Germantown

[Hawk]

The following text is a compilation of what was salvaged from the old Gathering Forum. It contains postings from several different people.
Thanks goes out to Wolverine for putting this all together.

Hawk

Germantown
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When starting out on this scenario, there are quite a few cities to connect. I tried a St. Louis -> Quincy -> Davenport connection and it seemed to be alright, but the route was a bit long to start out with.
What other connections are good ones to start off?
Cleveland -> Toledo -> Detriot
Chicago -> Milwaukee
The beef industry seems to be centered in the west-central part of this map while goods, etc... are located elsewhere. The St. Louis connection I stated above seemed like the right choice because of the vast amounts of meat and livestock. Of which I wanted to buy the industries.
Any suggestions?
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Weel, I can tell you what doesn't work.
St. Louis-Springfield-Peoria-Chicago, then East doesn't work unless Springfield and Peoria are heavily seeded with population.
I've always thought that going West and NW isn't getting me to Cleveland
Chicago-Wilwaukee-Madison is a great start but then everything from Chicago East is a very long haul without detouring into Michigan. Again spending money on trackage that doesn't directly benefit the objective.
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To be honest, I don't even build any tracks in this scenario until almost the very end. To get the gold medal, you have to be the only company left standing, which means you've got to play the financial game ahead of the railroad game.
What I do is to look for a concentration of grain farms on the map (it IS the Midwestern US, after all, so this shouldn't be too difficult), take out a bond or two, and set up a brewery near those farms. Within a couple of years, this one brewery (after being upgraded) should get you enough cash to go out and start buying up good-paying dairy and cattle farms.
While that's going on, I watch each of the competing railroad companies, buying (or short-selling) their stock until I've got enough to do a successful merger. By the time you're the only one left standing, the connection from St. Louis to Cleveland will either already be in place or you'll have enough money to just lay track in one fell swoop between the two cities to win the scenario.
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wrote:
To get the gold medal, you have to be the only company left standing, which means you've got to play the financial game ahead of the railroad game.
I didn't think this was a requirement of this scenario. In two years I saw four companies. Which would be a pain to overtake.
I'm going to try the some cities north of Chicago and see where it takes me.
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I started with Cleveland to Toledo and a year later added Detroit. That seemed to work pretty well.
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wrote:
I didn't think this was a requirement of this scenario. In two years I saw four companies. Which would be a pain to overtake.
It's only a requirement for the gold medal. And it's really not that hard if you're not also trying to build a profitable railroad at the same time ... out of the 4 AI companies, at least on difficulty levels up to normal, usually only one will be profitable (ie, expensive to take over). You've got thirty years to accomplish your goals, as well. Good luck!
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I went with the Chicago to Milwaukee route. It's worked out great. 10 years into it, I'm already connected from Cleveland to St. Louis and making 1 Mil + in profit a year.
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wrote:
To be honest, I don't even build any tracks in this scenario until almost the very end.
That was pretty smart WolfDaddy. I am not sure if I will make gold on this or not. I always do step progression on the campaigns, so I make sure I get the copper & then worry about the others.
I started in St. Loius up through Springfield, Peoria & Chicago. This isn't a great money route, but it is steady. I have been buying out competitors and hooking there lines in as spurs to make them profitable. The major problem I have is I neglected to jump on industries early, so the most profitable are very expensive.
I've got 20 years & 2 competitors left right now and i am making maybe $200K a year in industry. I'll let you guys know if this poor path to the gold works after tonight.
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wrote:
The major problem I have is I neglected to jump on industries early, so the most profitable are very expensive.
That was the most major problem I had with the game in general. In RRT2, you didn't have to be an industrial tycoon if you didn't want to be. In RRT3, it seems to be all about creating your industries and supply chains first and then build your railroads around those.
It took me forever to understand how the supply/demand system works in this game. What did it for me was I got a map with tons of grain farms but no breweries. I was running the game on high speed, just watching the AI to see what it did. Then I got an announcement that a brewery had appeared on the map, and slowly the closest grain farms started shipping their goods to that brewery rather than satisfying the meager demand of the small towns closest to those farms. When I saw a huge pile of grain cars sitting at the brewery, I switched from the grain to the alcohol view and saw little partial cars slowly starting to ship themselves out over the map. It hit me then ... this is how to make massive amounts of money in this game! Watch where the cargo goes, build an industry that requires the cargo close by, and when you're rolling in dough set up your first rail line to ship your finished cargo to far away places where demand (and price) is high.
Once I figured all this out the game's become a (relative) snap and it's also forced me to really pay attention to how the industrial layout of the scenario strongly influences the financial side of things, and affects your decisions far FAR more than it did in RRT2.
Neat!
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You're right . Once I figured this out, I was tempted to restart the campaign. But now I want to see if I can still get a gold. I'm actually making pretty good money 10 years in and think I can do it.
BTW - Thanks for your advice.
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Interesting concept for what's supposed to be a Railroad game.
Several things I've noticed is that when I finally get around to looking at several industries to buy they're in the multi-million price range. The cheap ones, six figure, are off in the boonies.
Right now I'm figuring out Texas Tea.
It's interesting that if I go after the other roads I tend to make far less money than if I leave them alone. Several times I've been able to take over the two or three competitors when they're stock is down to a buck or two. Yet there's little or no profit in them.
Oh, a minor point. Is there a way to add a station or maintenance/service point in the middle of a route list? I've tired <ctrl>+, <shift>+ and <alt>+ without success. I'm sure it's in the "manual" but that's not at my side right now.
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wrote:
It's interesting that if I go after the other roads I tend to make far less money than if I leave them alone. Several times I've been able to take over the two or three competitors when they're stock is down to a buck or two. Yet there's little or no profit in them.
That is part of the challenge to taking these guys over. Most of the AI guys have decent routes started they just never finish it off, leaving just two cities connected to their entire system. The first thing I do when I buy them is refinance their bonds. These guys ussually have no credit whatsoever, so their bonds have interest rates near 20%. I then try to connect their line up as a spur and change their train routes to run through more than two cities. The first couple of trains run in the red but after that you get some traffic moving things start to improve.
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Personally, this is my favorite scenario so far. I've had the best success with a Chicago-Milw start but I also started around Detroit a couple times and that worked about as well. Regardless of where I started I wanted Chicago on my network--as my station or an AI station but I want it accessible.
