![imperialism 2 merchant imperialism 2 merchant](https://reader020.cupdf.com/reader020/slide/20190828/56649dd95503460f94ace5a6/document-10.png)
calculate how much trade capacity you can use for the import of raw materials and add that to your raw material income flux, then add all of the materials up and make sure you got enough workers so that nothing is wasted sitting in the warehouse for nothing. keep a balance between workers and warehouse, don't develop resources if you got 30 timber, 30 iron, 30 wool etc., instead build farms and ports to max your population according to your own raw material exploitation. galleons are also great at cargo space if u can spare the tin. same with early galleons, even 4 of them early can blockade a harbor and then the blockaded country can either fight and cancel trade, or keep trading and risk getting it's ships intercepted one by one by 4 juggernauts of early naval warfare. don't forget your research, you need horse artillery, they are pretty much the point of the game, if you get them too late you're gonna get run over, get them early and u can run over your neighbours, get their food, if lucky, their tin and then keep on rolling through everyone else. you can easily build a trade empire with half the population working on refining imported raw materials. you can also scout close by swamps in favor of long distance hills/mountains. keep scouting, but don't go a long way for 1 unit of iron ore if u got 3-4 timber and wool nearby, better to exploit that and sell it to get a steady income source and then go for the iron.
![imperialism 2 merchant imperialism 2 merchant](https://img.youtube.com/vi/z4srj6eeDiA/hqdefault.jpg)
do not offer anything, do it once you established trade consulate in case those countries are buying you will also get improved relationships, number of trade counts, not number of items, so selling 1 timber, 1 paper is a better relationship improvement than selling 100 paper set trade bid for wool and iron ore, prioritize iron ore send 1 ship to scout all of the indian capitals, you will want them all exposed so u can trade with them engineer can go towards forests until the scout(s) have revealed the iron, you can make good money selling timber and paper to buy iron set research for timber 2, diplomacy and merchant unit check out minor nations who sell iron, build trade embassies there make 1 paper for a new civilian, scout if there are many hills/mountains nearby or engineer if they are far, you need to get to DAT ORE buy 2 workers if you can make up the deficit they will create in time for them not to starve(rare) you pick a capital with as much grain as possible because of the level 2 grain, in the end u can make a lot of ships and ports for meat, but it might take a while til you can harvest level 2 grain
![imperialism 2 merchant imperialism 2 merchant](https://reader022.staticloud.net/reader022/reader/2020061102/5e93b92c4cd3ce018a7a4603/html/bg1.png)
I am not going to try harder difficulty because the AI will not get better, I will have to do tedious calculations for the first 200 turns. Hello, after winning consistently on 250 difficulty I am the point where I don't see how I can lose by using this strategy.