Southern Pacific

[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

Southern Pacific - Added in the Coast to Coast Expansion
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After completing the L.A. to El Paso route, new objectives are made. For bronze, you must extend you line to Wichita. Anyway, I did extend the line to Wichita, the goal registered as having been accomplished, yet the game didn't allow me a Bronze win at the end of my deadline. This is quite the bug. There was no way I was about to complete the Gold with the time I had left, so i just went for the Bronze, which I completed, but the game still showed the hobo walking down the tracks at the end, even though in my ledger the goal was checked as completed. So either something doesn't register the goal properly, or the Bronze requirements are not explained properly. Either way, it is a pain and should really be fixed.
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If the connection really is made and the year is 1885 then something may be amiss.
The events look alright except that the silver and bronze do not test anything of the player's including his company. A test of connection may need a company to test the connection on.
Add a 'force test of company' to silver and bronze events. With the button set to 'online player's company'. I'll do this myself and test it when I have a few hours.
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Thanks, that'd be helpful since I have yet to really poke around with the editor. Have you actually played the scenario to this point? I know it takes a bit, but if you get a chance to do so and shoot for Bronze on the second set of goals (after connecting L.A. to El Paso), let me know if it lets you win or not.
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You know I don't remember if I ever finished. I only played it to some conclusion in beta testing. But, I had to lay a lot of expensive track (tunnels) to reach the first connection goal.
I had many saved games because I didn't know which connection gave me sufficient track to go on. I was like a maze.
When I had won the first connection I got the message that I had to go on to get the gold. The track laying was tedious up to then I think I stopped.
Aren't these suppose to be land grants? Not track grants.
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I've run in to the samething as you. In my thread "I'm getting killed on these CtC maps" I had written that I've connected to Wichita 5 or 6 times now and still lost every time. Sometimes I own all the track and sometimes I connect to AI track to get there. Tho logbook at the end of each year said I had connected to Wichita, but like you got the Hobo walking down the track. I couldn't find anything with the Editor in the scenario, so I'm scratching my head wondering if there is a bug in it. On the H&P Railroad site on page 4 of the map archive, there is a "fixed" map but I don't know if this is something from PopTop or if it just has the correct train logos. I think Mobius might know about the map.
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No I didn't fix any goals on this. Some other minor things.
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Ah, he seems to have the same thing happen, so there must a be a bug in there somewhere, which is rather heinous. Oh, and yes, you need land grants from the government in stage 2 to get more track laid if you run out. You can sorta force the issue by trying to lay track over and over with no track available, then suddenly the screen comes up offering you some more track to the tune of half a million or whatever. If you are out of track and just wait for the offer to come up, it takes eons and you will run out of time, so it seems you have to kinda force it to come up by trying to lay track with 0 sections left. Connecting towns doesn't seem to provide you with enough track to make it to the next town either, you really need those government offers. Of course, all this matters very little if the game won't let you win even after you accomplish the goal!
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You guys got out of the LA Basin
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I know, it seems tough to get cracking right off the start, but the trick is to take over another company right away, before you even set the game speed beyond pause. You need to grab someone eles company and use their lines to generate money, and leave the L.A. station alone for a bit while your cash builds up.
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Buy out one of the companies even before you take the game off of Pause. I've found you can even buy the companies for as little as $200 over the lowest price, sometimes even though you don't own any shares of the company. I even sell short the stock of the highest priced company, I think it is the Denver company. It usually drops from $130-$150 to $50-$60 after the first year. Buy some industry and let your interest rate for borrowing grow towards A or AA. Sometimes I have even laid track but not run any trains since the goals change when you get to El Paso.
I have gotten Wichita and New Orleans connected to LA only once and I still didn't get the Silver. I found that time that the AI railroad building from New Orleans built track close enough to my track that I could connect to it with the little track I had left in the middle of the last year. Perhaps you can't buy the railroads out of Wichita and New Orleans as they have pretty aggressive building of their own. Maybe we can only buy the railroad out of Texas.
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Actually, I think I found a little trick to win this map.
