Cuba before Castro II

Discussion about reviews and strategies for user created scenarios made for RT3 version 1.06.
arop
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Cuba before Castro II Unread post

:-D Since my map Cuba before Castro has been downloaded more than 1200 times, I have found that it was about time to give this map a major update. A small error has ocurred: The game can be started in 1837 with the first Cuban railway, not as announced 1860, and you can play the whole story until 1959, unless you win the gold before. I will recommend a game start between 1875 and 1885 (in the test game I started with 9 AI companies in 1860 and got gold in 1928). Here is a link to the Cuban railway map and historic information: http://en.wiki/FerrocarilesdeCuba and a link with information about the Cuban steam locomotive rooster: http://orion.math.iastate.edu/jdhsmith/ ... cucurr.htm. ............... Have plessure!
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KevinL
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Hawk put this in with the South American maps, but Cuba is part of North America. Just another one of my many nit picks. ^**lylgh
Computer: 3.2GHz i3, 6.0GB Ram, 1.5TB HD, Win7, RRT3:1.06, SMRR:1.10
Currently playing: RRT3 - Campaign Scenerios
Currently creating: RRT3 - Southwest scenerio
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Hawk
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

KevinL wrote:Hawk put this in with the South American maps, but Cuba is part of North America. Just another one of my many nit picks. ^**lylgh
Actually that was intentional. :twisted:
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RayofSunshine
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Just a late player, as I just finished playing this scenario, and I see that it has been around since 2006. This is my first attempt, or at least don't recall playing it previously, and was played in Expert.

Any way, I ran into a problem at the dead line of 1959. I was only awarded a Bronze. Now considering that I had mergered with the only 2 AIs, I believe I had connections to all the towns. So that should not have been a problem. Had to lay a lot of double track with 167 trains in operation, many of which were set for consists of 8 loads.

The goals for 'gold' was Revenue Profit of $750K, of which I accumulated $765K. Another goal was for that of $500K for LIP, of which was $562K.

The only other mentioned goals were:

Bronze Co Profit $250K with LIP of $150K
Silver $500K $300K
Gold $750K $500K

Any remarks?

Ray of Sunshine
arop
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

:-) I think it´s Cuba before Castro I, released 2006, you are refering to. this topic is about Cuba before Castro II, released 2009, for rrt3 version 1.06 :?: having upgraded rrt with the latest patches I can´t edit the original 1.04 maps anymore. Sorry! I love making maps and I like to get some feedback helping me to try to do even better! Thank you very much!
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Mish Mish
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Cuba Before Castro II Unread post

I noticed that there doesn't appear to be a thread for this scenario, so I am starting one.

This scenario offers the option to have as many as 9 AI players, and I thought it would be fun to see how having that many AI's would play out. Since there were so many little sugar cane railroads in Cuba I thought it might add a touch of realism as well.

I chose Havana as my starting point, but I believe that starting from Santiago de Cuba might work out OK as well.

Since this scenario has limited track sections I felt that an aggressive strategy of buying up the competition would be a good strategy, and it seemed to work well for me. Using this strategy I easily met the initial condition of connecting Havana with Santiago within 30 years. With 9 AI's I must have looked like Rockafeller buying up his competition. It wasn't pretty or sporting, but it was tycooning!

To get gold required 750M CBV, 500M LIP and a 100M PNW before 1959. Getting the 750M CBV was the only one that presented any real challenge, and by the end I was really struggling to find anything worth buying. I hit the gold requirements about 1952.

In the latter stages of the game Cuba was my private island and I would stand for no interferance from meddling AI's. In one case an AI started a company and I bought him up before he could lay track, and in another case I bought the AI out and bulldozed his whole operation because I didn't see it as being profitable enough for me to bother with it. :twisted:

In the latter stages of the game I steadily applied my track sections to double tracking the main line as the track sections seem to be a "use it or lose it" affair.

In 1948 I wasn't paying attention to the date and bought a shed load of 2-8-2's only to have the GP7 introduced the next year...oops! :oops:

Fun map and scenario! !*th_up*!
belbincolne
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

I'd played v1 but hadn't noticed there was a v2 so downloaded this and played on normal. Got Gold in 1939 (15 years early) without difficulty but in the last 10 years or so it was hard to know what to do. Used all my rail allowance in Jan and then just watched cash flow in as I owned every profitable business in the Island. What was noticeable was that whatever was happening politically it made no difference to how the game played. The 1929 crash reduced my stock price but not company profitability so I was able to buy in really low (not that I needed to) and had something like double the IP and PNW requirement when I finally got the CBV up to target.

Industry profits were enormous - one cotton farm etc would give a highly profitable Textile mill. The only problem was that I still cant understand how the new industries interlink.
RayofSunshine
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Re: Cuba Before Castro II Unread post

Mish Mish,

There is another thread??? but got corrected on an inquiry of the II version, only to find that it was the first Cuba Before Castro. It might have been in the Review???

Anyway, I guess your way was better to get the GOLD, as I barely missed the Silver. Was not able to get an adequate amount of CBV fast enough. Had mega bucks with the LIF and PNV, even though I used very little revenue for the Dividend.

