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[ehunt]

is this broken? What if Trade Route paid you 2 for each coin on the mat? I get the feeling it would get crazy more often than it does now, but still not often enough that it would be a top ten 3 cost.

[NoMoreFun]

I never understood why Forager has +1 Action and Trade Route doesn't.

Still with +$2 per pile even just buying an estate early on wool be quite powerful (although probably not better than Masquerade) and it will be very easy to make it produce $6, and that's before getting into other victory cards in the kingdom.

What if it always gave +$1, +1 buy, and each trade route token gave +1 Card

[Kirian]

I think $2 per VP stack would make the card utterly crazy; it would become a top-5 card immediately.

I think it would get into the upper half simply by adding + before trashing.

[weety4]

Trade Route is of course weak as a trasher but it is great for late game payload and buffing it would make it too strong.

[faust]

I never understood why Forager has +1 Action and Trade Route doesn't.

Well usually you don't trash treasures other than Copper, so you actively have to do something that give more benefit to your opponent than you to power it up beyond +$1 (this of course excludes stuff like when you want to trash Silver or trashing attacks). Trade Route on the other hand will almost always get buffed late-game. I don't think it would be broken with +1 action, but I kind of get why it doesn't have it.

[SettingFraming]

It would still be a weak card at $2 per VP stack. Buying an Estate early would still make no sense (since it's a shared thing, you'd be taking on an extra Estate, which is really bad, and your opponent could start adding Trade Route's to reap the benefit).

And it would have to wait until the dying moments of the game to be worth much, and even then how often are more piles than just Province are bought early enough to meaningfully add $2-$4 terminal compulsive trashers to your deck in the late game? Sure, it could be a lot of points in a game with like, Silk Road and Harem, but that's a very specialized case and also the time when terminal compulsive trashers are at their weakest (slogs).

So sure, you could make it worth $6 in every game, but I don't think you would because doing so wouldn't really give you any real advantage unless your opponent is a complete ninny.

[GendoIkari]

The minor Trade Route buff I'd like to see is just making the trashing optional. Sometimes it's the only +buy around, and then you can't use it to continue to build an engine quickly.

[Kirian]

The minor Trade Route buff I'd like to see is just making the trashing optional. Sometimes it's the only +buy around, and then you can't use it to continue to build an engine quickly.

Interesting point.  Is a $3 Ruined Market worth it?  Well, if an Herbalist can be worth $11...

[weety4]

It would still be a weak card at $2 per VP stack. Buying an Estate early would still make no sense (since it's a shared thing, you'd be taking on an extra Estate, which is really bad, and your opponent could start adding Trade Route's to reap the benefit).

And it would have to wait until the dying moments of the game to be worth much, and even then how often are more piles than just Province are bought early enough to meaningfully add $2-$4 terminal compulsive trashers to your deck in the late game?

How often is Silver or Gold trashed in non-Forager games (without trashing attacks and remodeling)? Trade Route often provides 3, 4 or 5 coins in the later part of the game. Which is what the card is, a weak trasher that later potentially becomes a decent payload card.
You could buff the card, make it non-terminal or whatever, but doubling the coins it provides would be crazy at a price of 3.

[Marcory]

It's also a lot easier to get a strong Trade Route than a strong Forager. Forager often fails to get above $2 (neither player wants to trash a Gold if will benefit the other players' Forager as well as their own), but no one refrains from buying a Province just because it will boost their opponent's Trade Route.

And normally you're not going to buy a Potion or Royal Seal or Talisman just so that you can trash it for Forager, but most games will see all three types of basic Victory cards bought, and alt-VP cards usually get bought in every game, as consolation prizes for not reaching or even if they're not especially valuable in their own right in that particular Kingdom or strategy.

[GendoIkari]

The minor Trade Route buff I'd like to see is just making the trashing optional. Sometimes it's the only +buy around, and then you can't use it to continue to build an engine quickly.

Interesting point.  Is a $3 Ruined Market worth it?  Well, if an Herbalist can be worth $11...

I'm not saying that I wouldn't still use the Trashing benefit. Just that I wouldn't want to use th trashing benefit every time I play it. And by the time I'm using it that way, it's likely also worth at least $1.

[ehunt]

The minor Trade Route buff I'd like to see is just making the trashing optional. Sometimes it's the only +buy around, and then you can't use it to continue to build an engine quickly.

Interesting point.  Is a $3 Ruined Market worth it?  Well, if an Herbalist can be worth $11...

I'm not saying that I wouldn't still use the Trashing benefit. Just that I wouldn't want to use th trashing benefit every time I play it. And by the time I'm using it that way, it's likely also worth at least $1.

another alternative which would be both weaker and stronger would be to give it +2 Buy. One problem with the engine where you draw your deck and then play trade route for a buy is you have to trash something, and if you use your extra buy for trade route fodder, then your extra buy is meaningless. (Forager has the same problem but does not need a buff.)

[Chris is me]

I like +2 Buy Trade Route with $1 guaranteed. Fixes all the problems of the card really, giving it some utility normally with a niche case as a trash for Buy card that won't be good every game but will at least occasionally be worth it.

[Asper]

My vote would be optional trashing.

[Marcory]

Maybe you could just amend the setup clause as follows:

Setup: Put 2 VP and a token on each VP Card Supply Pile. When a player gains a card from a pile with a token, they gain 2 VP and move the token to the Trade Route mat.

This makes buying that first Estate or Duchy (or even Province) more attractive, and thus gets Trade Routes' bonus ability into play sooner.