Finally, I did it! It took me a long journey to grind trade to 300 but I've learned a lot from this playthrough. It's not my intention from this post to be an extensive guide, but I'll share a few tips I remember from this game for those who are interested on trading and how to get it maxed as soon as possible.
The character background is Aserai for obvious reasons. Leadership, charm and trade skills, along with anything that gives you social points. And these are the perks I've chosen from the trade tree.
The first 100 days or so Idedicated myself to hunt looters to pump up riding and bow, creating cheap caravans with whatever companion you can find, and buying old work horses from villagers to slaughter and sell the meat to the imperial prosperous cities. This way you can have in no time three caravans and two wool weavers on Lycaron and Poros. I raised my clan level to tier 2 participatiing in tournaments and soloing big groups of looters.
After this point I recruited khuzaits nomads to my force limits and upgraded them to horse archers (tier 2) and bought mules up to my current number of troops. And then I began trading around all cities and villages of the map. These are my general tips on how to develop trade quick:
1) Goods.
As a general rule every consumable/raw resource bought on the middle on the map can be sold for good prices both on the north, the south and the prosperous imperial cities. Everything you can buy on the north can be sold at very good prices on the south and viceversa.
Villages are your best friend to pump up trade. Sometimes certain villages have bargains of goods that can be sold 2x 3x or even 4x their price in the right cities. You can make an absurd amount of profit buying iron ore/tools/velvet/clay/flax/leather cheap and selling it in cities like Danustica, Poros, Saneopa, Epicrotea for 3x/4x/5x their price.
2) Shortages & Scarcity.
Maintaining scarcity & shortage in the prosperous imperial cities is the best merchant friend. If you find a certain city that is buying goods from 3x/4x+ their price don't dump all your goods at once. Sell at very high profit, keep your excedent of goods in your inventory, and come back later. If you dump in Danustica 1000 units of flax at once, don't expect the next time you come to the city to get good prices on flax again. Use the whole seller perk to keep track of the prices.
For example I was buying tools at 70+- and selling it in the imperial cities for 100+. Silver ore from 60+- to 100+. Leather from 150+- to 350-400. Clay from 8/9 to 20+ and so on.
3) Food.
There are certain food items that have very good price almost everywhere. Grapes, Olives, Dates, Butter, Cheese, Meat, Wine and Oil. You just have to do the same thing again. Sell at high profit, don't dump your goods in one city and keep moving. It's best to sell low quantites of goods at high profit that is to dump high quantities of goods into a city for average/mediocre profit.
4) Trading oportunities.
If you find somewhere a big amount of goods at a very low price (thousands of grapes in Vlandia, or huge amounts of dates in the Aserai cities) buy it all even if it puts your carry capacity at 3x their limit. It doesn't matter. Imperial cities are always willing to pay excellent prices for almost every good.
And basically that's it. Trading is not complicated at all, and I enjoyed it.
The character background is Aserai for obvious reasons. Leadership, charm and trade skills, along with anything that gives you social points. And these are the perks I've chosen from the trade tree.
The first 100 days or so Idedicated myself to hunt looters to pump up riding and bow, creating cheap caravans with whatever companion you can find, and buying old work horses from villagers to slaughter and sell the meat to the imperial prosperous cities. This way you can have in no time three caravans and two wool weavers on Lycaron and Poros. I raised my clan level to tier 2 participatiing in tournaments and soloing big groups of looters.
After this point I recruited khuzaits nomads to my force limits and upgraded them to horse archers (tier 2) and bought mules up to my current number of troops. And then I began trading around all cities and villages of the map. These are my general tips on how to develop trade quick:
1) Goods.
As a general rule every consumable/raw resource bought on the middle on the map can be sold for good prices both on the north, the south and the prosperous imperial cities. Everything you can buy on the north can be sold at very good prices on the south and viceversa.
Villages are your best friend to pump up trade. Sometimes certain villages have bargains of goods that can be sold 2x 3x or even 4x their price in the right cities. You can make an absurd amount of profit buying iron ore/tools/velvet/clay/flax/leather cheap and selling it in cities like Danustica, Poros, Saneopa, Epicrotea for 3x/4x/5x their price.
2) Shortages & Scarcity.
Maintaining scarcity & shortage in the prosperous imperial cities is the best merchant friend. If you find a certain city that is buying goods from 3x/4x+ their price don't dump all your goods at once. Sell at very high profit, keep your excedent of goods in your inventory, and come back later. If you dump in Danustica 1000 units of flax at once, don't expect the next time you come to the city to get good prices on flax again. Use the whole seller perk to keep track of the prices.
For example I was buying tools at 70+- and selling it in the imperial cities for 100+. Silver ore from 60+- to 100+. Leather from 150+- to 350-400. Clay from 8/9 to 20+ and so on.
3) Food.
There are certain food items that have very good price almost everywhere. Grapes, Olives, Dates, Butter, Cheese, Meat, Wine and Oil. You just have to do the same thing again. Sell at high profit, don't dump your goods in one city and keep moving. It's best to sell low quantites of goods at high profit that is to dump high quantities of goods into a city for average/mediocre profit.
4) Trading oportunities.
If you find somewhere a big amount of goods at a very low price (thousands of grapes in Vlandia, or huge amounts of dates in the Aserai cities) buy it all even if it puts your carry capacity at 3x their limit. It doesn't matter. Imperial cities are always willing to pay excellent prices for almost every good.
And basically that's it. Trading is not complicated at all, and I enjoyed it.