Had 75 trains running, but don't know if running them to capacity is a benefit, as the demands lessen. Laid a lot of double track to try and speed up deliveries as well, and ran short lines off a main line between Havana and San "whatever".

A very interesting scenario and am sure I will enjoy playing it again. Maybe try your system the next time. {,0,}

Ray of Sunshine
belbincolne
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Re: Cuba Before Castro II Unread post

Thought I'd already posted this - maybe its somewhere else.

Anyway played relatively normally using all rails in Jan each year and rest of my cash to buy farms and build industry. Late on I double lined near the two biggest towns. I found one wool gives a profitable textile mill and so on so could build and upgrade industry on this basis. Got gold some 20 years early and had about $250m cash as I couldn't find anything to use it for. CBV was the sticking point - I'd reached double target for PNW and IP years before - and without stock buybacks. Said it before but I dind this type of scenario rather boring when all you can do is search the map for every new farm that arrives and build an apprpriate industry. Also if I could understand the new businesses (quarries etc) and what the demand is maybe I could have got there quicker.
aiven
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Not sure if you are still active arop, but I'll post anyway. I played this today, there seems to be a strange sugar bug. There is a huge demand for sugar outside the coast, in the water, in several locations. The demand is so large, that no destilleries have any chance of getting sugar, it's just transported straight past them. I exploited it by transporting sugar by train to the beaches, but it's not as it should be I guess. Sugar farms went for 10M at the end of the scenario.
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Hawk
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Sadly, the last time he logged in was Jan. of this year. I guess he got tired of making maps. He sure did make a bunch.
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aiven
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Hawk wrote:Sadly, the last time he logged in was Jan. of this year. I guess he got tired of making maps. He sure did make a bunch.
Ok, true. I hope he'll be back.
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Sugus
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Hi aiven
Welcome on board! :salute:

It would be really a pity, if arop would have stopped to participate in the forum and especially if he would have stopped to create (fictional) maps.

I have played all of his maps with great fun! Generally, it does not depend on special resources to be successful. When playing arop's maps, you have to go through two or three phases of the game: first meet any preconditions (generally some connections within a start-up phase), then connect all cities on the map and finally buy all kinds of resources and industries.

As victory conditions you typically will see:
Bronze: Company book value of $xxx million / Lifetime industrial profit of $yyy million / Personal net worth of $zzz million
Silver: twice of bronze conditions
Gold: three times bronze conditions

So don't give up hope and just start to build... a medal is waiting for you anyway! (0!!0)

BTW: @arop, where are you? Need some more maps to have addtitional beautiful evenings ...
There's no business like RT business ...
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RulerofRails
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

aiven wrote:I played this today, there seems to be a strange sugar bug.
I have never played this scenario, but I looked in the editor and it seems that there are events that increase the price of sugar for certain periods of time throughout the game. Unfortunately, there is a game bug in the way price adjustment (either increase or decrease) events are applied which seems to apply the effects of the event multiple times causing prices to go sky high or crash. We call this a price spiral. I would love to find at least a work around, but I haven't studied this problem enough yet.

I think Arop would have known about this problem when he made the map, so I am not sure why he decided to use a Sugar demand for the ports. With Ports on more than one landmass (many islands here), this can easily cause Sugar to have a greater demand at sea than on land. I am interested to know what price Sugar is on your map? At sea versus on land also? Also, even if the Ports are setup right, this wont make the Sugar conversion in the Distillery work right. Even if the price of Sugar is at least $20 per load less than that of Alcohol, the high price of Sugar will make it much more reactive to all demands. This means that it will be much more likely to board a train that is running on auto-consist as profit margins for hauling it to a city with a slight difference of demand are much greater.

If the price of Sugar is normal when this happens, then you have found a different problem. With a bit more information (screenshot/save) we can hopefully figure out what is happening. BTW, Your feedback is important to us. (*!!wel

@Sugus, I also wish that Arop at least drops by at some stage. If you have played all 127* of Arop's maps, Kudos to you! !!clap!!
(*127 is the number Hawk gave and even if some are translations of the same map, that is a ton of maps!)
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Hawk
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

RulerofRails wrote: (*127 is the number Hawk gave and even if some are translations of the same map, that is a ton of maps!)
That figure does include all translations - all 33 of them. The rest are arop's originals.
However, in all fairness, that figure also includes his tutorials on how to make maps and bridge building.

