Patrizierforum

This is the thread for hints and spoilers. Shoild you care to share the trading stations you have found in the Med and in America, feel free to post them here with the appropriate title. That way, whoever does not want to avail him/herself of the hint does not have the game "spoiled".
Other examples would be where to pick up good tavern missions to get "easy" additions to the fleet. Being faceed with an 80% holk with 65 crew on a 3,000 escort mission would not qualify for that.


Election dates are as follows:

Lord Mayor elections, sorted by date
Jan 22 Bremen
Feb 16 Oslo
Feb 26 Bruegge
May 11 Bergen
May 18 Ladoga (Captain 3/0/1 spottend on May 21)
May 28 Stettin
June 08 Edinburgh (Captain 3/2/0 spotted on May 13)
June 18 Hamburg
July 01 Danzig (if Edingurgh captain is hired, then the replacement shows here with trade ability of 4)
July 17 Revel
Sept 30 London
Nov 14 Gothenburg

Elderman elections are on July 13th.

It doesn't matter which flag you fly, you will need captains to start building your empire.
Initially only very low loans are available. I didn't find a good one until mid May.
Ships need the necessary materials and, unfortunaltey, those are scarce. Also, keep in mind that winter is not far away and your citizens do want certain goods in larger quantities when daylight is shorter than the night.
Pirates are fairly active. In one testgame they raided Bergen on July 27 but were without luck four days later in Oslo. I took all their ships but, somehow they managed to throw the bullion overboard before my ships took command of their vessels. This particular convoy comprised 2 holks and 2 crayers. It's out of the first pirate nest posted in another message of today (Jan 01, 2007)

Edits
January 2, 2007 Danzig captain added

Quoted

First the questions: Are you playing the contest game early?

I did not play the contest game, I merely looked for captains for the benifit of everybody. However, I used the map and the settings to do a trial, which was done prior to the final difficulty settings being determined.

Quoted

Doesn't that give you a head start on everybody else?

What are you referring to? The game lasts the entire year and I completed last year's contest in September, so over 3 months "to spare"

Quoted

If so, why not release the game early?

The starting date of the contest has been voted upon.

Quoted

On the captains, since two are generated every day, don't the hires change where one will show up? Or is the German game programming different than the American that way?

Since I was merely looking for the first two captains I don't know where the replacements will be spawned. Both, P II and P III have two+ captains on the map with a short delay after one has been hired, but an existing one remains until he has been hired either by you or the AI.

Quoted

Now, there is always one tavern mission generated as soon as another is fulfilled. If you are quick, you can do several a week.

Normally, there are always two escort missions available, soemtimes two in the same town. I don't care for other missions unlesss I have to create a notorious pirate to fulfill an alderman mission, than I use an "avenge my brother" missions.

The starting day is May 10, 1300.

The starting city and the name are only known to me. The only hint I gave was that a person of the name held the office of Lord Mayor for more than 1 year in the time between 1300 and 1314.
The staring city ends either on a, e, g, n, l or o.

The starting save has been saved and uploaded onto a website. The link will not be available until the starting time. From that starting save I have determined the election dates and the locations of the 2 captains that are available first off.

Right now I am way to busy with other things than to look at P III/IIGold. And January doesn't look too good either, so I don't think that 'll start on my game until soemtime in February, which is ok since we don't have to play to the bitter end.

Last but not least, we only delete posts that contain profanity or personal attacks embelished with gutter language

You are free to move anywhere as soon as you have the dough
But then, your hometown does not have to be your hub.

While I will not comment on guesses, I have heardalso Gothenburg and Hamburg

Well, it may be extremely difficult to make EM, but I won't put it past somebody to actually achive it. In the meantime, please remember that in any town where you trade actively, your repuation will increase beyond the monthly limits set in your home town (1 notch per month only).
Let's say you trade yourself into the hearts of the people of Gdansk (Danzig) you may still make it for the LM election on July 1st, which gives you 10 days to capture 3 notorious pirates. Tough but, theoretically, possible.
Personally, I will not go for it. Funds-permitting I may do the two-step and move somewhere to return to London for the LM elections. Other than that, Reval and Ladoga are nice hometowns too.

