Of all the workers that inhabit Caesar 3, market ladies are the most misunderstood. Most C3 players at some stage of their careers come to the conclusion that market ladies are buggy. One esteemed poster at the Tilted Mill forum even campaigned for C4 to include a statue of the market lady, in recognition of the headaches experienced by multitudes of players who were not able to gain an understanding of how the market lady works.

There are in fact two distinct kinds of market ladies, one of each works in each market. There is the buyer and the seller. Both look identical, they can be told by what they say when clicked on. Market buyers will either say that they are off to collect supplies, or if returning with supplies, will complain about their heavy baskets (and will have one or more children following them also carrying items). Market sellers when clicked on comment on the city in much the same way as do other walkers, or may inform you that they are going home because the market is out of food.

Market Sellers

Market sellers work in the same way as most other random walkers. The only difference is that their walk is much shorter, typically about 12 squares, if their market does not contain any food or commodities. Their walk is rather longer than average, perhaps 26 squares or so, provided their market does have food or commodities. If they run out after they have walked 12 squares or more up to their maximum, they will become destination walkers and return to market immediately.

Market sellers will distribute food and commodities to houses that require them. They will sell low level houses 4 times their number of occupants in units of food (1 cartload=100 units), higher level houses get more food but I’m not sure of the number offhand. They will also sell 8 units of pottery, 4 units of furniture and oil, 4 units of wine (up to large villa) or 8 units of wine (grand villa and above), provided the houses currently require each good or require it to evolve to the next level.

Market sellers can be forced walkers if the roads are located correctly.

Market Buyers

These are the cause of many the problems players have had with this game. Understand market buyers and you've just about got C3 down pat.

Those who suggest that Tilted Mill invented the pull system of goods distribution with COTN and C4 obviously have never heard of C3's market buyers. They work very much like markets in C4, which only have buyers, not sellers.

Market buyers will attempt to obtain food (in the order wheat, vegetables, fruit and meat/fish) provided that market’s buyer has passed a sufficient number of houses of any level (even small tents). Occasionally they are reluctant to appear at first after the market is built, especially if the buyer isn’t passing many houses. They will attempt to obtain all kinds of food, if they are available in granaries with a road connection. Market buyers will also attempt to obtain commodities (pottery, furniture, oil and wine) if either they or that market’s seller has passed any houses that are asking for those goods (a flag is set in the game when market ladies pass houses of certain levels). For example, as soon as a market’s buyer or seller passes a small casa, that market’s buyer will attempt to procure pottery, regardless of whether the small casa has bath house access or sufficient desirability to become large casa. However, market buyers will always attempt to get food, in the order shown above, if they have under 400 units of any type (600 for wheat) and they can reach a granary containing it. Only if they have over 400 of all available foods (600 wheat) or if no food is available from a road connected granary will they then attempt to procure other commodities that their houses require, and only when they have less than 50 units of a commodity in the market will they look for more.

It should be able to be seen that you do not want market buyers travelling long distances to get food or anything else. This is why non-connected housing blocks are the way to go in C3.

Market buyers can carry up to 800 units of wheat, or 600 units of other kinds of food, or 200 units of any one commodity. They cannot carry multiple commodities or foods at once.

Both market buyers and market sellers will distribute food and commodities to houses they pass that require them, provided the food and commodities are in the market. Market sellers returning with food or commodities cannot distribute the produce they are carrying, they can only distribute what is in the market.

Where players get into trouble is having market buyers traveling very long distances trying to get food, mostly wheat. This happens when a block is fed another (lower) kind of food and blocks are connected to other blocks by road. For this reason, it is a good rule not to connect blocks to other blocks by road. Having gatehouses in between makes no difference, market buyers walk straight through gatehouses.

The second mistake newer players make is trying to evolve houses too high. Unless you have a very steady and plentiful supply of pottery very close by, you are looking for trouble upgrading houses past small casa, unless you have a good reason for doing so. If evolving past small casa, realise that four 1x1 houses consume four times as much pottery and furniture as one 2x2, but house the same number of people. A block with 30 2x2 medium insulae (holding 2400 people fully occupied) will consume just over seven cartloads each of pottery and furniture per year. But if there are another 30 1x1’s in the block (holding a further 600), consumption is doubled. If your markets, granaries and warehouses are close enough together and your supplies are maintained, there is no reason a single market cannot keep up with this demand, provided market buyers are not running away long distances to get something. This is what brings housing blocks crashing down very quickly.