Trade Missions

I think I'm getting my head above water in game 3, but I seem to be pretty far out to sea :-).

Is there any value in having trade mission in your own territory? I seem to have quite a number on my own turf which by my reading of the rules is useless, but before I shut them down I wanted to ask advice. I also have a bunch in places that I have absolutely no trade with but that's another matter....

I always thought they were used to promote certain products from outside you nations borders.

Trade missions boost your sales in other countries, having them at home only means your people are aware of the goods you sell. In Game 3 I have none at home they are all in the areas I invest in thats where they are needed to make a decent profit. East Europe gives just about 6 million and is not the biggest money maker....

Thanks, this was what I thought. A huge wave of trade mission closures incoming then.

Apparently, I would have been a lot better off if whoever had my position before invested in actual trade, rather than just trade missions :-). The funny part is that I don't have many trade missions in the areas I actually have trade in!

You need to invest money each year and as soon as the year starts to get maximumbenefit. Also look for new investments and add the 1000 recruits needed for each new investment. Only that way will your trade money grow over time. As Russia I tend to invest in millions of pounds in each area Dont always get that much back BUT my profits go up each year unless some one starts a war in that area or pirates start atacking shipping.

Make sure that where you invest you have trade missions as well, no trade missions + money invested = waste of time.....

Yeah, I picked an inconvenient time to start the game, all the big decisions came early. I made some investments this turn after getting some advice from in game advisors and using up a lot of my recruits. I have a plan for the years to come, I think.

I have a lot of trade income from one area, but almost no missions there, very little trade from another, and a ton of missions there. It's just kind of bizarre. I think the player before me just didn't understand how they worked or something. I think he had the spending part covered. The earning part, not so much :-)

Does anybody know if the april spend happens before or after diplomatic orders?

pass but what is it relation to?

I was wondering if I could reduce the april spend by closing some of my non-productive things on my april turn, rather than doing the spend and then immediately closing them anyway...

I was wondering what order Richard processed in:

Annual update then player orders or Player order then annual updates.

If I know it is our orders first, then I want to be more aggressive. If I'm effectively locked in, then I can spend the next game year sorting it out.

put in your orders you want to close the following before calculating the spend....

Richard confirmed to me that spend is done at the end of the turn, so changes done will affect annual spend.

So are we saying that trade missions in your own territories are a waste of time? Even if the trade mission is located in part of your empire abroad, for example in Boston or Jamaica if your english?

My trade adviser wanted me to re-open missions on my own territory, so I think that they're in fact useful.

My understanding is they will promote items from your colonies or from certain trade regions that could boost your over all profit.