General Strategy Guidelines I Found Useful - Feel Free to Discuss

[Firefly 2-2-2]

Hello,

I'm new to the forums, and for about a month every weekend I've restarted playing RRT3 and so far have found it very enjoyable and nice, also very time sucking. I started on Great Britain, then moved to other maps - in the beginning it was a challenge, but now I'm constantly able to win Silver or better, and I wrote some strategy guidelines.

Of course some RRT3 veterans might come here and feel free to discuss it. I provide them just as free flowing advice.


Some Tips:

"One of the things I would like to add (since I wrote fairly extensive tips otherwise and I'm planning on publishing a brief Beginner's Guide) is that besides buying lots of industry, one of the things that helps keep profits up is train economy/cost effectiveness ratio. Using a hub and spoke system, you can connect say 1 two star city and 2 one star cities to your hub. But the thing is, and that's a fairly common rookie mistake, unless you're going to have some specialized freight trains, you don't need that many trains to do the job especially after 1850 or so when trains get minimally decent and powerful. Your main express routes can cover three or more cities, going from one main hub to the other and ignoring the spokes. And keeping the above in mind, you'll usually want to service 1 train per 2 one star cities, going up to 1 train per city if the city is bigger than two star. That's kinda like an optimum ratio I found on the hard way, thru experience, but yeah, it helps keep hauling profit high when less of your trains are hauling more, and it's also a way of making up for maps that just lack enough cargo. You can service the whole map that way, with profits not going down because of excessive freight/express supply. Britain 1829 is a breeze. One of my favourite maps, actually. In my latest playthru, I reached 50 million net worth by 1857 and didn't have more than 30 trains. I got the Gold, too. It's easy, also, with grades being relatively flat and all that."

One of the things I would like to add (since I wrote fairly extensive tips otherwise and I'm planning on publishing a brief Beginner's Guide) is that besides buying lots of industry, one of the things that helps keep profits up is train economy/cost effectiveness ratio. Using a hub and spoke system, you can connect say 1 two star city and 2 one star cities to your hub. But the thing is, and that's a fairly common rookie mistake, unless you're going to have some specialized freight trains, you don't need that many trains to do the job especially after 1850 or so when trains get minimally decent and powerful. Your main express routes can cover three or more cities, going from one main hub to the other and ignoring the spokes. And keeping the above in mind, you'll usually want to service 1 train per 2 one star cities, going up to 1 train per city if the city is bigger than two star. That's kinda like an optimum ratio I found on the hard way, thru experience, but yeah, it helps keep hauling profit high when less of your trains are hauling more, and it's also a way of making up for maps that just lack enough cargo. You can service the whole map that way, with profits not going down because of excessive freight/express supply. Britain 1829 is a breeze. One of my favourite maps, actually. In my latest playthru, I reached 50 million net worth by 1857 and didn't have more than 30 trains. I got the Gold, too. It's easy, also, with grades being relatively flat and all that.

Also, just to add one last bit. I finally beat this scenario (on 1896). Bought industry the first decade of the game, then when I got a good production chain going issued bonds and built my first railway from Huelva -> Malaga -> Seville. It was very profitable and I managed to haul mostly Alcohol, Clothing, Lumber and Furniture, besides Express. Actually that seems like a must for every game and every scenario, not just this one. Starting with industry is the best way to reap great profit and also build up a steady production chain which is gonna create all the products your trains will haul. Not doing so is illogical and uneconomical. Also, BTW, for this scenario in particular the grades were atrociously steep. That means all my locos but 1 were 0-6-6-0 Fairlies, any other engine will simply not run these grades and will suffer a lot. Fairlies are pretty cheap and reliable for their role, though.

