Trade and Convoy Routes Explained

[Harrybanana]

There still seems to be some confusion about how Trade, Merchant Ships and Convoy Routes work together; so I thought I would make an attempt to explain. I have chosen the first Allied turn of the 1939 scenario to use as my example.

Before we begin a few definitions of some of the terms I will be using:
1. "Convoy Route" is sometimes referred to in the game as a "Zone". So, for example, what I call the "African Coast Convoy Route" is in the game called the "African Coast Zone". I call it a "Convoy Route" rather than a "Zone" because I think it is better to understand that resources are being transported along the routes by MS.

2. A "Trade" is the attempted transfer of Resources from a Minor Power or captured Resource location to a Major Power, or from a Major Power to an allied Minor Power or another Major Power. There are two types of Trades: Default Trades that the game sets up and Trades that you create yourself from the Trade Screen. Trades that are made solely along land routes will always be successful so long as the entire land route is under friendly control. Trades along Convoy Routes will be successful so long as there are enough MS to carry the Resources.

3. "MS" means Merchant Ship.

4. "Resources" means Iron and/or Oil.

5. "Iron" means those Resources which when transported by MS back to a Major Power will be converted into Production Points. Although in the game all of these Resources are called Iron, in reality they represent a variety of different metals and products.

Let us start with the Production Screen. Here we can see how many MS each of the UK, France and the US have and how many they used on this turn. But it doesn't show us why they used this many MS.

[Harrybanana]

For this we have to go to the Trade Route Screen for each nation. This will show us on the left hand side the active Trades for each Nation. Since I haven't setup any Trades of my own, these are the default Trades. You have no real control over these Default Trades. Unlike the Trades that I setup myself I cannot, for example, turn off the Trade of oil from Iraq to the UK. If you add up all of the iron and oil being shipped by these Trades you will see that they equal the total number of MS used by each nation.

On the Right Hand side of the screen it shows us all of the Convoy Routes. If a Nation has the escorts symbol in the box on the extreme right than it means that this Nation is using that particular Convoy Route. So we can tell from this that the UK is using the Caribbean, Pan American, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and African Coast Convoy Routes; while France is using the South Atlantic, African Coast and Mediterranean Convoy Routes and the US is only using the Caribbean and Pan American Convoy Routes. If a Nation is using a particular Convoy Route then it can use this screen to add or subtract escorts to that Convoy Route or Close or Open that Convoy Route. So while you cannot Stop a Default Trade, you can Close a particular Convoy Route. This will stop all Trades for that Nation that are using that Route.

However, one thing that this screen does not tell you is which Trades use which Routes.

[Harrybanana]

There is no real way to tell which Convoy Route or Routes each Trade is using, other than by looking at the Convoy Routes on the Map and having a basic understanding of geography. All Convoy Routes start from where the Iron or Oil being Traded is located and end in the Major Power Nation receiving the Trade. So let us explore each Convoy Route in turn starting with the African Coast Route.

The African Coast Route starts in the Persian Gulf. Here it collects the Trade from Iraq (5 oil for the UK and 5 Oil for France), from Persia (5 oil for the UK) and, perhaps surprisingly, from Poland (9 Iron for the UK) for a total of 24 Resources. Note that in most games the Iron from Poland won't be an issue because Germany on the first turn will probably be cutting this Trade in Poland itself. But in this example game the Germans didn't even bother to move.

Note as well that as the game progresses the Iron and Oil flowing out of the Gulf will change. For example, if the UK invades Iraq and/or Persia their oil will be Traded via the African Coast Convoy Route to Germany. At least until the UK conquers them, at which time their 45 Oil (15 Iraq and 30 Persia) will then be Traded to the UK.

The African Coast Route than also picks up the 65 Resources (all for the UK) from the Pacific Box. So the total Resources exiting the map and rounding Africa is 89.

[Harrybanana]

We then pickup the African Coast Route again on the West Coast of Africa. If you hover the Mouse over the map and move it along the Convoy Routes you can see where it changes from the African Coast Convoy Route to the South Atlantic Convoy Route.

[Harrybanana]

So the same Resources that were previously moving over the African Coast Convoy Route, are now being carried along the South Atlantic Convoy Route.

[Harrybanana]

But off the coast of Portugal the South Atlantic Convoy Route splits in two. The 5 French Oil from Iraq head to Lisbon to be carried via Spain to France, while the remaining 84 Resources continue North to the UK.