What you do is get at least 51% of the stock in your own company (SP).
I invested in only industry with my own company and had an annual income of over $3 million a year in 10 years. Textile, lumber, and distilleries. Then what you do is also invest to try to take over one of the weaker AIs. Not too weak because you need it to make money. Switch chairmanships to the AI and lay track. The AI RR have something like 50,000 miles of track. You can go anywhere. Then come back as chairman of the SP and merge.
You might be able to take the chairmanship of one of the AI early in the game. Then you are golden if you can make money because I think the track limitation is only on the SP.
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So you mean get 51% of another (AI) company and use that track to make your connections?
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I just got gold in this in 1870. I could have done it sooner except I wanted to see how the AI ran the railroads. And I didn't realize there is a Wichita and a Wichita Falls. And the flag for highest Bookvalue seems to only be checked at the end of the year.
Here's what I did:
Using the Robber Baron exploit I bought as much SP stock as I could. Then I used the SP cash and bond money to buy back all the stock. (You can buy another 1K of stock as it rises.) I sold my own stock at this high price. Then I resigned. (There was still some cash left so I suppose I could have used it to lay a little bit of track but I think there was about $90k left in the treasury.)
Then I shorted the stock and used most of the money ($680k) to buy well into the GH&A and a little bit of the TP. At this point I started the game.
The next month the SP stock dropped from $180 to $50-60 or so boost my PP. Also, started to buy more of the GH&A until I got 11K later the first year.
At that point I took it over, took out bonds and laid track. I resigned and let the game go for the next year. Also, continued to buy into TP.
So that by year 4 I had majority share of both TP and GH&A. I took them over when they accumulated cash and bond credits while expanding both of them and buying industries. Then resigning again letting the AI run them.
I eventually joined them and they both were generating plenty of cash. I took the one with the biggest pile of cash and laid burn track all the way to LA. I then merged with the SP which was $1 a share at this point.
I simply took over the one with the highest book value and got the gold.
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Man, you sure have a better grasp on the political aspect of the game than I do, heh.
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One thing you have to do is connect LA to El Paso using the same RR. I used different RRs from the east and west meeting in Phoenix and it would not give me a connection to El Paso. Otherwise I could have made it in 1867.
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I kinda hate to say this but could you play the SP scenario again and only try for Bronze or Silver. And if you do get the Silver or Bronze awarded could you tell whether you owned the track that connects to Wichita and New Orleans, (hence owning the Companies) or if you left the AI alone. Also, I have always been the Chairman of only SP and not any of the others. Thanks for your help.
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there were two different companies.
But, you can check any configuration for yourself. Use a few cheats and take over two AIs and do what you want with them. Give them money and connect anyway you want. You have to own a station at LA and El Paso with the same RR.
Since there are only connect goals you don't even have to start the time.
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I'd would make a stab at fixing this map to eliminate the exploit but I'm not sure what the author had in mind. Did he want the player to take over other RRs or merge with them?
If the AI doesn't build to Wichita there's really not enough track allowed for the SP to build there. And you can't build off the end of AI track. So if I prohibit changing chairmanships there may be no way to win except to merge with a RR with rails close to Wichita. Even then a win may be impossible given the limited track.
Playing this map without taking over an AI I usually run out of trackage after connecting to El Paso. I never seem to have enough track to reach the closest AI.
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Perhaps the connection to Wichita registers as complete, but without owning the station there it won't let you win. See, with me, I connected to the AI track that went to Wichita, and it said the goal was complete, but I still saw hobo Joe. Maybe I should have owned the company (Texas I think) that had the line to Wichita. I will try this next.
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You are right that a connection between LA and Wichita is needed for Bronze. In my second game my winning RR was connected from LA to the TP. The TP connected to Wichita.
I was testing and saw that the lose condition is set at the beginning of the year and the win at the end. So when they are set to the same year like that you will always lose. But the text says before the end of. So it should be on year end.
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Odd thing is that I had Wichita connected for about 3 years before the game made me lose. I didn't own the station in Wichita thgough, so do you think that might have something to do with it?
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wrote: Odd thing is that I had Wichita connected for about 3 years before the game made me lose. I didn't own the station in Wichita thgough, so do you think that might have something to do with it?