But as mentioned this is a scenario where you want to get some industry early, you'll need the steady revenue--Pax/Mail won't give you the early cash you need for expansion and you must keep expanding so you'll reach that critical mass in your network to have lots of places for the pax/mail to go.
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usually the only reason the AI is running at a loss is because it doesn't seem to manage its finances well. In playing Germantown, for example, I was able to make each company I absorbed profitable--if it wasn't already--by paying off each company's bonds, eliminating, in some cases, nearly $300K a year in interest charges. I then upgrade locos where necessary, trim out redundant routes ... steal underwear ... PROFIT!!!!
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You've got the economic model wrong. It is
1. Steal Underwear
2. ?
3. Profit!
BTW this is a classic South Park episode. Anyway, I was able to get a gold on this campaign with 12 years to spare. While, it probably would be best to start with some industrial investment, it is not required. I had my entire connection (St. Loius to Cleveland) built and had bought out two competitors before I bought any industry. One thing of note also is that your competitors buy up industry and once you buy them you get that industry in a fire sell.
My primary connection was from St. Loius to Chicago hitting the small towns in between. I think there are probably hundreds of approaches to this campaign that will work, though.
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Well I tried the Clevelend -> Toledo -> Detroit route last night, but it didn't work out to well. Right before I was able to connect Detroit up, the AI did, thus directing my attention on Akron. This 3-city route wasn't all that profitable making only about 200k a year in profits (3 trains). So wasn't able to expand much.
I'm going to start over again with Chicago in mind. And I have to find an industry that I can buy, before it sky-rockets in price.
Also, I did well buying short on some AI companies. A couple had terrible routes between small cities. Before I knew it, there stock was a measly 2k.
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I started Holland-Toledo (a short-cut between two of the "big lakes")
AI started Detroit-Stiginnati (I don't know the name for sure anymore )
I connected Toledo-Detroit (AI) and Holland-Chicago
Next thing I did was set up another piece in the west (this scenario doesn't require connected tracks): Mason (with lots of coal) to Mineapolis (in the north)
Bought the AI running in Detroit
The other 3 AI's were covering 80% of the route between Detroit and Mineapolis, I just had to inter-connect them, take them over and lay a long stretch of track from chicago to st-louis and Toledo-Cleveland, but as cheap as possible (without service stations, a small station, no trains)
=> Won in 10 years, and I only used the top 1/3 of the map untill right at the end when I had to connect to St-Louis
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wrote: => Won in 10 years, and I only used the top 1/3 of the map untill right at the end when I had to connect to St-Louis
Way to go. I thought I was special winning in 18 years. I am assuming you bought some industry quite early - Is that correct?
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I was playing a bit before work today and noticed a river of goods heading into St. Louis. I plopped a brewery in and voila! Profit.
I started with the same route as you. I took out about 1.5million in bonds and connected St. Louis to Chicago. After that, I connected Chicago to the AI RR @ Milwaukee. However, the money didn't really start to roll in until I connected South Bend to Chicago (for some reason, people REALLY wanted to go to South Bend). The connection to South Bend really opened things up and I made it to Toledo and Cleveland by 1858. Now I have a train that carries 5 car alcohol trains from St. Louis to Toledo and makes over 200k per trip!
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I've been to toledo, there's not much to do other than drink...
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just because the AI got Detroit doesn't force you to change your strategy! Connect to him and watch what happens. Of course, you want to make your connection in a way that minimizes the amount of his track you use and maximizes the amount of your track he'll start using. Route a couple trains there and watch--within a couple years the money you're making from interchange fees (misc income on the ledger) will be showing up and might be as large or larger than what you're earning from your own trains.
The goal in RT3 is to get access to a large rail network--you can build it, buy it, or just hook to it but you don't have to build it!
I tried something in a game that really opened my eyes. I saw two AI railroads in the same general area but both were just marginally profitable--enough to survive but not enough to expand. I kept thinking how much they might benefit if they'd only join their tracks. Well, duh! eventually I ran track out of one AI RR's station to one of the stations on the other one. That stretch of track made me a lot of money because both of them starting using it heavily to haul stuff between them. And as I suspected, they both became more profitable, enough to start expanding and I just kept collecting the growing interchange fees.
I've never done it but I suspect you could lay track like that and make a lot of money and never build a station!
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I started Milwaulkee-Chicago-some useful farms in Illinois. I made an excellent return the first year, than got small but significant profits for the next few years. By the next boom, I could easily borrow enough to stretch my rural line to Springfield and St. Louis, and it was a cakewalk after that.
Industry is *not* the only way to win. Best returns, as always in RRT, come from passenger/mail. The trick is to get a large enough network to get there. My current strategy is to build a small "sensible" railroad - connect 2 cities *and* perform some other service - complementary freight between the cities, connect two rivers, connect a landlocked city, or service some rural cargo source to my cities. You can't borrow too much at the start with this strategy, though - the interest will kill you before you can expand. Once you're out to the fourth city or so, borrow at will.
I don't know how this compares to an industry start. Industry will generate more consistent profits after the first year, but my current strategy puts me $1.5M or so ahead in building the killer network. I'm going to try some tests in a bit.
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Well, I started between Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit. And after some time I connected to Columbus, to the AI who had a line between Cincinatti and Columbus. Since I connected to Columbus, I started to get big profits, which enabled me to build to Chicago quite soon, and then to St Louis, then south and also to Minneapolis. But if you can connect to an AI railway, just do it, it can bring in big profits. It helped me in the Germantown scenario. And I quite easily got gold on this one.
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Greetings
The opening route that worked for me was Indianapolis - Ft. Wayne - Toledo. Ft Wayne had ( has ?? ) some Iron Mines and some Sheep Farms, and Toledo always has a Textile Mill so it made a logical route. I started with one Freight train and one Express running between Ft. Wayne and Toledo, another set ( 1 Freight + 1 Express ) between Ft. Wayne and Indianapolis, and a third set running from Toledo to Indianapolis. As soon as I could afford it I connected to Detroit. After that, I worked East to Cleveland, South ( from Indianapolis ) to Columbus, and West to St. Louis. I also connected from Ft. Wayne to Chicago. As much as possible I tried to set up "Hub and Spoke" routes with "Hubs" at Indianapolis, Toledo, and ( Eventually ) Chicago.
Regarding the "competetion" here is the owners and the routes they selected.
1.) Jim Fisk: Saginaw to Lansing ( eventually connecting to my route at Toledo )
2.) Daniel Drew: Chicago Northern ( Chicago to Milwaukee )
3.) Charles Crocker: Madison and Rockford ( Eventually reaching Iowa )
4.) Jay Cooke: Jackson and Dyersburg ( Eventually reaching Paducha )
