Medieval 2 total war: Merchants

[@jaystrickland4151]

I always knew the Merchants were the most complicated mechanic to make work in this game. But you have showed me how complicated they are. Well done.

[@Vlad-jf1wt]

For me, the problem was leveling up the merchant,

[@idontlikerome2744]

In all my runs, no matter the faction, they become the "men of Timbuktu"

[@jaystrickland4151]

@@idontlikerome2744 Yes Some games I have made decent trade income by sending a diplomat to bribe Timbuktu and then churning merchants to collect the trade from down there.

[@Haggis-Giggles4692]

They are simple, but I never knew town halls make higher level merchants.

[@witterboo]

Almost 20 years of studying mechanics of this game and we are still in darkness. In dark ages i would say :D

[@mayamihit8971]

Well Said 👏

[@idontlikerome2744]

Got to relearn and reinvent everything again because some pesky germans decided to cross the Rhine

[@shineyrow9001]

It is witchcraft. Heresy, if you ask the Holy Roman Church!

[@TheLaFleur]

Always fear the egyptian merchant challenging your wine monopoly in France

[@crocworks]

It's probably considered an exploit, but you can park multiple merchants on the same resource by placing an army on top of that resource, then stack up to the max of the Agent limit in that army. Having 20 merchants all trading the same gold resource is essentially printing money for you.

[@happyboyc7]

Use a very loyal general so the army won’t turn rebel and wipe out your 20 merchants. Talking from experience.

[@kamikadze076]

Building a fort, is the safest and cheapest. The army spends every turn and dies in a natural disaster.

[@REAPERthePRUSKIE]

Legend of total war has been awfully quite after this droped 😂 Great vid 👌

[@thesavagekitti5668]

Lol, my channel is pretty small, wouldn't expect him to notice XD

[@imjustsayingfyi]

My lady I was playing this game for decades not knowing this at all. I tough they are useless investmen5, I was playing it wrong. Never again, thank you for your time and effort❤

[@thetzar2573]

@@imjustsayingfyi They still are pretty useless, unless you can easily get them to a resource. If you have to walk very far, your merchant might die pretty quickly.

[@tasoslotet271]

@@thesavagekitti5668 we will make him notice :P

[@Inquisitor_Vex]

Yeah, Legend is still right though. By the time you can actually do anything useful with a merchant, it’s already useless and you may as well have bought another archer and spear unit instead. Nice to know how it works though, for the role plays.

[@Frontline_view_kaiser]

What is this? I click on some pointless guide to a decades old game by a random channel and it turns out to be the most useful and informative guide I've seen in a long time...

[@thesavagekitti5668]

Well, I do take my time to do my research.

[@idontlikerome2744]

The knowledge lost in the dark ages...

[@john-owenmiley-read9530]

If you don't know this game, then you should definately give it a look. Best Total war title. One of the best strategy games ever. Great video

[@Frontline_view_kaiser]

@@john-owenmiley-read9530 I've been playing it since release, but thanks for the tip

[@morte2504]

Broke: assassinating other merchants Woke: buying them out Ascended: puting 9 units around them to kill them

[@hshgf3410]

"It may be useful to use a crusade or jihad to gain a foot hold somewhere" Ice cold, lol.

[@ugurcankalayci4060]

I am genuinely surprised to see a fresh video about Medieval II Total War... And it's very welcome! :D I adore this game and I am happy that people still represent this game. Great video and I will follow your channel from now on. I also love your accent, easy to understand. Keep up the good work.

[@idontlikerome2744]

Always welcome to see Medieval 2 pop up in the recommends

[@jecsquire9508]

Started playing mtw2 again a cpl of weeks ago - never fully caught the mechanics of the merchant, thanks for taking the time to investigate and break it down!

[@johnandan1594]

Currently in a Byzantium campaign in SSHIP mod. With everything so expensive merchants are single handedly making sure my income stays positive. Also gold and silver are some of the most valuable resources no matter the faction and a high level merchant will give around 700-1000+ income per turn

[@logangustavson]

Later on that node will give you like 10k

[@remonvanvugt9108]

Ooooh damn I love SSHIP mod! Played a vh/vh campaign as Lithuania recently, game was actually challanging for once.

