User Guide

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CARAVANS & FREIGHT
Caravan units represent shipments of trade goods and materials. Though the icon remains
a camel, as history progresses, your Caravan units are stand-ins for the continuum of trade
vehicles from camel caravans to wagon trains. They can be used to establish trade routes
between cities or to transfer resources for the construction of Wonders of the World.
Caravans become available once you have achieved the advance of Trade.
Once your civilization has discovered The Corporation, the Freight unit replaces the Caravan
unit on the PRODUCTION menu. Freight units have two movement points a turn. They represent
the modern movement of goods and materials by truck convoys and cargo containers.
TRADE ROUTES
A Caravan or Freight unit can establish a trade route by entering any city, even a rival’s city.
Your treasury gains an immediate cash payment for delivery of the first load of goods, and
your research scientists gain an immediate bonus for cultural exchange of an equal amount
of science (beakers). The home city of the Caravan or Freight unit gains an increase in the
trade generated each turn, which represents a continuing economic relationship. A listing
in the GENERAL INFORMATION window shows the cities with which trade routes have been
established, and the amount of bonus trade generated every turn. The bonus is added to
the total amount of trade your city produces, so that indirectly this boosts your research,
tax, and luxury production in that city.
Each city can have up to three functioning trade routes, one for each commodity the city
produces. As each route is established, the commodity traded on that route is enclosed in
parentheses, to indicate a successful deal. Thereafter, when a Caravan is completed, loads
of that commodity are no longer available. Food loads are always available.
The amount of trade generated by a trade route depends greatly on supply and
demand, and partly on the size of the two cities. Bigger cities generate more trade. Trade
with a city from another civilization is of greater value than trade with friendly cities. The
farther apart the two cities are, the greater the bonus for trading between them. Trade
bonuses also increase when the cities are on different continents. If you capture a rival city
with whom you were previously trading, the trade route remains active. However, the
amount of trade it generates is reduced, because items which were once exotic imports
have become domestic commodities.
Caravans and Freight can enter any city they can reach. They are not hampered by
movement restrictions like zones of control, but their ADM numbers are low enough that
they might find it difficult to smuggle goods into an enemy city without being destroyed.
Caravan and Freight units can take advantage of naval transport to trade overseas (you can
load them aboard any ship that carries units), and they can disembark into a city directly
from a ship.
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