Because they were obvious from the very beginning, so the change either means that people aren't thinking very much or are acting based on thoughtless fear.
Trees will slow them down because no one likes ramming their cart into a tree, no one likes being lost in an unusual environment like a forest, no one likes having their wheels get stuck in roots and break, all of these are obvious. The northern settlements currently subsist off of herding and farms, but guess what forests do? Provide subsistence. Duh. Also, again, "Expand" not "Fill In." They'll have as much pasture as normal but now it will be less exposed, so we're not going to have people steal our cows and our people.
The last trade mission being what? Sending a boat or more off to a distant land that we've never been to before? Compared to sending a cart through the badlands along well-traveled roads to a place we know exists because our traders have been going there for generations? Great comparison.
Your plan costs 4 + whatever the boats cost unless you're including them. What even is your plan, actually? I haven't been paying attention to you. Trails = 1; Expand Warriors = 1-2; other thing = ? Restore Harmony? boats = 1-2.
A trade mission along standard routes is more like to cost 1 Econ, Expand Forest costs 1 econ and then returns 1-2 as the forest grows and provides wood and forage, as well as protection, and the last action has no cost because it's probably going to be Restore Harmony.
The Trade Mission is more than likely going to cost the same as Expand Warriors because it's not a novel route nor a novel method.
A trade mission = +2 diplo, aka something useful when we have a heroic diplo hero for the next two turns, and also an ally strengthened by our acknowledgement of their power and the affirmation provided by our luxurious trade goods, which will make going to war easier. We can also, needless to say, sell them the copper tools that we're buying from the metal miners. No shit, right? So it's more than likely that even if the initial payment for the Trade Mission is 2, we'll be getting back money by selling at a marked up price the stuff we buy from the metal miners.
So basically my plan provides passive protection to the north, passive protection to the south, an economic return next turn, and +1-2 diplomacy. Yours will most likely cost as much econ and rewards nothing but +1 centralization and +1-2 military.
Riiight. 'Obvious'. So from the very beginning you were arguing that, what, we absolutely shouldn't build a lowland settlement and absolutely should expand warriors? No, you argued the inverse of
both, simultaneously, and are still arguing against the latter. So obvious these are things that you didn't even bother to support either one!
Fair enough. Though, remember the northern barrens are
bad for growing. Expanding there is liable to be especially anemic and prone to failure.
Sending a cart through the badlands and back up into the hills, when our previous trade route with the WC skipped down our lowland river for ease of transport, which is both impossible now and was significantly easier than transporting several carts of goods through dry, barren hills.
Hey, expand warriors, don't expand warriors. Trail and Harmony are the two big numbers, there. If we have 3 econ after the new boats, warriors is a great pick. If we have 2, swap for something useful, like more fishing.
Still not a standard route. Expand Forest is a 0-1 return since forests aren't especially well-known for their bountiful harvests, not to mention we're trying to forest a steppeland.
The trade mission is not along the old standard routes, those are partly overtaken by the DP. You can't argue that the trade mission will cost 1 because that's how much it costs for expand warriors, and then go off and say expand warriors can cost 2.
Diplomacy is a useful stat that does jack and shit to the nomads and the DP. The HK are a new unknown regarding us, and the various seaward neighbors are too far away to make significant use of our diplomacy gains. Diplomacy is a risky, fragile stat that can, at best, help us make friends with a new kingdom that's already in decline.
For the
nth time, economy is food. There is no such thing as money. We give them copper shit, all it gives us is
more diplomacy, not
fucking economy. Holy shit how many times do I have to repeat that
trade missions are 100% never going to give us economy before people stop daydreaming that currency is on our tech list.
Your plan
may give protection from the north, and even assuming it passes well enough that it doesn't have to be repeated several times, will give no economy back for it. It will give you 2 diplomacy. It will give you 1 stability. Mine will most likely cost just as much econ, reward just as much econ as yours, give 1 centralization, 1 stability, and 1-2 military, or just as likely, 1-2 economy should it be fishing instead, stats we have more obvious immediate use for.