As you can see the two to take out ASAP are Drew and Crocker. I've started ( and failed ) this one several times before hitting on the INTO route, and every time Drew and Crocker were the competetors to watch.
What really helped me a lot was when someone built a Munitions Plant in Ft. Wayne a couple of years before the Civil War started. Needless to say, I made a KILLING hauling ammo for the Union Army.
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Hi Gang!
I'm new to this forum and this railroading thing, so please bear with me if I say or do something stupid. I'm used to that happening, but you might not be.
I have been fooling around with the Germantown scenario for a couple of nights now, and have finally come up with an approach which seems to work.
First of all, I look for an existing brewery that had full, or close to full, production during the previous year. Buying an existing brewery costs half a million less than building a new one. I figure that if a brewery had full production during the preceeding year, then it must have a secure grain supply in place. In the past, I've built breweries and then had to wait months for grain to show up. Also, a brewery that produced six loads last year might be ripe for an update later on.
Then I turn on the grain and alcohol overlays and try to find a city that is on a river or lake, is buying alcohol and is close to a grain stream. That's my candidate for the first track.
I'm only three years into this campaign, but it looks good so far. I had a profit of over 500k the first year. My brewery is located in Lansing and the first track was Lansing-Saginaw. Since Lansing is in the middle of the state, I plan to use it as a hub and run spokes out to surrounding cities as needed. The brewery has been since updated and is a cash cow. The tracks are doing somewhat better than breaking even.
Question: I've noticed that cargo income from a set of cities is much higher initially than it is later on. Is this the supply-demand thing at work?
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wrote:
When starting out on this scenario, there are quite a few cities to connect. I tried a St. Louis -> Quincy -> Davenport connection and it seemed to be alright, but the route was a bit long to start out with.
What other connections are good ones to start off?
Cleveland -> Toledo -> Detriot
Chicago -> Milwaukee
I missed the silver for this mission by $2 million in book value. Probably could have made it if I'd known more about how industry works. (This thread has been enlightening in that respect.)
Anyhow, I started off with Joplin -> Fort Smith and Mountain View -> Little Rock. Starting off the two independent tracks was a mistake, and if I'd have done Joplin -> Fort Smith -> Mountain View or Joplin -> Fort Smith -> Little Rock, I probably would have gotten off to a better start and gotten the Silver. (Don't think I would have been able to get the gold regardless without having read this thread.)
As it was, I was eventually able to connect the two independent lines and then run the train up through Missouri to St. Louis, and then on to Cleveland.
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Man did I find this a hard one to get gold for. I'm playing 'normal' difficulty and had gold on four of the first five scenarios of the campaign. I just couldn't nail Germantown, USA. If I worked too hard on destroying the AI players I didn't have enough of a book value by the end and vice versa.
Well, it seems the FOURTH time is the charm. I destroyed the AI almost immediately this game. How? I bought heavy into my own company and sold after the initial rise. Plus, I took the $170K bonus that was offered at the start.
I paused the game and then did this to each competitor:
1) Buy more than 50% of their company (riding the cycle upwards)
2) Take over as their chairman
3) Get every bond possible.
4) Sell their industries, if any.
5) Sell my stock a bit at a time, buying back stock with the borrowed money as required to keep the value up
6) Issue stock so the AI can't do so upon reinstatement.
7) You need to be careful to save some money for this part. Bulldoze their routes/stations so they don't get in your way later. Buy as many small stations as you can in a remote section of the map so they have a high maintenance cost to contend with.
8) Continue with steps 1-7 for each other company
9) Return to your own company
10) Short sell all the stock you can in the other companies
11) Unpause the game and watch their stock value drop to $1 rapidly!
It may not be realistic, but it was so very satisfying. Of course, I couldn't buy their companies now since they had so much debt. However, all were liquidated within 15 years. Every so often they got some money back...I'm not sure how. When that happened I just took over again and spent the money on more small stations. They didn't have a chance.
Once the opponents are out of they way, getting a book value of $40M wasn't so hard...man, I love this game!
Now, onto the second showcase in Europe!
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Good Stuff! I have a couple of questions. What other company do you start with - the weakest or strongest? How do you get your old job back?
I've got some notes someplace on this strategy. I think it's called the "Robber Baron." Got to look for them.
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I start with the company in which I'm most able to buy 51% of the stock. It doesn't have a chance otherwise. If you get into the market quick enough then no one's stock should have doubled yet, so I generally start with the company with the lowest stock value.
As for getting back...again, you'll need 51% of the stock in the company you originally started. However, if all has gone well you should have made some decent cash when you sold your stock in each competitor while keeping the value as the company buys back its stock. If you don't have enough, you can ride the upward cycle to buy into your company and then sell after your election. Sure, you'll lose some cash this way, but you'll have crushed your competition!
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Okay, got it!
By the way, the Robber Baron strategy can be found at http://www.express-world.co.uk/robberba ... ategy.hmtl. It is designed for RT2 but the principles are the same.
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I have noticed comments elsewhere here about how difficult this campaign is... so many thanks for your suggestions. But I must admit the solution seems a little... er ... drastic?
...and it's only the second campaign - eeek... are the rest as hard to perform?
D'you reckon this campaign is bugged in that it's simply too difficult? Has anyone found a realisitic solution where we don't have to nuke our opponents?!
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Another tip - since you are fairly sure that company's stock is going to drop to $1k, it might behoove you to short sell it a bunch of it. That's how I made some cash in Orient Express, knowing that each of the other two companies would eventually drop to $1 and fold.
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I think you'll notice that step 10 has you short sell all the stock you can
I can only speak for the first five scenarios of the campaign (the American ones) since I refused to go on until I got that gold. *grins* This was the only real tough one for me. I had to play the first one twice since it was my first game and it took me a while to get used to the new system. I got gold on the first try on scenarios 3, 4, and 5. So it's not incredibly hard I don't think, but I'll let you know once I've given the European missions a shot!
It was a bit drastic doing that to the AI, but hey, I'm a robber baron!!!
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wrote: D'you reckon this campaign is bugged in that it's simply too difficult? Has anyone found a realisitic solution where we don't have to nuke our opponents?!
I was able to get a gold on this the first time. I found it challenging, but for some reason I struggled more on the Texas Tea (by my own stupidity). I did not have to resort to such drastic measures, as I quickly bought stock in the company that looked like it was going to do the best. (In my case, the guy that got the Chicago-Milwuakee (sp) route). The other two competitors do awful and I wait to get ownership in their companies until it is a dollar a share. I then just concentrate on getting my connection made. After I get a 50%+ share in the good competitor, I hook up to his track. He will start doing a lot better. Then save your money and buy him out. The others are absolutely no challenge.
