Trade Monopoly
Trade Monopoly is an alternate team victory condition introduced in The WarChiefs. In a Standard game, a team that controls more than half of all Trading Post sites—including Trade Routes and Native settlements—can research the Industrial Age technology at a Trading Post to begin a five-minute countdown. The opposing team can stop it by reducing that control to half or fewer.
How it works
The technology costs 500 Food, 500 Wood and 500 Coin and can be researched by a teammate at a Trading Post once the team is in the Industrial Age and holds a majority of the available sites. While the five-minute countdown runs, the team cannot build additional Trading Posts. Opponents must capture or destroy enough controlled sites to break the majority before time expires. Classic rules and Treaty settings disable this victory option, regardless of Treaty duration.
Player decision
Count every Native settlement and Trade Route site before investing in the attempt. A map with seven total sites requires control of four to start; once the countdown begins, losing a post can immediately make the majority vulnerable. Keep a mobile force near the least defended link and trigger the timer only when the team can hold the network for five minutes.
Contest the route during the countdown
This WarChiefs victory condition asks a player to control the required Trade Route sites until a visible timer expires. Starting the attempt creates a map-wide objective: opponents can capture or disrupt the route rather than fight one decisive battle. Check the current settings and on-screen requirements, protect the relevant sites, and keep mobile forces available to answer a capture. Map layout determines how many approaches must be defended.
The victory threshold is based on the whole map
Sites do not have to belong to one Trade Route: native settlements and Trade Route posts both count toward the total. The research requirement is a strict majority, so calculate the number required as more than half of the available sites. For example, on a seven-site map, four sites are enough to activate the condition; on an eight-site map, five are needed. After activation, the other team does not need to defeat the entire army—it can contest the weakest Trading Post positions until control falls to half or less. A team that stops the attempt may activate another countdown later if it regains the required majority and pays the research cost again.