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Originally Posted by Matori

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr, I still can't sail

...

Now I should click the target port, but I am just remaining stuck. Both left or right button fail to help...

After you clicked on the target port, the ship disappears. Now you click on the calendar until the ship arrives at the destination.

You also need to recruit a crew for the ship first. Go to the tavern and order a crew, then click on the calendar to move ahead a few days until the crew is ready.

[Vaz]

This is still one of the best strategy-trading games done. It's marred by a few flaws however.
1. The trading margins are too small even for routes that historically paid off several times the purchase value of the cargo, particularly the oriental trade.
2. Demand for cargo is exhausted far too rapidly, even for bulk cargoes. Even a single shipload of wine for example can't be sold in total, and usually it rots if you warehouse it. In the case of wine, this is obvious nonsense. Its shelf life should be years, not months.
3. Demand for arms is virtually non-existent. This too is more nonsense, as arms shipments were one of the heaviest commodities in demand from European shipping nations, particularly to India and the Far East. There should also be an almost permanent demand for arms in South Africa, not to mention the South American ports, particularly those on the west coast which were involved in a string of wars during the period.
4. Also on the arms trade, when the European powers were engaged in major wars overseas, notably Britain, they frequently relied on private shipping companies for delivery. So smuggling weapons into India is one thing, but the British administration in India was also importing heavily to put down the revolt. All of this is missing from the game. New York was importing weapons just as much as the South was during the American Civil War; that's where all the rifled artillery came from initially.
5. The American Civil War is not historical. There should be a huge premium for smuggling weapons into Savannah, just as there is for Odessa during the Crimean War.
6. France is badly treated in this game. The largest mercantile ports in France were Marseilles and Bordeaux. Both had ship building industries much larger than Le Havre. And all should be exporting not just wine but also tools and arms. The import of coal into Le Havre makes no sense. The Franco-Belgian coal field was in its heyday in the 19th C. There should also be demand for arms during the Franco-Prussian War.
7. The central and eastern Mediterranean is not well treated either. Genoa, Naples and Venice were all more important ports than Trieste. Alexandria was important, but not as important as Beirut.
8. The game has the importance of steam to the 19th C backwards. Steam powered ships were more expensive to operate, not less. The importance of steam lay in much more rapid travel, particularly with the reciprocating engines emerging in the late 1870s.
9. The gunrunning system leaves much to be desired. Ships used for gunrunning were all small and very fast, i.e. your $3000 sloop. But the game seems to assign the same chance to catch a sloop as it does a full-size clipper ship.
10. Australia was not a significant producer of tools and textiles in the 19th C. It was a huge exporter of raw wool and grain. It should be demanding tools, textiles and machinery, not exporting them.
11. The passenger system is abysmal. There should be non-stop demand for passenger traffic between all major European ports, but particularly London, Liverpool and Hamburg, with New York. Ships would be lined up by the dozens every day trying to offload at Ellis Island. Millions were emigrating to North America throughout this period, but the game doesn't really show it. There should also be a fairly heavy two way flow between Britain and India throughout the entire period. There should be bonuses for this during the Sepoy Revolt, as then you're shipping soldiers. In fact, the 19th C could be characterized as a chronic shortage of passenger space, which is why the giant passenger liners emerged in the very early 20th C.
12. India rubber doesn't rot. You should be able to warehouse it for at least a year.
13. The big commodity missing from the game is grain. Grain was in constant very high demand throughout Europe during the period. This is one of the big commodities coming back, particularly from North America and Australia. It became hugely important with the repeal of the British Corn Laws in Britain in the wake of the Irish Potato Famine. The only part of this shown in the game is the citrus fruit shipments from North Africa, particularly Tunis. This was utterly trivial in volume and value compared with the grain trade. It is probably fair to say that the grain trade dwarfed any other bulk commodity shipped during the period including coal. Europe was largely self sufficient in coal, but not so for grain.

In short, the game mechanics work fine, and there's a good feeling of unpredictability of ship dispatch and arrival. Where it falls down is in some of the history and in particular the shortcomings of commodity demand and supply. It's good, but it's not as good as High Seas Trader.