IMHO industry works for most scenarios, not just this one. Exceptions are some fan made scenarios which I downloaded and found pretty challenging, like Britain 1830 which has a 50% industry efficiency cap for the early game (and things like abstracted transatlantic companies). BUT for most other scenarios, including dev made, Spanish Mainline, and fan made scenarios like Colonial India, industry is pretty much the way to go. If you manage to intercept the flow of raw materials towards rival buildings and industry, I found out that with two-three sources supplying you you can make a very tidy profit without even worrying about hauling anything, assuming of course that you get the price gradients right for both factory input and output. Rivers make it much easier. With two or three factories running up, you can easily make 2 million a year, which is just enough to pile up to start your own railway. The problem with Spanish Mainline scenario in general is the fact that grades tend to be highly irregular throughout much of the map no matter how well you plan your layout. It's definitely not a flat, comfy terrain like dev made Great Britain 1829. Also building tunnels and bridges is extremely expensive, and trust me, you don't want to spend all that money just to cross a mountain and the likes, or else you're gonna lose much of your profits because the railway will take much longer to give you any decent return for the money you put in there. This also applies to other scenarios, anyway, but before the Shay, in such particular cases the Fairlie really is a lifesaver because no other engine (perhaps no other than also the Consolidation besides the two I mentioned here) can haul 8 freight boxcars and still go thru +6% grades at speeds higher than 5-8 mph. This is really a lifesaver. You can cut costs on both mountain railway layout, and still be able to haul a lot of cargo at decent speeds. Finally, starting at Seville and not Madrid or elsewhere really depends on where you have your industry set up. More working factories means more things to haul, and if you can add up the Express cargo that comes from 2+ star cities it will usually make the railroad worth it. Early on, in every scenario, there's nothing to haul because most industries are starving for supplies, which is why it's important to have your own supply chain ready before you build your own railway. This will give you plenty of things to ship, and you can easily expand into multiple green price gradient areas in order to have a consistently high demand for your goods.

Just to throw in my two cents, I remember talking to you about starting with industry - well yeah, depending on the scenario goals, you'll want to leave some money to lay rails, particularly if they demand it. However I found out that using chain production (similar to another game I used to play, Industry Giant 2), you can get maximum profits you otherwise wouldn't get from freight alone or express until very late in the game. "Any" chain works, but the most profitable ones tend to be Iron & Coal Mine -> Steel Mill -> Tool & Die and simultaneously also Weapons and Munitions factory, together with the lumber chain. Buying 1-3 full chains in 15 years is feasible, and will net you a lot of profit in the four stages of hauling and production. In my latest weekend playthru I had 8500k profit from Industry alone, compared to 2-5k from Freight and Express.

[...]

I've watched the first three parts so far and I think you're being very clever and thoughtful. One of the things I found out from watching you is to be careful with bonds, now I avoid taking them too much early on and wait 'till my credit rate gets to AAA or AA, this way you can have interest rates of 5-7% only - anything more than that is just too expensive. It makes a lot of difference when you have all 20 bonds outstanding and the interest begins to suck in your revenue. With 20 bonds @ 5-7% (with one at 8% interest maximum), they just suck about 500-600k out of total revenue per year, instead of more than a million to a million and a half. If you want to profit from industry but find out there's already a very productive factory which is too expensive to buy, try intercepting their raw materials by putting your own factory just a bit up in the transport chain, and as close as possible to your own station, far closer than the rival factory. This way you're gonna suck up all their productive potential for yourself at a fraction of the cost. Later on, after starving them, you can just leave them be or bulldoze them to prioritize your own industry first.

I'm talking about this, anyway. It's woth the effort just to keep issuing stock and waiting patiently a few years. 20x bonds means 10000K at a total interest rate of only 5% per annum. Very manageable and cheap capital. https://imgur.com/a/xvji6mS

Yeah, definitely. I'm watching this step by step and now I'm almost done with part 9. You done well, very nice. Also, one thing I forgot to mention that would be probably useful is the "train economy" principle we talked about before, I mean I noticed you loaded your Cramptons with 8 cars. That might be nice and ok, and Cramptons are good locos for their time period, but I stopped doing that in my last two silver medal games. Ok, I play on Medium, but here's the catch: 19th century trains aren't really that big and powerful, and their performance tends to degrade after 1900 when rolling stock gets bulkier. They also spend more fuel for each of the cars loaded. And more cars means the potential to glut the market with products more often, which is bad for freight prices. That's why I stopped hauling 8 cars except for special express trains for much of the 19th century. The result is positive: far less breakdowns, more speed. Actually if you take the class P8 as an Euro-World reference (it's not available in most America scenarios), it can pretty much be the very first train that will haul all 8 cars when it comes online, while for America the Eight-Wheeler won't be as powerful and it will take the H10 Class (1918) to switch to an all 8-car layout. But overall, just a tip. I've been doing tests, too, about the efficiency of diesel vs electric vs late steam in terms of fuel costs, maintenance and efficiency. I dunno, but they all seem roughly on par. I really don't know when it becomes best to switch to diesel or electric, although a powerful railroad might just do that or don't do that (and perhaps stay with steam all the way to the 1970's) and continue to reap tons of profit either way.

[Gumboots]

The problem with Spanish Mainline scenario in general is the fact that grades tend to be highly irregular throughout much of the map no matter how well you plan your layout. It's definitely not a flat, comfy terrain like dev made Great Britain 1829.

I haven't looked at Spanish Mainline for ages, but I remember it as an easy and fun map. It's not dead flat, but IIRC it wasn't particularly challenging terrain.

