daskomodo
Posts: 43
Joined: 4/4/2005
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Well, instead of spending more time flying my Stukas, I decided to try and figure out
Free Trade. I think I've got it down, so here's my explanation for those of you who
find the manual unclear.
First off, you can view the amount of free trade RPs that you receive in your PRODUCTION PHASE by looking at the Production Summary Screen (F7). It's that number next to the hand giving something to another hand. Don't bother to look in the movement phase, it will always be 0, for reasons explained below.
Here's the process of free trade in 2 kinda simple steps.
1) At the start of every season (i.e. Germany's move phase), each neutral region generates its Resource Points (RPs) and adds it to its Resource Pool.
Details:
- A resource pool is where resource points are stored if not used. The pool can
can contain a maximum of double the amount of resources in a region.
Example:
Sweden has 3 resources.
At Spring 1940 (when game starts), there are 3 RPs in the pool.
If no free trade occurs during the whole turn, in Summer 1940, there will
be 6 RPs in the pool. If no free trade occurs again, there will
still only be 6 RPs in the pool (any additional points are lost)
- Neutral countries with more than 1 region (Turkey, Persia) counts as 2 separate region
for free trade. However, since they are connected, as we shall be explained in (2),
this won't really change the net effect.
2) At the start of each player's production phase, each neutral region attempts to send
half of its Resource POOL (rounded down) to the current player.
Details:
- A neutral country is considered connected to a player if a line of friendly/neutral regions
and/or unimpeded transports (do subs affects this?) can be traced to one of your factories. Any combination of land and transports is valid.
Example:
You are Germany. You own Egypt and have transports in Central Med, East Med and
the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia CAN attempt to trade with you.
- Since free trade is determined on a player's production phase, Germany usually winds up with the most free trade RPs, followed by Japan, Russia, China and WA, in that order.
So, since free trade attempts are based on Resource Pools, multiple players can receive this benefit. Got it?
Here's an example to illustrate the point.
Consider Norway, 1 Resource and Sweden 3 Resources. At the start of the turn,
they generate their RPs and thus have 1 and 3 RPs in their respective pools.
A very dull Spring 1940, Germany's only move is a transport to the Baltic.
German Production Phase Sp 1940
Sweden attemps free trade with Germany. Follows the transport down to East Germany, valid path found.
3 RPs in pool /2 = 1 (rounded down) RP for Germany
Norway attemps free trade with Germany. Traces a line by going through Sweden and then down to East Germany via transport.
1 RPs in pool /2 = 0 (rounded down) RP for Germany
WA says: "Two can play this game" and moves a string of transports to Norwegian Sea.
WA Production Phase Sp 1940
Sweden attemps free trade with WA. Traces a line to Norway, through transports into Scotland.
2 RPs in pool /2 = 1 (rounded down) RP for WA
Norway attemps free trade with WA. Traces through transports into Scotland.
1 RPs in pool /2 = 0 (rounded down) RP for WA
At the end of the season, Norway and Sweden both have 1 RP in their respective pools.
New season (start of German moves Summer 1940), they generate 1 and 3 RP each. Norway now has 2 RPs in its pool and Sweden has 4 RPs.
No player due any moves.
German Production Phase Su 1940
Sweden: 4 RPs in pool /2 = 2 (rounded down) RP for Germany
Norway: 2 RPs in pool /2 = 1 (rounded down) RP for Germany
WA Production Phase Su 1940
Sweden: 2 RPs in pool /2 = 1 (rounded down) RP for WA
Norway: 1 RPs in pool /2 = 0 (rounded down) RP for WA
At the end of season, Norway has 1 RP in its pool and Sweden has 1 too.
And so forth, ad nauseum.
How do I determine where my free trade RPs are coming from?
You can (ahem) infer their existence by looking at which neutral Resource Pools are diminishing between your movement phase and production phase.
At the start of your move phase, bring up the Region Info Screen (F10). Filter so that only neutrals are displayed. The 2 columns that matter are Resource Centers (how many RPs generated per season) and obviously Resource Pools. When you go into production phase, go back to F10. The amount of free trade from a country you receive will correspond to the decrease in that nation's Resource Pool.
This means you gotta memorize some numbers.
Try this. Start game with all players human.
As Germany, in the move phase, hit F10, look at Yugoslavia - 2 in Resource Pool and 2 in Resource Center. Makes sense.
Press Next Phase. German Prod Phase. Hit F10 again, look at Yugoslavia again
- 1 in Resource Pool and 2 in Resource Center
Hit F7, you got one free trade RP. Guess where it came from? :)
Notice that all other countries have equal number in Resource Pool and Resource Center.
Ok, now keep pressing next turn until you're back to German move phase.
Yugoslavia has 3 RPs in its pool. Other REGIONS that will be giving you RPs are
Greece, Istanbul, Turkey, Northern and Southern Persia (they have 2 RPs in each pool).
Sure enough, German Production phase - 6 RPs in free trade, one from each region mentionned above
Bet you didn't expect that. 
It gets better. Note that Yugoslavia has 2 RPs left in its pool.
Fast forward to Russia's production phase. Russia gets a free trade RP! From who? Yugoslavia!
Summary:
A German invasion Yugoslavia costs Russia 1 RP and nets you a bonus of 2 (= 3 - 1 from free trade)
When Russia invades Northern Persia, it costs Germany loses 2 RP of free trade.
What about those gift Resource Points?
You still reading? Oh well, let's go over this quickly.
Gift RPs are not free trade RPs. Gifts are awarded at the start of the season.
- Russia gives 3 RPs to German. -3 for Russia, +3 for Germany
This ends when Germany and Russia are at war.
- WA gives 3 RPs to Japan. -3 for WA, +3 for Japan
This ends when:
1) Japan is at war with Russia or WA
2) Japan controls (not tries to invade, actually occupies) an inland Chinese province
3) Siam is controlled by Japan (i.e. red)
Sneaky trick:  If China can sneak into Indochina and then invade Siam, then Japan will lose the gift if they try to "liberate" the place.
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