Trouble with State of Germany

[undertoad]

Hi all

I've started playing the Germany scenario a couple of times now, and I just can't get the hang of it. I've played through all the N. American scenarios on Easy and Normal, so I think I've got a fair idea of how things work. Oilcan's manual (posted in another thread) is a great help too.

But Germany just stumps me. It seems to be comparable to Germantown: start from scratch, connect X to Y by Z date, PNW goal as well. But it's very different from Germantown, and I'm not just talking about the terrain.

I'm trying to follow Oilcan's advice on buying up/building industry strings in concert with laying rails. This is an excellent strategy which has served me well in the N American scenarios. It doesn't seem to work in Germany though. The Germany map is absolutely packed with rubbish industries: Paper Mills with no Pulpwood within 100s of km, Textile Mills with no Wool, etc. These somehow still manage to lower prices in their home cities, even when I intercept all their long suppl-lines of raw materials with my own factories/trains.

And the three states you can start in are pretty resource-poor. All the interesting heavy stuff (and cheap!) (iron, coal, lumber, pulpwood) is either East in Bohemia/Saxony/Poland/Russia, or West in what since became the German industrial powerhouse: Nordrhein-Westfalen/Saarland (e.g. Dusseldorf, Koln, Saabrucken). That leaves agricultural produce: milk, grain, produce, livestock and their associated industries. I try to make the best of these, but the market soon gets saturated however much I extend my rails to new markets.

The prices for rights to the states are pretty steep as well. Perhaps I'm entering new states too late? (I like to feel secure before shelling out $2m into an unknown market). Maybe $2m makes more sense when it buys you 20 years of operations rather than 10? On the face of it, $2m for access to Wurttemberg? Are ya outoya mind? $2m to access just Ulm, a stonking great range of mountains beyond it that'll cost $1m to rail through, a few cities beyond the mountains, and countryside that might as well be on the day after the 100 Years' War, there's so little growing there! And no, access rights don't seem to go onto the balance sheet, so during a recession when fighting the margin call, they're just a no-no.

I may trying too much to buy unrailed industries (those which look worthwhile) before I lay rails to them. This means I need some serious capital, and my bonds just aren't enough to do this and buy access rights.

The other thing that holds me back is (!"£(*&%(*&) recessions. I'm unemployed right now in our current UK one - hey, I'm playing this game in the hope of a bit of escape! I live in terror of the dreaded margin call, even though I'm only leveraged at about 3:1 share value:debt ratio. (Why on earth does my spending power always tank after the end-of-year board meeting? I don't see the share price dropping.)
So during a recession I'm too terrified to do anything except watch for empty or low-value trains (which I set to STOP), pay back every bond I can, spend every cent I make on buying back shares - even issuing bonds to buy back shares! In a recession I feel I have to abandon any system development or carrying out of a strategy, because of that bloody margin call. Even if I stay profitable during a recession, "market sentiment" seems to drive the share-price nowhere but down and down.

Any tips on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance!

[Hawk]

What is the name of this map? I don't see it as Germany in the archives.

[undertoad]

We may be talking on different levels here.... I'm still playing through the factory-installed RT3 scenarios! So this one is the first one in the European room. Germany trying to unify under Bismarck after 1848, loads of different states, big money to pay to get access to other states. I'm finding that Hannover is a much easier start than Bavaria or Prussia...

hope it's clear which one I'm talking about now.

cheers

toad

[Hawk]

Yep! Got'cha!

[Barney]

Interesting, I did not have much problem with this map. While I agree that it is quite stingy, I was able to build a mainline from Berlin to Possen? to the southeast along the river. I then spurred off to large port city sitting on the coast on the river in the northeast, sorry, sudden CRS for the name, Gdansk? This line produce very good money each time I played it. I then started a line from Berlin again, to the coast to the slightly west of north. the I built another to the Southwest to Lipzig and Danzig and connected those. Feeding from the coal in Bohemia, Danzig or Lipzig generated a Steel Mill. The next line was built along the coast from Gdansk to Setten? and returned to Berlin. During this time I believe I bought bonds like crazy as well as buying down for lower interest when possible. Profits were mainly off passenger traffic and mail. Access and a good solid line up to the port on the peninsula generated tons of cash. As well you have to make sure that you plant your terminals to include the coast since ports are easily generated there. By the end of the game 3 terminals were in full service around Berlin to handle the traffic. As well two lines were running that peninsula. Connected all of the areas plus as well bought in to Russia (Lodz?), Austria (Wein), Bohemia (Prague) and France. This was another good map to milk. Thanks for reminding me of it, as I will need to play it again. Play level was medium. Good luck, I hope this helps.

