Trade caravans. wtf?

[Abelardo]

I seriously need help with this because I can't figure it out at all, every single caravan I try to send, even when sending a small one will cost me over 3K, and I'll make, most of the time, less then 1K when reaching the destination....

even following the "useful tip for players" thread, sending from/to warsaw to/from Koningsberg wields the same results, I can't possibly profit from them...

 

[Leberecht Reinhold]

Try velvet from Sich/Kiev to Tver.

It usually works. Spice from those to Tula also works.

Never saw something about warsaw to koningsberg. That said, you can buy cheap iron on crimean khanates, sell it in Warsaw/Köningsberg, and from there go to the north with a caravan of oil. Go down again with fur etc... But velvet/spice is much more profitable, much less risk is involved.

That said, if you are low leveled, or dont have a proper army, dont try to go to Cossack/Crimean Zone. You will end being ambushed by loooooooootsss of fast armies of deserters.

 

[Wim]

Try finding a town/castle where the velvet or spice is cheap (100-600).
Then look for goods deals in the marketplace menu and send your caravan to any of those towns, this should get you a good profit and isn't much work, altough you do need a small investment to start off. Maybe you could instead begin with furs, iron or oil if you're low on cash.

 

[Abelardo]

K, I'll try that, thanks.

 

[sukoski]

Find town where spice/velet costs ~100 thalar
Send caravans from this town to other town where they cost much, for example Velvet to: Tver, Dynaburg, Kovno, Vyborg, Novgorod, Spice to: Allenstein, Vyborg, Novgorod, Dorpat

 

[SunofVich]

What I did. Was normal trade (not using caravans) to get 50,000 then buy a trade permit.  This allows you to send caravans of the expensive stuff and get good profit.

the highest I have ever gotten was 130,000 with a caravan that only costs 10,000 to make.

Oh and don't be afraid to use the Assess Prices option in the marketplace menu.  That way you can maximize income.  Although it can change when you are on the road.

 

[SockMonkeh]

How do caravans work? I haven't tried one yet. Do you have to escort a party from one town to the other so it doesn't get raided? What's the benefit of using a caravan as opposed to just hauling the goods yourself?

 

[Ceriy]

How do caravans work? I haven't tried one yet. Do you have to escort a party from one town to the other so it doesn't get raided? What's the benefit of using a caravan as opposed to just hauling the goods yourself?

Talk to mayor in a city. Caravan follows you, it doesn't get attacked.
Benefit is lots more money and it's a lot easier to gain it.

 

[solecist]

sounds like you didn't do your research to me. i have made money with literally every single caravan i have ever sent, and not all of them were velvet or spice. you have to start trading without caravans, get a feel for the different commodities and their worth, then move up to caravans.

 

[Aeon221]

Eh, if you lose money on a caravan, rob some peasant village and try again. Remember, you've got guns! You're never broke, you're just not always liquid.

 

[BigBiker05]

The problem is the game currently jips you for your down payment on the goods. So inorder to make money you have to make at least twice of what you paid for each goods. So if you do salt for 50 each and send it to a town for 90 each you will still lose money. However, if you do something more expensive with a higher turn-over such as velvet you bought for 200 and sell it for 800 you will notice you make a lot of money. But if you did a caravan of 10 velvet being sold for 800 each you won't make 8,000, you will make 7,200, and then about 300 less from the luxury item tax.

 

[Abelardo]

heh, at first I couldn't understand caravans but now it seems kinda cheap, you can turn a 90K+ profit per trip if you want to

Is is still slow and boring of course, which kinda balances itself out, kinda.

well at least I don't have to worry about money anymore.

 

[Empiro]

I think the F&S economy and making money system just needs way more thought. Your choices are basically to either work for lords and mayors for a mere pittance (a few hundred silvers for quite a bit of work), or exploit the caravans and make 70+k for pressing control-space for a minute.

The stuff in the game are expensive too (100k+), so it's either caravan exploit or grinding for 80 hours like an MMO.

 

[Hellman109]

Find Velvet for sale, buy one

Goto warsaw
Sell velvet to goods merchant
Run a caravan to koensberg with velvet
Buy velvet from goods merchant back
Run to Koensberg
Repeat

Makes $10-50k per trip, and its very short.

 

[original]

Yes I agree that income needs more balancing. Trading is too powerful.

 

[TuranianGhazi]

After your caravaneering and you have accumulated some money, I highly suggest investing it under interest to a Merchant guild either in your town or a safe town. The more you put, the bigger the return on investment. What's good about this method is its automatic after every turn, no active involvement needed past the initial deposit or later additions to deposit.

 

[Abelardo]

After your caravaneering and you have accumulated some money, I highly suggest investing it under interest to a Merchant guild either in your town or a safe town. The more you put, the bigger the return on investment. What's good about this method is its automatic after every turn, no active involvement needed past the initial deposit or later additions to deposit.

Yeah that is shoddily done though, because you have to withdraw the entire amount to collect your earnings then deposit again (having to reduce the amount deposited by 2000 increments/decrements which is a bore ) for it to keep collecting interest, would be great (and a effin obvious feature) if you could withdraw just what you need.

 

[Reiksmarshal]

Yeah I have about 2 million in the merchant guild, I make a withdraw about once a month for 250K and haven't touch my 2 mill yet.

 

[juicemaestro]

It's good to carry one velvet and spice along with you. when you find a town where you can sell those for cheap (~150),
sell one of them in the goods section so that it appears to the caravan items, send caravan and buy the item back cheap for the next caravan.