Auctioning things to competitors

[Thorn Jackson]

From what I have seen so far here on the boards people say DO NOT auction things off to the computer because it will help your competitors.

Are the competitors really that good? In the past I have sold tons of boats at multiple towns because I assume it will help get goods to towns that I hardly ever visit (keeping them less destitute) and because I love seeing ships with my silly names all over the map :D

I assume more AI ships means more eyes to observe your piracy and assorted degeneracy but I also assume it means more ships to potentially rob.

If given enough ships and resources, will the AI actually be competitive and lock you out of lots of opportunities? So far I haven't seen this. They seem to be competitors in name only.

Is auctioning boats and businesses EVER a good idea in any scenario other than trying to cut your costs?

[AlP]

It's not that the AI will benefit from them. The AI is cheating anyway, getting unlimited money and stuff. It's that auctioning things is kinda pointless, because there's always a better use for them.

If you keep the ship, you can make as much money by using it to trade. Captured pirate ships can be combined into fleets to attack pirate lairs. Even hauling bricks and timber to construction sites is a better use than auctioning them.

If you sell a house, you lose the rent profit for no good reason. Instead, you can simply pay attention to the population growth and build just enough houses to prevent the AI from building their own.

If you sell a business, the genius AI will shut it down and it will just sit there. If you keep it, and at the very least sell the product at a loss in the same town, you'll get back most of the money you spend on it. Meanwhile the workers in it will count as extra population, that buys more goods and pays more rent.

If you are really losing money from a business, it's probably still early game and we're talking about 3-4 unneeded buildings tops. In that case, you can simply lower or shut down the production, and only pay the land tax, which is 280 per building. It's cheaper than demolishing - a Sawmill costs 3000 in just gold, which equals to 10 weeks of rent, and there's a good chance you'll need a Sawmill in a couple months anyway.

[Gen Electric]

I don't see the point to selling off ships ever. They are how you make your money by shipping goods. If you are really losing money it is most likely you have too many businesses or not selling off what you produce quick enough.
Businesses are really expensive to run so when losing lots of money you can turn them off so you are only playing taxes on them. Or worst case scenario you can demolish the businesses.
If you have no current use for a ship just fire the crew and use it as a floating warehouse.

[pdoan8]

Auction off captured pirate cogs is a good way to earn some extra money and keeping your ships safe, especially in the first couple of years.

[Jambie Lionheart]

If you auction off enough ships, it'll make it harder for you in the long run to trade at high profit margins because the AI will have a slightly better ability to ship goods from A to B. It's not really a huge amount though and whatever you lose can be made up for by a good long game.

Generally speaking though, you're better off either putting them to good use yourself, and outrite sinking any captured ships. One thing to keep in mind, if you sink pirate ships regularly, it'll increase the demands for hemp and pitch and wood in particular. Cloth too, but in smaller amounts.

If you stick prince activity upto to high and pirate activity also to high, plus consumption to high, you'll actually be helping your trade game by leaps and bounds because you're increasing demand for them the goods used to suply towns, ships, weapons and princes.

[Bennie]

Interesting comments. I tend to sell of my older and captured ships once my shipyard is producing optimally. I prefer to only use faster ships (no hulks/cogs) and work with optimum cargo per sailor ratios of Crayer (350 cargo / 8 sailers) and Snaika (250 cargo / 5 sailers). My idea is that the more ships are out there the more the Hansa League is benefitting and so am I from increased demand. True, margins reduce as a consequence but the pro's should outweigh that.

[Draconyx]

I dont auction anything of mine there is a bug that if you have a business setup that you could auction you can make your competitors auction theirs. it involves clicking on yours then theirs, Much better to force your opponents to build many of what they want and loose out on them.