trade route ain't great, but it has its uses, prominently +buy. here, thinning doesn't help connect engine parts, and buys don't provide cheap engine parts. It's just really slow, terminal trashing. You don't want shelters or copper, true, but while he's thinning, you're buying gold and silver, so council room BM beats it. Less important, turn 11, jasjasjas chops trade route instead of a feodum that was worth 0 points at a time where he could really have used the silver.