[jamotide]

Originally Posted by Vaz

This is still one of the best strategy-trading games done. It's marred by a few flaws however.

The historical flaws are weak I suppose, but they don't bother me while playing, what is annoying is point 2, I fully agree with you there.

One difficulty of the game is that the ports stop taking goods too early, so you have to switch routes. Here are the best standard routes (without war) I found out for me before 1869:

European/African/American trade:

I only use one or two small steam ships (400t) here. It is fast, cheap and can sell all goods nearly every time.

1. Machines from London (or Liverpool, but they are more expensive there) to Barcelona, tools from Barcelona to Port Said, totton from Port Said to Odessa, vegetable oil from Odessa to London (repair ship).
2. Wine from LeHavre to Hamburg, tools from Hamburg to Accra, ivory from Accra to Savannah (repair ship), cotton from Savannah to LeHavre, if LeHavre doesn't take all cotton buy wine and ship to Liverpool where you normally can sell both.
3. Wine from LeHavre to Liverpool, machines from Liverpool to Rio, coal from Rio to New York (pass Ceyenne it’s faster; repair ship in NY), machines from New York to New Orleans, textilies from New Orleans to Puerto Bello (check harvest time for coffee), coffee from PB to NO (you can normally do this twice with this small ship), empty from NO to Savannah (repair ship), cotton from Savannah to LeHavre (or tobacco to London)
4. Machines from London to Barcelona (be careful, they won’t take that much machines if you visit it to often), tools from Barcelona to Ceyenne (sell only half of the tools), rare wood (and tools) from ceyenne to Havana, sugar from Havanna to Lisbon, wine from Lisbon to Hamburg or Liverpool (repair ship).

I nearly never visit Tunis (only accepts very small amounts of weapons), Lagos (Accra is better) or Luanda (long journey). I use Cape Town only as a long journey repair stop (hold a branch there) but if I send a ship for the Indian Ocean/Pacific I load it with machines (London), textilies (Amsterdam) and wine (LeHavre) (one third of ship capacity each to get rid of all of them in Cape Town) to sell in Cape town, repair ship there, empty to (missed the name) mocambique, buy ivory there and sail to melbourne where I hold another branch. This one is important because Melbourne normally doesn’t take all ivory (or coal). Also you can use it to empty your ship for repair in Sidney.

Asian/Australian/American trade:

There I mainly use the 600t Iron ships (2-3) because you normally still can sell all goods in ONE harbour and you can build them in Sidney from the beginning. I have branches in Melbourne and LA to frequently sell goods. Some goods are more dangerous because they root. These are all harvesting goods, spices and indian rubber.

1. Textilies and tools from LA to Shanghai (or only textilies to Macao), empty to Macao (repair ship), silk from Macao to LA (repair ship). After some turns you’ll have enough money to store the silk in LA and sell it frequently (all 2-3 months) for the special price only. That’s a real money printing press and works until about 1867 (only problem is the opium war time). After that I noticed that LA only pays the normal price even after months of waiting. But Nov.1869 is close then.
2. Tools from LA to Singapore, india rubber from Singapore to Melbourne, empty from Melbourne to Sidney (repair ship), wool from Sidney to LA (repair ship).
3. Tools from LA to Perth, coal from Perth to Melbourne (they won’t take all coal so put it in the branch and sell it later), empty to Sidney (repair ship), empty to Melbourne, machines and textilies to Bombay (repair ship), if avaiable tea from Bombay to Sidney otherwise india rubber from Colombo to Melbourne (I never buy cotton because risk of rooting is much to high from there), machines and textilies from Melbourne to Macao (repair), silk from macao to LA.
4. Tools from LA to Mandao, spices from mandao to LA. I don’t like this route that much any more, because it’s quite long, risky (storms) and you can’t repair your ship before you return to LA. If your ship is hit by a storm you will lose your cargo for sure.
5. Tools from LA to Callao, fruits from Callao to Sidney (repair ship), wool from Sidney to LA or sugar from Sydney to San Franzisko, tools from San Franzisko to LA (store them and repair). Wool gives you more profit than sugar, but tools are a little bit cheaper in San Franzisko so it’s not that much worse.
6. Textilies from LA to Rangoon, cotton back to LA. It’s quite risky as well. But you can take rare woods to LA as well. Less margin but less risk as well.
7. Textilies from Melbourne to Rangoon, rare wood from Rangoon to Sidney (repair ship), empty to Melbourne.