...+6% grades

Should rarely be necessary. On most maps, if you are careful about how you lay track, you can get just about anywhere at 4% or less.

I've watched the first three parts so far and I think you're being very clever and thoughtful. One of the things I found out from watching you is to be careful with bonds, now I avoid taking them too much early on and wait 'till my credit rate gets to AAA or AA, this way you can have interest rates of 5-7% only - anything more than that is just too expensive.

I usually try to keep bonds under 10%, except for the first couple at the start of the game. I'm usually maxed out on bonds well before I get a AAA credit rating. I'll hold the full 20 bonds at an average of around 8% or so quite early in the game, then refinance them to 5% later in the game when credit rating goes up and the economy is booming.

It comes down to ROI. If you can buy or build something that will return 20% per annum, this will be profitable even with an interest rate of 12%. If you can only buy or build something that will make you 10% returns, taking out bonds at 12% will be suicide.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

The problem with Spanish Mainline scenario in general is the fact that grades tend to be highly irregular throughout much of the map no matter how well you plan your layout. It's definitely not a flat, comfy terrain like dev made Great Britain 1829.

I haven't looked at Spanish Mainline for ages, but I remember it as an easy and fun map. It's not dead flat, but IIRC it wasn't particularly challenging terrain.

...+6% grades

Should rarely be necessary. On most maps, if you are careful about how you lay track, you can get just about anywhere at 4% or less.

I've watched the first three parts so far and I think you're being very clever and thoughtful. One of the things I found out from watching you is to be careful with bonds, now I avoid taking them too much early on and wait 'till my credit rate gets to AAA or AA, this way you can have interest rates of 5-7% only - anything more than that is just too expensive.

I usually try to keep bonds under 10%, except for the first couple at the start of the game. I'm usually maxed out on bonds well before I get a AAA credit rating. I'll hold the full 20 bonds at an average of around 8% or so quite early in the game, then refinance them to 5% later in the game when credit rating goes up and the economy is booming.

It comes down to ROI. If you can buy or build something that will return 20% per annum, this will be profitable even with an interest rate of 12%. If you can only buy or build something that will make you 10% returns, taking out bonds at 12% will be suicide.

Thanks again for input. BUT, here's one big question - do you haul all 8 cars or just wait 'till you have something like a better steam train on the works? Assuming of course something like an 1840 or so America or Europe start.

[Gumboots]

Depends on the terrain and goals. On some maps (Across the Blue Mountains is an example) I'll use maximum length consists in the 1850's just to get haulage up without running too many trains (ie: congestion). On other maps you might be better off with shorter consists. It's just a play it by ear sort of thing.

[RulerofRails]

We are talking about Spanish Mainline? I found your earlier comment on youtube:

"Yeah this scenario is very hard. Everything is expensive, terrain is ridiculously difficult and the economy is laughably underdeveloped. One thing that helps though is to build breweries, the first of them in Madrid. I had one make a million a year."

Undeveloped economy? That's why you are here.

The most time consuming thing here by far is the industry profits (it's a Poptop scenario, they considered industry profits "challenging": for me doable in 5yrs or so). Your advice on Breweries is most often the way. It would be the way even if the returns available were slightly lower than from rail (not the case, see below).

The track required (about $3M worth) doesn't nicely form a route to link cities at a good spacing. Also, there are few resources in this area of the map. So the return on rails for this route isn't that good, definitely below that of smart industry investments.

The terrain
There are many comments about terrain on the PopTop maps. It seems that every one wants to just drag and drop a couple hundred miles at a time. I suspect that it was a design decision. With this terrain that we could describe as "lumpy" there is benefit in nuuance of finding a better path and some curves and slightly less direct routes.

I'm not pretending that the lumps don't visually look "good", but neither do some other things in the game like "track bed" or the default green ground color. I find that I can appreciate the spice it gives to track laying though.

---

General comments
I always load with 8 cars in any period unless there is a stiff grade with sustained speeds below 8-10mph which I regard as unacceptable.

Bonds enable risk taking which is very good for game play. There are magnitudes of efficiency in generating returns. The higher returns for that investment, the higher bonds you can use for it. It's pretty rare that I can't find something worth using all bonds available.

There is also the occasional case of sacrificial bond usage such as to complete a connection. It's worth taking some loss when it completes a link earlier that helps you get faster towards the scenario goals. Of course, make sure you have enough revenue to sop up the slack.

When deciding how many trains to use (if you don't buy one with a full load ready to go), something to check is the cargo density. Go to the cargo overview for all cargo (F1). I will look even closer at what industries are producing and the supplies of high value cargo in an area, but overall it's at least 1 per city, some areas less, some significantly more.