[@johnandan1594]

@@logangustavson yeah im 150 turns in and my merchants are doing average around 6k income long term, 44k between all of them. i read a guide about how long term merchants on just one resource type will get bored of that resource and start accumulating negative traits. so apparently you have to move them around but for me its not worth it cause by the time they have negative traits they're about to die and get replaced with a new merchant. this is only on SSHIP mod too

[@johnandan1594]

@@remonvanvugt9108 yeah lithuania is easy target for all faction around it since most doesnt want to ally with them due to the pagan religion. early game is probably the hardest for Lithuania

[@idontlikerome2744]

I wonder if in SSHIP there is still gold in the Balkans like in Vanilla

[@beltwaaay4006]

Look, I'm a simple man... I see a video of Medieval 2, in this era of gaming. And I just watch, like and subscribe.

[@Shiroi-Tenshi]

Stumbled upon your video by accident, and as a grizzled veteran and modder of early TW games, I can say that I am quite pleased with your lovely presentation! Clear, concise and well-researched to boot. You have definitely earned a subscriber. :)

[@nicolaaffatati5355]

Merchant has always been my favourite Agent, and due i already knew these mechanics, i always made perfect merchants since the very beginning of my campaigns, great Sir! ❤

[@mickpalade8331]

I already knew all of this but i enjoyed hearing it explained by a woman's voice

[@mickpalade8331]

correction, i did not know quite all of this, i am humbled

[@Lex_Araden]

Great video. I am surprised you didn't mention the merchant fort. Here is how it works if you don't know: Create a fort on top of a resource using a General (ideally one that is worth a lot). Then you can put up to 20 merchants on the same location instead of just one. You don't need troops inside, but the fort will disappear completely if empty of all troops and agents. This trick does not work in all the Kingdoms Expansion Campaigns, since some have different fort mechanics.

[@thesavagekitti5668]

I'm saving that for 'creative gameplay Vs exploit'

[@Lex_Araden]

@@thesavagekitti5668 Ah, I see. Cool!

[@Carbonific]

I don't think this works on the Steam version either, just the disc version.

[@adambrande]

You can also change the settings in the game folders to allow this mechanic in all expansions and even vanilla. It's surprisingly customizeable

[@emrekalyon903]

also there is no need for a fort. you can add merchants to a unit. But this time this unit may be a rebel. this is cons.

[@craig42069]

Hell yeah fresh mtw content in 2024

[@mateusz73]

Medieval 2 total war guides in 2024, holy shit, amazing. Thank you savagekitti

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Great break down! I learned quite a bit from this even after playing this amazing game since it came out :)

[@turmuthoer]

When I used to play this game as a child I never really took the time to learn about all these little details before and I'm honestly amazed at how complex this game really is.

[@OskarC1908]

Stumbled across this video today. Have over a thousand hours in playing Medieval II TW and yet I learned some new stuff. Thank you! Awesome video 😊

[@Omega-lc3ge]

Peak 2 total war showing how it's done again, it's sad how many features were removed or simplified to the void to attract more casual players (who don't like these kind of games to begin with).

[@adambrande]

It's less appeasing casual players and more of the fact CA realized they can remove these mechanics and their games will still sell. why bother put effort when less will still sell?

[@PSanswer]

Damn man that is an awesome guide!! I've been playing this game since it came out back in 2006 - I'm 33 now, and today I learned something new !! Thank you very much!

[@dannyalex5866]

When you have a merchant uppon a trade resource that belong to another faction ,then they will also gain from trade Check hot seat campaign and the income scroll

[@LucasCunhaRocha]

you also make some money if a foreign merchant stay on a resource you control.

[@idontlikerome2744]

It makes sense though, thinking about it

[@chezza9116]

Great video. I resonate with this content as I use to play countless hours of the game and play around with all the traits, exploring how they function. Despite all this, I still learned something new from this video!

[@robertfisher8359]

brilliant video! I knew some of it, but not others. Keep them coming!

[@jaredkutney7075]

My god the sound of the buildings being destroyed jumpscared me.

[@roadrunner6474]

wow thanks for the in-depth guide I had no idea the merchant system was so intricate

[@stevecooper7883]

It's almost preposterous compared to the trait system of priests

[@pattyschulle5527]

Again a great video for one of my favorites game. Thank you very much!

[@John_Smith777]

Excellent content!

[@boomer19450]

Ngl my go-to tactics is always to yeet an expeditionary force and merchants on Timbuktu as early as possible. Never failed me no matter what factions i played😂

[@idontlikerome2744]

The "Men of Timbuktu" will keep our finances on the green for years to come, from Rus, Rome, Germania, British Isles...no matter where they come from

[@maximinomorgado2150]

I love your medieval 2 content, is exactly what I expect from a m2tw guide type of video... i wish you keep making them! Good luck to you Edit: tipo

[@tigertankerer]

I hate acqusition mechanic. I feel regardless of level and % my merchants almost always lose.

