Hi everybody,

what do you guys consider the best place to start the game ?

Curacao looks fine to me

any other ideas ?

Don't we all start in Port Royale?

(07-05-2012 06:28 PM)vorius Wrote:  Don't we all start in Port Royale?

lol, you have a choice mate

Really need to start in a "Viceroy" town - access to him and a Large Shipyard and a ready market (bigger towns) .
Produces Rum - Sugar close by in Port-au-Prince / Santo Domingo
Produces Cloth - Coton close in St. Thomas (Thome)
Produce cigars always a good seller.
Close towns for trading - short travelling time.
Cocoa - sort of regional good in close towns and Guadeloupe - another source of ships reasonably close.

But I'm willing to listen to offers !

(07-05-2012 06:30 PM)Pietn Wrote:  

(07-05-2012 06:28 PM)vorius Wrote:  Don't we all start in Port Royale?

lol, you have a choice mate

Oops, I never noticed it!

I guess it wouldn't matter for me for the first game anyway since I would have no idea about how the different towns stack up. I still didnt explore everything so I cant say for sure, but I like the looks of Havana - it's where I placed my first warehouse.

Probably he's talking about free play mode. Can't tell as I am one of the unlucky Steam customers.

(07-05-2012 06:33 PM)billyplod Wrote:  Really need to start in a "Viceroy" town - access to him and a Large Shipyard and a ready market (bigger towns) .
Produces Rum - Sugar close by in Port-au-Prince / Santo Domingo
Produces Cloth - Coton close in St. Thomas (Thome)
Produce cigars always a good seller.
Close towns for trading - short travelling time.
Cocoa - sort of regional good in close towns and Guadeloupe - another source of ships reasonably close.

But I'm willing to listen to offers !

well I like curacao because it has wood and bricks
you can make huge amounts of meat too (corn and stockyard)
pretty easy to make a big city

I like San Juan, nice cluster of towns nearby, produces rum and sugar is near, though lumber is a bit more of a trip.

@athrun - Do you mean you can't start a game in free play mode because the STEAM version does not allow that?

If so, that is hilarious. Personally, I do not like Steam and I heard about a number of technical issues in other Forums.

@ Thomas Paine: No, he's one of the persons who got the Steam version which refuses to work at his computer.


As for my choice of starting town: As a Dutchman I got no choice but Grand Bahama.

Thorin

I have steam version and game works brilliant.

I have tried starting at the Turk Islands, Port Royal, and down in Cartagena (spelling?)
PR is quite "easy" to get going, but I don't like it's long term viability (hostile dense region with many nations)
Turk islands seems to have a slight edge on the long term versus PR, but that game isn't far enough along yet to confirm.

Starting down in Cartagena was my hardest game so far, but after the slow start, I'm liking my prospects. The towns are more sparse, so I'm thinking my desire to found my own empire should be MUCH easier to achieve then anywhere else.

By the same reasoning, Grand Bahama may be similar to Turk Islands, decent start, and reasonable for long term, but in all my games that regions swaps around nations quite a bit.

I think if you're aiming for trader, start around the middle islands. if you're thinking maybe some privateering or war mongering, perhaps an edge city. If you're aiming for pirate, I'd recommend starting in the South West.

I wonder - is it really necessary to start in a viceroy town or would a gouvernor town perhaps be fine as well.
San Juan for example sits near the border of tobacco and cocoa regions. Also it produces cloth and St Thome next door is producing cotton. Looks like you could make guite a bit of money with many island ports only a short trip away.

(08-05-2012 01:21 AM)Thomas Paine Wrote:  I wonder - is it really necessary to start in a viceroy town or would a gouvernor town perhaps be fine as well.
San Juan for example sits near the border of tobacco and cocoa regions. Also it produces cloth and St Thome next door is producing cotton. Looks like you could make guite a bit of money with many island ports only a short trip away.

A governor town is fine, but avoid colonial towns unless you want a challenge, personally i like Margarita. You are a little cornered, but you have lots of close towns that works vell for raw materials and fast expansions.

For the best start i would recommend to have a town with both bricks and wood and start mass production.

(07-05-2012 06:33 PM)billyplod Wrote:  Really need to start in a "Viceroy" town - access to him and a Large Shipyard and a ready market (bigger towns) .
Produces Rum - Sugar close by in Port-au-Prince / Santo Domingo
Produces Cloth - Coton close in St. Thomas (Thome)
Produce cigars always a good seller.
Close towns for trading - short travelling time.
Cocoa - sort of regional good in close towns and Guadeloupe - another source of ships reasonably close.

But I'm willing to listen to offers !

I started in Tortuga. Produces both Sugar and Rum, and wood is available from two towns close by. So far, so good.

(07-05-2012 06:57 PM)Pietn Wrote:  

(07-05-2012 06:33 PM)billyplod Wrote:  Really need to start in a "Viceroy" town - access to him and a Large Shipyard and a ready market (bigger towns) .
Produces Rum - Sugar close by in Port-au-Prince / Santo Domingo
Produces Cloth - Coton close in St. Thomas (Thome)
Produce cigars always a good seller.
Close towns for trading - short travelling time.
Cocoa - sort of regional good in close towns and Guadeloupe - another source of ships reasonably close.

But I'm willing to listen to offers !

well I like curacao because it has wood and bricks
you can make huge amounts of meat too (corn and stockyard)
pretty easy to make a big city

Very good, i didn't notice a town could make both wood and bricks.

