nedfumpkin wrote:I started out from Miami, my first connections were to West Palm Beach and Orlando. Then I expanded to Tampa, but didn't deliver any glass there until I had purchased both bottling plants....then I supplied it only with glass.
Then I built a paper mill at Tampa, connected to Gainsville, then Savannah. Got my finances in order, then bought the Electronics plant and supplied it from West Palm. Next I connected to New York and started shipping 5 load trains of food there. Then I began filling in.
I also put an Oil refinery at Gainsville, two bakeries at Tampa, and a flour mill where the logs are. Then I connected to Talahassee, and St Augustine.
Now I'm working around the Birmingham area preparing to start shipping food to New York. It's around 1988.
I am still not finished, and will start over on the new version. But first I have figured out something involved with the German version, so I am going to do that first. Then start over.
--------------
That's an interesting way to start, I hadn't thought of doing some of the things you mentioned, especially since I think I usually focus more on the North than the South initially. I wonder how much of a difference being able to build bakeries makes. I may just have to replay my own map and build a lot of bakeries to see how much faster the objectives can be achieved, or if several bakeries would distract me from supplying the cereal factory.
If I remember correctly, the logging camps and oil wells appear in Florida and the Southeastern U.S. are spawned rather than placed by me. So in a future play through of the scenario you may have to change some of what you've done. It's also a good idea to buy an oil well or coal mine if it is essential to one of your industries just in case it decides to disappear.
If you're around the Birmingham/Montegomery area around 1988, it sounds like you are about on track. Checking my saved game, at the end of 1988 I had sent 48 loads of food to New York, had $42 million in industry profits, an average speed of 47, and 121 loads of food shipped out of Tampa. It looks like I connected the cereal factory sometime in 1987, but when I loaded a saved game from late 1988 I did not buy the cereal factory yet, so I'm guessing the factory wasn't fully supplied for at least another year. Montegomery was connected to Augusta (I went around the hill that Atlanta was on, to keep my speed up, and I also had a coal mine appear by the edge of the hill so I put a chemical plant there.) Then I connected Montegomery to Tallahassee. The Northern connection I used to bring in paper from Virginia Beach, since Virginia Beach was on the way back from New York I'd have a train stop here after delivery food from Montegomery. Then I used the Southern connection thru Tallahassee to bring in Sugar, Rice, and Grain from West Palm Beach area.