ports, new ports, and coastal towns.

The Real Louis of France wrote:

Welcome to the game.

Not much to add to Ardagor's comprehensive answer. Your asset list should inform you which buildings are currently present in named towns. Another good source of information is the Gazetteer, or from some entries on the Agema Wiki. If the town is not named, but is large then it is more likely to already have buildings even if it doesn't appear on your asset list, so that is a question for your advisers.

If you want to really expand a port to boost trade, then you can build ...
- a new port (cost £80,000), wharves and anchorages only.
- a ship repair yard (cost £5,000) to help merchants to repair their ships.
- a barge yard (£10,000) if your port is at the mouth of a river system and you would like to expand trade up the river.
- a warehouse (cost £10,000) for merchants to store their goods.
- a lighthouse (cost £10,000) so ships can navigate round the tricky harbour entrance.
- a shipyard (cost £30,000) to build dredgers to keep the port from silting up.
- a tavern (cost £5,000) to look after your traders.
- a gaol (cost £20,000) to look after your traders once they've been in the tavern.
- a town watch (cost £6,000) to look after the town once the traders have escaped from the gaol.

And because you've spent so much it would be a good idea to provide defences for the port, so
- a modern fortress with moat (cost £60,000)
- 100FC (cost £20,000)
- a garrison of around 5F, with appropriately distinctive uniforms in the latest French fashions.

I find it is best to build up large, natural ports than try to improve small harbours.

You may think all of the above is overkill, but I've found that boosting trade through building up your towns does help stimulate other investment and increase your trade returns.

For a naval port you might also like a shipyard plus various factories producing ropes, sails, naval stores.

If the town is huge then you might also like a theatre, cathedral, hospital, etc.

It is one of the strengths of the game that you can go into as much detail and build as many buildings as you like to create your game world. Academies tend to be needed to make new technological developments or for training specialist recruits rather than simply to expand capacity.

Jason wrote:The only thing I could add is do think about having a couple of cruisers also for anti-smuggling patrols...those naughty drunken merchants seem to suffer from amnesia when it comes to paying their taxes

Stuart Bailey wrote:

Jason wrote:The only thing I could add is do think about having a couple of cruisers also for anti-smuggling patrols...those naughty drunken merchants seem to suffer from amnesia when it comes to paying their taxes

Of course the other way of building up a port is declare it a "freeport" forget the custom house and build an exchange and lots of brothels instead.

Well it worked for Port Royal and Henry Morgan plus several North African Ports.