Spanish Mainline

[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

Spanish Mainline - Added in the Coast to Coast Expansion
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Is it just me or is this thing incredibly difficult? Cargo is very sparse at the beginning so picking a good starting spot is difficult and then the cost of laying track all over the country just kills you along with that 150K repayment each year. I tried it a few times and the best I could do was bronze by getting to 1901 and issuing a ton of bonds and building a cheap track to connect the two cities. I'm guessing your supposed to find a way to make money on industry early on? I never have a spare dime the whole way through.
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Look for breweries/distillery and textile mills early. You can also build those industries to intercept cargo flow along the rivers.
Build furniture factories near the ports...
Later after you rack up some money, build a steel mill near the coal mines and iron mines. Then a die factory.
The key is to buy/build industries by the rivers.
Lay track at the very end to connect the two required cities.
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That sums up my strategy
If you can get grain farms and a brewery up by the "V" in the river in the North part of the map, you should be golden ...plenty of barracks and a river system to keep market from being flooded.
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So this is one of those "don't run trains from the start" strategies? I've tinkered with them in the past but I've never really done it successfully.
I'll give it a shot the next time I have some time.
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My stratagey is to run trains from the beginning, starting with Valladolid as my hub to Burgos and Salamanca (usually they all have barracks). Then out to Leon, Duero and Logrono. I am buying industries when I can (sheep farms and fruit orchards, to start).
I don't find paying back the Roschilds as a problem, because I make sure that I have enough (double or triple) cash in the first few years after I start to repay them. After that it isn't a problem as I am making money hand over fist in industries that I have been buying along the way.
Also, don't forget to pause the game a few times a year to see where new industries have popped up, and buy them when they are just about to make a profit (follow the frieght cars to the sinks). As long as they are the only industry supplying that sink in the first few years, you should make a tidy sum off of them.
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Just can not figure out this one.
Track is very expensive and I could not find any way to raise enough money to expand the network sufficiently.
Tried wool, but this is not enough.
Solution seems to be to be able to manufacture steel, but coal and iron are systematically very far away.
Any clue ?
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Finally found a solution myself.
As there was plenty of grain round Salamanca I built a brewery there, before laying any track.
I then waited a couple of years to accumulate some profit, and then issued bonds and could build track to Vallalolid and Burgos (lots of drunk soldiers there), and expand from there on.
Finally made gold due to over 9M industry profit from the brewery alone.
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I started simply at Barcelona and connected Tarragona and Girona with a lot of express traffic. Bought some fruit farms and later a furniture factory.
There were really a lot of destilleries popping out of the ground.
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I did pretty much the same
Built a brewery where the river forks; river keeps the beer from clogging the market and there are nearby barracks that are thirsty.

[Gumboots]

Ok, just for fun (and because Ruth said she had done it) I knocked this one off without any trains. This was on Expert level, and I clocked it in June 1882.

I only issued 2 lots of stock early in the game (ie: stock was 22,000 total before it started splitting). The rest of the financing was done with profits and bonds. I didn't have a lot of company debt before I decided to lay the track (about $4 million, IIRC) so just grabbed enough bonds to do that in one go. Company debt ended up at $7.5 million @ average 6.1% interest, with AA credit rating, and with me holding 25% of the stock.

Also, I had bought access rights to France (for $1 million) just so I could buy a newly seeded Dairy Processor there to expand my industry portfolio. There were 6 dairy farms there, plenty of towns, and not much demand for milk, so buying the Dairy Processor made sense. However, by June 1882 it hadn't had time to make much profit. I probably could have got a slighter quicker finish by buying something else instead.

The track I laid would have been perfectly usable, with only 13 track units of 5% grade, about double that many of 4% grade, and a lot of 2% or less.

I might play it through from just before I laid the track, and see how long it takes me to win it with no trains and no company debt and a controlling interest in the company (> 50% stock).

Although, TBH, once you get industry profits moving (which happens pretty fast) you could easily run profitable trains for fun.

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Handy hint: When you get to talk to the king about Cuba, pick the option to support the request of the Cubans. This will end up giving you a 2 level boost in credit rating.

[Grandma Ruth]

Wasn't it an intriguing storyline? Naturally I supported the Cubans, though I thought it would be the wrong thing - really surprised at the king's reaction. I'm not much of a player, really, more interested in creating new scenarios. So I'm working through the Coast to Coast games that I haven't played. Finding the next one difficult, Southern Pacific. No spoilers though in case there is someone reading this who also hasn't played it!

[Gumboots]

It was an interesting story line, as far as I got anyway. Another reason to play it through some more is to get more of the story. I must admit I know nothing about Cuba and other Spanish territories in that period.

I was the same on the Cuban question. I was fairly sure I would be penalised, but went with "the right thing" anyway because I was not worried about it.

[Gumboots]

OK, got it with no trains, no company debt, and just over 50% of stock in March 1896. Could have done it a bit faster (late 1895) with a slightly revised approach. I had quite a bit of personal debt, but it was dropping. Probably possible to zero that too by the end of 1900.

Could be an interesting way to play it. Deliberately go for > 50% stock early in the game, before stock starts escalating wildly. Keep dividends at a level that will zero personal debt by the time you are ready to build track. Then generate enough industry profit to build the required track after paying off company debt (which you will incur early on, but can easily get rid of later).

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Had another go. June 1896, with 100% stock, and no personal debt or company debt. Industry profits were $57.94 million. Personal cash was $109k. Company cash was $480k after laying the track, with a steel bridge, and with large stations at all 5 towns on the line (just for the heck of it).

I think this is about as far as I can take a no trains play on this map.

[Grandma Ruth]

Ok, just for fun (and because Ruth said she had done it) I knocked this one off without any trains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzwTWAhz9D8

[Gumboots]

Well I hadn't played RT3 for ages, and this seemed like something different for a first game back at it, and then I naturally wanted to see how far I could push it. I think I have answered that question now.

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If anyone else wants a go at this scenario, and is finding it difficult to get started, you could always go with a robber baron start. This scenario has no restrictions on starting multiple companies, so is open to massive abuse of companies if anyone wants to go that way. With a bit of experimentation you should be able to start this one with effectively unlimited personal cash (and this usually applies to other scenarios that allow you to start multiple companies).