How do trade routes work in civ 5

The trade units are similar to aircraft and missiles in that they are based in cities, and can't be moved freely on the map. Unlike these units, though, rebasing Trade Units may be done across the whole map in a single turn - there is no maximum range for rebasing.

Caravans may be based in any city, while Cargo Ships may only be based in coastal cities. Finally, be mindful of what Trade Routes you will need more, and don't produce unnecessary trade units. If, for example, you have 2 trade slots available, think of whether you'll need more land or sea trade routes, instead of just rushing to produce the first trade unit available.

The reason for this is that, once produced, a trade unit will occupy a trade slot, regardless of its type, so you may find you're unable to establish the sea trade route you planned if you produced a Caravan unit which occupied your last trade slot. Once you have an appropriate Trade unit in the city you want it, you can proceed to establish Trade Routes between cities.

Note that Trade Routes can be established only along the native terrain of the unit land tiles for a Caravan, Water tiles for a Cargo ship , and with cities in range of the current unit's base. This range is given in number of tiles, and is affected increased by a number of factors, such as the presence of a Road, presence of certain buildings in the base city, and technologies.

The specific trajectory of the route is calculated automatically so that it takes the shortest way available, without passing through dangerous territory, such as a Barbarian encampment or near the cities of a nation you're currently at war with.

Note that trade routes do NOT need an Open Borders treaty to pass through another nation's territory. What's more - they could even use other cities as shortcuts, when hindered by terrain! For example, if you have a narrow not larger than 1 tile land strip separating two water bodies, and there is a friendly city on that strip, bordering both water bodies, your water trade routes may pass through that city!

When you decide to establish a route, first move an appropriate unit in a city in range of your destination. When you click on the Establish Trade Route option of the unit, the possible target cities will appear listed.

If the city you want to trade with isn't there, then you may need to re-base your unit, or it means the city may not be in range yet.

In this case, try to extend the range of your Trade Route via the means mentioned above. You can use the Trade Overview screen to see all potentially available trade routes, along with their projected effects, and plan your actions accordingly. After you successfully establish a Trade Route, the trade unit starts circulating between the two cities its base and the destination city , and will do so for some determined amount of turns.

The circulation of the trade unit itself has no effect on the actual trading unless it's attacked by enemies see below. The route effects are constant otherwise - you and your partner share benefits each turn, until the end of the trade. You can see how many turns are left for the current route from the Trade Overview.

Note that a trade unit is inaccessible while conducting trade - you can't do anything with it, select it, or control it in any way. After the turns left for the current trade route run out, you have to reassign it. Refrigeration Tech - Adds 10 extra tiles to base range. Religious Pressure through Trade Routes When sent from Cities with a Majority religion, Trade Routes also spread that City's Religion, gradually converting its Citizens - so these Routes can be used strategically to send Pressure to a distant City and convert it to your own Religion.

In short, because a City can only send one Route per destination City, you would need multiple Cities sending Routes to convert another City quickly.

Religion Spreads naturally to Cities within a range of 10 tiles. Cities inside this range do not receive additional Pressure from Trade Routes - a City can only send Pressure by one method - either the natural way within 10 Tiles , or with a Trade Route outside 10 tiles. An Enhancer belief can extend this range to 13 tiles. The third Modifier is Open Borders. There is no gold gain from this, and you will have to rebuild them. It is best to Plunder Trade Routes between the Civ you want to DoW as the act which starts the war, so that you can gain some gold from the action.

If you stand on the path and intercept it, you'll automatically plunder the Route when the turn is ended. Otherwise, if you see a Caravan and can move atop it, you will have the Plunder Trade Route option.

Doing this to a Civ that is trading with your enemy would drag them into the War, for plundering constitutes and act of War. There doesn't seem to be any drawback to plundering a Civ's Trade Routes when you're already at War, despite the fact that Civs should be angered by this given they are losing GPT from the loss of the incoming route.

Controlling both would have your maximum routes at Petra makes Desert Cities much more liveable. Both of these are very desirable Wonders. This means those 'roads' will slightly extend the range of their Land Trade Routes. Portugal - Resource diversity grants double gold for Portugal in each trade route, which can amount to a lot of extra Gold.

Our Sims Forum is the place to go for faster answers to questions and discussions about the game. Use the form below to share your own experiences and provide helpful tips to other readers. Land Trade Routes' range is extended by Roads. Combustion Tech - increases range of Land Trade Routes by Each type of Luxury resource can contribute up to 4 amenities to your empire equivalent to 1 per city to the 4 cities that need them most.

As long as the Luxury resource is improved such as a Plantation improvement built on Spices. Luxury resources are one of the main sources of Amenities especially in the early game. One of the more important sources of Amenities is Entertainment , made possible by the Entertainment Complex and the Water Park Rise and Fall expansion and its buildings. Though for basic buildings the effect is local and only give amenities to the city it is built in.

While the more advanced buildings will spread their effect to all cities whose city centres are located up to 6 tiles or 9 tiles for Water Park buildings from the district. There are certain Wonders when built that will provide amenities. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Keep the site ad-free and consider supporting us on Patreon.

Trading and Trade Routes. What is a trade route? Trade screen Trading Posts Once your trader arrives at the destination city a Trading Post is automatically constructed in the city and source city of every finished Trade Route.

Inspiration Why have a Trade Route? Benefits of Trade Routes If you want to grow and develop a city, you will want to send a domestic trade with the highest food and production route to that city.

Trader routes are the only way to build roads in the early game. That means at the start of the game, most of the trade routes are decided based on where you want your roads. You can fulfill a city-state quest to Send a Trade Route , and earn an envoy with that city state. Thanks for any help! Showing 1 - 2 of 2 comments. Drevin View Profile View Posts.

If you do have Brave New World and it is enabled, then you should be able to build either caravans for land routes or trade ships for sea routes. Also, in game on top of the sceeen, between gold made and happyness you should see how many trade routes you have available either zero or not.

If zero, then you probably still need to look over the tech tree and research a useful tech. Thanks, I figured it out! I hadn't activated the expansion.