Mecklenburg & Pommerania

[RayofSunshine]

Well Fellas,

If you thought that War Profiter had problems with revenue, try the Mecklenburg scenario. Very comparable.

Friedland is the MAIN city for the Gold. It requires 75 "passengers" transported out, for the Bronze. That is increaed per medals, as well as an "overall" total passengers for the routes you lay in the amount of 200??

Anyway, I have tried every level from Easy to Expert, and I was running nearly MT trains for a year, with an occassional cargo. The worst part is the supply/demand. They rarely show any for passengers. And mostly the supply is .0?. However, even with a few passengers indicated, there not only isn't any demand shown, but the passengers are still setting there when the train/engine pulls out. OR, if you have a few (3) waiting, the train "might" pick up 1.

Then there is a suggestion (strategy) to place a depot at a single house. That way when you "are able" to haul a passenger to that location, that same passenger will be loaded back again for the next destination. Not true to form. And if there are a few setting there when the train pulls in, they are usually still setting there on it departure.

With that in mind, I tried to put a depot at a single depot on the outskirts of a town, and then intentively that the passenger would be dropped off, and then picked up. I guess that didn't work probably because that house was part of the town.

To top it off, we are back to both the non-revenue needed, as well as the number of houses at each location. Usually less than 4. AND although there are towns which could have 6 scattered around the map, how do you get the 75 in the 25 year duration?

I had to make 2 bonds to stay afloat to connect the towns, as there are 6 cities which have to be connected, and 2 of which are in separate territories to be accessed.

Any suggestions?

Ray of Sunshine

[RayofSunshine]

Well,

I don't know what to say for this scenario. I know a lot of time and imagination went into its concept, etc, but it just doesn't seem to go anywhere. After getting bored watching engines running up and down the track empty, or nearly empty, I shifted into FAST and VERY FAST, but nothing, not very much, seemed to happen. If there were any passengers waiting, they were still there when the engine/train departed. So there isn't much revenue to access the 2 territories to connect with 2 required cities.

Could use some suggestions if anyone is getting a handle on this scenario.

Ray of Sunshine

[belbincolne]

I've a major problem here in that as I don't know German I've no idea what the objectives are but my trains are running pretty full and I've carried 123 loads of passengers (at least I think thats what it says) after only a few years. I'm into all territories cos I took over one of the AIs.

Anyway if you can let me know what I'm supposed to do I'll carry on to try to get Gold.

[Hawk]

There's an English version in the map archive here.

[belbincolne]

Well, well, well. Must have downloaded original years ago and never thought to see if the one here was any different. Now I'll have to open it and try to remember what it says before I go back to my saved gane!

[belbincolne]

Well got Gold (on Normal) 15 months early on the German version. I suppose if I'd known what I was doing I might have got it earlier. Hence I cant understand why anyone should have any real problem. The only irritating thing was that a News report Hoffnung auf Aufschung War Verfruht appeared every few seconds from 1918 so that I had to keep one finger on the enter button all the time.

Nice map. Will give the English version a try on Expert soon.

[belbincolne]

Snowing so in English on Expert. Got Silver no problem and only requirement not achieved for Gold was that I only carried 113 from Friedland. Only reason for anyone not to succeed I suspect is that you must start by carrying any cargo and not attempt passenger trains until much later in the game.

That ****** annoying message still kept popping up all the time.

[UncleJR]

As for that message, probably a simple map edit problem.

Had the same issue with messages in another map. Turns out I needed to click the button to make it a single occurance (or turn off the repeat occurance, whatever).

May want to check the map editor for that announcement and take care of that.

[Orange46]

I finished my first play on expert and lost. I didn't get credit for connecting to two cities until after I enlarged their territory footprint in the editor. If the game shows that a station is connected, the scenario should give credit for it. But, in this scenario cities are considered territories and the territory footprints are not large enough. Otherwise, this is a great scenario for those who like hard starts and like to manage a small fleet of trains. At the end of the game I had only 12 trains running; however, on my next attempt I'm sure that I'll get to a larger number as I now have a better idea of what needs to be done. But, will I be able to get a gold on expert?