No. You cannot win Silver or Bronze the way the events are programmed. The lose condition is triggered before the test of either these.
If you get the message 'connected to Wichita' when you connect to the CRI&P RR the trigger is working. And that is what happens. This RR is pre-built already in Wichita.
The game basically is Get to El Paso then connect to the CRIP and to the TP. If you are lucky the TP and the Galveston RR have joined up.
This map is sorely in need of a make over. The resources are weird.
Whoever colored the map never made it out to the Calif. desert.
The map should not allow the player to takeover another RR and use their 50,000 track cells.
I'll post the fixed map at the H&P.
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after looking at the conditions for SP in the editor, should the condition for Bronze be -- Current game year=1884 AND game variable 1=0 AND City connects to city (28: Los Angeles, 42: Wichita) is True and this is checked at the end of the year? If the Lose condition is -- Current game year >=1885 AND game variable 1=0 and is checked at the beginning of the year, wouldn't the Bronze condition be checked for first at the end of the year and if it isn't true then the year would switch to 1885 and then the lose condition would be checked at the beginning of the year? If the Bronze condition is checked at the end of the year, it should be registered before the lose condition which is checked at the beginning of the next year. The Lose condition should't be set until the beginning of 1885. I see what you mean by the Bronze and Silver can never be awarded, --as soon as it is 1885, you lose because the Bronze and Silver conditions won't be checked for until the end of 1885 and the lose condition is checked for at the beginning of 1885. Also, for the first time, I took over a Railroad and used its 50,000 pieces of track and built from Louisiana all the way to western Texas ( Odessa) and then it was easy to connect with my LA to El Paso Railroad after jumping back and forth between the two companies since I was Majority Stockholder in both Companies! The Railroad that runs to Wichita had expanded South to Odessa and then I had both Wichita and New Orleans connected. I don't know how to have the Highest Company Book Value unless I actually Merge with the other Companies.
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Looking at the text of the briefing for chapter 2 is says you have to have all the conditions before the end of the year of 1884. So Silver and Bronze should be triggered in that year. (I think the author intended that but he typed 1885.)
That is what I will program in the fix I'm doing.
Also, I will eliminate resigning and taking chairmanships of other companies. (I could allow that but then would have to try to add events that give track sections for all the eastern cities and that would just bog the game.)
Also, adding the KATY RR and new logo for more flavor.
The fixed map now is available at the H&P Map Archive.
PS. One clue I found when testing is that its good to connect to San Diego. You gain more track than you use. In previous tries I always fell about 30-40 sections short of connecting to AIs.
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Thank you very much . I'll download and check it out. Connecting to San Diego and, along the way Mission Viejo, does indeed give you a nice chunk of track as does connecting from Banning to Barstow. I can practically always get to El Paso. I also noticed that when the Bronze is awarded, according to the editor, The dialog will say that you connected to New Orleans instead of Wichita.
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Big thanks to Mobius for trying to iron out this map! I was so happy to see the SP remembered, yet so sad when I discovered this map was buggy. I will also download, Mobius, and again, thanks very much!
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After playing awhile I made some more changes (041206) to the industry.
This now is a pretty fun map.
Plus with the logos and things it seems more historic.
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Ah good, just downloading it now. Thanks again Mobius, you kick arse!
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I am having some trouble getting things going in the Southern Pacific scenario. It forces you to start in Los Angeles, but there doesn't seem to be much industry in and around the towns that you can afford to lay track into. About the only small cache of cargo I can see on the map is a trace of coal and iron. Any hints on getting some cash flow right off the start?
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Alright, I have done some more probing. I have discovered that the easiest way to get some industry going is to first off attempt a merger with one of the smaller companies and to ignore my station in Los Angeles. This gives me instant rails, stations and industries. I then need to wait around for this new railroad to earn some money, then I can start inching my way toward El Paso. I found it tough to make it from L.A. to El Paso because of the limited track, but I managed to get there with a silver by connecting every small town along the way to earn extra track. The thing is, the scenario doesn't end at connecting El Paso. If you take out a bunch of bonds (what I did) to try and make that last stretch to El Paso, you rack up interest that later comes back to haunt you. After connecting L.A. To El Paso, you then need to press on to other cities, but this time the track is even more scarce, forcing you to buy sections from the government in order to continue laying track. At 250 grand for 25 sections, any interst you need to pay on outstanding bonds makes track purchase impossible, so be sure to be free of debt when you connect to El Paso, or you'll be up the creek without a paddle. This scenario is indeed challenging, but it kinda makes me mad at the same time. be sure to save often in case you bone up, it is easy to make a major mistake in this one.
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There is a cheety way to win gold quite easy. Sell all your stocks and buy up as many stocks as possible in the most profitable company (the one in the northeast corner), until you have enough to manage a chairman takeover, after that it's a really simple thing, with a strong economy and without any trackbuilding restictions...