[@adambrande]

I usually send my surviving units that has like 2 to 30 dudes to surround my merchants. As long as your king have high authority, they rarely rebel. Alternatively, you can just have an extremely loyal general with a single unit stand on this resources and have your merchants embedded in his army.

[@MrDwarfpitcher]

The trick is to constantly manage your merchants all over the place. Which is fine in the early game, but I tend to drop it when it becomes a micro managing mess

[@exantiuse497]

The AI gets cheats on agent actions, that's why your merchants almost always get bought out. You can kill AI merchants by surrounding it with armies (in all 8 adjacent tiles) and moving one more army to the tile the merchant is in. It isn't really practical though, I just do it out of spite. A better trick is to build a fort on top of the resource and put merchants in it (you can use more than one). This protects them from enemy merchants. It's stupid you have to cheese like that to use a game mechanic but what can you do

[@justinbenny8054]

Great work. You are one of the best Medeival 2 youtuber out there. Waiting for more of your detailed guides!

[@fallenbygravity]

This was actually really well put together. Great work!

[@Jenks1]

Great job. I played this back as a child and I didn't understand 1% of all the stuff you just discovered!

[@Yas-ii3hu]

To the AI in every campaign I've ever played, modded or not, their merchants seek my merchant to the literal ends of the world just to acquire more business.

[@mixelplik]

That is true if they are a low-finance merchant on a resource. If you gain 4+ finance the enemy usually leaves you alone. Also, you NEVER get acquired if you are NOT on a resource.

[@addochandra4745]

That's why, If I play as other than Sicily, take Palermo, turn that into a City, blockade the crossing, and voila.... You can monopolize its resources with more than 1 merchant...

[@polychronisdoumpas3081]

if i ever put follow cpu moves on turns i swear 50 percent of them are merchant lines of different factions reaching the most distant lands of the map and i love it

[@komneni7654]

Loved this! It's really interesting to learn a bunch of stuff I didn't know about honestly one of my all time favourite games. I confess, I never really got merchants to work for me back in the day, they always just ended up acquired by the AI merchants. The sea gap trick is a good one to learn.

[@anthonymarino2949]

Great video and amazing depth.. don’t even play the game yet and I know so much more.. always been a fan of total war (historic and fantasy) and love the fanbase and how much they care.. again great job

[@guillezgz95]

Waiting the next guide 👍🏻

[@mxhof]

incredible vid, exactly what I want to know about merchants! The detail in this game is remarkable

[@tasoslotet271]

15 years on this game and I still learn a thing or 2. good job on the vid. It is a pretty and simple way to understand game mechanics. I will go and see more of your content :P P.S. we will make you get noticed by legend and you can battle in campaign mechanics in a quiz game xD (I also love your youtube name xD)

[@TheAsharedhett]

Nice explanatory content for this game! Thanks. Maybe I'll play it again soon.

[@Forfngelighed]

Luv me merchants, in the WFaS II mod I was playing as England and I was making north of 25k per turn from my merchants

[@LordZaxom]

There is something very funny about your advice of starting a large scale holy war to create a stronger merchant and the advice of using assassins to get rid of powerful merchants instead of buying them out.

[@Huhugg7g7vt]

Advance congratulations for 1k subscribers ❤

[@thesavagekitti5668]

Thanks, just need 5 more. I think I can do chapters then - it won't let me at the moment.

[@omarahmad-wt6rm]

Fantastic video deserve far more subscribers waiting for the Assassin's guide

[@Bunjiman]

way more informative than i thought it would be coming into this

[@arifulislamanik8581]

It is insane that thousands still play medieval 2 including me

[@Kuzcotopia-g2m]

Thanks for this video, I was looking for just this

[@Lysimachus]

very cute dog.

[@mickpalade8331]

I loved this

[@alastair7140]

Great video!!!! Just what I needed, I've never understood how merchants actually work just keep getting mine stolen.

[@ВикторГайдаржи-ъ2б]

The best, most efficient thing you can do with Merchants, no matter the faction (except Egypt), is take out Egypt, conquer Dongola (South of Cairo), make it a city, put a ballista/catapult on the Elephants 🐘 tusks resources - there are two of them in the region, and then spam it with Merchants from Cairo, putting 20 Merchants into that ballista unit. And then boom - you have 40 merchants bringing you the most valuable resource in the game.

[@Person0fColor]

Don’t keep using lower level merchants to try and buy out higher level merchants Yup we’re idiots

[@thesavagekitti5668]

If I don't include something obvious, some people will feel compelled to point it out in the comments.