[Harrybanana]

However, the South Atlantic Convoy Route never actually arrives in the UK because prior to this it merges with and becomes part of the North Atlantic Convoy Route (sort of like the Missouri River never reaches the Gulf of Mexico because it merges with the Mississippi).

[Harrybanana]

Below are screenshots showing the North Atlantic Convoy Route before (57 Resources) and after (141 Resources) the South Atlantic Convoy Route merges with it. This is why you pretty much never want to turn off the North Atlantic Convoy Route.

[Harrybanana]

Now lets go back to source of the North Atlantic Convoy Route, which is the Caribbean Sea Convoy Route. Sorry the screenshot looks a mess, I screwed up my paint colours. This Route starts by picking up the 65 Resources from the South America Box. From the Trade Route Screen (see my 2nd post) we know that 30 of these Resources are being Traded to the US and 35 are being traded to the UK. Note that 5 of the Resources are not currently being Traded to anyone.

[Harrybanana]

Off the East Coast of the US the Caribbean Sea Convoy Route ends and the Pan American Convoy Route begins. The Pan American Route than splits to carry 30 Resources to the US while the remaining 35 head North.

[Harrybanana]

The Pan American Convoy Route is joined off the coast of Canada by the Canadian Trade of 22 Resources to the UK.

[Harrybanana]

Off the Coast of Newfoundland the Pan American Convoy Route ends and its 57 Resources are now carried by the North Atlantic Convoy Route.

[Harrybanana]

I appreciate that all of the above may sound a little complicated. But the good news is you don't really need to understand all of this. All you really need to appreciate is the distinction between a Trade and a Convoy Route and have a very general idea of how they work together.

In fact so long as you have enough MSs you really don't need to know any of this at all. The program will take care of everything for you. But what happens if the total Resources of all of your Trades (both the Default Trades and the Trades you have created) exceeds the number of your MS?

Well first of all you need to understand that for all the Trades you have created the game will first try to use the MS of the recipient Nation. However, if the recipient Nation does not have enough MS it will then use some of the sending Nations MS. So, for example, if I setup a Trade of 20 Oil per turn from the UK to France, the game will 1st try to use the French MS. But if you look at the Production Screen (see my first post above) you will see that France only has 29 MS and it is already using 10 of these; 5 for the Iraq Oil and 5 on the Mediterranean Convoy Route (that I forgot to show). So it only has 19 available MS for my Oil Trade. Therefore one UK MS will be used. Note as well that creating this Trade will open up the European Convoy Route to which France and the UK can now assign escorts. So again you don't need to worry about this as the game will take care of everything for you.

But what if you still don't have enough MS for all of your Trades for a particular Major Power? Well my understanding is that the game will first assign MS to all of that Nation's Default Trades before it assigns any MS to the Trades you have created for that Nation (is this correct Alvaro?). However, as I said above if you have setup a Trade from one Major Power to another the Sending Major Power will use its excess MS (if any) as well. So for example, lets say the UK and the US each have 100 MS. The UK needs 150 MS to move all of its Default Trades and the US needs 30 MS for all of its Default Trades (South America). The Allied Player sets up a Trade of 50 Oil and 50 Iron from the US to the UK. The game will first try to use the UK MS to move these Trade items, but since the UK doesn't have any excess (and in fact has a shortfall) none will be used. However, since the US has 70 excess MS over what it needs, the US MS will be used to ship 70 Resources (35 Iron and 35 Oil) to the UK.

But what if the UK absolutely needs the full 100 Resources from the US. Well one option would be to turn off a Convoy Route to free up some MS. You cannot turn off either the Pan American or North Atlantic Convoy Routes as these are needed to move the Resources from the US to the UK. But you could turn off the Caribbean Sea Route for the US. This would free up 30 US MS allowing it to transport the full 100 Resources to the UK. But IMHO, something like this should only be done in emergency situations.

The solution to all of this, of course, is to just always make sure that you have more MS than you need for all of your Trades. But this may be easier said than done.

[ncc1701e]

Perfect tutorial. Sticky it please.

[Harrybanana]

I have no idea how to sticky it; or is that something Alvaro has to do?

[sveint]

Very nice. Also need info on trade convoys during Sea Lion, this can be crippling if the Allied player does not understand the limits.

[ncc1701e]

ORIGINAL: Harrybanana

I have no idea how to sticky it; or is that something Alvaro has to do?

Moderator super rights

[george420]

Great, thanx.

[redrum68]

This is very helpful. Is there any similar explanation around how raiding and escorts work for convoy routes?