[proudcanadian]

I just have to say that this scenario has me stumped. I've tried it out for the first time, and I've run out of track on the first leg just short of Silver City. I've tried the 'lay track when you have none' to try to make the government track screen pop up, but it hasn't. What can I do to get more track?

[Hawk]

Are you using Steve Lorenz's fixed version?

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/rrt3_north ... ernpacific

[proudcanadian]

No, I'm using the Poptop Version. Is there something in Steve's Version that gives you more track?

[Hawk]

I'm not sure but he did fix some of the events. That may have some affect on the track.
You might want to check it out.

[KevinL]

I started on this one Tuesday, using the new "fixed" map. Its a lot of fun and the logos are great, thumbs up to Steve for them.

I used the suggestion of buying out one of the railroads right away. I took over the New Orleans/Baton Rouge/Lafayette line, and extended it two cities west for more profit. From the east, I went from Los Angeles to San Diego thru the mountains to Mexicali, and continued on to Phoenix, Tucson, and the city south of Tucson, I think its Douglass. From there I'm stuck. I dont have enough track to keep heading east to El Paso. I think I used up too much track going west.

There was a steel mill in Yuma I was supplying with both coal and iron, but in the middle of the year, it just disappeared. That makes no sense that a profitable steel mill would die off. Perhaps it was owned by Enron? I stopped the game at that point and plan on continuing tonight from the autosave.

[BikerTim]

When playing this scenario, I use an approach much different than the other ones suggested. I just simply ignore the railroad buiding at first. Just simply buy industries. There are plenty of good ones in the eastern part of the map. Then just keep investing in more industries until the last year you can qualify for the "first" gold medal. By then you should have a prosperous business with a high credit rating. At that point, just burn track from Los Angeles to El Paso. After that, the rest is not real difficult. I have achieved gold medal every time using this approach.

[Gumboots]

Had a go at this one, just because I'd never bothered cracking it before. This was on the original 1.05 map, not one of the "fixed" versions. It's not hard to win on Expert.

Start by buying stock in your own company as fast as you can, using company buybacks to nudge your purchasing power up when required. You should be able to buy all the stock and use up almost all the company cash without worrying about bonds. The company will be left with $20k or so but it's not important. Then resign, sell all your stock, then short sell as much as you can (it'll only be about 3k stock short sold).

After that, use your cash/purchasing power to take over the company that's based in New Orleans. Yay! Lotsa track! No painfully boring crawling along mile by mile! You can actually have fun now. Yes I know it's not supposed to be fun, which is why I'd never bothered finishing this scenario before. Only way of making it fun is to rort the system.

Ok, so now it's just run your few trains you already have and gradually build up an industry portfolio and rail network to get your cashflow going. I found lumber mills were the best to start with, but watch out for any oil wells spawning and grab those immediately. When you feel like it, buy up the stock for the LA company (the one you're supposed to be running) and merge it.

I found that by the time I had to race to El Paso it was no big deal. Got there in early 1872, months short of the deadline. I laid real track with proper services running on it and didn't even stretch the budget. That triggered the "Stage 2" medal requirements, but the AI had already built rail from Hobbs to Wichita, and I had already built rail from New Orleans to Abilene. All I had to do was run a bit more track from Abilene to Hobbs, and Hobbs to El Paso. Instant Gold in late 1872 since my CBV was already the largest out of all companies. Yup. You can do Stage 2 Gold in the same year you are meant to get to El Paso.