Of course you can switch from route to route to avoid overselling of the goods in some harbours.

Long travel trade (also money transport to home harbour):

My main money and silk store in the game is LA, so it’s the natural starting point for my long routes back to Europe. Sometimes I send one of the 600T ships back with money, but mainly I use the 1500T steel hull clipper.

1. Textilies and tools (half each) from LA to Arica (take the branch money with you), salpetre and the tools from Arica to Rio, coal and the salpetre from Rio to New York, some machines (max. 40) to Savannah (repair), cotton or tobacco to Europe. You’ll have to visit several ports to sell all of the cotton but it’s so close that there is no risk to root. If there is no harvest time for cotton or tobacco you have to go empty to europe.
2. Silk (stored in LA) from LA to NY, rest of the silk from NY to LeHavre (repair)
3. Back to Asia/Pacific I normally round Cape Good Hope (look above), but with the big ships I take more wine and even some tools with me (so machines, textilies, wine for Cape Town (repair) and after that tools and wine for Mocambique)

Captains order is always hard. It doen’s matter because you have to repair your ship so frequently to keep up speed that your crew is always well rested.

[Vaz]

One of the most profitable routes I've found is this:
You start by taking machines, tools and textiles from London, Hamburg and Amsterdam to Colombo and Bombay. Timing is critical. You want to arrive at the end of March. Load up on tea. Return to London. If you've timed it right, you get a huge bonus.

Then load up on the same goods noted above and drop them in Shanghai and Macau. Load the ship half full with silk, sail to Sydney and load with wool. Sail to LA. There's a bonus for wool. Load with machines, textiles and tools in LA and SF and unload in Shanghai and Macau. With the right timing, you've arrived in time for the next tea crop in Shanghai. Load with tea and return to London. If there's no tea. load with silk and unload in Le Havre and Hamburg.

For this trip I use steel hulled clippers only. You only need to refit the ships in London and SF. At Macau, all you need is a simple hull scraping. I like the SH clipper because of it's relatively low repair requirements.

After the Suez Canal opens in 1869, things become a bit trickier. Transit times now become so fast that you have to insert a couple of other stops in the route to ensure you arrive at the right time for the beginning of the tea crop.

Standard for me is to set the Captain's orders to Hard and drop the initial crew wages by two notches. I like to set this route up as soon as SH clippers appear in the game, usually about 1857 in New York. By the time I've finished running guns into Odessa in the opening of the game, I've built up enough cash to purchase one without needing credit.

[Alois_Bembel]

Does anyone know how I can edit prices? Because San Francisco pays only 12,50 $ for coffee (at least in the German version). This price is not realistic!

[katagua]

The (I believe) complete trading chart with buying and selling prices in 1:
http://www.2shared.com/document/B-4_...9_Trading.html
Edit: just discovered the Tunis fruit price is incorrect: should be $14,10

The harvesting chart for season dependent products:
http://www.2shared.com/document/9O2D...hart_1869.html

Top trading chart is sized to A4.
Now only important piece to add will be a movement chart that shows fastest routes between some major cities.

At least one link showing ocean currents, until someone provides the original chart from the game manual (that best fits the game mechanics). This enabled me to travell faster:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-oceanicas.gif

zxcvbn

[jamotide]

Originally Posted by zxcvbn2

until someone provides the original chart from the game manual

I just dug out the manual and here it is:

http://www.abload.de/img/streampnpg.jpg

Schnelle Stroemung=Fast stream
Mittlere=Medium

If anyone wants to submit it to the abandonia entry of this game, please do, you can take credit for it.

[Luchsen]

★ Navigationspunkte = navigation points
● Hafenstädte = port cities