[Sugus]

Long ago since I played this campaign map, but I remember, that I was successful by first connecting to Hamburg and Hannover.
Anyway, good luck on the next try ...

[undertoad]

Thanks Barney - and Sugus, on the 4th try I've started in the state of Hannover and it's going much better. The other two starting state options (Prussia and Bavaria) give you a bigger state to start with: but when you want to expand beyond the state boundary it's harder to do it bit by bit. I find it impossible to buy access rights in whichever of these "Big3" states I didn't start in until I've built up enough to afford it: at $10m it's not cheap! So a state with some nice small bordering states to get my territory-expansion (and thus profits) started without breaking the bank is essential.

Bavaria isn't well-placed for easy expansion: if you start in Munich (as I did, and it makes sense as the largest city) you're facing $2m for your first expansion westwards into Wurttemberg; to the north, it's hard terrain (the Rhine/Danube watershed) and not much economic activity in north Bavaria to help you push into Thuringia or Hessen. Prussia is much easier terrain, but is pretty deserted outside Berlin. (I think you're right Barney that quickly connecting up Gdank/Danzig - called Danzig on the map which it was at the time - is crucial; I failed to do this). I've never tried starting in the isolated and much more urbanised western chunk of Prussia.

Hannover is so much the obvious choice for me: it has Oldenburg ($300k), Holstein and Schleswig ($800k each) and Mecklenburg ($1m?) as neighbours, and some nice-sized cities to start with. Also, while a Prussian or Bavarian start gives you a handicap - higher station costs or track-laying costs - starting in Hannover gives you an advantage in the form of a boost to your credit-rating. I don't see what the big disadvantage of Hannover is that justifies this - but I'm happy to take it, along with the reduction in the cost of buying/building industry that comes along once you make $500m in industry profits!

I think I'm getting the hang of it now. In particular, being much more aggressive about manipulating the stock market so that I don't have to worry about margin calls. Maybe, having worked in banking, I was just instinctively avoiding being a true railroad robber baron and engaging in shameless insider dealing!

[Barney]

While I am not sure, I think you may be forgetting to check your Goods map at the start and during the game. If you look at all goods, you will be able to see the flow of goods from point to point. Most times it is by rivers or mountain gaps, things like that. Most Railroads started out by competing with river boats and mule trains. Moving the goods faster to the larger cities and ports. To be honest, I have never started any where but Prussia. I guess I was just lazy or figured that that was the hardest start point by default. But you must remember, RRT is dynamic, thus what you get once for industry positions will most likely not happen again. That is why this game has had such a long life while the others like it are dust. It will be interesting to see, how long the game will live, or if it will be recreated with a new game engine with more diversity. Trainmaster is a step in this direction, none paid for advertisement, but I think ned has maxed out the capacity for the game. I am sure plugging his mod will draw his comment on this point. LOL

As for milking the stock market, well go for it. All is legal in the game. Also it is good training for how the real world works in simplified forum. Add in government corruption and bribes, influence peddling, extortion and the like and you would have current economics. This game probably has better training then most collage courses on the subject. LOL. Good luck, have fun, be safe.

Barney

[undertoad]

Hi Barney - thanks for your comments!

While I am not sure, I think you may be forgetting to check your Goods map at the start and during the game. If you look at all goods, you will be able to see the flow of goods from point to point.

