Free Trade (puzzling or bugged?)

[JanSorensen]

EDIT: I was just reading the rules wrong - thanks for helping me getting it right.
Rule 9.7 says that each minor only gives up half it resources rounded down.

Case:
1) Play all 6 sides (without supplies for ease)
2) Conquer Netherlands, France and Yugoslavia + Garrison Eastern France.
3) Roll forward a turn till the summer 40 German production phase.
Now, it would seem reasonable for the Germans to get 3 resources from Free Trade (1 from Sweden, 1 from Spain and 1 from Turkey) - but the actual number is no less than 8.

If you dont trust the F7 screen you can do the following to truly verify this number.
4) Build factories and whatever untill at some turn in 42 you have spent every single resource you have.
5) Roll forward to the next German Production phase.
Then count the actual resources you have to spent. Notice how this is 8 more than you should have if you dont count in free trade but do count in the 3 from Russia.

Puzzled yet? There is still more to come.
6) Move transporters to the Western Med, Central Med, the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland.
Now you are getting 12 resources from Free Trades.


As far as I can see the following is happening.
8 = 3 Spain, 1 Portugal, 2 Turkey and 2 Persia
12 = those 8 + Sweden 3 + Norway 1

So, not only is Germany getting ALL the resources from the minors as opposed to half rounded down - but its also getting resources from countries that trace a path through other neutral minors. My guess is that the first part is because the minor is giving half its accumulated resource pool rather than half its printed resources. The second half might be intended and might just be a bug.


Edit: re-reading the rule again I figure this might be half ways indended anyway and just me that read it wrong (even if it is still oddly written to me).

rule 9.7 reads

Neutral Nationalities send a portion of their Resource Points to World Powers (called ‘Free Trade’) as long as a path of friendly land regions or Transport Fleets from the
Neutral region to a region controlled by the World Power exists. Each player gets 1/2 of
the Neutral’s Resource Pool (rounded down, i.e. one Resource Point yields none, two
Resource Points yield one, five Resource Points yields two, etc.). This Free Trade is
distributed on a first-come, first-served basis during any turn. Thus, Germany will always
get first crack at a Neutral’s Resource Points each turn.

It does read "Resource Pool" but it also talks about 1 Resource Point (which seems rather odd as the pool for a Neutral would always seem to hold an even number). It also talks about "friendly land regions" which to me would imply that the path cannot include other neutrals but the game does indicate otherwise.

As always - opinions are most welcome. Maybe someone can come up with a scenario where the "rounded down" actually applies so it can make a bit more sense.

Another edit: Seeing I forgot to include Greece I simply dont get it. Not one bit.

[t3mplarKn1ght]

Jan,

It is half the current POOL. And it does trace thru neutrals.

The best way to see what's going on is this:

At the end of the German movement phase write down the resource pool totals in all the minors. Advance to the supply phase and look how it changed. The total change will show up in your production report as the number gained via free trade.

[JanSorensen]

Thanks for the reply. I can accept that the rules are a bit unclear about tracing through neutrals - but it still doesnt quite add up for me.

Turkey = 2
Spain = 3
Portugal = 1
Greece = 1
Persia = 2

These should add up to 9 - yet I only get 8 for some reason.

Also, I don't really understand why the rules is worded in terms of resource pool - rather than simply talking about getting all the printed resources from the neutrals.

[JanSorensen]

Actually, I finally get it now.

The reason is that Spain (as the only involved territory) has more than one resource AND is adjacent to both Germany and WA.

So, Spain goes
Turn 1 prod: 3
WA 1: 2 (they give 1 to WA)

Turn 2 prod: 5 (gain 3)
Germ 2: 3 (give 2 to Germany)
WA 2: 1: (give 1 to WA)
repeat

While Northern Persia for example goes:
Turn 1 prod: 1
Ger 1: 1 (dont give any)
Rus_1: 1 (dont give any)
Wa 1: 1 (dont give any)

Prod_2: 2
Germ_2: 1 (give 1 to germany)
Rus_1: 1 (dont give any)
Wa 1: 1 (dont give any)

Thanks for the tip about the F10 screen - it finally made it clear to me.

[Big Lou]

Its a bit more complicated than that. There is a sticky in one of the forums (maybe the war room) that gives a very good discussion of this topic.

Let me try to explain, keeping it simple. Lets use Spain as an example. Turn 1, Spain has a resource pool of 3. Germany, through its conquest of France, borders Spain and gets first dibs on those resources. Half of 3 is 1.5, rounded down is 1. Germany gets one point from Spain, leaving Spain with a resource pool of 2. But that's not the end...Let's suppose that the WA, via transport link/Gibralter, is also connected to Spain. The WA turn comes around and Spain now only has 2 points left in its resource pool. The WA get half of 2, or 1 point of trade from Spain. This leaves Spain with 1 point left in its resource pool. Japan, Russia, and China all in theory could have received that 1 resource point from Spain before the WA - but it would be unlikely for any of them to be able to trace a route over transports/neutrals to get it. Ok turn 1 is over a Spain has given a point to Germany and a point to the WA, leaving it with 1 point in its resource pool.

Turn 2 starts. Spain, with 3 resorces, gets 3 more points added to its resource pool. The 3 new resource points plus the 1 left over from the first turn gives Spain a resource pool of 4. Germany still bordering Spain will get half of Spain's resource pool (4) in free trade. So Germany snags 2 points from Spain, leaving Spain with 2 points in their pool. Along come the WA on their 2nd turn. They still have their transport link to Spain and get half of the remaining resource points. So the WA get 1 point from Spain, leaving Spain with 1 point in their resource pool at the end of turn one. Keep all things the same, Spain would always end the turn with 1 resource point and start the next with a total of 4. And Germany would continue to get 2 points from them, while the WA would get 1 every turn.

Lets pretend that on the 2nd turn Germany sank the WA transport linking Spain to England and captured Gibralter (not likely I know). For Germany, the free trade to Spain would remain the same on turn 2. They would still get half of Spain's resource pool, which is 2 points. This would leave Spain with 2 resource points in their pool. But since the WA no longer have a way to collect any points from Spain, Spain ends the turn with 2 points in the pool. Thus they start turn 3 with 5 points in their pool. On turn 3 Germany is still the only country with a link to Spain. Germany takes half of the 5 rounded down; so they again get 2 points of free trade from Spain. But now Spain is left with 3 points in its pool and will start turn 4 with 6 points in the pool. So on turn 4, Germany can now get half of that 6. Thus Germany gets 3 points leaving Spain with 3. If nothing else changes, Germany will now get 3 points of free trade each turn from Spain.

As you can see, free trade is a dynamic process because it is based off of resource pools not just resources produced each turn. As a side note, a reource pool can never hold more than (I think) 3 times the resources produced by a region. So, in theory, Spain's resource pool could never be larger than 9.

Sorry I must have posted this as you were posting your most recent message - looks like you got it down.

[JanSorensen]

Thanks Big Lou

Shame on me for missing the excellent writeup by daskomodo.