Market Control Acheivement - NOW WITH GUIDE

[Segata Sanshiro]

Hi there,

I'm playing as Russia, nearing the end of the game and I'm market leader in 5 goods. I was just wondering if I need to actually collect on trade to get the acheivement, or if I can just control a large percentage of a trade node but let the trade go another way. Does anyone know?

EDIT:

I worked it out and got the acheivement. Basically, for anyone looking to get this acheivement, you DO NOT need to collect on the trade you control. If you have control over a distant trade node that doesn't link into your trade flow (and thus you can't collect from it), this still counts towards the percentage required to become market leader in that particular trade good. So if you're playing as Ottomans and want control over cocoa, your trade from the Caribbean doesn't need to feed back into Constantinople for you to become market leader in cocoa. You just need to have as much trade power as possible in nodes with cocoa producing provinces.

Here is a basic guide for anyone looking to get the market control acheivement since I couldn't find one elsewhere:

As a prerequisite, your country needs to be a sprawling colonial empire with holdings in as many eastern and new world trade nodes as possible (Spain, Portugal and the like are ideal, but I did it with Russia). Ideally you want to do this late-game as well, when you've completed the vast majority of your desired expansion and can concentrate your financial resources on this (but obviously, throughout the game you should be expanding your trade). By this point, you should already be leader of a few goods, so it's best to concentrate on the nodes which have the goods you want to increase your control over.

- Gain control in provinces located in nodes which produce the goods you want market leadership over (preferably take away provinces from trade rivals). Having just one province in a node where european powers aren't using light ships is usually enough to gain 50% power in that node (after using lots of light ships at the end), but the more the better.

- Reduce overextension. This can have big penalties on distant nodes.

- Manage embargos. Only embargo your rivals since this won't give you a trade power penalty (these should be other colonial powers competing for trade in the same nodes) and try and increase relations with other countries so they lift any embargos they have on you.

- Get as many trade power bonuses as possible (complete trade ideas, take decisions, increase mercantilism, advisors, increase prestige, etc).

- Increase production of the targeted goods ONLY in the nodes which you have almost complete control over or at least a majority. Otherwise you're giving more market leadership to whoever has control in that node. If you have a lot of money accumulated at this point, it may be a good to build manufacturies since proportionately they cost less monarch points. There's no point with goods like wool which cover lots of provinces unless you're very close to 20%.

- Max out trade buildings wherever possible, focussing particularly on provinces with a high default trade power. Put customs houses on these provinces.

- Make protectorates where possible. They give you half their trade power and it can be a much easier way of gaining trade power without having lots of overextension and penalties. For example, turning Ryukyu into a protectorate gave me the extra trade power needed to gain market leadership in chinaware. It's also useful for countries to which you have no neighbouring provinces and can't get a cassus belli for invasion. These don't count towards your diplomatic relations limit, so go nuts.

- Don't use merchants to collect trade in non-capital nodes. This will give you a trade power penalty and collecting won''t count towards the acheivement.

Some other basic points to keep in mind:

- Gold does not count as 1 of the 7 goods needed.
- Focus on goods which are specific to certain areas and don't span the whole world. You will never become market leader in grain, but tea, coffee, cocoa, ivory, chinaware, etc are very attainable.
- Manage time well and plan ahead. If you know it takes 3 years to turn a province into a core, don't invade a country and overextend yourself in the final year of the game.

After doing all these things, you should be market leader (or close) in a few goods by now. The last few years of your game should be spent sending as many light ships as possible to all the nodes which contain the goods you haven't got 20% in yet (if you have below 15% in those goods, then consider building more and gaining more provinces if you have time). This can often be a lot since there's a lot of different nodes and you may only have 1 or 2 provinces in some. At the end of the game, the total amount of ships was over twice my naval forcelimits (and obviously deleted all transports and heavy ships) - but this was with Russia and without naval ideas. If you still haven't got there, keep repeating some of the above steps and consider lowering expendature to afford more ships if you need them.

[Brahir]

Isnt the Achievement work with Trade goods? You need to control 7 goods, not trade nodes. You need 7 of the moddifiers from Sugar, Tea, Grain, etc...

[Segata Sanshiro]

Yeah, exactly. But what I'm wondering is if I can control those goods simply by controlling the trade in certain nodes, or whether I actually have to collect on that trade eventually.

[Brahir]

I dont think you cant control the goods by Trade nodes. To be a production leader, you have to control the provinces producing those goods.

[Segata Sanshiro]

But this acheivement isn't about controlling production, it's about trade.

For example, I control 38% of tea production, but only 13% of the trade because I don't control trade in the Philippenes trade node where most of my tea production is, so I don't get the bonus. What I'm wondering is if sending light ships to that node will boost my 13% or whether I actually have to collect that trade to boost that figure.

Etheopia produces 28% of the coffee, but Ottomans collect the bonus despite having no coffee production. Like I need to know whether they are getting that because they control the coffee nodes or because they control AND collect. If I don't need to collect, then this acheivement will be far easier to get, I'll just send lightships to gain control of the 2 goods I'm missing, but I don't have enough merchents to be able to steer and collect on that trade.

[alexraoul]

I would believe the trade value needs to be ultimately collected to contribute to your market control. Otherwise if you're not collecting it then the value is just going somewhere else and that means someone else is then taking control of the flow of goods at some point during the "stream".

[alexraoul]

If you can get the trade value to your home node or a node where you have a merchanting collecting than your market control will increase. Or at least that is how I understand it.

[Segata Sanshiro]

That's what I thought this whole time... But at the moment I'm trying out moving merchants, increasing trade power in certain areas and it seems like these bonuses are not linked to collection in any way. I may be wrong though since these changes are so incremental that it's hard to tell what is having an effect and what isn't, but I'll be sure pretty soon. If that's the case, then it completely defies logic because there is no benefit in controlling a node then not collecting on it.

[alexraoul]

Well the benefit to controlling the trade power in a node is in being able to determine where the value flows to next in the stream. If you can keep the trade flowing into a node you are collecting then you benefit if you can keep the trade value from leaving.

Edit: ...because you get more money from collecting in your home node it can be more effecient to steer trade value from nodes that you have high trade power into your home node. In terms of gaining market control in certain goods, it could be better to have alot of merchants just collecting in various nodes, but I've never experimented with that.

[Segata Sanshiro]

I meant more in nodes where the stream never reaches your capital or a collection point (like the philippenes node on my game for example).

But I can now confirm (after doing some tests and looking at stats) that collecting on trade has NO influence on this acheivement. I control 3% of the cocoa trade, but there is NO trade from those nodes flowing in my direction, so I'm not collecting on any of it. If you want this acheivement, just send light ships or build customs houses in the nodes which cointain those goods.