Cncerning Canals, Roads and Trade Investments

Hi Lads

Russia Here.

I've received the fair price for road and canals improvements for Siberia, and it goes astronomical!

We are talking about more than 10 millions £ per level if you want to push them up. Since usually roads and canals are expensive also in smaller countries, would you have to invest say 2,000,000£ would you rather invest them in trade or in streets/canals?

Also
Asking your trade advisors suggestions on trade in specific regions. They always offer me different goods, but i believe in this way investment is too erratic, and honestly the return on investment is low. Your suggestions on the topic, if you wish to share?

Nexus06 wrote:We are talking about more than 10 millions £ per level if you want to push them up. Since usually roads and canals are expensive also in smaller countries, would you have to invest say 2,000,000£ would you rather invest them in trade or in streets/canals?

Are you sure that's not kopeks rather than £'s?

When I asked my Russian advisers they thought Siberian roads were better than European Russian canals, but generally I would invest in streets with at least double that in trade investments across the portfolio. My view is that once trade is built up via roads then merchants will likely have the capital to invest in larger loads that can go by canal and river, but I'd invest in trade over canals.

Nexus06 wrote:Asking your trade advisors suggestions on trade in specific regions. They always offer me different goods, but i believe in this way investment is too erratic, and honestly the return on investment is low. Your suggestions on the topic, if you wish to share?

I always wonder what my advisers have their wealth locked into when giving their investment advice, which may have an effect on what's worth investing in or just to prop up their declining returns while they sell out.

Nexus06 wrote:Hi Lads

Russia Here.

I've received the fair price for road and canals improvements for Siberia, and it goes astronomical!

We are talking about more than 10 millions £ per level if you want to push them up. Since usually roads and canals are expensive also in smaller countries, would you have to invest say 2,000,000£ would you rather invest them in trade or in streets/canals?

See my comments on 'which professions are best to level up' topic.

Siberia is a huge, sparsely populated area - don't bother.  Canals/roads are built because people want to travel or move goods; if there aren't many people there, it really isn't worth going to all that trouble.

Nexus06 wrote:Asking your trade advisors suggestions on trade in specific regions. They always offer me different goods, but i believe in this way investment is too erratic, and honestly the return on investment is low. Your suggestions on the topic, if you wish to share?

I don't really think it makes that much difference.  Some people work out what the main goods produced by their country are, and then invest in trade to sell those goods in different trade regions.  Others look more deeply at products and specify trade in them in the hope that if nobody else has named that product, they will corner the market.  The advantage of the former is simplicity, the latter, novelty/diversity.  I don't really think it matters in the long run. Other people invest in 'general' goods which really annoys French corsairs - perhaps a good enough reason for doing it anyway?  If return on investment is low then look at boosting it with trade fairs or if other players are doing sneaky things (like levying illegal taxes off Gibraltar) which hit those returns.

Nexus06 wrote:Hi Lads

Russia Here.

I've received the fair price for road and canals improvements for Siberia, and it goes astronomical!

We are talking about more than 10 millions £ per level if you want to push them up. Since usually roads and canals are expensive also in smaller countries, would you have to invest say 2,000,000£ would you rather invest them in trade or in streets/canals?

Also
Asking your trade advisors suggestions on trade in specific regions. They always offer me different goods, but i believe in this way investment is too erratic, and honestly the return on investment is low. Your suggestions on the topic, if you wish to share?

As road upgrade is normally 1/3 to 1/6 the price of a canal upgrade if your position is short of cash its probably better to do a road upgrade.

The other point to keep in mind is that its a bit pointless doing canal upgrades untill you have some spoon dredgers otherwise it your canals tend to silt up and your upgrades go backwards.

A mere £10m to link up a few rivers these Russians do not know how lucky they are!! Spanish Americans in G7 still hacking their way through the Andes and the Mountains of Mexico at cost of £15,300,000 per cannal upgrade plus the Engineering Acadamies to oversee the work. And that is not including the Islands like Cuba and the link from the Atlantic to Panamara or the Irrigation or the Aqueducts.

Doubt if all this engineering to save Don Pedro maid and her donkey a long walk to collect water is really cost effective but like the Roman Empire building some really massive Aqueducts to supply fairly small towns. I like to think the Irrigation and the Aqueducts send a message. To quote the Life of Brain "What have the Romans ever done for us apart from the roads, canals, aqueducts, schools?"

As for people who do not specify a trade apart from "General Goods" they clearly lack style and should be feed to the fish! Some of us base our whole foreign policy in Glori on who is willing to buy our Tobacco. In RIB its based on Olive oil and Wine.

As for scrabble I think the whole game is about railway/telegraph lines but some people seem to think its also about tea, furs and opium etc. Either way messing around with the smooth flow of British Tea supplies can be really bad for a characters health.