guides
Trade Routes
How Trade Post, Trade Ships, route planning, and trade risk work.
Trade routes move resources between ports over time. They involve Trade Post progression, Trade Ships, relationships, route commitments, storage capacity, and risk.
Requirements
Section titled “Requirements”Trade routes depend on Trade Post progression, committed Trade Ships, and a valid relationship between the players involved. Trade Post level 3 is the key early milestone. Trade Ships provide capacity, but they are weak in combat.
Armada diplomacy matters. Accepted alliances can open the door to planned trade between Armada members, while hostile or broken relationships can end trade plans. If a diplomatic relationship changes, routes can be cancelled and ships may return.
Route planning
Section titled “Route planning”Routes connect a sending port, a receiving port, a server-calculated resource mix, and committed Trade Ships. Wood, cloth, and metal shortages can all be affected by route setup.
The route preview calculates round-trip duration from distance, then uses that duration to determine the resources per cycle and the required Trade Ships. Longer routes can move more per cycle, while shorter routes stay near the minimum cycle reward.
Route behavior depends on both ports. The sending port needs spare resources and Trade Ships. The receiving port needs Warehouse capacity. A route that fills a Warehouse beyond useful capacity can waste incoming resources.
Trade Ships are valuable but fragile. Trade Ships committed to one route are unavailable for market movement, direct resource sends, loot capacity, or other logistics until freed.
Routes also create commitments. Requested routes can be accepted, declined, cancelled, or expire. Accepted routes use Trade Ships from both sides, so many accepted routes can block later trade or market needs.
Armada use
Section titled “Armada use”Armada trade connects member ports through shared goals, diplomacy, and resource movement. Resource support can affect conquest pressure, rebuilding after losses, and early bottlenecks.
Examples of Armada route contexts include feeding a border port before a defense window, helping a member finish Trade Post or Docks progress, rebuilding after a lost fight, or supplying a port that will stage Flagbearers.
Market offers and direct sending
Section titled “Market offers and direct sending”Trade Routes are not the only logistics tool. Market offers exchange one resource for another and can expire if nobody accepts them in time. Direct resource sending moves a one-time shipment. Trade Routes move resources over time through an ongoing relationship.
Because all of these use Trade Ships in some way, logistics planning is a fleet planning problem. A port with excellent trade potential can still be stuck if its Trade Ships are already committed elsewhere.