I like to roleplay so I'd rather have my character discover good routes on his own), but I'd like to have at least some idea of how to find good trade opportunities. I don't have all the routes memorized (nor do I want to. I just kind of go from city to city assessing prices and hoping to get good deals. Using the assess local prices, I'm only getting small profits (no more than 50 per item), and there's no real organization to my trade routes. The problem is that I'm not really making any money or having much fun either.
That means Swadia for my primary country. My character is primarily a merchant (with Floris and Brytenwalda's character creation, I can get 7+ trade skill from the start, at the expense of having no combat skills) and my caravan will be comprised entirely of cavalry to speed things up a bit. I know basic economics: buy low, sell high, that sort of thing. I've been trying to play this kind of character recently, and I haven't had much success. Slowly rising up from a lowly goods peddler to a trade empire with enterprises in every major city is definitely a goal that would be tons of fun.
I really think a cool and unique way to play this game would be to use a caravan instead of a warband and be a merchant instead of a warlord.