No, the Goods map is my favourite place in the game, if you judge by how long I spend looking at it to decide on my next tactic/strategy! It's endlessly fascinating. As you point out, the economic terrain is never the same twice in this game; I agree that this is part of what makes it such a great game. There's endless scope for trying things out - and it's very satisfying to see e.g. my deliberately-placed Lumber Mill stealing raw materials away from a game-generated one, and eventually undercutting it in price. But you're right in a way, in that while looking at the Goods map I under-estimated the importance of ports in resource-poor Northern Germany; I was stuck in the assumption that raw materials come from the land.

That is why this game has had such a long life while the others like it are dust. It will be interesting to see, how long the game will live, or if it will be recreated with a new game engine with more diversity.

I've read up on various archived "suggestions for improvements" threads, because this game has such incredible potential. I'd love to see it re-created with an improved engine and controls, in particular:

- Much better track-laying options
- Better displays to help micro-manage trains: e.g. sort by oil level, water/sand level, age, current load value, number of cars, profit in last quarter/year. The Ledger does some of this, but isn't very user-friendly for train management.
- Better custom consists, including "load anything except e.g. Grain and Logs". Very useful to maintain a stockpile for your industry and stop trains hauling it away to rivals.

Trainmaster is a step in this direction, none paid for advertisement, but I think ned has maxed out the capacity for the game.

I'm very interested in the mods, but I think I'd better get the hang of 1.05 first. I think my difficulties are more to do with getting a "feel" for how the finance side works than with train/industry operations - e.g. how do recessions work? how many bonds can you take out at once when your rating is BBB? How much effect on the share price does a buyback/issue/personal purchase or sale have? These are all things which are hard to explain precisely, but which I'm getting better at judging through experience.

I may be getting the wrong end of the stick, but I thought Trainmaster was an unfinished and abandoned project? I got the impression reading about it that there's unfortunately a limit to what even a lot of hard work in modding can achieve without access to the source code (which it seems is an impossibility).

Just one point of confusion which maybe you or someone can clear up: spoilage. I'm sure I saw it mentioned somewhere that Produce and Milk (and maybe Meat as well) goes "off" if you transport it too far. I've tried to observe my trains to work out if and how much this happens, but haven't come to any conclusions. It's a significant point, because the profit margin over long distances for these goods can be enormous.

[Barney]

But you're right in a way, in that while looking at the Goods map I under-estimated the importance of ports in resource-poor Northern Germany; I was stuck in the assumption that raw materials come from the land.

Ports and warehouse do many things. For instance, they constantly bleed material from the map. So say a port takes in grain or sugar, well that is a good place to plant a brewery or distillery. Or if it exports booze, then a well positioned Distillery or brewery would constantly make money so long as raw materials are present. Regardless of of the good being shipped to the port or made at the port. The way it works, is if the good has to go by rail, the farther from source to industry, the harder it is to get that good to the industry. This happens because the train will always load the goods that are more profitable. While it may load what you want the first time, as the city grows, it will use more of other goods, and the next thing you know, you have a few years of negative profits. While you can always uses dedicated trains, they as well may not be profitable. I think that was understandable.

I've read up on various archived "suggestions for improvements" threads, because this game has such incredible potential. I'd love to see it re-created with an improved engine and controls, in particular:

- Much better track-laying options
- Better displays to help micro-manage trains: e.g. sort by oil level, water/sand level, age, current load value, number of cars, profit in last quarter/year. The Ledger does some of this, but isn't very user-friendly for train management.
- Better custom consists, including "load anything except e.g. Grain and Logs". Very useful to maintain a stockpile for your industry and stop trains hauling it away to rivals.

All very good ideas, As well as others that have been posted on this site, the problem is "Who is listening?" The current owner of the rights to the RRT series, is Firaxis/2K Games. Instead of doing what the fans wanted, they instead protected their copyright to the series with SMR. While there is evidence in SMR that they wanted to do more, they did not want to by a game engine that could handle the mechanics involved with this game. As a result, SMR bombed in sales since it did not met expectations of the fan base, and was considered by most fans as a dummied down version of RRT3.