Another interesting note is that I had very few industry investments (esp. initially), yet my railroad was generating 3-4M in profits once I had the St. Louis - Cleveland connection made.
Just a bit of a different approach...
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I had no problems getting gold. Properly placed industry results in huge amount of money going into your company, your company stock going up allowing you to buy more of the other companies on margin and buy them out, and once you get a few money making industries its easy to plunk down a few more key ones which just keep the money rolling in.
Industry is the way to go. Now when a scenario starts I pause the game and before building any track check out all the cargo types, where they come from, and where they're going.
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I'm playing Germantown USA scenario in the campaign on "easy" level (I'm a beginner). I've played it through twice now and accomplish all the requirement for Gold but the game seems to refuse to recognize that St. Louis and Cleveland are connected... Any ideas?
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i've noticed in the demo (italy map), that as soon as the time for the objective to be completed runs out, it won't update. For example, it took me 27 years to connect rome to palermo, but since i had to do it in 25 years, it wouldn't register. just a thought
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Thanks for the feedback but, no, that's notit for me. I've connected the cities years before the required time and it just won't connect. In other scenarios, you get the newspaper popup acknowleging the connection and it will show in the company books. No such luck for me and I know they are connected. Very frustrating...
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That's happened to me a couple of times.
I have destroyed tunnels and rebuilt track over the hill instead of through it) and found the link suddenly works
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Most often the "disconnected" problem is caused by a station not "in" the city limits. If you run the cursor over the city names it will say "connected" or not. Remove the old station if you have the money, or build a 2nd station inside the city boundries. Turn on the grid feature, it will make placement easier.
The other reason is caused when you "miss" one section of track. Remember that for some reason you can run trains between two places that are "connected" when there is a break in the physical plant. All you cad do is pause the game and get down to the ROW and look at every section of track.
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I have ran into this same problem and corrected it by looking closely at the tack and in most cases it is just one segment missing. If you have bulldozed anything around your track check the track to be positive that you haven't created a break. Also look over your train list after you discover a break if you have a train that was going to be using that section of track it will have a no destination setting listed.
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wrote: I'm playing Germantown USA scenario in the campaign on "easy" level (I'm a beginner). I've played it through twice now and accomplish all the requirement for Gold but the game seems to refuse to recognize that St. Louis and Cleveland are connected... Any ideas?
I've also encountered this problem in the demo. I did have a brief month or so after making the connection where I couldn't route trains to St Louis station, which had been built by a now-liquidated company, but after that the connection was definitely made, and I even ran a train non-stop from Cleveland to St Louis to prove it. I can't remember if I ended up relaying track before that stage or later. Nonetheless, the yearly ledger repeatedly reports that I have not made the connection. Tonight, I will try to put a different connection to the liquidated railway and see if the game is just not seeing the connection even though trains can run on the line OK.
As an aside, "liquidated" is the wrong word to use, since the assets have been frozen, not liquidated. I have commented on this elsewhere though.
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Make sure YOUR railroad owns a station connected to each city - AI owned stations don't count.
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wrote: Make sure YOUR railroad owns a station connected to each city - AI owned stations don't count.
OK, thanks I guess that makes sense, though it could be awkward. The only thing is that I went as far as demolishing my bridge into St Louis so I could create another station, but it said it was too close to an existing one. The liquidated station is right on that hill next to the river, and when combined with the local relief, may actually prevent me from building my own station anywhere within the city limits, I'll have to try it. I also got the message "another company has already connected this city".
What is annoying is that if it was a competitor, I could just merge with them, but since it is "liquidated", there are no trains apart from my own, but I can't buy or remove the old infrastructure.
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wrote: Make sure YOUR railroad owns a station connected to each city - AI owned stations don't count.
I can't build a station in St Louis because the "liquidated company" has its station there and it's taking up all the room. Instead, I built a large station right across the river, who's radius covers St Louis. But that doesn't work. The ai calls is "St Louis Junction" but says St Louis is not connected. What can I do?
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I did restart on the medium level for more of a challenge after that anyway.
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wrote: Thanks for the feedback but, no, that's notit for me. I've connected the cities years before the required time and it just won't connect. In other scenarios, you get the newspaper popup acknowleging the connection and it will show in the company books. No such luck for me and I know they are connected. Very frustrating...
I noticed that sometimes I had a station placed where I thought was the center of town and assumed I was connected but in fact was not connected. Perhaps the station was not placed in an area of town that the game thinks must be in order to be connected. I then built another station closer to the name of the city on the map and it then showed as connected.
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I just had this same issue.
0) I paused the game in January of 1866.
1) no railroads were in either St. Louis or Clevland
2) I dropped stations in each town, making VERY sure that it said "connected", both before and after I placed the station. I connected up the stations with one long section of my track (with the exception of a little rail around Indianapolis there was no rail anywhere near or in the path between St. Louis and Clevland.)
3) I let the game run -- nothing. No newspaper (which I didn't have turned off), and the ledger still said the cities were unconnected. I let the game run for 5 months, until May, still no connection.
4) I decided to test whether I had some unjoined track somewhere by buying an engine and setting a route from St. Louis to Clevland. The game let me set the route.
5) The instant I hit buy on the engine, I got the newspaper.
I was also a bit thrown by the fact that I didn't get an instant gold when I fulfilled the final condition (connecting the cities). But editing the map reveals that's because the Gold is only checked for at the end of each year, and that's when I got it.
Question for Pop-Top: Does it make any difference to the connection tester code that the number for St. Louis (32) is greater than the number for Clevland (2 and the condition is 32 to 28 versus 28 to 32?
