Cargo guide: the margin reader

What a cargo captain does

Cargo is the backbone of the sea and the recommended first calling. You take charters from the port board (a load, a destination, a price), plan the route and deliver. Nothing about the economy is hidden from a cargo captain: every cost on the receipt is a cost you learn to manage, and once you have moved freight the other callings make more sense.

Your skill is reading margins. Two jobs can pay the same gross and leave very different profits once fuel, canal tolls, the destination's tariff and crew days are taken off. The board does that arithmetic for you and shows the profit and the real time on every card. Your job is to choose well, keep your ships busy, and grow the fleet.

How Cargo earns

A charter pays a freight rate by hull tier times the tonnage times the distance, with a bonus for long hauls. The distance is always the fastest sea route, so detours never raise pay. Large loads are slightly damped above 4,000 t, and long ocean runs carry an extra premium of up to 30% at around 24,000 km so that big hulls keep their margin across oceans.

Each port shows about five charters per hull tier, sized to fill 72% to 92% of a hull of that tier, at distances that suit the tier: 200 to 2,400 km for tier 1, up to 9,000 km for tier 2, and up to 20,000 km and more for the ocean hulls. Twelve goods appear on charters: grain, olive oil, machinery, textiles, consumer goods, steel, fresh produce, wine, building materials, coffee, cocoa and medicine. A developed port adds two more cards per level.

On top of ordinary charters, Cargo gets special cards:

• Relief cargo into ports recovering from a storm: relief supplies, building materials, bottled water or generators, paying 75% to 135% above normal with no tariff, plus 15 Elo.
• Rare goods: six ports a day sell a rare good (saffron, caviar, silk, amber, truffles and others) in three small lots, bound for distant ports at 2.2 to 3 times the freight. First come, first served.
• Flash jobs and premium cards (see below).

The hulls

Every hull is its own ship with its own tree. The Cargo ladder:

• Coaster (tier 1): 500 t, speed 30, about 4,700 km of range empty and 3,300 km laden. Coastal hops and chains of refuel calls.
• Feeder (tier 2): 2,000 t, speed 32, about 8,800 km empty. Crosses seas and most oceans.
• Handysize (tier 3): 10,000 t, speed 38. Ocean-going, with the weather forecast built in.
• Panamax (tier 4): 30,000 t, speed 40. Still fits the canals.
• Capesize (tier 5): 60,000 t, speed 38. Fits no canal, so she rounds the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn.

Hull prices climb steeply, from $60,000 for a Coaster and $115,000 for a Feeder to $865,000, $3.9 million and $15.65 million. Bigger hulls also take longer alongside (4 game hours for a Coaster at full load, 20 for a Capesize) and cost more per day in crew.

The upgrade tree

Each hull has a tree of up to 26 levels. The Keel is shared by every calling: engine tuning, a bigger bunker, an extra queue slot, Radar and the Advanced Weather Forecast. The Cargo Bridge adds faster cargo handling (dock time down 10% and then 16%) and contract tools. Then each hull commits, for good, to one of three branches:

• Bulk: capacity in steps (+5%, +5%, then +7.5%) and a smaller penalty for sailing fully loaded.
• Liner: speed (+2.5% steps, then +5%) and quicker turnarounds.
• Secure: defense and seizure resistance, for captains who run through hot water.

Each branch leads to two doctrines, for example Megahauler or Consolidator in Bulk, and Sprinter or Timekeeper in Liner. Cargo has its own quirk: finishing a whole tier of the tree refunds 10% of what that tier cost. Tree tier 5 unlocks Keep working, which lets a ship take the best profitable charter herself at 90% pay.

Risks and how to handle them

The main threats are pirates, storms and thin margins. Pirates can demand tribute on hot routes. Your standing order decides whether to pay, refuse, or refuse only when the pirate's odds look poor. A refusal the pirate wins costs you more, and one he loses costs him a forfeit paid to you. Choosing the Safest route, posting an escort tender (0.5% to 5% of the gross offered to any Shepherd) and fitting the Secure branch all reduce the risk. Policed waters, such as those of the EU, the US, Japan and Australia, have no pirates at all.

Storms do not sink ships, but crossing a major storm's core costs a repair bill and extra wear. A forecast (built into tier 3 and up, or bought on the Keel) lets the planner route around storms or wait them out. Finally, watch the hull's condition: below 70% she is 5% slower and thirstier, and below 40% she cannot take ocean legs.

How Cargo fits with the other callings

Cargo is everyone's customer and everyone's neighbour. Each departure and refuel call buys fuel and drains the port's stock, which is the market Tankers feed. Fish landed at a port makes fresh produce charters from there pay 15% more for a game day. Your escort tenders are Shepherd income, and your hull is Pirate prey once the rookie shield is down. Legal cargo delivered to a pirate haven keeps its fence prices normal. Relief cargo, Famine and Expansion port states, and community goals to deliver tonnage all pull Cargo captains toward the ports that need them.

Your first hour

You start with a Coaster and a little over $18,000, under the rookie shield, with a private board at your home port. Open the Charter board and sort by profit per hour rather than by gross: a short run that lands quickly often beats a long one. Send her, and while she sails look at the receipt to see where the money went.

When she lands, take the pay, look at the first nodes of the Keel and Bridge (engine tuning and cargo handling are cheap), and queue the next job from the destination's board before she arrives. Claim your daily gift and check the Office for the day's three small orders, which usually include landing two voyages and buying a node. By the end of the first hour you should have three or four landings, a couple of tree nodes, and an idea of which coast pays best from your home port.

Tips

• Compare profit per real hour, not gross pay. The board's star rating does this for you.
• Queue a job from the destination's board while the ship is still at sea, so she never waits in port.
• Refuel where fuel is cheap. Islands are dear, the big refinery hubs (Rotterdam, Houston, Jebel Ali, Singapore and others) are cheap and well stocked.
• An empty hull clears the quay in half the time of a full one, but you are paid only for cargo: avoid sailing empty unless the next port's board justifies it.
• Relief cargo pays well and gives 15 Elo. When a storm leaves a port recovering, look for the red relief cards on nearby boards.
• Do not rush a Capesize. She cannot use canals, so many routes become much longer.
• Drydock at your home port, where it is 30% cheaper.
• Once you hold goods, the Exchange and a warehouse let you trade on your own account. Mind the import duty and the market impact of large lots.