There are 4 towns that produce both wood and brick and Curacao is the best. It produces corn which is raw material for meat, and cacao is a good export product. Nearly all commodities is not more than 2 days of sailing. The only problem is Dye. Nearest source is Florida Keys

Hmmm, i have to say, the trading experience is pretty good, its a pity the combat side of it is so subpar compared to the trading side of it.

(07-05-2012 06:33 PM)billyplod Wrote:  Really need to start in a "Viceroy" town - access to him and a Large Shipyard and a ready market (bigger towns) .
Produces Rum - Sugar close by in Port-au-Prince / Santo Domingo
Produces Cloth - Coton close in St. Thomas (Thome)
Produce cigars always a good seller.
Close towns for trading - short travelling time.
Cocoa - sort of regional good in close towns and Guadeloupe - another source of ships reasonably close.

But I'm willing to listen to offers !

Is it just me or there is no such town named "Viceroy"???

(10-05-2012 03:03 PM)Vadim Wrote:  Is it just me or there is no such town named "Viceroy"???

He means any of the "Capital" Towns which have a Viceroy in it. These are marked by the Crown on the world map and are:

- Turk Islands (English)
- New Orleans (French)
- Port Royale (Spain)
- Grand Bahamas (Dutch)

There are also towns which have a Governor. These are marked by a ring on the world map and can change pretty frequently.

(10-05-2012 03:18 PM)Mayo Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 03:03 PM)Vadim Wrote:  Is it just me or there is no such town named "Viceroy"???

He means any of the "Capital" Towns which have a Viceroy in it. These are marked by the Crown on the world map and are:

- Turk Islands (English)
- New Orleans (French)
- Port Royale (Spain)
- Grand Bahamas (Dutch)

There are also towns which have a Governor. These are marked by a ring on the world map and can change pretty frequently.

Ahh, yeah that makes more sense.

tha capital town depend on the start year
the biggest nation in that year has port royal as capital the others the "default"-capital
Turk Islands (English)
New Orleans (French)
Vera Cruz (Spain)
Grand Bahamas (Dutch)

Surprised no one mentioned Havana.

It's central,its got bricks,it needs wood and sugar to make rhum,which are available in the 5-6 towns nearby(Nombre de Dios which is next to Havana has wood).

Dunno about the other towns mentioned here(although i heard Turk Islands is pretty strong)but in my experience Havana is far superior to PR as a starting town.

I'm a fan of Campache - it produces Bricks and Wood, as well as Corn and Meat, giving you a fantastic easy-economy right off the bat, as well as being in easy proximity with every possible good with the exception of Cocoa.

(11-05-2012 01:38 PM)Mayo Wrote:  I'm a fan of Campache - it produces Bricks and Wood, as well as Corn and Meat, giving you a fantastic easy-economy right off the bat, as well as being in easy proximity with every possible good with the exception of Cocoa.

I could try that town as a starting point, i could even get into the building world and make my own corn and meat as well as wood and bricks, easy money maker i guess.

But i am not sure how i can set up a trade route that takes items from the warehouse after a set amount is made and go around selling the stuff in various towns, i think its a 'my strategy' requirement and i could never figure that thing out.

(12-05-2012 05:16 AM)JamieK81 Wrote:  I could try that town as a starting point, i could even get into the building world and make my own corn and meat as well as wood and bricks, easy money maker i guess.

But i am not sure how i can set up a trade route that takes items from the warehouse after a set amount is made and go around selling the stuff in various towns, i think its a 'my strategy' requirement and i could never figure that thing out.

It's a combination of the Warehouse Steward's Block Goods from Being Sold and "Stock and Supply" or "Empty Warehouse", though Stock and Supply is more useful if you have multiple towns producing stuff. In essence you tell the Steward to block a certain number of goods from being sold/loaded onto your convoys. Your convoys will take everything from the warehouse up to this number, which they will leave untouched.

So say you've got a crapload of corn and some can be used for making meat and others can be sold alongside the meat to other nations. You want to sell the greatest amount of Corn, while still leaving just enough corn to produce meat.

First, take note of how many days your trade route takes to finish one cycle, and how much corn is required for the meat every 10 days. The first one can be found on the edit trade route menu and the second can be found under the Commodities tab - search for the Corn item on the list and check the numbers in each column. The number on the right tells you how much corn is being produced every 10 days and the number on the left tells you how much corn is being used up every 10 days.

For example:
Days to complete trade route: 17 days
Corn used to make meat every 10 days: 150
Corn produced every 10 days: 300

Since your convoy returns to the town every 17 days, you want to make sure that no matter how much corn is taken, you are still able to sustain production for that 17 days. 150 x 1.7 = 255.

So you tell your Warehouse steward to block 255 barrels of corn from being sold or being removed by your convoy.

Now when you use the Empty Warehouse trade route setting, the convoy will take all the corn (except 255 barrels of it for meat production) and meat and bricks and wood it can carry and sell them along the route. You'll also want to put blocks on Bricks and Wood, since you want to have an ample supply in easy access.

You will have to edit your blocks everytime you increase production of meat, so I prefer to round off my blocks. Say, blocking 300 barrels of corn instead of 255.

I think it's pretty clear that your first expansion port needs to have both wood/brick, so you don't have to waste several days whenever you need to build new businesses.

As for my 2nd favorite would probably be Roatan, since it produces wheat/sugar for its bread, and coffee. (Metal is also good if you didn't start from PR)

mmmm,i wouldnt say that your first port NEEDS to have both wood and bricks.It's certainly more convenient,but not necessary.You can always go to towns you don't care about and buy all their woods and bricks,works ok for me.