have been a huge help as always, Cheers!