About this Video

• Video Title: Total War Rome REMASTERED Complete Guide Trade
• Channel: Strategy Dux
• Speakers: One (name not provided in transcript)
• Duration: 00:21:37

Introduction

This video provides a comprehensive guide to the trade mechanics in Total War: Rome Remastered. The guide is broken down into sections covering resource management, trade routes (direct and indirect), UI navigation, and strategies for maximizing trade income.

Key Takeaways

• Resource Types and Tiers: The game features five tiers of tradable goods, with values increasing by approximately two denarii per tier. The number of units of a resource in a given location affects the total value.
• Passive and Direct Trade Routes: Settlements passively trade with neighbors (unless at war). Direct trade routes, established via ports, significantly increase income and are limited by port level.
• Trade Route Mechanics: Direct trade routes prioritize the most valuable routes, automatically connecting settlements to the capital if beneficial. Trade is based on exchanging resources a settlement lacks.
• Boosting Trade Income: Trade income is boosted by building trade markets and improving roads. Population growth provides a smaller increase.
• Merchants: Merchants, a new feature in the remaster, can significantly increase trade income by focusing on specific resources. Their income potential depends on the availability of resources in the source and destination settlements. Merchants can achieve up to 150% of the base value of traded goods.
• Trade Agreements: Trade agreements increase income from existing trade routes with a particular faction by up to 200%.

Merchants are a new addition in the Total War: Rome Remastered version. They are recruited once a market is built in a settlement. Each merchant is linked to their base city. The merchant's trade income is determined by the resources available in their base city and the resources they trade with other cities. They will only trade for resources their base city lacks. Their potential income is shown as a percentage of the base value of the resource – they can earn up to 150% of the base value if they manage to monopolize the trade of a particular good. The example in the transcript shows a merchant potentially earning 18 denarii from wine, though they are currently only collecting 12, representing 50% of the potential profit based on the available resources in the base city.

The trade route mechanics in Total War: Rome Remastered function as follows:

1. Passive Trade: Every settlement automatically engages in passive trade with its neighboring settlements, provided they are not at war. This generates a baseline income. This passive trade also happens via pre-existing sea routes connecting ports.

2. Direct Trade Routes: These are established through ports and utilize sea travel. The AI automatically selects the most valuable available routes. The number of direct trade routes a city can utilize depends on the level of its port building. Each direct trade route uses one slot at the port.

3. Capital Connection: Direct trade routes can connect settlements to the capital. If this connection is established, the connected settlement transfers its trading income to the capital. However, not all settlements with ports will automatically connect to the capital; the AI will prioritize the most valuable routes. This means a less valuable route to the capital might be forgone in favor of a more profitable route to a different city.

4. Resource Exchange: Trade is fundamentally about exchanging resources a settlement lacks. Settlements will import and export resources with those they are connected to. However, this flow is not always bidirectional. A city might export resources to another city but not import resources from that same city due to the availability of those resources locally, or due to the limitation of direct trade routes slots at the port.

5. Trade Route Value: The value of a trade route depends on several factors: the tier of the goods traded, the quantity of those goods available, and the presence of trade agreements with the trading partner.

In summary, the system is designed to automatically establish efficient trade routes, prioritizing higher-value goods, but the player can influence this by strategically building ports and improving infrastructure. The actual mechanics are a combination of AI-driven route selection and player-influenced resource availability.