Trade and caravans

Merchants

Merchants carry your goods in caravans. A merchant isn't a unit: it isn't trained, eats no grain and doesn't fight.

• Number: every holding has 1 merchants to start; each Market level adds one more.
• Load: each merchant carries 1,000 units. All four resources count together.
• Speed: 8 km per hour; every kilometer crossed by sea takes 2.6 times as long as on land. Merchants have no boats.
• A merchant is busy for the whole trip out and back; once home, it can set out again.

What raises a merchant's load multiplies together:

Sending between holdings

If you have two or more holdings, your merchants carry resources between them:

• You can only send between your own holdings; resources can't be sent to another player.
• All four resources can be sent, grain included.
• Goods leave the storehouse the moment they set out; on arrival, as much enters the target holding's storehouse as fits, and the rest is lost.
• Merchants head home after the delivery.

World market

The world market is always open, and trades happen instantly: no merchants needed, no daily limit.

• Only timber, stone and iron are traded; grain isn't traded on the world market.
• Road toll: at equal prices, for every 100 units you give, you get 65.
• Prices shift: the price of what you sell falls, and the price of what you buy rises. Over time, prices drift back to their base, and they are shared by the whole world.
• However far prices shift, a trade never gives you more units than you put in.
• Resources from a trade are added regardless of your storehouse limit.

What shrinks the road toll multiplies together; even at its best, the rate only matches what you give:

At Market level 5, the price chart opens, showing how world market prices moved over the last 24 hours.

Player market

On the player market you trade with other players. There's no road toll; in return, you need a buyer and a caravan.

Posting an order

• You set what you give and what you want. All four resources are accepted, grain included.
• You can have up to 3 open orders at a time; each order stays open for 48 hours.
• What you want and what you give can differ by up to 30% at world market prices; a wilder rate isn't accepted.
• The goods you offer become committed: they leave the storehouse, but a raid can't take them.
• You can withdraw an order whenever you like; when an order expires, its goods come back (as much as fits in your storehouse).

Taking an order

1. The buyer sends the payment to the seller's holding with their own caravan.
2. The order stays open while the caravan is on the road, and the first to arrive takes it; a caravan that arrives too late heads back empty-handed, with its payment.
3. The trade happens in the seller's holding: the payment goes into the seller's storehouse, and the goods travel back with the buyer's caravan.
4. If the caravan can't arrive before the order expires, it doesn't set out.

Caravans on the road

A caravan shows on the map: its cargo doesn't, only the fact that a caravan is passing. A caravan that passes through the sight range of an enemy's warning building can be intercepted if there's a declaration of war between you, and whoever intercepts it takes the cargo (Interception).

• The Escort saves half the cargo of an intercepted caravan.
• The Hidden Passage slips a caravan away through a secret path, once.
• Keeping a long, valuable journey far from the sight range of enemy holdings is the surest protection.

Traveling merchant

At Farm level 6, a traveling merchant comes every day, takes the grain that doesn't fit in your storehouse and leaves another resource in its place (Traveling merchant).