playing as trader

[funkmonster7]

Must I be an Aserai to play as a trader? I'm talking about Trader level 300. If I play as a Sturgian for example, is trading just an absolute nightmare? Because I've read about the slog of raising Trading XP...

[Hero]

There is are a few ways to raise Trade level faster, here's one: https://youtu.be/6bFqgEHQ_xg

[Ruffio]

Can just as well tell people to cheat when offering them exploits ...

[~ Fabulous ~]

Its is boring,slow and monotone, being a trader in bannerlord is the worst way to play the game, that is not an exaggeration, I rather do the cow quest in warband. This is coming from someone who enjoy playing games like, X4, the guild and tradewind.

[fragonard]

Being Aserai just gives you a slight starting boost in trade advantage, not too big a deal in the long run. It's a real slog, I'm trying a run right now, and I'm not sure I'm going to continue. It's kind of interesting but it really changes the game. Almost no fighting and never joining a kingdom so your settlements won't be attacked. (also being at war really messes up your trade routes.

[Cassian]

Originally posted by ~ Fabulous ~:

Its is boring,slow and monotone, being a trader in bannerlord is the worst way to play the game, that is not an exaggeration, I rather do the cow quest in warband. This is coming from someone who enjoy playing games like, X4, the guild and tradewind.

i agree!

[Terra]

Trading is fun... at the beginning.

The XP gain is just too low for the higher levels. It basically necessitates you use the NPC caravan exploit in order to reach anything past 100, and at that point you might as well just use it to boost your level to 60.

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

Must I be an Aserai to play as a trader? I'm talking about Trader level 300. If I play as a Sturgian for example, is trading just an absolute nightmare? Because I've read about the slog of raising Trading XP...

No you can certainly play as trader, but it is not easy. You need to get to know the supply and demand and prices in the areas you travel between. You can make ton of money once you get to know where and which. It's pretty fun in my opinion but it requires patience to learn and keep track of.

Also learn some of the scarce but sometimes very expensive goods that can at times be bought for cheaps: so once you know what goods they are buy those up when you find them at a veyr low price, then just keep them until you come across a city that wants to pay ludicrously high amounts of money for them. Like jewelry for example, it can vary WILDLY in price, mostly it's going to be swing around medium priced and thus not be desirable for neither buy nor sell, but once it goes low or high enough that's when you strike. There's some risk here that you may buy something that looked like it fell a lot in price but then for a long time then this new price that looked like a low price now turns out to fall even further and that price you bought it a was just the new average price and not the new low and so then it can take a very long time to change back again while you are stuck with them.

Also consider trading in food as having a diverse range of foods to carry around to trade that you bought up at low prices doubles as high morale for your party. Sometimes you can also, for whatever reason I don't raely understand, find a city that will sell you like 2000 fish for a starting price of 7 gold and then you can sell those at at starting sell price of 19 gold to a couple of nearby settlements, which will quickly give you a nice amount of xp and gold.

Combine with trading from/to your own well placed businesses in the right cities. You CAN join kingdoms but you need to think about what cities to place your businesses in, they should always try to be at the backline of the empire and not near the borders. And you can still fight battles, but make sure to not go above carry limit and focus prioritizing every party speed source that you can so that you can escape stronger pursuers and catch weaker ones.

[Clovis Sangrail]

Just as the battle fanbois have lots of options for fighting (mercenary, vassal, lead their own army, join an army, etc.), so do traders have options for trading.

1. You can engage directly in trade. Buy furs in the north and take them south, buy dates in the south and take them north, buy food when it's cheap and sell it to war-devastated towns. Just buy ♥♥♥♥ when it's cheap and schlepp your ass all over the country selling it when the price is right. This is pretty much a full time job to get to 300.

2. You can get trade experience from workshops. Set the workshop to use the warehouse and to send its output to the warehouse, and you'll gain experience. I'm still trying to figure all of this one out, but it does work. Very slowly.

3. Smithing is a kind of trading. Although you don't get Trade points for it, you still make money and get experience.

4. But my favorite is trading by proxy. You cannot get Trade experience by owning caravans, but the companion you assign to lead a caravan does. So as soon as my sister comes of age, I outfit her with good equipment, max her Trade focus points, set her SOC at about 8 and turn her loose with a caravan. In my current campaign, she is 22 years old and has Trade 187. When she hits 300 and can trade fiefs, she will become my heir. In other campaigns, I have actually retired and put sister in charge and bought and sold fiefs.