Although I played on the English version, I was pleasantly surprised to see the German letter ss show up in the scenario. I think I've seen other scenarios with foreign letters and it adds a nice touch. However, I'm glad not to have to struggle with the foreign language versions, even in a language I have some knowledge of.

[RayofSunshine]

Will have to try getting acquainted with an AI. The war is 'really' over, so it shouldn't take too much Vodka.

Ray of Sunshine

[Orange46]

Gold in August 1920 on expert. I really like this scenario. It took 2 bankruptcies and many years with negative cash. My final year I had an F credit rating, about 100K in cash and 19 aged trains, many of which came with the RR's I bought along the way. I rarely had money to fix the AI's crazy track and it was a crowning achievement to double track the key station in the final years. I had to declare my second bankruptcy to get the cash to do this.

This is a great scenario if you don't mind losing the first time and like to manage a small number of trains, where sometimes every cargo seems to be important. It gets quite tense at times when you're wondering if you'll survive. Fortunately, the stockholders never threw me out, but I think they wanted to.

My only quibble is with the requirement to build your stations close to the center. Although this is noted in a message at the start, it's not noted in the ledger or briefing so it is easy to forget about.

and . Oh, and , danke, usw.

[RayofSunshine]

Guess I will have to pull that scenario back out of the inventory. Just thought it a bore to just watch "empty" engines running up and down the track month after month. And to make it more interesting, I put the 'speed' level on FAST, which didn't help.

So thanks Orange46 for the encouragement, as I didn't think about BANKRUPTCY.

Ray of Sunshine

[Orange46]

Good luck.

[belbincolne]

Gave this another go on Expert and got Gold a year early. 5 years before the finish I was told the Company was going to be bankrupted but even though I kept going further into the red by at least $500k p a I wasn't and was $8.5m in the red when I won. With nothing else to do I micro-managed the trains at the end so that as soon as I had two full passenger cars at Friedland I let them go so I wasn't wasting passengers with trains running half full.

I bought an AI to get entry into the north and this cost me more than buying in. Probably a mistake as I was making more money from it running on my lines although I suppose it must have given me some passengers.

Incidentally I built no services and the trains kept running fast despite no water & oil - I've noticed this in another scenario too - it didn't use to happen - I wonder if its something to with patch 1.06?

[Orange46]

I noticed that the breakdown rates stayed low, but I didn't realize that the trains kept moving when low on water. However, I did notice that maintenance costs went way up when not maintained, so I think that it is worth getting the sheds when the trains start to get low on oil. In my own scenarios, I never buy services until they are absolutely needed, since cash is usually in very short supply. When running $10k Planets, I usually replace them when the oil runs out, but they aren't in this scenario.

In my last game. I didn't have enough cash to buy out anyone for many years. But, serendipitously (sp?), one year my bond rating went to A and it was in a boom, so I was able to come up with enough cash to buy the Northern rail and build to it. Prior to that, I kept debating whether to connect or not connect to other AI's, but opted against as they had so little traffic. Only the North line had potential and I didn't have access to get to its station. In my first playing, that line did well financially, so it's stock went up over time (and I lost the game), but in the 2nd playing that line wasn't doing much better than the others, so it was cheaper to buy (and gave me cash) than buying access. In my first playing, I got lots of foreign income from the north line, but I could never develop the necessary passenger volume. But, that might have been due to a poor choice of initial track and station placement at the beginning of the game. In the 2nd try I just connected Friedland to the two cities with the most houses (forgot the names - one was north and the other SW) and I think they both had warehouses or some working industry. Then I slowly connected to the remaining non AI cities as cash allowed, until finally buying the north line, followed quickly by the rest.