[@muatring]

9:08, the units are the map coordinates? Use console command to check coordinate of a map tile (like a city), then use the command again somewhere else and compare coordinate distance.

[@tomtom34b]

Have you explained the monopoly trait in a different video? If not, the quick explanation is as follows: If you have a merchant on a trade object that is present twice in a region (for example in france there are some with double wine), he can get up to three points in market control. Gaining points is prevented if a merchant of another faction sits on the other trade object of the same nature, so it is best to keep them occupied with your own merchants ofc. Together with the sea barrier, the british islands make for a peaceful backyard training area for your new merchants to gain monopolist. Also Italy can become almost an island, if you block the passes through the alps

[@lothricc8736]

That territory spread at the end of the vid lmaoo

[@Sunscreen723]

Medieval 2 ,yay !!

[@eyasidebutcloser2873]

This has no business being this good

[@QueenAleenaFan]

I didn't know how merchants worked in this game so that's great.

[@zetos4440]

gotta love medieval 2 guides still being uploaded in 2024

[@bry756]

Peasant units standing on resources basically ensure I have at least 18 merchants operating on a single resource

[@AntonioMartinez-yj4pd]

This is a great channel, its going to be notice by all of us nerds eventually

[@Inquisitor_Vex]

Lady, I just love your voice and the way you speak. Language so (precise!) it could make a laser blush. 🥂

[@P4GYY]

Legend Of Total War must be mad

[@stevecooper7883]

He hates the "merchant tribe" 😅

[@nino-xm7rw]

love this video so much very well done!

[@benjaminloyd6056]

This is really cool. I never knew how to get good money from merchants. Please do a video about priests some time, I struggle with getting them to have good traits unless they are always converting muslims, and I am often far from any muslims.

[@AvengerAtIlipa]

I can see why Legend of Total War never bothers with Merchants. They seem to be much more trouble than they're worth.

[@niku4259]

based medieval2 content

[@magtheidio]

Omg great stuff! I always end up by having my merchants bought and not making any new!

[@Ratago-x1e]

I give trade right like handing candy, decades playing this game, I just know this!

[@Voundrimith]

How could CA expect players to figure out all of these by themselves? It is insane. I thought I knew everything about the merchants after playing the game for almost 15 years. But I had no idea about the effects of government buildings, religious buildings, trade agreements affecting acquisiton chance. Btw, here I have a useful exploit for all of you: if you would place merchants in an army standing on a trade good spot, they will generate income all the same. By this way, you can place many merchants on a single good, all protected from acquisiton. I bet Thesavagekitti already knew this but didn't mention on purpose 😁

[@Ironwizard42]

I think merchants are completely useless. Other sources of income are far more reliable and profitable. That aside, I was happily surprised to see someone making videos about this game! I still play it from time to time. I even have the disc version. I'll have to check out the rest of your channel. Have a wonderful day/evening/whatever.

[@dylanram4653]

they are useful bc they give passive income, at a cost of only 5 hundred ur gonna make it back after a few turns and still make more from it, plus if u use exploits u can have all ur merchants at 1 trade node, usually timbuktu

[@mixelplik]

If a merchant costs 550, but can make 50 per turn on a resource, you make your money back after 11 turns. Merchants can last 30 to 40 turns. Put them on gold or silk and they make thousands over their lifetime. Not useless, just an extra way to make money that requires some finagling.

[@MrSpartanspud]

It isn't literally worthless. But it's not worth the attention required to bother.

[@Carbonific]

Interesting video. Thanks for sharing.

[@evanhouston7246]

I'm your 1,000th subscriber 🙂

[@Taipei_103]

Timbuktu is a great place to make money.

[@idontlikerome2744]

Arguin and Dongola: 😢

[@RinxPlatin666]

she sound she wasnt even born, when the game launched 👶. The information is 100% correct good job! next princess, priest guilds, resident caps for Upgrade, wich traits from wich guilds etc (liked and subscribed )

[@sayto_00]

My merchants always get exterminated. If you're new to the game, you'll find merchants suck. It costs 550 to recruit one, most would have level 0 or level 1 merchants which will always get annihilated and there goes your 550 Florins. Even if you keep them on local non-competitive resources for xp farming sake, local enemy merchants still hunt them down just to be petty lol. The local enemy merchant doesn't even set up shop at my merchant's resource because it was worthless to him. He just destroyed him for no reason and moved on💀 And if you send him far, it takes him too many turns to reach it. He'll get a nice bag of florins for a few turns then get destroyed by another merchant (in my case, I was Venice and it was my neighbor Milan, the merchant A-hole who found me in the middle east and put him out of business lol). After that I stopped bothering with merchants because if you make him venture far it's a waste of turns because he gets destroyed and if you keep him close to, you know, make him level up a bit before venturing far he also gets destroyed. I guess the only way to make merchants work without exploits is making sure merchants are at a high level from the beginning with the proper buildings then beef him up more by taking out enemy merchants.