[Gumboots]

The terrain
There are many comments about terrain on the PopTop maps. It seems that every one wants to just drag and drop a couple hundred miles at a time.

Yup. If they actually have to think about how they are going to lay their track, they regard this as "difficult". They seem to want to be able to lay track like the AI does, and have it work.

Firefly: check out these shots for some tricky track.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

Thanks for all the insights, people. Yes I've been far more careful about laying track lately, and have been obtaining so far the best results: in flat gentle terrain, lay track in as much a straightforward fashion as possible. Otherwise follow the above indicated pattern.

There's also something I found out and have been following lately, in regards to PNW and stock buying. Have a look at it.

The other thing I noticed is that there is an *optimum* time for massive stock buying, required to build up shares in order to get above 51% control of the company, or total control of the company, PNW victories and the like. When the stock is low, but before it splits, say when it hovers around $30-60 a share, issue stock (two times, if necessary) in order to plunge the price down even further, then buy buy buy tons of it while it's still low. Then when it goes up to $70-100 do nothing, just hold, but be sure to expand and to buy up as much stock back for your company as possible, thus duly manipulating the share price so it will split more rapidly after reaching above $100 and that it always goes up. *Then*, just after it splits, it gets back to say, $50-60 - this is yet another time to buy buy buy until it reaches about $65-70, then hold again.

Never go above 1/3 of total stock value and 1/2 of total purchasing power in debt, even during booms, to resist all the fluctuations in the market. But the "buy low" strategy allows you to buy up a lot more stock with far less risk of a margin call, since your debt won't be so great. And always, always keep dividends high, in fact at $1.50-3.00 a share at most. The dividend will later wipe out the debt, and the more shares, the more dividend goes to you.

[Gumboots]

It's often more complicated than that. It very much depends on the circumstances. However, buying up stock just after a split is generally not a good idea. The problem is that total stock value usually increases during a split, meaning 2,000 shares after a split cost you more than 1,000 shares before the split. So, if a split is coming up and you want more stock, the best thing to do is to buy to the limit before the split. You will end up in a better position this way.

If this puts your debt up to unsustainable levels it's no problem. You can now sell off some stock for more money than it was worth before (with the caveat that obviously numbers are doubled and price per share is halved) thus putting your debt back to a sustainable level and pocketing some cash on the overall deal.

Oh, and in general you don't want to buy back stock until you have reached the percentage of stock you are aiming for. But again this is dependent on circumstances, because sometimes you can use early buybacks to spiral stock price to the extent that you get 100% ownership very early and at reasonable debt levels.

Re debt levels: you can go much higher that 1/2 of purchasing power but again - circumstances. I have sometimes stayed on relatively low percentages of purchasing power, and at other times have bought right to the limit of purchasing power.

Dividends can be set at whatever level is most useful but, assuming we are talking about the total number of shares in the company available, it's a fallacy that more shares means more money for you. If the number of shares was halved you could sustain twice the dividend per share, so the amount you would be making wouldn't change. What determines dividends is not the number of shares but the company profits. You have to decide what proportion of profit you are going to siphon off as dividends. This will be independent of the actual number of shares.

[RulerofRails]

"Depends." Perfect summary. I don't have any set rules. Buy early. Earlier in the game go deeper into margin. In the second half of the year (fresh profit high coming up) share price will be popping. Share price only reliably updates monthly, I get around this by selling then re-buying a 1,000 to update the price (when it allows me to unlock more margin).

The value of Company Book Value per share is the main one I pay attention to. The comparison of this to share price varies based on the performance of your company (how much return you get on your capital) and economic state. At year end, when growth is rapid/furious margin buying, it's hard to sustain price far above twice the book value supporting that share.

Beware that some things will cause your book value to go down. This will cause a knock on effect on share price. Main things are territory access and any events that add/subtract to your cash. When adding this can be a positive.

[Gumboots]

Just dragged out Spanish Mainline for a quick look.

It's a fairly small map (448 wide).
The terrain is gently rolling.
You only have to connect two cities.
They are only about half the map width apart.
You have 25 years to do it.
You start the game with $1,640k in cash.
You can boost that to almost $2.3 million with two stock issues and a bond.
So, effectively you're starting with $2.3 million.

Oh yeah, and you have to make some industry profits.
With 25 years to play with, industry profits only need to average $320k/year.
You have enough cash to build some solid industry right at the start.

Ok, can someone explain where the challenging part is?

