Do harbours work?

Question

I have several cities connected to the capital with roads and all count as connected to the trade network (little atomic symbol). I also have a harbour in one of the connected cities as well as a harbour in an over-seas colony. But that colony doesn't count as connected to the trade network. Every time I play Civ 5 I find that building harbours simply doesn't work.

What am I doing wrong?

Or don't harbours work?

Yes and yes. I have frigates travelling around the entire continent regularly. — Andrew J. Brehm, Feb 21 '11 at 21:56
Not sure what going wrong here, but for reference http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/9007/in-civ5-do-i-need-a-harbor-in-the-capital-for-trade-routes for quite a good summary of the harbor mechanics. My only guess would be - is there a route that doesn't go through enemy sea territory — therefromhere, Feb 26 '11 at 17:30
A stupid question maybe, but do you have a harbour in your capital? — Gnudiff, Mar 04 '11 at 10:54

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 14 '14 at 00:54

Yes, harbours do work, but there are a few things to bare in mind:

For a harbour to connect the owning city to your trade network it must be able to form a valid water path to reach your capital (if it has a harbour) or another city which has a harbour and is already part of the network.
You need a visible unbroken path of water tiles between harbours for them to form a link.
Harbours can be blockaded by enemy ships (including barbarians) being in the vicinity of the owning city. This stops them creating a trade link.

If none of these issues come in to play I would say you may have run across a bug, or possibly have a mod installed that is interferring in some way.

**This doesn't come up often but I have discovered that it is impossible to establish trade networks if you do not have roads researched. (Happened to me while playing on islands)

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 25 '11 at 20:20

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Well I can vouch for at least one observed benefit of the 'little atomic symbol'...when the harbor connects the trade route you DO get +1 happiness, which is nice. Also, I've had We Love the King days in remote cities after Trading for resources. I assume that required that the remote city was connected to the trade network, and that seemed to work.

Hope that helps.

answered Feb 25 '11 at 20:20

Bob

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I think that is one of the benefits of the working trade network. But my problem is that my harbours do not create the trade network. – Andrew J. Brehm Feb 25 '11 at 23:24
Interesting. What do you mean by 'doesn't count as connected to the trade network'? Do you mean the symbol, the happiness, or the acquisition of luxury resources, or something else? – Bob Feb 28 '11 at 16:16

Do harbours work?

2 Answers2