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
Argentina
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I hit a wall in the scenario when all of a sudden no one was accepting livestock to process into meat.
I'd been able to build four ungraded meat processing plants so there was, or should have been, demand. It seemed that the problem was that the price of livestock had gone negative so even with 14 livestock at the station nothing moved.
Of course, I wasn't able to make Gold, only silver.
Is there a way to get a station to accept cargo that might not be profitable, especially if it's a requirement for winning the scenario?
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This scenario has the same "problem" as a couple others. If something you have to ship as a scenario goal is too plentiful then it can be a major battle to keep demand high enough to get it to load.
Argentina is particularly hard in this respect because the required number for meat is so high. The only solution I know is to haul meat to anywhere and everywhere that will accept it, especially ports. You're allowed disconnected builds in that one as I remember it, so just run track from any meat packing plant to somewhere--a city that will buy it or a port. As your rail net grows keep at least one train (partially or entirely) dedicated to meat assigned to each plant. If it stops loading then you need to reroute the train to somewhere that will take it--and if that means building into another city or port then that's what has to be done. Your RR in this scenario may not make any normal business sense but I think you've got to focus on the shipping goals, especially meat, right from the start.
At one point I had 2-3 trains shipping meat halfway across the map to Buenos Aires because it was the only place that had any demand at that point. You can build packing plants to get the meat but can't do anything to create much demand although as cities grow their demand also grows.
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At the point the game ended I had four dedicated trains hauling meat to BA and Santa Fe. Then SF stopped accepting meat, some of the smaller towns I'd set up for corn or livestock production started demanding some but it was a scheduling nightmare:
A-B-A-C-A-D-A-B-A-D
I'd run empty back from the destinations to speed things up.
Interestingly, I decided to see exactly how much money it would take to win a Gold so I used the bailout cheat whenever I needed cash. Until things turned around (meaning hauling regular freight and express trains) I'd used $40 million. About 1/2 went to track and maintenance the other to buying industries. I went overboard on the latter, I wound up with almost $70 million in income.
One way that works, sort of, is to build a meat packer at every town with a cattle ranch to max out production, then start building houses at the next town to create demand. Nothing says you have to make a lot of money which is insane. As is the entire premise of the scenario. The Japan Quake scenario would be a better example since money isn't an issue.
The underlying problem here is that with the "demand" issues, you can't run a line out to a cluster of cattle ranches, drop a small station at each, and then run a collection train since town B might not demand meat so the train never loads at A even if D needs the loads from A, B, and C.
There should be an override to the demand requirement otherwise you start running trains as above which burns up money. The in and back method got me a Silver, 344 meat loads.
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I'd agree with the other comments, it is hard to keep up demand for the key items.
I started out, after looking at the briefing, thinking yikes how was I ever going to get anything other than bronze.
I worked out of Buenos Aires initially and then setup other networks of track inland, usually connecting 3 towns or cities. Eventually I was able to merge all these little branch operations.
The key is to keep opening up new routes every so often to keep offering new points of demand.
I had been worried that the 10 million in industrial profits would be too hard to achieve , I started buying out industry with about 10 years left in the game and easily overshot the requirement.
In the end I only got silver because I just came up slightly short on one of the load requirements. If I'd have focused more early on in opening up new routes I'd have won it no problem.
It is possible to do this scenario , take advantage of the ability to lay unconnected track.
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I made only Silver at normal level because I didn't make enough industry profits. The main reason was laziness in the middle part of the game. I should have bought all farms available and issuing bonds if necessary.
Transporting the meat loads wasn't a problem. Cattle are cheap in the country and you need to supply the meat packing plants(which are only in a few cities). Start at Buenos Aires and connect meat producing cities first! Later go west for oil and lumber. Saw mills were very profitable. I think it's better to build new industries close to the resources than buying existing ones.
When asked in the beginning I decided for cheaper tracks and went with my amigos ingleses - the Brits. Slow and reliable trains are preferable in this scenario.
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has the best solution to meeting the load requirements. And it will require less effort than you think - just build small rails to haul livestock around.
If you have 4 meat packing plants that aren't upgraded, and demand is low, then upgrade your meat packing plants! Build more tracks to haul the meat out, and buy more trains to haul the meat away. If the station gets clogged, build another station and more tracks and more trains. If that station gets clogged, then build another station!
I've had cities with 10 industries in them, and 4 stations, with tracks leading in every direction. And did those industries ever make a ton of cash! The rails may have only paid for themselves, but the industries would be making buckets of money. Then the city grows and 10 years later it is 5 stars, and the demand in the city rises more, and the industries make more money, and etc etc.
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I just started my first hub where there was a very active meatpacker. Then i looked where there was a lot of wool and build a textile mill a short distance away. I made the textile city my second hub. Then I connected both to Buenas Aires and nearby cities, shipping clothes and meat all over. Building or buying businesses in hub cities, I made lots of money. I upgraded to keep up the demand for cattle and sheep. The grain just took care of itself. In late game, I was still behind with the meat, so I just built rail wherever there was cattle, meat and people who wanted to eat it. I found this scenario pretty easy.
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Funny , I played it almost the exact same way. I opted to play with the Americans at the beginning which makes buying industries cheap. I made a long connection between Buenos Aires and the large city to the North-West and started hauling general shipments. But as soon as possible, I built a textile mill in BA, which began attracting agents to move wool there from all the sheep farms south of the river below BA. Then I built a line down into "Sheep-farm central" and started hauling wool to BA. I quickly upgraded the first textile mill, and added a second. I also started buying up sheep farms at this point.
I ended up getting the Gold sometime around June of 1904. I think the key to beating this one is going with the Americans....
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I'm playing Argentina from the campaign. Something odd just happened. Two sections of rail out west disappeared and the city of Saint Isabel (or whatever it's called) went from 3 stars to 0.3 stars. I know there are supposed to be natives active, and I didn't pay the General's protection money, but I swear I didn't get any notification that my rails were attacked (though I am known to dismiss popups really fast)... is this what is supposed to happen?
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Hi, Just a tought You might have had an earthquake ?
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I've played that one and had the track destroyed by the event if you didn't pay for the protection. I suspect that's what happened and you just missed the newspaper popup.