It's a learning map for beginners, to help them get their heads around the idea of using industry effectively. It's basically a tutorial.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

Hello there, thanks for all the tips.

In fact I agree with all the above mentioned posts. The "buy low sell high" paradigm is just a paradigm, it doesn't need to fit thru every situation.

Besides Spanish Mainline is now easy to beat. BUT for someone who doesn't start with industry, it's quite a challenge.

[TheBonobo4]

Can't help but notice that these comments were made about my videos!

Besides Spanish Mainline is now easy to beat. BUT for someone who doesn't start with industry, it's quite a challenge.

Very tough indeed, as I warned for a good few minutes. Then it turned out to be a piece of cake with industry, and I looked like an idiot.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

Yeah, hello Bonobo4! Very nice vids, but I kinda got hooked by 1.06 and am not going back now .

[TheBonobo4]

Yeah, hello Bonobo4! Very nice vids, but I kinda got hooked by 1.06 and am not going back now .

I have plenty of scenarios left I want to record, it's just a case of both can I easily get a medal on expert (ideally gold of course, I consider bronze as kind of a loss, with silver as okay), but mainly will my laptop hold out long enough. I don't have software that can merge video files. I used to use Windows movie maker which worked fine but was unreliable and caused frequent BSOD. And RT3 often gets crash to desktop and yes the BSOD. So as much as I enjoy playing RT3 it's a pain to both play and record, with no foreseeable fix.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

I never get a BSOD with RT3. Try installing the 1.06 patch and tweaking your own video settings optimally: IIRC, I've turned TRansform and Lighting on and now my maps look like a shine, also with High Graphic details the water is very very nice to look at. But you might want to disable these settings and see how they effect your performance.

Try Vegas Movie Studio for video merging software. I've nver used it, but a friend of mine does.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

Also, the Bonobo4, I think the RT3 handbook does a nice job of covering it, but you can exploit an AI company on a fairly consistent basis when you're growing to fatten your PNW. Here's the trick: buy buy buy low price AI stock until you have 50% or more of their shares. Go deep into debt if necessary. Then merge with them, since AI companies tend to be fairly small sometimes 4 to 15 million alone will be enough to merge with them.

If you don't plan to merge with the AI in the next 5-8 years, try buying their stock gradually, allowing the dividends from your own stock to wipe out the margin debt bit by bit. This also works. Just don't let the AIP get all the stock, or else there will be no way to merge with them.

Since you have most of the stock, you get to pocket most of the money your company just offered on the merger all for yourself, and you also get to vote "yes" with a significant power, which greatly increases the chance the merger will succeed in the first attempt. Not only this ensues the merger will succeed, it must be done at the right time before the AIP tries to consolidate his control on his own companies and it also effectively wipes out any debt from margin buying leaving your own PNW far higher than before. You can then reinvest all the money you just got from yourself into more and more shares, helping you merge with another AI company or take control of your own company.

[TheBonobo4]

I never get a BSOD with RT3. Try installing the 1.06 patch and tweaking your own video settings optimally: IIRC, I've turned TRansform and Lighting on and now my maps look like a shine, also with High Graphic details the water is very very nice to look at. But you might want to disable these settings and see how they effect your performance.

Try Vegas Movie Studio for video merging software. I've nver used it, but a friend of mine does.

Is Vegas movie studio free? Might investigate if it is, being able to merge files will make life a lot easier as then I can have videos longer than about 30 minutes.

With regards to 1.06, I'm reluctant to install it since I'm happy with just 1.05 for now and I've read it seems a bit complicated to install and possibly requires a separate installation. Plus I don't know if I'd like the new features.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

Try sourceforge.net for open source video editing software. I dunno if Vegas is, though .

You don't need a separate install for 1.06. If only for the extra locos and game maps available here, it's worth it.

[TheBonobo4]

Try sourceforge.net for open source video editing software. I dunno if Vegas is, though .

You don't need a separate install for 1.06. If only for the extra locos and game maps available here, it's worth it.

I thought I read that you did. I might install it one day though. I already have all the new locos any way.

Vegas doesn't seen to be free on their website sadly so I'll have to look elsewhere and hope the software is free, works, and isn't a virus.

[Firefly 2-2-2]

Another thing, theBonobo4: 1.06 has extra cargoes like Electronics, Machinery, Ceramics, etc...

Besides some cool scenarios like Mighty Meiji are only available for 1.06. Another thing I would mention is, I installed new graphics for boxcars and maybe they only work in 1.06. I dunno.

EDIT - Oh, yeah, forgot it completely but here it is: the AI is now far, far better off at purchasing industry. This makes them more of a challenge, as they reap far more profits than before. A big change.