I'm very interested in the mods, but I think I'd better get the hang of 1.05 first. I think my difficulties are more to do with getting a "feel" for how the finance side works than with train/industry operations - e.g. how do recessions work? how many bonds can you take out at once when your rating is BBB? How much effect on the share price does a buyback/issue/personal purchase or sale have? These are all things which are hard to explain precisely, but which I'm getting better at judging through experience.

Yes that is true, but do not analyze it to death. Reason being, is the mappers in this game have their own bag of tricks, as well the editor is loaded with variables. So you really do not have any constant effects. another words in one map, a recession may have negative effects to as low as 10%, while the next could be as low as 30%. So even if you think you know, you really do not know. Just like real life. Yes you could learn the editor, and see what they did, but what is the fun in that.

I may be getting the wrong end of the stick, but I thought Trainmaster was an unfinished and abandoned project? I got the impression reading about it that there's unfortunately a limit to what even a lot of hard work in modding can achieve without access to the source code (which it seems is an impossibility).

Trainmaster is a project in development. Currently they are working the kinks out to get the editor to work with it so maps can be made, or old ones converted. Yes, without the source code the development is slow due to trial and error. From what I have been reading, nedfrumpkin and the group have been making very good progress, part of the problem is this game has been modified several times already, Some by the original creators, and also by players. So each ones work needs to be understood. I am expecting to see it almost completely error free by the end of the year, provided ned does not go completely over the edge first.

Just one point of confusion which maybe you or someone can clear up: spoilage. I'm sure I saw it mentioned somewhere that Produce and Milk (and maybe Meat as well) goes "off" if you transport it too far. I've tried to observe my trains to work out if and how much this happens, but haven't come to any conclusions. It's a significant point, because the profit margin over long distances for these goods can be enormous.

Well spoilage, I do know is an issue, as you ask, to what degree, is another variable. In most cases the numbers do not add up to reality. Meat in a boxcar for a month, just to go 200 miles, would be liquid mold. The benefit being as the liquid leaked out the bottom of the car, it would get lighter, so the train could go faster. But anyway, the reason it is hard to see the effects, has to do with the amount being delivered as well as the amount available in the town in the first place. Normally, if the train loaded it, then chances are that the you will make a profit on the delivery. On the other hand, if you have the train on custom content and force pick up of the good, then in most cases, you windup eating the cost of delivery. For myself, I never create custom content, unless it is the case of 2 goods needed to make a third, like Coal and Iron to make steel. In this case, what you usually have is coal in one location and Iron in another location, on opposite sides of the map. Thus running custom trains back and forth between the two to balance the supplies, is justified by the steel produced going to make cars or something like that. Cars produce good return in investment in this case, just try to keep the industry for the high end product out of a urban area. They do not spoil and as well the farther from an urban area, the more money you will make. The only other case would be VCs. Anyway, Produce is best taken to the closest Distillery since the town folk in this game are lushes. The same can be said for the Grain to the Brewery. The mind set in the period of this game is that water is not drank, but used for bathing, cooking, Toilets and making booze, never drank. In many places in the islands of the Caribbean for instance, this is still the case, even if the water is safe to drink. . As for profits on trains in general, you can watch the trains it loads and see the potential profit. As the train moves to the next stop in the route, the coins click off. depending on the number of coins left at the next stop is the profit. Since you know what you paid per load, and you see what is delivered as well what was paid. The difference is the spoilage. You can place your cursor over the cars in the train list window while in route, and see what the value of the contents is at the next stop in route.

[jrbrockm]

I find that I always have had good luck when I start in the Dusseldorf/Dortmund area, then working my way east to Kassel and Halle, and eventually up to Berlin. After that, work in both directions (North and South) from Berlin. Makes it easy. Good scenario. Never knew much about the geography of Germany until I played this scenario!

[undertoad]

The mind set in the period of this game is that water is not drank, but used for bathing, cooking, Toilets and making booze, never drank.

