Spectral Analysis

[belbincolne]

The second of the new scenarios I tried was this one. Nice idea and a relatively straightforward set of objectives which should be achievable on a second try. The main problem is that you need to keep a note of the newspaper announcements so that you can determine your future actions. In particular you need to carry troops to each connected Colour Town - but we're not told how many. I got three (of six) within a short period after connection - but didn't note which three - so didn't know which towns I should carry troops to (nor how many) but because of the speedy achievement it can't be many. I sent a full train load of troops to the last town I connected - and also to those I thought I probably hadn't done already but never got another town satisfied so no medal.

Obviously more detail on this in the Almanac is one thing that would be an improvement. Possibly the only thing because otherwise the Almanac is excellent for keeping track on your progress.

Anyway its a nice scenario, just a bit different, and well worth a play.

[Sugus]

@belbincolne: Thanks for your review.

The conditions to get access to a color town will be presented within the status as soon as it had been revealed by means of a newspaper. Furthermore, any of these entries within the status disappers when you fulfilled the related condition. But yes, it's not explicitely mentioned, which of the color towns already got troops - you see only the number of the liberated towns within the status. BTW: one load of troops per town will do it.

[belbincolne]

Well played on Expert and with six years to go my Directors got stroppy with me. I'd still one town to send troops to (and no idea which one) and had fulfilled all other requirements except Gross Profit which was about $1m short in December.

End of the year I was fired so that was that! But it's clearly quite easy to win and a nice scenario to play.

One thing that was different was that on first try I had at least two Furniture Factories (maybe 3) but this time I only had one and it couldn't produce enough to fulfill the requirements. Then a town sent 4 loads of furniture somewhere - goodness knows where it got them from, and its a miracle that I noticed - and I diverted it and started looking to see if any other towns had any. Two had and allowed me to haul 4 loads each and that got my count up.

[Sugus]

By design it's not possible to get a furniture factory at another place than in green town. So I've no explanation for that yet ...

The way I make available the related factories is as follows: you get a first one when you get access to the related color town and a second one when the town is the first time visited by troops. Occasionally, there could be a third one by pure chance. (The color regions are "prepared" to build the corresponding factories.)

Finally a tip: buy all the factories in the color towns as soon as possible - you'll get problems if they disappear ...

Good luck on next try !

[belbincolne]

That accounts for it. All the furniture factories were in Green Town first time so this shows that it was Green I hadn't got troops to. The furniture I picked up elsewhere wasn't from a factory - presumably it had been taken there from Green. I always have bought every cheese / furniture / ? factory as soon as they arrive so that I could (a) enlarge them (b) have their profits for myself and (c) carrying lumber / milk / etc to them is much more worthwhile from the economy viewpoint as well as game objectives. Not that my directors thought so. It's interesting that in the later stages of scenarios if you spend your money on industry (in many scenarios thats all there is left to do) and not railroading they don't like it.

[Sugus]

I've forgotten to mention, that - whenever troops visit a color city the first time - you'll get a related message by means of a newspaper. Because my memory is no more as good as it was in earlier days, I prefer to make notes on a paper in such situations ...