[@cmachinist]

In theory, they're useful. In practice, they all get immediately shit canned by other merchants, so you're just spending 550 gold every two or three turns per merchant to endlessly replace them all, which is way more than you can realistically get from trade. Not worth it. Sure you can put a few on islands, but that's about all you can realistically do.

[@gowensbach2998]

My merchants always get annihilated

[@Sanxtea]

Saw this (by the way AMAZING) guide and decided not to ever recruit a single merchant and instead focus on other things in the game. Shame I didn't do my research back when I actually used to recruit merchants. Would've been hella helpful.

[@KaaxItzam]

It is worth noting that none of the Mesoamerican factions can recruit merchants either. This is true in the Americas campaign and in the base game should the Aztecs be modded in.

[@stephencrompton4352]

Evil Legend of Total War be like

[@jonm2438]

I’ve maybe successfully taken over 2 trade resources in the 10 years I’ve played this game

[@CastlesLaw1911]

Someone tag Legend

[@svon1]

i read somewhere that the Merchant Harbors trade routes don't work due to a bug and that one has to build military harbors for trade routes instead .... was this fixed in an update? or do the trade harbors only do trade skill increase but not trade route increase ?

[@LeftToWrite006]

A cheesing way to get rid of an enemy merchant is to surround it with units so it can't retreat anywhere and then have a unit move on top of the enemy merchant. It can be a PITA trying to get them in position, though.

[@ethanbrown7198]

Fantastic. I knew almost none of this

[@IgorSantos-pk6cy]

Nice video, thanks!

[@christopherwebber3804]

The percentage chance of success of an acquisition does not reflect your real chance of success. Save the game before attempting to do an acquisition. if the attempt fails, reload and save the game (Alt=S is sufficient). Saving the game resets the counter, it's the only way to give yourself a better chance of success. Having saved, you can try again, and repeat the procedure until success is achieved. This may be save scumming but since the chance of success doesn't reflect the actual chance of success, I don't feel like it's cheating. Alternatively, you can go and do something else chancy and that will reset the counter, then come back and try again. By the way, I've read that building warehouses isn't worth the expense but I have no proof that it's true. It helps enormously to have ports and roads connecting everything. Especially ports. Merchants are also good second rate spies that you can use to find enemy armies and settlements without much fear of them being killed, on their way to their next acquisition, of course.

[@Mr_D_The_1st]

timbuktu supremacy.

[@DLizza89]

Instead of using assassins, which don't work all the time, you surround the merchant with units to block all "escape" routes, then move another unit into the merchant's space. The game will resolve this by eliminating the merchant...

[@exantiuse497]

I love doing this out of spite when an AI merchant takes over my merchant

[@J4R0D]

It works on priests as well

[@favorius]

1. build a fort on a valuable trade good. 2. stack merchant on that unit so that they cannot be targeted by hostile merchants 3. PROFİT!!!!

[@AFlyingGerman]

It doesnt let me build on or around the gold, any tip?

[@favorius]

@@AFlyingGerman stack merchants to a military unit and put military unit on resource. it used to be that way. i havent played in many years.

[@edwardr5793]

play dis game bacc in 2k07-2k09 Im now 29. I always know it that we can change capital, played as british just my name Edward(the Black Prince) but Im Indonesian. moving London to mid eu somewhere I forgot exact city name and see how corruption goes down. but as well as other like trading, merchant income all 3 are getting tweaked as well nothing stay as it was. I always know that finnance surpass 10 will result in further more monies but dunno exact formula as Im still kids dunno programming language or some kind of such thing growing maturer I find databases and codes it fit to how my expectaton of generally this game's hidden exact formula mechanism so well, patience is the key

[@coloradoing9172]

Legend of Total War: they're just useless

[@thesavagekitti5668]

Well, you can win without them but if you play your cards right, you can get some benefit from them.

[@mixelplik]

Playing the long game can net $6,000 to $10,000 or more per turn with merchants in a vanilla game. Just stick with them, send them as far as you can from your capital. It does for me (been playing since release).

[@Seallussus]

GOATED

[@lennydale92]

Great videos! Very informative.

[@gustafprates2170]

Great video thank you

[@bjack1547]

Cool I just started playing this game