Terrain and Logistics

Your Stronghold isn't going to prosper if it can't interact with the outside word. To grow, you need people - and they have to get to you somehow. Once they are there, you need to bring in supplies to cloth and feed them - and you need to export whatever you produce. This is, perhaps, less important if you have a Wilderness Stronghold - or perhaps a very small stronghold reliant of adventurers and hunter-gatherers - but anything larger than that needs contact with the outside world.

• Trail – Trails are brilliant for wilderness developments, as they are little more than a line on the countryside to guide your feet in the right direction. Trails are good for foot traffic, including horses and mule trains, but don’t help Ox Trains, Caravans or Wheeled Traffic (which are good for trade) at all. However in most areas trails just spring into being on their own, connecting areas of interest together, they might not be a direct route, but trails always lead somewhere. They might be stopped by mountains, jungles, marsh, rivers, canals and coastline.
  un passable for Ox Trains, Caravans or Wheeled Traffic.

• Roads – Roads are needed for all of the best country developments, they are dirt roads that are big enough to accommodate wagons and carts, as well as foot traffic. Price varies by terrain type - but they are cheap in plains and really expensive in mountains, jungles or swamps. They can’t cross rivers without a bridge, which doubles the development costs for that hex. You can upgrade a road to a highway, if you pay the price difference. Every hex that is developed into an Urban Settlement automatically develops local roads.
  Note: 3/4 speed for Ox Trains, Caravans or Wheeled Traffic. Carriages are uncomfortable to ride in.

• Highway - Highways are developed roads. Rather than dirt, Highways have a paved surface that is designed for wheeled transport. Carts, Wagons, Carriages and other vehicles just eat up the miles on Highways, and communication is faster. It costs 1bp to surface a road and turn it into a highway. They can’t cross rivers without a bridge, which doubles the development costs for that hex. You can upgrade a road to a highway, if you pay the price difference.
  Note: full speed for Ox Trains, Caravans or Wheeled Traffic. Carriages are fairly comfortable to ride in.

• Rivers – Rivers are good for barges and boats, which are just as good (if not better) for trade as wagons or carts. However, rivers are natural occurring resources, and you can’t change their course. Hexes with rivers are also good for fishing, so you can add a fishery which means there will be small boats available to ferry you across the river. Young rivers in mountains are considered to be streams, and don’t count as a good trade links because they flow too quickly. Fords also stop rivers being navigable by ship. Streams and rivers upstream from fords are much more like trails, than roads.

• Canal – Canals are much like man-made rivers, they are very expensive to build, but you can control the route. They can have locks and are particularly good at connecting different rivers or bypassing waterfalls. Because canals and locks are expensive to dig and maintain, they are restricted to carrying vessels that are 50 feet long with a beam of 15 feet (max dimensions)

• Aqueduct – An aqueduct transports water. It needs to start in a mountain or hill hex with either a river or a lake – and end up in a lowland settlement. Its primary benefit is that you can build businesses (Mill, Forge) that require a water frontage. It gives Loyalty +1, Stability +1, but that seems a very expensive way to get that benefit.

Terrain matters - it costs more to drive a road (for example) through a swamp than through a plains hex.

Every transport link brings a benefit to its community.

NOTE: BP from transport upgrades are a form of direct income. they are never subject to takes and they do not need to be balanced out.

For the purposes of these rules, Henry leMaistre may build transport links on behalf of MidMarch. However, those benefits will accrue to Midmarch rather than the individual stronghold. If you wish to develop roads, highways or canals as part of your stronghold - speak to Henry first.