I'm not even sure about the bathing and cooking. As far as I can tell from the game the Tycoonatrons do nothing all day apart from getting smashed to bluesy music. It doesn't matter how many Breweries and Distilleries there are on a map - there's always room for more! I mean, what else is Grain and Produce for apart from turning into electric soup? (A sentiment that would go down well in the city I'm writing from... ). When wandering round the map checking to see what my trains are doing, I more often than not see a train of 5 vans (UK term - I mean brown box-like covered wagons). Hover the mouse over to see what's inside - paper? clothing? - nah, who needs paper or clothing when you can hardly hold a pen, and trying to put your trousers on ends up with you with both legs in one leg? The consist is Booze, Booze, Booze, Booze, Booze. So surely spoilage should make the cargo more valuable - I mean, if it's rotten enough consuming it is bound to give you some kind of high; even if it then quickly kills you.

Hmm, this gives me an idea for a scenario based around Central America and the Mexico-US border, or Southeast Europe, with some highly interesting cargos.... (drug prohibitionists look away now...)

I'm finding by far the most fun part of the game is the "post-Gold cruise", when you just carry on expanding and expanding, with $50m in the bank. I'm hoping to get Germany into the electric train era at least, and meanwhile grow grow my cities by giving them everything they want. Which, as you say, is mostly alcohol.

At this stage the faults of RT3's train-management screen are so obvious. One thing I'd love in a future release would be to click on a station (where you see, for instance, that there's a lot of passengers/cargo piling up there), and be able to go to a list of trains that call at that station, to help decide whether you might need to add a service.

I always name all my trains (e.g. Prague-Leipzig Freight), and have resorted to using special code prefixes to help me manage them:

/ Train has broken down and I want to replace the loco as soon as I'm allowed to
-> Critical train supplying a critical industry (e.g. steel mill)
* Train has had its consist temporarily altered to avoid starving a critical industry; or is serving a new industry and may need routing adjustment once the new industry creates a proper price "hill" on the map.
@> Train has been "spoofed" with a temporary intermediate destination to force it to pick up cargo that's really meant to go somewhere else. Switch destinations once it leaves!

The last one (@>) is really annoying. Game-generated Steel Mills, for example, often accumulate a huge stockpile of Coal, even though there's no Iron in sight and the mill will never use any of it. Trying to haul the Coal away to my own sensibly-placed mill, I end up having to deal with a $0 or $negative gradient from their mill to my mill, which latter is actually using the stuff!

Maybe I'll switch to 1.06 in a while.

Like jrbrockm I've found out so much about Germany from playing this map. A lot of the places in the East I've never heard of. But I have - they were ceded to Poland after WWII. So I know Possen as Poznan, Breslau as Wroclaw, and so on. But, the question is, did 19thC Germans really drink that much?

[Barney]

Hmm, this gives me an idea for a scenario based around Central America and the Mexico-US border, or Southeast Europe, with some highly interesting cargos.... (drug prohibitionists look away now...)

God that is scary, 'cause I have had the same idea. One reason is my home base. While many cities in the US can claim to be built on Rock and Roll, Miami true claim to fame and fortune is contraband. First we start with Piracy and then move to wrecking. Moving buoys so ships would run aground and sink on the reefs. Next we have running cattle to somewhere in South Florida, Miami has the deepest natural harbor on the east coast of Florida as well as the closest mainland city to Havana, to board ships to Havana to be traded for arms in the War between States. Next was Prohibition, followed by Grass and then Cocaine and illegal aliens. Except for WWII almost all of Miami was built on contraband. Strange as it may be, Miami has no idea who was the first Euro-American to settle in the area. To say the least the Cocaine 80's where something in this area. Made Capone look like a gentleman, as long as you where not involved with the trade, you where in the safest city in the US. My problem was to figure out how to show the movement of the contraband as it actually took place. Ports came to mind, but really do not show the true movement.

At this stage the faults of RT3's train-management screen are so obvious. One thing I'd love in a future release would be to click on a station (where you see, for instance, that there's a lot of passengers/cargo piling up there), and be able to go to a list of trains that call at that station, to help decide whether you might need to add a service.