Pirate Plague
Spoiler Alert

Part of my game strategy is to block off every active pirate nest to protect my supply convoys, which are led by snaikkas. In order to find them I start with the vanilla game and move the lone snaikka in front of unpopulated towns. If by the end of July no pirate emerged, I start all over and park my ship in front of the next town. You cannot use [F12] unless you have managed to buy some expensive goods before venturing at sea since the pirate will sail past you undetected.
Spending some time (about 1/2 hour) I found the following two pirate's nest in this game:

Koenigsberg
Visby.

You are welcome to add to the list.

Quoted

Originally posted by Steersman
If we allow the swap into and out of multiplayer, picking up captains and giving ships and cash to our character, it is possible, barely.

This is not allowed.

Quoted

Maybe we should post a list here of travel times between cities?

they are available in the Brasileiro tool. There is a new edition of traveling times in the works; I will post them as soon as I get them.


IIRC, Danzig had the necessary building materials or, the the most, was a few IG short of it from what I remember from the testgame. Mind you , since that was played with two starting ships, and a lot of the dynamics have changed with just one (i.e. no easy-to-pick cogs anymore) I don't know it that's still the case. So you would need the building permit by May 21 and sail with a few ships. You can build reputation while the trading office is being built. But, as I said, it is, IMHO, only theoretically possible. For all pratical purposes nobody should be able to make it to EM in 1300.

I found two more nests:

Koenigsberg
Visby
Toensberg
Flensburg

If you persue the pirates hard, only the Flensburg nest seems to spawn at regular 4-week intervals. Toensberg and Koenigsberg are only spawning sporadicaly. In a fast forward I did not see a spawned one out of Visby at all to the end of the year. Toensberg sent one in October and Koengisberg not until December. Both of these were 2-ship convois, the rest out of Flensburg are your run-of-the-mill cogs with crews ranging from 33 - 40, which means that a snaikka can capture them, since their health is always better than 90 when they depart.

Nice list
Now, when you have nothing else to do, how about the centres in America

Your observations are correct. Sailing times to the Med do not follow nautical science but rather a foxes tail.

How to get all building permits in May:

Only pirates need to read

The first flotsam rescued from a line just north between Skagen and Edinburgh on the 15th is sent to Reval to unload/load and then onto Ladoga to employ the captain and return with IG and skins to Reval. The second ship goes to Danzig, where it picks up a level 4 trade captain and starts arbitrage there with meat and wool. Depending upon the inventory level it yields 500 - 800/turn. Once more skins have been brought to Reval, the yield there with skins and pig iron is 1,700 - 2,500.
The arbitrage in Danzig, plus some loans taken to finance it, and the influx of ships will help to get the building permits coming. Getting a building permit in Reval on the 29th is cutting it very fine for LM elections. I got the first permit from Danzig on the 22nd, Reval on the 23rd and the last two from Edinburgh and Oslo on the 31st. In a testgame I had the first from Hamburg on the 20th and the last ones by June 2nd.

The way I read the captain succession is:
Edinburgh-Danzig-Oslo
Ladoga-Gothenburg-Brugge

While it poses no great difficulty to become LM in Reval, with the office completed in the first days of July, I cannot see the advantage of an early move. I am certain that my building industry will not be up to the task that early in the game to build walls, let alone to start a new production town. Consequently one should be looking for a town where an early wall ist top priority, so anywhere buildings with a long construction time are being placed would make a good choice.

For all those contemplating an early LM election date:
I currently have 32 brickyards and a fast forward to October 01, 1300 shows a total of 800 bricks on hand. Now, I surly would build more brickyards till then but additonal businesses, houses and social buildings would eat most, if not even more, of the increased production.
A second wall takes about 1,500 without towers so there are not enough for the wall at that point. This stresses my point that an early move has no real advantage while a later move allows the instant placement of the second wall, which gives protection for current, and future businesses. After that, materials can be saved for the new porduction town. Putting 5 and 10-day businesses behind walls is not as important as those 40-day ones.