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I finally succeeded the second mission (mission where you have to link St. Louis with another town). I tried so many times with trains, but each time the demands on stations was so small the all my trains ran almost for nothing. After several tries then, I decided to change the strategy, and I played only with industries. It worked so fine that I have even got more then 10 millions dollars of benefits a year only with industries (in my french version the goal is not well explained I think, so that's why I thought it was a "10 millions dollars a year" goal). So after suceeding, even without creating a single train, I was disappointed on the way I won. I mean, that game's called "Railroad Tycoon", and I was anything but a railroad tycoon in that game. So my question is the following: is it possible to win that second mission with only trains, and if yes, what is the point to understand to link correctly cities in such a map?
Thank you very much for your help...
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Yes it is.
Tried at first only to buy industri and succeded in no time. But decided to try out with trains only.
Here is how I did:
At first I found a little help on H & P railroad site a really good site if I may say. Thanks for the help H & P.
Started out connecting Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit. It should be posssible with the start money and 1 bond. (At the moment I can't remember if you can select an advantage in the beginning of the game but if you can select 170 k back of your initial investment).
When your competitors starts building buy as much as you can of the stocks in the company that builds near Chicago, Madelaine, Mill....(Can't spell it) for a take over as fast as possible. (If you wait he will soon get so big that it'll take lots of money to buy him out).
When you have succeded that begin buying op stock in a company near your own tracks. He will proberbly do average or a little under so his stock should be fairly cheap. After you have bought a major part of his stock connect your track to his. This will give your cities a boost in express and cargo which will make your average railroad to a moneymachine.
Use the money to connect your Chicago railroad to your Detroit railroad.
Don't think about the 2 existing railroads by now you are big enough to buy them when ever you want. Start investing in industri 1 well placed, well suplied and upgraded steell mill should provide 10 mill. in 10-15 years if thats not enough buy or build tool and die and you should be there.
Connect to St. Louis and buy up the 2 companies left and your campain is done.
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Ok, thank you for the advice. I'll try it today...
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Sorry but I have forgotten to say 1 or 2 things.
After you have connected to and bought shares i the 2. company (next to you)don't take him over. Let him live because besides the boost the connection gives to your own cities you'll soon see him earning lots of money to you for using your tracks. No need to worry about him getting to big if you are the largest shareholder. Because when he gets richer you'll even richer.
A 2. thing I forgot to mention is that I bought a munition factory near Lansing and upgraded it as soon as I had conected to St. Luois not because of the industri profit wich was ca. 60 k. a year but the extra cargo really paid of.
A thing that made the campain a little more difficult was that I started it before Micha found the "hidden swtiches" so it was only on my tracks from Chicago to St. Luois that my trains could get a acceptable speed. From Cleveland to Chicago all my trains went 8-10 mph. but still got gold on the hardest level.
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I tried with your method, but finally was not satisfied as the incomes from the trains traffic was very very low, so I was not able to do anything without buying some industries to boost my economy. But finally, I think I got the spot! I started again, but in that final game, each years I sold...I forgot what is the english translation, well, what brings you 500k when you sell them. Eventually, I sold the maximum number (20) of them, but before 10 years of play, my railroad system was so big that it brought me far more money that what industries did the first time I finished that mission. I was even able, onle after 12 years of play (that mission is a 30 years mission) to buy back all those 20 xxx (shares?). By the way, about that I have a question: I bought them back, but I still had 1000k to pay each year (I supose it's their interests). Wouldn't it be possible to pay back all those interests at once?
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I think the word you are looking for is bonds.
I haven't noticed that problem with the interest, but if you have paid your bonds back but still have to pay interest for them then it looks like a bug.
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There was another person who had a similar problem. Check the thread Phantom Bonds After Merger
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I just did this one. It took some time, but I did it as follow
1. built a train from memphis to chicago. That earned me $200 or so from every round trip. Added post office and hotel to each
Also, built one from somehwere to toledo. (Needed a bond) That was also good for $200K per year. In half a year, I was able to expand that down to cleveland. Added post office and hotel to each.
From there I had two seperate trains going making a total of 600+/year. I added a new route next year - a third completely seperate line (there is NO requirement that your tracks be connected in this mission). Once I getting a mill/year (by year 2), I started to eat up industries, although I was already pulling in quite a bit from hotel bussiness anyway (counts as industry).
Made the final easy.
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Hi, I am playing Germantown, I am hauling iron from some mines near Nashville, up to an ammo factory near Lexington. Lexington also has a tool and die.
What I had hoped would happen is that I would supply enough iron such that both the Tool and Die and the Ammunition Factory were maxed out. Note that I do have a few trains hauling from Lexington to places where Ammo and Goods are in high demand.
However, not only is neither factory maxed out, the Ammunition Factory doesn't even appear to be producing more than a trickle of ammo, none of which uses my rails!! And, I have a whole ton of Iron kind of just sitting in Lexington!
Can you suggest some advice, or possible things I did wrong?
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In the Cargo Supply Overview I have seen iron stack up on the nearer destination industry. In Germantown, I built an ammo factory in Jefferson City, between the iron mines and the existing tool & die and did very well, picking up iron that was already in transit, as well as anything produced after construction. From there the ammo went down river to a barracks in St. Louis. I forgot to check on the tool & die after that though, but I got a nice stack of iron. So I try to place new industries across the existing lines of flow of the raw materials, and where there is a motivated customer not too far away.
Receiving industries would also be affected by the demand levels of the square they occupy. I suppose if my ammo factory looked orange in the iron view and the T&D green, then the iron would move toward the T&D.
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Yes, the 'intercept strategy' is a good one. But just wait until the AI does the same to you...
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I don't get why the silver wasn't mine on this campaign<ette>. After 30 years my Company Book value was $64M+, Industry Profits were just shy of $32M and I connected St.Louis to Cleveland with three companies remaining. Results according to the Game Status.
It doesn't appear anyone has posted this as a problem, so I'm wondering if anyone can shed light on this phantom failure. I even have a screen shot to prove I'm not crazy![/img]
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Can you post the link to the pic, please?
I played twice that map.
I've got gold each times. - Termites factor included in that scenario?
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Make sure you have your own stations in St-Louis and Cleveland
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Here is the screenshot: http://www.bensonware.com/RRT3/images/S ... mpaign.JPG [/img]
I know the stations at St.Louis and Cleveland were mine because the 4(?) AI companies were all up north, and as the picture shows, the Game Status identified the cities as connected. Also, when you see the 31 years, I'd met the silver condition by year 20 but spent the other 10 years trying to get the lowest-possible takeover stock price for the companies.