I always name all my trains (e.g. Prague-Leipzig Freight), and have resorted to using special code prefixes to help me manage them:

/ Train has broken down and I want to replace the loco as soon as I'm allowed to
-> Critical train supplying a critical industry (e.g. steel mill)
* Train has had its consist temporarily altered to avoid starving a critical industry; or is serving a new industry and may need routing adjustment once the new industry creates a proper price "hill" on the map.
@> Train has been "spoofed" with a temporary intermediate destination to force it to pick up cargo that's really meant to go somewhere else. Switch destinations once it leaves!

The last one (@>) is really annoying. Game-generated Steel Mills, for example, often accumulate a huge stockpile of Coal, even though there's no Iron in sight and the mill will never use any of it. Trying to haul the Coal away to my own sensibly-placed mill, I end up having to deal with a $0 or $negative gradient from their mill to my mill, which latter is actually using the stuff!

You do like to micro manage don't you? LOL. I do not know if you heard, but anal retention can lead to heart attacks and stroke. . Only joking, that is one incredible system. Something like that would drive me crazy with a 100++ trains running. But hey, it only has to work for you. If the system works, don't mess with it. As for the issue with the coal and Iron to make steel, what I do is set up two trains on opposite ends to swap the goods back and forth. Iron in one direction and coal in the other. I keep adding train sets until the balance out. The steel that is made in the process, usually makes up for the loss on the trains. Especially if you own the mines, mills and destinations for the products, like the auto plants. It is one way to make a killing in RRT plus it was the way things where done back then. Most steel mills where started by the railroads, since they where separate corporations, they may or may not have been pulled into bankruptcy if the railroad went under. Thus many survived up untill the early 1980's when they where forced overseas by pollution laws, at least that was the story here anyway.

Maybe I'll switch to 1.06 in a while.

Like jrbrockm I've found out so much about Germany from playing this map. A lot of the places in the East I've never heard of. But I have - they were ceded to Poland after WWII. So I know Possen as Poznan, Breslau as Wroclaw, and so on. But, the question is, did 19thC Germans really drink that much?

Well the truth here is that Poland was divided in the mid 1700's or early 1800's By Germany, Russia and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Prior to that, the three con rolled everything going on in the country anyway, so it really did not matter, and that went back somewhere to the 13-14th century. Quite a mess to say the least.

As for booze consumption, you have got to be kidding me. That goes back to the middle ages, if not before. The Caribbean was all about sugar, which is used for Rum production to be shipped to Europe. Agave is used for tequila, that was shipped to Europe. So in context, The main reason they went looking for a faster trade route from Asia to Europe was booze and spices. Why because they where in high demand and easily used. I recall a term that I heard from a Jamaican, and that is "As rich as a Jamaican Sugar Plantation Owner." But the facts show that Alcohol has been the main production of mankind since they first figured out what to do with the left over liquid at the bottom of a barrel of rotted whatever. And We wonder where the phrase "Waste not-What not" comes from. Now with that said, it is time to tap the gift from the gods.

Beertender! another bar please!

[reeyees1]

Just bought this game off Steam a few days ago. Took some getting used to after playing RRT2 for years. Anyway, I'm also having trouble here. I almost got silver last time through but got screwed over by a recession just before the map ended dropping my stock value. Just like the last guy said the industries are in the worst locations and it seems like all the good raw materials are located in $50 million buy-in Russia or Austria-Hungary. Of course we still have livestock and sheep if we are lucky somewhere nearby. The start is just horrible. I'm connecting cities but it is expensive and once the trains start running they are only making pocket change. There's money in distance but to get there you need money! Taking out bonds helps somewhat but usually the interest gets too steep and I'm barely staying afloat. It is also hard to invest in industry when you have very little cash to begin with. I can eventually get on my feet but by then it's too little too late and I'm not even close to the gold medal deadline. I'm going to go back and try the coastal route suggested here. Don't know what I'm asking for here, just want to vent my frustration at this scenario!

[EPH]

Barney, you didn't mention the big role Flagler played in the development of Miami. Isn't it true the city fathers offered to name it Flagler City and Mr Flagler suggested Miami instead?