Now the game is supposed to run until the end of 1884. What to do to fill in time? Figured I should work on taking over the AI company that owned the Hobbs to Wichita line. Got that one done sometime in the early 1880's (can't remember exactly when). What to do next? Might as well eat the only other AI that was still gettable, since CBV was better than merger price. Then just for the heck of it got myself out of personal debt while still holding a controlling interest in the company, and also got the company out of debt.

I think if you're going to use company-jumping tactics at the start this is a good result to aim for. No personal debt, no company debt, hold a majority of stock, and merge the AI that owns the line to Wichita. CBV ended up at 120 million. Nearest AI to that was 36.

[low_grade]

First attempt, straight ahead, strong industry then push from LA to El Paso... and run out of track... decided I probably couldn't get gold in 1979 or so.

Second try, after checking here for guidance, robber baron exactly as suggested above, very aggressive, and I think I'm done in June 1880. $104M CBV and no debt, $98M PNW and no debt, last company standing (two went bankrupt, I bought the others.) So yes I own all the rail from LA to El Paso to New Orleans to Wichita. Interesting because I usually try blunt approaches, but here I thoroughly enjoyed playing the market! I rarely sell short, or buy so deeply into other AI's. Had some weak margin calls that made me buy back my shorts when the economy went south, but manageable. Also got a message I've never seen before! "The board thinks the company cannot withstand a higher dividend and refuses to raise it further!" when I tried to take the dividend over $9.50 per share/$15M per year in the last year to help with money shuffling. So, kinda fun playthrough, thanks for the suggestions Gumboots! Only blemish, I let another buyer sneak into my company, I own 1,344,000 shares and Crocker owns 128,000 the rat bastard.

Edit: played the original CtC scenario in 1.06 on Expert, all auto consists with a couple express Dukes.

[Grandma Ruth]

I'm now using the fixed map, which plays a lot better I must say! (There is still a little error which you can correct on your own map if you like, as I've done. "Connect Fort Stockton" event is using the wrong city, "Sanderson", so it doesn't give you the 25 track pieces it should. On the other hand connecting Sanderson gets you 50 pieces instead of 25. Anyway, that's beside the point.)
I don't think this is cheating or spoiling for anyone: but I've done the maths and the total track needed to connect everything is 4309 and the total track available by connecting every relevant city (40 altogether) is 4315. So it's possible to win playing a straight bat. I think you must automatically be top of the book value league just with track, stations etc and trains but I haven't tried it yet so I don't know.
I'll report back for posterity !!!!

[Gumboots]

You can get 4315 track legitimately, but you need 4309 for all the required connections? That's only a margin of 6 track units!!! That is way too tight. Someone could easily lose another 10 track units by taking a slightly different course, or by bulldozing a few sections of cruddy track.

If PopTop was being that ridiculous I'll stick to the robber baron start. I don't mind a bit of challenge, but I don't play RT3 to be tortured by stupidity, and I like using a bit of extra track if it means a smoother run.

Although I suppose the other option would be to edit the map and increase the track allowance, to give (for example) a 10% margin overall. That would be reasonable, IMO.

[Grandma Ruth]

It doesn't work, anyway, because you're using up most of the track to make the connections unless you're very skilled and careful in planning your route. That's a bit too much like hard work for me! I was hoping to have some extra left at the end of the first part. The only way I can see to do it is to merge with at least one of the AI companies and so you'll be using the track they've laid. Unfortunately it would have to be done towards the end of the game, after they've laid the track. At that point they will be more expensive to buy.
I can't make up my mind whether this is all fiendishly clever or just slipshod and ill-thought-out.

[Gumboots]

You can robber baron your way through several companies at the start of the game, and merge the original Southern Pacific back into your latest company, to get a starting point in California along with 50,000 track units. That kicks the game off nicely.

I'm not sure I can be bothered actually playing this scenario again, but I was messing around with it on Expert level last night. This was just to see exactly which process gave the best results in terms of personal cash at the start. I might write up a walk-through for anyone who wants to use that method.

Merging with another AI later in the game should be feasible if you use this method: Tycooning 101: making mergers fun and profitable.
This method will allow you to boost CBV via the merger, and CBV is one of the goals for this scenario.

I can't make up my mind whether this is all fiendishly clever or just slipshod and ill-thought-out.

