Bit of a necro, but here it goes.
I got into this game recently. Got production of salt, meat, wood, brick, wheat, beer, wool, and hemp going. It was a pain to set everything up so all the surplus gets sold off but All I have to do is stop buying stuff and donating 100's of thousands of dollars (or whatever the currency is) for one day and I break my record for "most money at once".
Expanded the salt > meat > cheese trade into this huge thing in which I can't even remember how everything get's moved around. But basically my home city is the happiest in the world. Also dragging in spice and wine on a regular basis. Other trade route include stock fish + iron > hemp + wool and an experimental "buy a huge fleet and make them trade everything everywhere. The latter seems to be messing with my other trade routes.
And then the politics....... Why the hell does it take so long to go up a rank? How much money do you need to get past councilmen? more then 3 million? Anyway I am nuking pirates, sucking up to the duke, donating until the church overflows with money every day, feed all the peasants, and make sure that most of the cities have what they miss the most.... So why am I not getting promoted?
But I have been wondering, wouldn't the best strategy just be to makes all ships travel to every city? I really can't find a fault in it.
Also, hate the fighting. I just auto all the time because it's so boring and hard to micro manage. I could easily win and have fun when it was 1 ship and manual controls. But AI now? And only 3 ships? Not even worth watching.