Well the best way to get rich is still through trade (rich cities...). I suggest you start by trading Constantinople (Bizatine) and Venice. Also you'll have extremely high profits if you trade with a city that was struck by the plague (but there is a certain risk there also).

There is no fast sea route to Asia. The game is historically acurate. And in the history there were only few straight transports being made between Asia and Europe. Usually they had a chain of trade routes (China - Singapur; Singapur - Ceylon; Ceylon - Madagaskar; Madagaskar - Capetown; Capetown - Kongo; Kongo - Marroco; Marroco - Venice). This is just an example. Of course you can ship stuff from Asia to the Persian gulf sea and then have caravans take it to the Mediteranian (that's the alternative to the Suez Cannal - which was not yet built in that time period).

Thanks Sebatianos, I really needed it. :ok:

By the way, wasn't the hundred years war going on during that time period? How come there isnt much conflict between England and France in the game? Its kind of a little unrealistic how everything revolves around Venice and not the other little side fights. Sorry guys, if i'm boring you with the history stuff.

:yawn:

Hey, I'm a history professor, so that stuff is far from being boring :ok:

Well the game focuses on Venice mostly and its internal politics. There were other struggles at the time as well, but the game simply isn't big enough to keep track of it all (unfortunatley I haven't encountered a game that would do that at all).
But it's fairly simple really. Venice was mostly a city of comerce, thus it did not get so much involved in the fights (except lending their fleet to various armies).
The time was also a time of the holy crusade, yet this isn't mentioned either. Mostly because even though different countries were at war at the time, they still had comertial relationship.

But since you said you're mostly interested in the military aspect of the game I can see why you feel that something is missing. It would be very benificial for the game if one could for instance become a mercenary for the Otoman forces trying to gain control of Bizantium... :butcher: :Titan:

Hi, a nice route is Venice-Antioch, is good for a large galley or 2 small ones.
Anyway, game isn´t "in history", anyway i like this.
U don´t fell that the AI left you alone some times... when u control the pope, the senators, u close the best trade cities...They only attack your reputation :tomato:

Anybody, knows why the "Merchant Prince", is aka "Machiavelli, The Prince". As far as i know, in the book "The Prince", Machiavelli looks Venice like an anti-italian republic....(i don´t wanna trascrip the justification) :eeeeeh:

Too small-time thinking there, Sebatianos. :)

Who needs becoming a mercenary for some Ottomans when you can... Take over the world! :Titan: :Titan: :Titan:

Personally, this is my ultimate goal when I play Merchant Prince. To paint every city in the world yellow and leave my competitors with nothing but their estate, church and government post incomes.

On a different note, who else thinks reputation should just be ignored if you are fairly rich?

I mean, the only thing you need it for is to get senators, which are usually 1000 fl per turn mius all expenses, like initial bribes, bribes for replacements, fees for hitmen if needed, etc, etc. So, that's your gain: less than 1000 fl per turn. But to get that you maintain your reputation, which puts a ton of restrictions.

You don't attack friendly cities you want, you don't attack your enemies trade caravans, you always worry when you do assasinations or burnings...

Meh, I say. When you are strong enough to fight on a decent scale (say three armies or so), forget reputation and go ruthless on them! The advantage of having a monopolistic access to a key city, or many key cities far outweighs that 1000 fl per turn, big as it may sound.

Mind you, this is purely theoretical at this point. I am trying a game like this right now, but didn't get very far in it yet. I'll let you know how it goes when I start being ruthless. :)

But what do you guys think of the idea? Is it really worth it to try and maintain good reputation?

click the circular arrow in red over black. Pick up the cities in the new menu and select the cargoes. And you will got you firsyt trade route



Yep, reputation is all, it is cheaper and easiest to attack someone with low reputation, the neutral party will be agaisnt you and they will hang your senators. Anyway. if you control the accusation office, with 1000fl with u maintain a seenator the CPU will bride two of them and maintain them by free.

Good that I found this group. I used to play a lot about 8 years ago, so I'm a little rusty. I downloaded this game yesterday, but trying to run it from DOS from WinXP is really frustrating. It keeps on freezing. I just went through this thread to see if someone else had this problem. I will check a solution someone gave with dosbox. I will also try taking sound off. This game is addictive :ok:

If it doesn't work I'll ask back.

It´s freeze in Dos mode...... strange, what mouse and sound controlers are u using in dos? I got more problems in dosbox that in dos. Some versions run smoothly in windows

I was made Admiral recently, so I wanted to put mercenaries into my fleet or add some ships, but that was not possible (or at least, I didn't find out how).
Do you have to hire other mercenaries or how can you increase the power of the Venice Home Fleet?