It's obviously a bit slipshod, because the Bronze and Silver events are borked in the original PopTop map. I haven't looked at the "fixed" version. If you don't want to play a robber baron start I would just boost a few selected track bonuses until it was at a level you didn't find painful.

[Gumboots]

Ok, one robber baron walk-through (for anyone who wants to know how).

You start with the Southern Pacific company. Leave the game paused. Do not let it run at all. Do not buy any trains and do not build anything. Bulldoze the large station you start with ... but ... leave 1 section of track - this is important!

Now buy as much stock as you can for yourself, but do not issue any stock. Then take out one bond, and start buying back stock. Keep buying stock for yourself, whenever purchasing power allows it. Keep buying back stock until there's not enough cash to buy back any more. Now, burn up whatever cash remains, by laying and bulldozing track or buildings. Make sure you do not leave any buildings. Leave as little track as possible ... but ... make sure you leave 1 section of track - you will need it later!

The ideal result is zero company cash and 1 section of track. This maximises profit from the next step.

Now, resign from the chairmanship. Sell all your stock, then short sell as much stock as you can. Switch the game from "Paused" to the slowest speed, then immediately pause it again. Southern Pacific's stock price will drop to $3. Immediately clear your shorts (ie: buy stock, to get your stock from negative to zero - this will only cost a few k and will greatly boost your profit). You should now have $943k in personal cash and no debt.

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Time for more evil.

Your purchasing power now is enough to get you a majority of stock in ATSF ($100 stock price). Grab that 11,000 of stock, and take over the chairmanship of ATSF. Now take out one bond - and then bulldoze everything! Yes, everything. This is the best way to maximise your profit.

Now use the rest of the company cash to buy back as much stock as possible. Keep buying stock for yourself when purchasing power allows it. When you can't buy back any more stock, burn up the rest of the company cash (do to not leave any buildings, and leave as little track as possible). When company cash is zero, resign the chair and sell your stock, then short sell as much as you can. Switch the game from "Paused" to the slowest speed, then immediately pause it again. ATSF's stock price will drop to $1. Immediately clear your short sells. You should now have $1513k in personal cash and no debt.

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Time for more evil.

Your purchasing power now is enough to get you a majority of stock in DRGW ($130 stock price). Grab that 11,000 of stock, and take over the chairmanship of DRGW. Now take out one bond - and again, bulldoze everything.

At this point there is an additional trick to boost your profit further. Buy all the available stock in ATSF (the company you just trashed before). Now merge ATSF into DRGW (your current company) with the slider set to maximum. This will cost $56k, most of which will go directly towards your personal cash. Not only that, but the extra $500k debt that comes with the merger will sink DRGW's stock price a bit more later, which is also good for your personal cash. I have tested it with and without merging ATSF, and the merger is worth about $120k. Doing this merger also means one less dumb AI company trying to revive itself later. Anyway...

Now use the rest of the company cash to buy back as much stock as possible. Keep buying stock for yourself when purchasing power allows it. When you can't buy back any more stock, burn up the rest of the company cash (do to not leave any buildings, and leave as little track as possible). When company cash is zero, resign the chair and sell your stock, then short sell as much as you can.

Switch the game from "Paused" to the slowest speed, then immediately pause it again. DRGW's stock price will drop to $1. Immediately clear your short sells. You should now have $2484k in personal cash and no debt.

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Time for more evil.

You now have enough personal cash to buy a majority of stock in the New Orleans and Dallas companies, so do that. Take over the chair of the New Orleans company, and bulldoze a small break in the track between each of the three stations. This will stop the company doing anything for a while. You want it to just sit around, with its stock price dropping. Keep your stock, and just leave the company sitting there for a while.

Resign the chair of the New Orleans company, and take over the Dallas company. This is now your main company. Start running this company normally, but keep an eye on the stock price for the New Orleans company. After a few years you should be going well, and a merger with the New Orleans company should be affordable. So, do that merger, repair the small track breaks you made earlier, then keep playing normally. Obviously you want to join the two networks when you can.