[RayofSunshine]

Well, after reading a goodly number of previous threads, I find that there are a good number of problems, which makes the scenario a real challenge. And I have a few comments myself.

1st I made the mistake to choose Prussia. Lot of cities and country, but that isn't the problem. I find that the "ruler" will award $$$$$$ for 5 troops per year to the player. Well the only "troops" which I can find is near Fensberg ?? The supply is """1""" per year Another warehouse doesn't appear for a few years later. And although I supply them with "alcohol and produce", the max of troop obtainable was 0.6, and doesn't show any location for a demand, even though Hannover has a ""4"" per year demand. It might be the problem, that I don't have $10M to get access for the State of Hannover.

The 2nd problem is the "crashing" of at least "1"engine every other year. Most being that of only 4-5 years of service. A lot of lost revenue in both consist and replacement.

My attainment of revenue might be my fault, as I usually haul 4-5 consists per train. And although I have not seen but 1 "boom" I increase hauls to 8. At times, as I will make routings of 1 engine per 3 depots, I will us the 4-5 consist from the major depot, and boost the other 2 lessor sized depot consist at the 8 and a min of 2 the majority of the time. Just depends of the economy.

A very interesting concept of play and goals, I could get Silver, but no way to obtain a Gold in 25 years. Well, not this time anyway and playing in the HARD level.

[Gumboots]

I just took a look at this one for the first time in ages. Prussia? No problem. I can get Gold if I start in Prussia, but no chance if I start in Hanover or Bavaria.

I think I figured out why Hanover and Bavaria give you bonuses for starting there. It's because they're utterly useless on Hard level. The bonuses just aren't worth it, because there's hardly anything going on in those states early in the game. Prussia may impose a penalty for overheads, but that's more than made up by the huge amount of stuff you can get your hands on.

[belbincolne]

In desparation cos I still cant get patch 1.06 to work in W7 I've started playing the Campaigns again on Expert. I did them when I first got RT3 and managed Gold on all at Expert and my notes say this one wasn't difficult. So Gold on all up to here (its 6 - The State of Germany by the way) but now I'm completely foiled. In about 5 tries i haven't been able to get near Silver because of two things - PNW is only just short for Silver (miles & miles off for Gold) BUT the main problem is state connection. In the briefing you have to connect every German state to get Gold. There and in Status they say 10 for Silver and all 13 for Gold. But there are only 10! The others are Holland, Denmark etc.

Anyway last try I managed to connect all 10 and every one is ticked on the Company Detail Map - but in Status it only says I've got 9.(Yes I've gone past end of year and its still wrong in the Status).

In my notes I made no mention of having to connect non-German states so I'm sure that originally I didn't have to - especially given their cost. The only difference now to then is that I've got patch 1.05 installed which I assume I didn't have all those years ago.

So - anyone care to give it a try - on Expert - and tell me what they find particularly about the number of states?

[Gumboots]

I haven't played this one for a while but don't recall any problems with the coding. Where are you starting? Maybe there is a bug related to that. I've only gotten Gold when starting in Prussia.

(using 1.05 and hardest setting)

[belbincolne]

I've started in all 3 places and the "bug" is in at least 2 - cant be certain about Bavaria I'll give that a try. I realise that when I've connected all 10 it says 9 cos it doesn't count the one you start in but, once again, I got Bronze having fulfilled the Silver conditions so that's both the other 2 states to Bavaria. But Gold is impossible as to get it you'd need to connect 4 non-German states at $50m each. Perhaps you'd check the wording although I can't see how it can be any different to mine and - as I said - 10 years or so ago I got Gold on Expert no problem. I don't think it's possible to get $50m for one state to reach Silver let alone 4. I'd like to try it on Easy just to see what happens but not sure how that would effect the following scenarios so it will have to wait until I've done all the others.

Incidentally having got fed up trying this one I completed the next 2 perhaps 5 or more years early without any problems at all. In the English one there's a favourable bug which means you've made the connections even via the use of an AIs line before you take them over. Fortunately in both this and the Crossing the Alps one you get instant Gold so don't have to keep playing on pointlessly after completing the objectives.