How do I load out a Large Sailing Ship?

General ACKS Forums General Discussion
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Alex,

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When I modeled the revenues of large sailing ships, I assumed they traveled from one Class I route to another, a distance of 500 miles which took 4 weeks. At each port, they stayed for three weeks, where they picked up 6 passengers and 9 shipping contracts, then filled up the rest of their cargo bay with arbitrage cargo. I assumed margins on arbitrage work at 5%. As a result, most ships make most of their money from shipping fees, not from arbitrage.

Would you mind, if you have it available still, sharing what your modeling was for the wagon caravans?

I can back-calculate a Large Sailing Ship going between maximally-distant Class I Markets using that paragraph to 2,532 gold, close enough to the book value of 2,600GP for happiness - 1 week of travel, 3 weeks of market, 4 weeks total, 1 month.

I’ve started with the 40-wagon caravan, and I can’t quite get it to suss out.

Assuming maximal arbitrage cargo (25,600st) at 5% profit, it’s making 1,280GP per market event - a bit less than the 1,475 from the book.

But it’s such a slow means of transport (I’m assuming 1.5 hexes per day on the road loaded to the brim, right?) I can’t get enough market visits over any time period - the best I justify are two markets within 12 hexes of each other (8 days), which is the Class IV range.

If I double the wagons to 80 per caravan, putting each at a normal load, that’s 3 hexes per day on the road, and I can just about do the Class I and II routes (28 hex road trade range, and either 9.3 or 8 days per trip).

Thanks!

42

Caravan profitability:

1. Passengers pay a lot more for travel.

2. I assumed 10% margins for land shipments from Class I/Class II markets, on the assumption that because land travel was slower and more expensive, it would not be as efficient a market as sea travel. Historically this was true, of course, with price differentials within a sea market very smooth (like grain in the Mediterranean) but price differentials along a long caravan route much greater.

 

43

OK - thank you! I figured out where I went wrong.

Given a max 28-hex distance for land trade between two Class Is, I’m at around 1,403 GP/mo for the 40-wagon, close enough for me to feel I’m doing it right-ish.

That’s a two month trip (28 days of travel, 1 month in-market).

44

I am slowly stalking you through these merchant-related posts.

On the Class I market; with 20K families generating 900K stone of trade, that being 45 stone per family and therefore 101 GP of value.

That’s good, I match.

On the Class VI, I have 75 families generating 6400 stone of trade; being 85 stone per family and 192 GP of value.

That’s bad, I don’t match.

Assuming I’m not missing something obvious and/or getting to the 101GP mark on the Class I was not just complete circumstance doing by simple division:

If I were to make a baseless guess, I’d want to say that extra 92 GP in value is what’s supposed to be flowing up on the trade routes into the larger and larger settlements - peasants produce (can’t find the thread) ~12GP and keep 3, so there’s gonna be some overflow that the local market cannot absorb.

If that is the case, and there’s a difference between incoming and outgoing trade in a market, what is that difference? Is it just the value produced above the 100GP/urban family limit, or is it something else?

Is that 900K stone of trade generated out of the Class I 50%/50% incoming/outgoing, so it’s a maximum volume of trade? (whereas the Class VI would be more 25/75?)

Or is it 900K in, and 900K out?

I imagine those Large Sailing Ships are dropping off 30K in cargo and picking up a fresh 30K, so something has to account for it, unless what’s supposed to account for it is the next stop on the trade route - so that the “output” of any given market is predefined by the demanded inputs of all trade partners? Some sort of Schrodinger’s Supply that does not exist until it’s measured? (and by extension, if a market does not have enough partners to meet it’s demand, it goes without?)

I think I’ve derailed here somewhere, but I’mma gonna hit ‘Save’ anyway.

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[Assumed Margins from Arbitage work at 5%]

What went into that assumption? That seems frighteningly low relative to my own experiences as a PC.