Why do "Robber Barons" destroy their company?

[MagnusA]

Hi all!

In RT II and possibly also RT3 (I'm still playing RT2) you can use strategies that, among other tings, aims to completely destroy the company you have built up. I do not understand how this can make you rich.

What is the purpose of destroying the entire company? Is it to be rich, and in that case how does that work, or is it just plain sadistic?

For robber barn strategies see for example The Robber Baron Site at Expressworld http://www.express-world.co.uk/robberba ... ategy.html

Personally I don't play like that, but I am curious anyway.

Regards
/Magnus

[ljn]

I think it is like chess's board control. You need to have access to the areas of wealth. If an other rail road has built there you need to also build your RR to compete for the cargo. I also like to connect to their tracks so I can run to places which do not have a 2nd good roadbed. I will even double track their track to all my trains higher speeds.

[Gwizz]

I sometimes will play in a similar way. In History the Robber barons used leverage to their advantage to help increase profits.
The Baron would buy controlling stock in an AI railroad, Take it over, float a bond or two and build track or stations for future expansion on the barons own RR. Then have the AI Railroad buy back strock to inscrease its stock value, then the baron sells all of this AI stock and cuts all connected track. I leave stations. Since the AI stock will shortly tank I sell this AI stock short, resign and wait for the AI value to drop. Then I merge and rebuild the AI into my system.

I wish the AI could do the same thing to me. It would make the game more challenging.