Patrician 3

The early game is all about moving your first one or two ships around the map, mandraulic but fun enough as you learn the ropes of the game and taking orders/commissions and a few rare passengers. You have to balance prices, capacties, wear & tear, crews, pirates, a little base stuff too like warehouses. But to grow an empire you need to master setting up "automated" trading routes because managing more than two or three convoys manually becomes a pain. This is done by finding and hiring a named captain from a port, selecting a series of ports and what amounts/prices you're prepared to buy or sell at. This is where your manual experiences in the early game helps, because by now you know where stuff tends to be cheapest and where it tends to be in demand. But thankfully it's not that simple, because things aren't static. Prices can change (gluts, shortages, seasons, plagues etc). And your ships need repairs and crewmen after pirate attacks, so your earlier manual experiences and attention are still required. And as you build your trading empire there's other things too, like running for mayor and eventually head of the whole league. You need to first raise your presence & standing, get married etc. Your actions have affect how likely folk are to vote for you. Once into thsi side of the game you get involved in a little bit more base building (walls, garrisons, plagues, feasts etc). And there's sometimes a little fighting/plundering at city walls (it's basic and poorly optimised but ok because it's really not a significant part of the game, very minor/occasional in fact). Along the way there's also things like setting up your own industrial buildings & hiring workers, and eventually setting up a new town, become a banker, send a convoy to explore further afield to the med for lucrative new towns and goods. All from a 2D god map and in isometric displayed towns & pirate mini-battles. And surprisingly it hasn't dated too badly because they don't try to do too much.

I got Patrician III via GOG's St. Patrick's Hat Sale, so it was on a gamble and boy am I glad I took the chance! I am a huge fan of economy / resource management / tycoon games, and this does an amazing job of all 3. Similar to the Anno series, but with much more 'game' in the way of town economies / reputation. There are lots of really cool mechanics I'm still learning, I'm only about 10 hours in but this is easily better than any similar game I've tried. If you even THINK you might enjoy this kind of game, I highly recommend trying it. You will not be disappointed.

Its a very nice game. I playeded as a loong time ago and now i found it again but ill hope the next Patrizier will have more languages like German, Spanish, Russian and and and than its very difficult to play it just on English. I had it on CD and there was it on German so it helps me now to play it but its very strong. Pls for ya guys Fix this. I love this game and it make so fun to play it but i dont understand all what they mean with Speciall words so yeah. MFG Meatte ;)

Cheapest 80+ hours of fun This is complitly about automation and traderoutes. its pretty much addicting

But first! The manual sucks. It doesnt really describe hub-trading, the intricate mechanisms of buying and selling in your ware-house. It explains nothing. The most players fall back on piracy, and that is not what this game is about. It has a deep deep, Hanseatic Simulator it is backbone. Well researched and graphically smithened to perfection. The graphics are beatifully excecuted and doesnt feel dated or odd. Its just fit the genre. Well, you could say a bit outdated but compared to Patrican 4 it is 400% better in every way. Patrician 3 has something extra for every player. If you want to understand it i suggest you start at the highest setting and starting from there. Investing in a warehouse-manager and a 1-2 way Hub-system is the way to go with this one. You cant just endlessly rooming from port to port. use Cogs,Crayers and Hulks. Producing Salt, and Timber the two most foremost valuable goods to start with, (although) Salt is valued as number 8 of 19 i would say it is number 4. Irongoods, Ore , Timber and Salt is a good way to begin. Without Salt no fish, no fishoil, no meat, so Salt is very valuable for the production, not so much for the population (8). Patrician 2 is also very good, but is very unforgiving and cumbersome because you cant save your traderoutes and you have no warehouse-manager. My recommendation is of highest order. If you want to stop looking at the outdated and mundane graphics, overcome the struggle of bying and selling goods at the right prices, you can earn your first millions in the first 2-3 years. Start stockpiling grains, salt,hemp and you are ready for the Alderman in no time,.. God Speed...play Patrician 3 so much better than 90% on the GOG.com. Sometimes is wish that every game has to offer. You still can play if after 20 hours. And that says a lot.