Now you want to buy back in to Southern Pacific, because you need the Los Angeles starting point for the first big goal (LA to El Paso). This is why you left at least one section of track over there - because you cannot build unconnected track, so you need at least 1 section to connect to. When you merge SP you will acquire its debt ($500k @ 11%) so don't merge too early or you will restrict your growth too much. You want to have some credit rating and earning capacity in reserve when you merge SP. I did it when I saw the game had granted SP a second bond and it still had some cash.

Once you have merged SP you can start laying track from LA towards El Paso. You should easily get there in time. Once you have made it to El Paso, the final connections to New Orleans and Wichita will take a few more years, but don't really take any brains. You should be able to score an easy Gold sometime in the late 1870's.

[Grandma Ruth]

Wow! Were you an adviser to Kwasi Kwarteng?
(Sorry, British joke )
I've never seen the technique spelled out like that before. My idea was to get 51% of a couple of companies and switch between them as necessary but I'm not having much luck with that. I'm going to follow your instructions exactly, just for the satisfaction of finishing this game!

[Gumboots]

I got the joke (I follow international news, y'know).

I was playing it again, just to try a few other things. It behaved differently this time around. If I left it alone, Southern Pacific wanted to take out massive debt and start building somewhere else almost immediately. So, I had to factor in merging SP as early as possible, before it got carried away doing silly things.

Also, on reflection the Texas company wasn't that profitable early in the game, so this time I broke its track and left it, then took over the New Orleans company as my main company. This seems to be going well. I sold some of my Texas stock and kept about 30% holding, just so I could buy back in easily for further shenanigans. I figured I could keep the stock price from rising much, while also letting it keep its debt under control. by repairing or breaking the track whenever it seemed necessary. Then I put most of my personal cash into New Orleans stock. Didn't buy on margin early, because I didn't have to and I wanted to have a stable financial position without relying on dividends (because company profit was marginal early in the game).

The first few years were just managing every train, and putting available cash into expansion with medium sized stations. In this instance, where you start with three cities and two of them have medium stations, the added cities seemed to be a better option than larger stations. This seems to be working out well. I'm at January 1867 and have merged SP into my New Orleans company. Credit rating is very good and the economy has shifted to Booming. I should be able to romp it in from here.

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PS: Regarding stock buybacks for robber baron tricks... sometimes you will run out of publicly available stock while the company still has cash. In that situation you sell 1,000 of your stock and use the company cash to buy that stock back immediately. Rinse and repeat until the company is too short of cash to buy back more stock. Most people probably knew that already, but since the walk-through was supposed to be comprehensive I thought I should mention it.

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PPS: One thing I noticed is that the track for the Texas company is very rough. There was no attempt made to smooth the terrain or to find the best path, which IMO is pretty shoddy. The bridge to Austin is a mess too. So, I shift into the editor, and go over the Texas track to make it reasonable. Also, when I first buy into it I use a bond and the company cash to turn all its stations into large ones, so they are ready for maximum cargo later.

[Grandma Ruth]

OMG, did we make the international news? We must have been the laughing-stock of the world


I finally got Gold in the game, following your instructions up to a point.

I enjoyed the slash-and-burn so much I kept on doing it! I got a controlling interest in everything. Finally I just had the Rock Island line (Wichita) and the Texas and Pacific as active companies. The New Orleans one was doing nothing as per instruction and the Denver one was going bankrupt, obviously.

By now I was totally confused and looked in the Editor to see what was the relationship between players and companies and what events were controlling what. As I said before, it's either really clever or really stupid. Some of the events relate to companies, some don't.

So I learned that the same company has to own and connect Los Angeles and El Paso, as you might expect. It doesn't have to be SP, just the human-controlled company whichever that might be at the time. But that company has to be the last one standing to get the Gold.

It doesn't matter which company has made the connections to Wichita and New Orleans (for some reason!?)
So basically I used Rock Island to make the LA - El Paso connection, and T & P to make the other connections. T & P was already connected to Wichita, of course. It merged with the New Orleans one and tidied up the connections there.

The "connected track" condition applies to the human player, not the SP company as such. (The AI started a completely new line for SP miles away from Los Angeles and the remaining bit of track.) So I had to make the connection between LA and El Paso from east to west as my Rock Island company was in the east. I could have used the T & P company to make all the connections, as they now owned that bit of track. But I wouldn't have had enough money/credit and to be honest I didn't think of it. I told you I was confused!