Oh well, just another reason to play the game!
wrote:
Can you post the link to the pic, please?
I played twice that map.
I've got gold each times. - Termites factor included in that scenario?
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This one's a puzzler. I double checked the scenario in the editor, and it looks right. I have silver for this myself ("last-man-standing" just isn't me forté.)
My only possible thought is your game version. Do you have the 1.03 patch installed? (When you launch the game, the main selection screen has version 1.03 in the lower left-hand corner.) The History file for 1.03 doesn't mention Germantown so this is just a stab in the dark.
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Hi
I have had NO Problem with getting the silver BUT getting the gold is for me impossible!! As soon as I merge with the last competitor the game starts a new company!! I even tryed to cheat - to see what happen - NO go
Even taking over in the last month of the game NO go. So I believe there is a bug (an error) in the validation of events!
Trouble is I don't know how to fix it. I played this scenario about 10 times
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I think you can fix it by turning on the "you can only start one company" restriction. I think this applies to the AI players as well, so after you buy their first company, that's it for them. I didn't have this problem, playing on Easy I got the gold first try. I'm using 1.03, are you?
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I've got version 1.03 too. Played on normal difficulty and got gold on first try. Once the AI guys lost control over their companies, they pretty much just sat there. One company was liquidated by its creditors and the chairman - who had only invested in his own company - lost everything and was left with no cash, no stock and no income. I can understand him not being able to do anything for the rest of the game, but I would have expected the other to at least invest SOME money in my company when it was the only one left and share prices where going up and up and up...
Strangely enough, only one of them ever did, and he only bought 2,000 shares and sat there holding those for the rest of the game. (They later became 4,000 due to a stock split.)
Of course, none of them really had very much money by the time I was done with them, but they could definitely have made much more out of the money they did have. I would have thought that - when I merged their companies into mine - they would reinvest their money in my company in order to collect their share of my profits. I was kind of surprised that they never did.
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Yes I installed patch 1.03 and I fixed it finnaly. Had to go into the Editor and change the event for AI Player from mantatory to opional and deledet the win contion Then it was as easy as apple Pie.
But that should not happen!!!!
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I've had AI players that weren't completely wiped out, but still didn't have enough money or buying power to buy my company's stock, which I was able to keep in the $50-$100 range, out of reach of the poor AI guy.
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RRT3 Newbie here
Been playing the Germantown campaign and I have a Steel Mill in St. Louis that does not produce (no product at all, zero, zilch, zip) even though the station is well supplied with the required raw materials (coal and iron, I think).
Any Ideas?
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Two possibilities that I can think of.
First the mill just got a supply of one of the inputs. It takes time for production to ramp up.
Second, there's no demand for steel. Unlikely, but if true then it may not produce anything.
Are you sure that the mill is supplied with both? If so, there should be both iron and coal piling up at the station in St Louis. When you click on the industry it shows nothing consumed or output?
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Here is one possibility:

Is there a tool and die factory in the same town, and is it closer to your station than the steel mill? My experience is that the closer factory will "steal" the arriving cargo and leave other industries with next to nothing. Also, residences will use coal as well (although the demand is not all that great).
If you are in competition with the tool/die factory- you will either need to bulldoze it or wait until the factory no longer takes just iron but requires steal.
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Quote:
If you are in competition with the tool/die factory- you will either need to bulldoze it or wait until the factory no longer takes just iron but requires steal.
I seem to recall an earlier thread when a suggestion was made to put a small size station serving just the Steel Mill, and deliver your raw materials there. Logic would say to put on the side that is opposite the Tool and Die, so stuff doesn't get drawn in the wrong direction. As I recall the POPTOP response, when two demand industries are in the same station radius, the cargo goes to whichever is "screaming" loudest for it. However, I personally haven't tested this tactic yet.
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Thanks for input folks.
To clarify my situation:
Yes, both raw materials were being delivered to St. Louis Station.
Yes, there was a Tool and Die Close by.
Yes I am sure that the Steel Mill was not producing...zero revenue for several years.
After reading the responses I loaded up the campaign and played through for a bit and at one point I got a message that Tool and Die factories (I am 90% sure it was T&D and not some other industry) were no longer accepting raw Iron and would only take steel from a Steel Mill.
My Steel Mill was instantaneously profitable.
I think that the T&D was sucking the Iron because there was little demand for steel. On that note I thank you for your responses and have one other quick question: Is there any way to check how much of a given raw material a specific building consumed in a year?
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Yes, but not directly. You can see how many loads were consumed. If it is steel, and 5 loads were consumed in total, then you know 2.5 loads of coal and 2.5 loads of iron were consumed.
You should be able to see how many loads were consumed when you select an industry, its right below the revenue.
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I connected St. Louis to Cleveland but it said that I didn't. Any advice or do I need to pick up the patch or something I have no idea I just started playing this game like 3 days ago.
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Can you run a train from St. Louis to Cleveland
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Yes I can. I started one from St. Louis the Cleveland and then it still said unconnected so I did one from cleveland to st. louis but still nothing
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Did you read all the info in the existing threads? Go to this topic to find them.
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wrote: Yes I can. I started one from St. Louis the Cleveland and then it still said unconnected so I did one from cleveland to st. louis but still nothing
Most likely you experienced the bug where city connections are not recognized. I had it twice already.
In your case it's particularly bad because you will have to restart the scenario.
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When you hover the mouse over your terminals at St. Louis and Cleveland, does the big green box say "Connected"? Are your stations named "xxx Junction" or "xxx Crossing"? If so, you're not really connected. Try putting a small station right under the city name and see if that doesn't work.
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wrote: When you hover the mouse over your terminals at St. Louis and Cleveland, does the big green box say "Connected"?
It always says connected, even if you obviously aren't.
wrote: Are your stations named "xxx Junction" or "xxx Crossing"? If so, you're not really connected.
At least that would be an explanation. Unfortunately it might not be a cure. In my case Niigata probably got a new name like "Crossing" because the old station was destructed. But there was no better place to put the station and I cannot influence the given name.
But lets see
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in RT2 one was able to change the station name to whatever one wanted it to be, by simply overwriting the existing station name. Has this changed in RT3 also?
I usually dislike the "Junction" or similar names especially if they happen to be in a city. Much rather call them Central, East, West, North, South, depending the areas they serve.
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wrote: in RT2 one was able to change the station name to whatever one wanted it to be, by simply overwriting the existing station name. Has this changed in RT3 also?
No, it can be changed. I always change them when they are long. I also changed Niigata-Crossing to Niigata. The game is often quite stupid. Sometimes when I run out of money I simply connect a farm or an industry. This station gets the name of the next city. The real station, though, get's Crossing or Junction. In the German version it is Kreuz or Anschluss. Considering that I don't know any real station with a name like this I change it.
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wrote: The game is often quite stupid.
True.
But in this case I see the logic. The 1st station in the vicinity of a town or city gets the "central" name. From a programming-logic point of view, it's difficult to detect which station should be the "central" station. The next one could be closer to the center (you can even discuss where that should be). So why not give players the opportunity to rename them? And that's what they did.
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wrote: So why not give players the opportunity to rename them? And that's what they did.
Hint: It doesn't help to rename Chicago to St. Louis and South Bend to Cleveland to win the scenario.
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In RT2, there was a bug where occasionally events for connection would not fire unless you built another station after the one that actually completed the requirement. Anybody seen that yet in RT3?
Station names make no difference (I always rename stations to something more colorful and descriptive of their function) I.e "Washington Union Station", "Wilson's Sawmill Siding", etc.
Suggestions (many if not all have already been said):
Check for any missing links of track
Ensure that train can be run from one to the other
Ensure that both of the stations belong to your company
Hover mouse over each of the two stations to ensure "connected" shows
Question to Map Makers, Do events on connection have options on using "own company's track only" or "alternative company's track"?