So let's see; where does that leave us? 127 - 33 - 2 = 92 original maps. Still a good bit. :salute:
Here's a full list.
  • Arboria I
    Arboria I German Version
    Arboria II
    Arboria II German Version
    Arosia
    Arosia German Version
    Arosia III
    Astoria
    Atlantic, Ohio & Mississippi
    Atlantic, Ohio & Mississippi German Version
    Atlantis National Railroad - RT2
    Aurelia - RT2
    Aurelia
    Aurelia German Version
    Bharelia
    Bird Island
    Borawian Islands
    Borduria
    Borduria German Version
    Brawinia V-1
    Cane Islands
    Central Argentina
    Central Argentina II
    Ceylon
    Colonial Railway
    Corwenia I
    Corwenia I German Version
    Corwenia II
    Corwenia II German Version
    Corwenia IV
    Costa Rica 1873
    Crete Railways V-1
    Cuba 1845 - RT2
    Cuba antes de Castro
    Cuba before Castro
    Cuba before Castro II
    Dawonia
    Delmarva Peninsula
    Denmark 1875
    East Anglia 1840
    East Florida
    East Florida German Version
    East of Mississippi 1 German Version
    East of Mississippi 2
    East of Mississippi 2 German Version
    El Dorado
    Estonia
    Fantasia
    Fantasia German Version
    Florida Peninsula
    Ghana
    Great Southern Railroad V-1
    Great Southern Railroad V-2
    Haynu
    Heartland of the USA
    Heartland of the USA German Version
    Hibirnia
    Hibirnia German Version
    Kingdom of Tara
    Königreich Tara
    Kuba vor Castro
    Kuba vor Castro II
    Lawonia
    Lawonia German Version
    Louisiana 1848 German Version
    Louisiana 1848
    Louisiana II
    Louisiana II German Version
    Lower Michigan
    Lower Michigan German Version
    Luzithania
    Luzithania German Version
    Lyxalia
    Making a map from the scratch
    Malaysian Peninsula
    Malwinia
    Montania
    Montania German Version
    Neotopia
    New York to Boston
    Nova Scotia
    Pacific Coast 1870
    Peloponnes
    Peninsula I
    Peninsula I German Version
    Peninsula II - RT2
    Peninsula II
    Peninsula II German Version
    Pine Island
    Railways of Jamaica
    Railways of Jamaica German Version
    Ravonia
    Ravonia German Version
    Rebuilding the Deep South
    Rhowenian Railways
    RT3 Bridge Building
    Santa Clara
    Sawonia
    Somewhere
    Somewhere German Version
    Southeastern USA
    Sumeria
    Sumeria German Version
    Suomi Finland
    Sylvania
    Sylvania German Version
    Tasmanian Goverment Railways
    Terra Nova
    Terra Nova German Version
    Texas II
    Texas II German Version
    Thaboria
    Thalesia
    Tharesia
    Tharesia German Version
    Tropicana
    Tropico
    Tropico German Version
    Tunesia
    Uruguay
    Utopia I
    Utopia I German Version
    Utopia II
    Utopia II German Version
    West from Chicago
    Zentral Argentinien
    Zentral Argentinien II
Hawk
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RulerofRails
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Wow. Nice list. I just realized Arop has made more maps than were originally included with the game. Amazing!

I have played at least a dozen of his maps for 1.06. I noticed he varied the medal requirements a little in the maps I played, but I wish there was a little more difference to keep me on my toes strategy wise. Don't get me wrong, I like his ideas of how to make a game (industry placements, virtually uncheatable LIP as a primary goal, and even the way he includes only select towns to make your completed railway mirror the real life railway in that area). Fact is after the dozen or so maps that I played I didn't feel challenged, so I moved onto other maps which piqued my interest more. I only played one of his fictional maps (an island), so thanks to this discussion I should play some of his other fictional ones to see how he sculpted and developed the gameworld where he had more liberty from historical constraints. Either way, it has been a while so a couple of his games will be a fresh challenge for me now anyway. Thanks for the tip. Now if only I had more time to play . . . :roll:
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OilCan
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

I surely miss Arop. I hope he is still in good health. I played many of his games. I especially liked to brew hot tea and get into an 'Arop' game on a rainy weekend.
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Sugus
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Yes, it would be too bad if arop would no more participate!
Nevertheless, I own some additional maps from him (all successfully played): ::!**!

Ascania (beta)
Walusia (beta)
Neotopia II, made by Jan/7/2014 (Neotopia, made by Apr/18/2014)
Nova Scotia II (beta), made by Dec/10/2013 (Nova Scotia, made by Dec/23/2011)
Pine Island II, made by Sep/8/2011 (Pine Island, made by Jan/24/2010)

On the other side, I've never seen

Atlantis National Railroad
and
New York to Boston
before. Where can I get them? **#!help
There's no business like RT business ...
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Hawk
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

Sugus wrote:Yes, it would be too bad if arop would no more participate!
I sent him an email 2 days ago. I have not received a reply yet. I hope everything is OK with him.
Sugus wrote:On the other side, I've never seen

Atlantis National Railroad
and
New York to Boston
before. Where can I get them? **#!help
Both of those are RT2 maps.

Atlantis National Railroad - http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt2/rt2_other-lands.htm

New York to Boston - http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt2/rt2_north-america2.htm

Edit 1: I went back to my post with the list of his maps and highlighted his RT2 maps (4 of them) in green.
Hawk
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Sugus
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Re: Cuba before Castro II Unread post

In contrast to me, YOU got it!

I'm completely focussed on RT3, so I didn't "remember" RT2 or even RT1.
Thanks (0!!0)
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