So by July 1871 I had two live companies, one of which had to be the "winner". Unfortunately it was the other one that had the biggest book value so I destroyed all its stations except, of course, New Orleans and Wichita and that was that. TBH I was getting bored by now and didn't want to keep playing any longer. There was plenty of time to work on getting the highest book value - maybe I'll revisit it sometime and do it that way. I might also see what happens if you own all the companies - does it still give you the highest book value if you're the only one?

It's been a peculiarly frustrating learning experience and I can see how I would have made the events different - everything to be connected by the same company, for example. But I've ended up being a ruthless (no pun intended!) robber baron!

[Gumboots]

Slash and burn can be fun, and this scenario was obviously set up to encourage it. The way you can leapfrog from the starting company (SP) to the two cashed-up companies (ATSF and DRGW) in sequence of their stock price ($100 and $130) and then use your ill-gotten gains to take over the Texas and New Orleans companies, is clearly deliberate. I'm sure it was done that way to provide an alternative playing style for replay value, or just for people who can't stand caterpillar games. In that respect it's quite well made, giving quite a few options in the one map.

So I learned that the same company has to own and connect Los Angeles and El Paso, as you might expect. It doesn't have to be SP, just the human-controlled company whichever that might be at the time. But that company has to be the last one standing to get the Gold.

Yup. I thought everyone knew that already.

It doesn't matter which company has made the connections to Wichita and New Orleans (for some reason!?)

That's so people can get win without having to lay track all the way themselves. If you were playing without robber baron, and particularly if you weren't up to speed on all the other tricks of the game, it would probably be impossible to lay your own track all the way to New Orleans. Whoever made the map decided to be nice to those people.

I might also see what happens if you own all the companies - does it still give you the highest book value if you're the only one?

I haven't tried it, but I think it would.

It's been a peculiarly frustrating learning experience and I can see how I would have made the events different - everything to be connected by the same company, for example.

It could also do with some terrain smoothing, and it has rivers going up mountains in places too. All the usual beginner map maker errors. It was obviously a rush job in terms of terrain.

One possibility would be to re-code the events so that, if you decide to play robber baron, the medal events change to make you own all the track from Los Angeles to New Orleans. This should be easy to code, as long as the game lets you have two Golds with different conditions (which, TBH, I have never tried coding). You'd just need to run a check on player's company ID. If that was not the same as SP's company ID, you'd get a dialogue telling you of the change in requirements. The same event would set a variable that triggers the alternate medal events (ie: If TV1 = 0 then standard medals, else if TV1 =1 then alternate medals).

But I've ended up being a ruthless (no pun intended!) robber baron!

If you are going to be ruthless you should change your nick to Grandma Nancy (Arthur Ransome pirate girl joke).

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Anyway, I'm currently in May 1870. All I have left to do for Gold is connect Fort Worth to El Paso, and then connect to the Wichita line. Looking at the cost, if I go with the cheapest burn track and sell a couple of industries (upgraded Lumber Mill and Meat Packing Plant) then I could get Gold right now, in May 1870. That would be the quickest way to win.

I could also get the company out of debt, but that's probably another 5 years of play and, like you, I'm bored with this scenario at the moment. I suppose I could try taking over the Wichita company too, just to see how that goes, but I'm not sure I can be bothered right now.

[Grandma Ruth]

But I've ended up being a ruthless (no pun intended!) robber baron!

If you are going to be ruthless you should change your nick to Grandma Nancy (Arthur Ransome pirate girl joke).

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You've got me there! Not a fan, I'm afraid. I trained to be a teacher, which put me off most children's literature for life

I've started on the next scenario "Russia". It's 1858 and Kiev is one of the Russian cities to connect. Given your sig, that's a bit of a shock to the system.

[Gumboots]

The joke is from the old Swallows and Amazons series. The elder of the two "Amazon pirates" was christened Ruth, but her uncle told her pirates were ruthless, so she decided she wanted to be called Nancy.

I remember playing that Russia scenario. It's not difficult to win, but at the moment I'm not a fan of Russia.