My Little Farmies – Mercantile Expeditions

Any problems with your expeditions? This way, please!

General Information

All credit goes to HellRabbit!

To complete tasks in your guild, besides raising funds, you may choose from four professions.

Theses professions are needed to send ships to far away destinations and trade in exotic goods.

You can pick a fitting job independent from your rank in your guild (alderman, consul, tradesman or assessors) and change it at any time.

Your profession can be changed every 24 hours for free, if you want to swap beforehand you will need to pay in golden bars.

The buildings are next to the river aside the kontor:

Professions

The following professions are available:

The shipbuilder

The shipbuilder works in the shipyards, where ships are build and repaired. All costs are carried by the guild. He also picks the ships for mercantile expeditions. For all these tasks he gets working experience.

The gunsmith

The gunsmith works in the hammer mill, where cannons are made. Again, all costs are carried by the guild. He also picks the weaponry for mercantile expeditions and gets working experience for all his contributions.

The hiring agent

The hiring agent works in the tavern. Crew members are hired there. All costs are carried by the guild. He also picks the crew for mercantile expeditions and receives thus experience.

The tradesman

The tradesman works in the trading post. Trading goods are produced there. All costs are carried by the guild. He also picks the goods for mercantile expeditions. For all these tasks he gets working experience.

In general: The more working experience you get, the higher you can upgrade the building of your profession. The higher the level of the building, the better the ships/ the preparation/ the weapons/ the crew / the quality of your goods etc.

How Do I Prepare a Mercantile Expedition?

First of all, you need to go to your guild. You can find the mercantile expeditions via the “Expeditions” tab in the guild interface:

The button “En Route” shows how many ships of the guild are on their way to a destination. Clicking on the ship shows more details like destination, goods and traveling time.

Step 1: Choose a destination and goods

Getting started means that first of all the alderman or the consul has to pick a destination and goods via “choose target”. A click on the flag shows the details of the destination:

• Destination’s name.
• Distance in nautical miles. It’s important that the guild owns a ship whose minimum range matches the distance.
• Trading goods: shows name, purchase price and sale value of the goods.
• Weapon value: shows a suggestion of the weapon value needed to rule out pirate attacks.

After choosing a destination and goods you may click “Start mercantile expedition” (autostart will start the expedition automatically when the preparations are done).

Step 2: Selecting/Building a ship

Before it can go on, a ship builder needs to provide an adequate ship. To do so, he clicks the “accept” button. After that he needs to pick a matching ship.

The following values are shown when a ship builder clicks on a ship:

• Stowage: shows how many goods can be carried and traded.
• Crew size: this value needs to be matched to start the expedition.
• Speed: knots per hour. The faster the ship, the sooner it returns.
• Minimum range: this value shows the minimum distance the ship can cover.
• Maximum range: this value shows the maximum distance the ship can cover. If the distance is between the minimum and maximum range, there’s a risk that the expedition fails.
• Gun ports: maximum number of guns for this ship.

The expeditions parameters can be found in the lower right. After finding a matching ship, the ship builder clicks the “Use” button below the selected ship and after that “Start loading”.

You will get send back to the preparations. Providing a ship takes some time, but it can be skipped. After the ship builder is done, it’s the gun smith’s turn.

Step 3: Equip the ship with cannons

After the ship builder provided the ship, it’s the gun smith’s turn to equip it with weaponry. To do so, he needs to click “accept” in the preparation screen. Now guns from the guild’s possession can be loaded onto the ship.

• Each destination has a certain “weapon value” which defines who dangerous the expedition is.
• The number of cannons is limited by the gun ports of the ship. Each cannon has it’s own weapon value.
• The sum of the equipped weaponry has to be higher than the weapon value needed to provide safety from pirates.
• To load cannons, the gun smith needs to select a cannon type and sets the number of cannons on the left side.
• In the lower middle of the screen the remaining gun ports, current weapon value and likelihood of a pirate attack is displayed. If a ship gets send out without weapons the chance of being attacked is 75%! No pirate would skip such easy booty! (Arrrrrr! Ready to enter!)

After finding the matching combination, the gun smith clicks “start loading”. You will get send back to the preparations. Arming the ship takes some time, but it can be skipped. After the gun smith is done, it’s the hiring agent’s turn.

Step 4: Getting the crew

Now it’s the hiring agents turn to provide a fitting crew. To do so, he needs to click “accept” in the preparation screen. Now sailors can be picked.

• The crew needed depends of the ship type.
• Each sailor has a crew value and the sum of all crew members equals the total crew value. To send the sailors onto the ship the hiring agent selects a crew member and chooses the number of these crew members.
• The current crew value is displayed in the lower middle.

After finding the matching combination, the hiring agent clicks “start loading”.
You will get send back to the preparations. Manning the ship takes some time, but it can be skipped. After the hiring agent is done, it’s the tradesman’s turn.

Step 5: Loading goods

After the hiring agent manned the ship it’s the tradesman’s turn to provide goods. To do so, he needs to click “accept” in the preparation screen. Now goods can be picked. The amount that can be transported depends on the stowage.

To load goods the tradesman select good packages and selects the amount on the left side.
The total value of the packages is displayed in the lower middle, including the number and value of the exotic trading goods.

Attention:
If the value of the goods is too high, you won’t maximize your profit. If the value is to low, the ship will only return partly loaded.

The tradesman then has to click “start loading”; you’ll again be send back to the preparations and like all other steps before, loading the goods takes some time, but can be skipped.

After the tradesman is done, the alderman or a consul can start the mercantile expedition by clicking “Start mercantile expedition” – which, surprise – is starting now!

This means that the ship is now on its way to the destination picked.

After the time runs out the ship returns to it’s home harbor and can be unloaded. To do so, the tradesman has to click “accept”. Unloading the goods takes some time, but it can be skipped, but the guild earns guild points and exotic goods for completing mercantile expeditions.

The ship suffers wear and tear, depending on the distance traveled, and may need repair .
Parts of the cannons have to be switched after travel. All intact cannons will be transferred to the guild’s storage . A new crew has to be hired for the next expedition.

Our Ship Did Not Return – Why?

There are two possible scenarios:

• Pirates: Your weapon value was lower than the minimum value needed. The ship was attacked by pirates. This equals a total loss for the guild.
• Naval shipworm: The distance traveled was higher than the ships maximum range. The ship broke down after being infested by naval shipworms. This, too, equals a total loss for the guild.