[RayofSunshine]

I got so interested in the Central Pacific, that I started back to begin playing the Campaign scenarios again.

And things never change. In playing the Germantown, I noticed as in most RT3 scenarios, that if there are AIs involved, that no matter where you start your system, they are cluttered all around you. Also, that if the requirement is that to be the sole railway, that there is always 1 which goes "gung ho" with both lay tracks all over the place, and buys up his own stock faster than you can. Hence the hold out when it comes to merge, and if that ever happens. Not that it can't, but you will have to "pay thru the nose", at double the price and usually when the economy gets into the "boom" times.

But it is lots of fun. Very creative with usally good goals. Live it up, and try them again

[Hawk]

I moved your post to the proper thread.

[RayofSunshine]

Okay Hawk,

Didn't think again, as I should have known that there should be a thread on all the Campaign scenarios somewhere. So for the next ones I play I will run a search, and get some of the hints of other players.

So thanks for the ""hint"".

[Hawk]

No biggie. It was buried back on page 3.

[UnknownTycoon]

Here's how I won Silver.

I started up in the Lake Erie area and connected up Toledo, Detroit and Cleveland. From there I more or less followed the route historically taken by the Wabash Railroad (which my line was called) through Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Terre Haute to St Louis, with another line going from Quincy to South of Fort Wayne. I then connected up Cincinatti, Columbus, Chicago, Des Moines and Memphis and only missed out on gold due to two companies being too successful to merge with (a third was merged with mine, and a fourth was liquidated and I bought its assets.) I also ran fast freight and express trains between the major cities.

[Moggie]

I always make the maximum offer when I try a merge. I'm not into calculating and guessing what they might accept...

[UnknownTycoon]

Or, you can own more than 50% of the shares.

[Gumboots]

What really helped me a lot was when someone built a Munitions Plant in Ft. Wayne a couple of years before the Civil War started. Needless to say, I made a KILLING hauling ammo for the Union Army.

It's even more fun if you get a map that has good supplies of iron north and south. Then you can make ammo for both sides. Morality? Hang on while I find a dictionary......

[diegoami]

Ok, I got gold at last at the end of 1871. A yearly income of over 25k, a company book value of 216.100k, an industry profit of 145.672.



Almost all towns on the maps are connected, the most important routes have double rail. I own several industries, I lost count of them, and over 300 trains.

I micromanaged like hell and it took me ten months to finish this scenario. That's how I like to play. I made some wrong choices at the beginning, but it turned out well at the end.

Here is the playlist, starting from episode 1 of Germantown.
Only from episode 27 I actually learn how to play RT3 full screen on my notebook. I win gold at episode 86 and I decide that enough is enough.

I don't expect you to actually watch that as it is ridicolously long, I am a poor let's player and my playing style is boring as well. However, you might more interested in the save file, in some screenshots or in the recap video

[TheBonobo4]

Whilst I have no intention of watching almost 100 hours of your Lets Play (no offence), I'm amazed at the level of micromanagement. The fact you spent that long on one scenario is incredible, you must know the exact ins and outs of the game more than most. Connecting every city is one thing, but that CBV and Profit is ludicrous.

[Gumboots]

I've had CBV over $250 million on this scenario, without micromanagement of trains. Can't remember what the industry profits were. Also can't remember which year I finished in. Haven't played it for ages. Might have to drag it out again.

[TheBonobo4]

At my last play through I had $41M CBV and $19M in Industry Profits, on Expert though.

[Gumboots]

I think you mean Hard. Expert level is only available on stand-alone scenario. Campaign maps only go up to Hard level.

Anyway it's quite possible to top $200 million CBV on this one, on Hard level. You need a little bit of luck with the economy (a prolonged depression can knacker things) but as long as you have a good industry base you don't need to go nuts on micromanagement of trains.

[RulerofRails]

Well, he said "I made some mistakes at the beginning" so I would venture that this isn't a great result for this map. Also, from his video play-list he seems to have been playing on normal difficulty. I think the reason that his CBV went so high in the first place (gold medal is $40M) is because he didn't have a good stock market strategy in the beginning, so he had to work harder to overcome the AI later.

I commented about his play-style elsewhere and he is still uploading videos of his plays. Years ago I also dabbled in high micro-management, but concluded that in the long term there are downsides erasing some of the potential gain. IMO not worth the effort, but can be good to learn about the game for those who need to see to believe.

I have settled on my methods which focus on tactics that concentrate on short term profits from rails which I believe is their strong suite versus industries. The time when this makes the most difference is the early game so that's where I use it. I wouldn't call my efforts micro-managing because while I do watch some cargoes (high-value ones) I leave most things to their natural flow. Also, because I'm making this special effort only in the early game my options are limited (few trains, small network) that it doesn't add much real time to a normal game. I've talked about my methods before so will spare the details, but happy to answer any questions or explain things better for others to use them too.

About the map:
This map has a high cargo density with a high growth rate. It is notorious for the amount of Dairy Farms that will seed during gameplay. Buying these immediately for $400k can give you a 50% or even a little higher ROI depending on location.

Selecting the $170k investment return bonus at the start of the game makes the stock market easy. In addition your company gets $500k grant money which means that stock price will rise as soon as you un-pause the game to reflect the 45% jump in CBV. So buy as much of your stock as you can before un-pausing the game. Stock price will rise as soon as the game ticks over, but Purchasing Power will not be updated till February or you sell one lot of shares (then you can buy an extra one immediately). This can give a 9/20 ownership at the start of the game. With decent profits coming in it's easy to reach 50% (10/20) within the first year. This is a great start for the stock strategy. Taking out the AI shouldn't pose a challenge really.

This is 1850. Don't forget about Express. Build a Hotel in all cities. There's millions in the passenger market in this time period.

[TheBonobo4]

I redid this one recently, and recorded the whole playthrough. It took just under 4 hours, but on Hard difficulty I managed to get a Gold Medal in 1874, and I added the extra challenge of connecting every city on the map, which I managed after merging with the final AI, the only one of the 4 that actually did well. By the game end, I had $109M CBV and $31M in industry profits. I could've gotten gold sooner had I not connected every city though.

Also, there has to be a way to get to Charlotte in the South East without a massive tunnel, but I couldn't find a route that had sensible gradients.