[RayofSunshine]

No thread, but believed I had seen one some time back. Unless it is in Molse's site?

Any way, after spending some time with Express D'Orient, I thought that I would relax with a slower moving creation. And with a number of the cities of this sceanrio with less that 4 houses for a few years, engines are running empty across the landscape.

However, this is a very interesting concept of imagination of the goals set forth. Final goals only to credit 1 city for the carriage of "passenger" consist. There are at least 5 AIs, who like to infiltrate your routings.

With all being said, I believe a player will find it an interesting scenario. I believe it to be enjoyable, and it does take some challenge for the goals.

[Sugus]

The name of the scenario created by the great Lama is 'Mecklenburg and Pommeria' (or 'Mecklenburg-Strelitz und Pommern' in German) and I agree: you really should give it at least a few tries! (While not being a great micro-manager, I only got gold on light after some tries.)

[El Moichi]

Be sorry for my language skills, but I´ll try to explain my strategy.

I have been trying this map some 10 or 20 times over years, before I finally got my gold medal on expert level in the last autumn.

This is a challenging map, and you have to be very cautious especially handling your company debts.

At the start of the scenario, connect Friedland to Anklam. BUT, before that, take a look at the the demands of the warehouses at Anklam and look for industries at Friedland which could supply those demands. F. e., sometimes there´s a lumber mill at Friedland and there are some logging camps around. So, your first trains don´t run empty. Otherwise, re-load the scenario until some kind of “fitting” map is showing up.

You should also connect to Groß Daberkow (laying track through Brohm village, so you can later build a station there).

In the second year I always connect both Ferdinandshof and Ludwigshagen (to earn the “connection points”). A single train is running simply Ferdinandshof – Friedland – Ludwigshagen – Friedland.

The major hint: you should immediately build some hotels (following restaurants and taverns). At first, they will become very profitable at times. And then, they will attract (and possibly generate…?) some loads of passengers.

Regarding the AI companies, it will sometimes be more reasonable to take over one to gain the territory access rights instead of buying them, and sometimes not. Investigate about the AI´s balance sheet and their debts before merging a bunch of nothing. The prosperity of the AI companies depends on the development and changes of the cities they connect to.

As Lama always has placed a historical accuracy in his map events, there will be a bad economic depression at the end of the game. Try out to have the victory conditions closely met at this time, otherwise you will get a bad break.

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[RayofSunshine]

Well El Moichi,

Thank you for your comments of strategies. This will give the players some ideas, and to try a different approach to their style of play. Being that I missed the other thread of strategies, I will have to review them as well. But as I had mentioned in the other thread, as well as this one, the concept of this scenario is great, with a talent of a great challenge. hope to try another attempt, as I, as well as other players, appreciate the time, talent, and imagination of what you the users create.

[low_grade]

Gave this one a whirl today. Used only S3's and was a bit conservative with bond issuing. Restarted the game a few times until a lumber mill showed up in Friedland, ran a line to Anklam. AI's popped up Greifswald-Zussow, Uckermunde-Ferdinandshof, and Neubrandenburg-Brohm. I connected to the latter two ASAP as they were nearby and placed my own station in Ferdinandshof. I then connected to all the other required cities save Lassan. Next I bought the first AI for access rights for $900k and connected to it from Anklam. Filled in stations in the 2-house towns in between the required connections and placed hotels in all cities. Bought the last two AI's for under $1M a piece just so they'd stop robbing my cargo, and I didn't need their $500k a year they were paying me to use my tracks. Cleaned up their tracks and routes and just let the game roll for a few years to Gold on Expert in April 1913 (1900 start date.) 17 S3's in service at the end, and just $9M lifetime company profits, lol!

I suspect the difficulty of this scenario is mainly down to initial seed... Being able to haul for $400k+ the first year is essential to spur rapid expansion. Plus the economy went Boom 4 years in and stayed there for 5+ years, which certainly helped.