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
Alternate USA - Added in the Coast to Coast Expansion
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What strategies are you all using for Alternate USA.
This scenario is a lot of fun, although I think the mapmakers were geographically evil on purpose (you'll see what I mean when you try to connect Witchita Falls to Dallas is Texas).
I've been playing Alternate USA the last couple of nights and have about 25 years left.
I chose a all industry strategy for the first 15 years without leaving the Plains.
Looking good so far, but the requirements to advance in relations on this scenario are very high. Even though its kind of a jackpot map it is still very challenging. After 25 years I have all the cities in Plains and Texas connected, still haven't met the Texas goals yet though, but I think I might next year.
I have been using industries as demand sinks to drive up the demand in Texas for grain and that seems to be helping. The industries lose money for quite a while though.
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Actualy, the gold medal is th eonly medal you can earn. It won't even kick you out for loosing. - Bad coding- they used "start year" instead of "current year" when checking for silver bronze and lose game.
As for tips...
Issue stock at every turn.
take the fertilizer
buy all the corn and grain farms you can, esp the ones that pop up at the beggining of the year after you connect to your neighbors (with the fertilizer youl'll make more profit and loads than the AI)
Try to have all you imported milk/corn/grain/livestock input to a single city with moderate demand. Then connect many other cities in the demanding country to this city. Have trains w/ custom consist go between the input city and the other cities. This custom consist should contain a few of your imported good and the rest with "any" freight/express. This setup will enable you to move alot of the good around in the country racking up hauls.
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As for tips...
Issue stock at every turn.
doing it
Quote: take the fertilizer
done
Quote: buy all the corn and grain farms you can, esp the ones that pop up at the beggining of the year after you connect to your neighbors (with the fertilizer youl'll make more profit and loads than the AI)
done (and don't forget those cheap money machines if you can catch em at first build the dairy farm!!)
Quote:Try to have all you imported milk/corn/grain/livestock input to a single city with moderate demand. Then connect many other cities in the demanding country to this city. Have trains w/ custom consist go between the input city and the other cities. This custom consist should contain a few of your imported good and the rest with "any" freight/express. This setup will enable you to move alot of the good around in the country racking up hauls.
kinda doin it...
this is a rather tough scenerio for me so far - in my 2nd playing of it and went w/the all industry route the first 10 or so years... also, I'd suggest issueing bonds whenever you can especially in refinancing those old ones - that bond money invested in industries will return much more than the interest you'll be paying.
other minor things:
*cut your dividen payment to $0.. no need to amass any personal wealth (goes against my personal belief ) --- in fact I ignore the stock portion all together.
*buy up those new industries every year...
*when goin into the great lakes area, buy any and all distilleries you can find - goes hand in hand with your set goal for it... so far that's the only area I've gotten into - don't think i'll be getting the gold but it is fun
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Ouch! Just realized that you have to meet the yearly goals 10 times for Excellent! I don't know if I can win at this point anymore, but it is still a fun scenario.
My big problem currently is that everywhere has high demand for livestock, so it is almost impossible to ship it to Dixie.
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I haven't gotten than far yet but perhaps you need to build a few meat packing plants down there?
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What did to get the livestock is build Large stations at every pair of raches in Texahoma and then a large station in memphis (where there was a warehouse needing it) and then a meat packing plant in Birmingham. Use cumsom consist train to take them from memphis to birmingham. So for every live stock you bring into dixie, you get 2 "counts".
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I didn't realize it would count twice if delivered within the territory. Thanks. I assumed it would keep track of where the train came from.
That should help, but it's gonna be tricky cause there are already meat packing plants near all the livestock farms in Texas. Mexico is okay, but that's a very long haul from Mexico to Memphis/Mobile.
Good thing I chose Dixie's side in the war.
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This was the first one I tried in the x-pak. After I saw what was necessary for just my first 2 goals (haul 25 grain 10 times, haul 35 corn 10 times), I decided there would be too much micro and so played the rest of the way through in my head, geting gold several years before the 46 year game time, on Expert of course. .
Maybe this exploit is necessary: For grain, build 2 stations in a town so that they both cover a distillery (and each other?), with as great a difference in demand as you can manage. Then you can haul the same grain one way over and over again with no micro and no special consist. Especially good as the grain surplus gets higher. Is this OK to do?
Seems like this and the next 2 scenarios may be designed to anticipate this exploitation, just as Poland may be designed to anticipate bulldosing.
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The meat packing plants are usually within the towns. Get the livestock from the cattle farms themselves (not the town). Since livestock has a fast price degredation the runs are usually pretty profitable (- fast price degredation - short distances makes a big difference in price from the closest meat packing plant to the cattleyard. Another tip to create a price differential would be to put the large station on the other side of the cattleyards from the meat packing plant. This will cause a longer wait at the station, but will ensure a lower pickup price (and more profit).
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I'm playing this scenario now...
I only use custom consist trains (express + haulage requirements + something optional for the return trip).
Grain is going well:
pickup constantly have atleast 1 train waiting/loading at all the grain farms in the great plains. This makes for a virtual grain monopoly, which drives up the prices in Texas and the Great Lakes.
delivery deliver in a chain of cities (eg : Great plain farms => city 1 => city 2 => city 3 => city 4 => city 5) with an upgraded brewery in the last city (city 5). Each load of grain delivered to the brewery counts 5 times
Goods is going good too, in Syracuse there is an upgraded steel mill, with a lot of coal and iron supply. Right next to it are 3 tool & die's (2 upgraded, 1 normal). The track laying in New England is difficult, but I enjoyed it a lot
I also moved some grain from the Great Lakes further to New England and goods from New England further to the Great Lakes. This prevents saturation of the grain/good market in those countries.
Next I want to connect to Louisianna (corn : -1 , +20) and Dixie (livestock : -5, +25). Those seem a lot more difficult...
Corn to Lousianna : Louisianna is already flooded with corn (and I didn't even take the fertilizer offer
Livestock to Dixie : Livestock prices are high everywhere, even right next to cattle ranches.
As a conclusion, I have a nice picture of my track around Chicago:
Chicago west
2 tracks going west : the top one to my grain-farms network, the bottom one is for the express trains.
1 track going north to Milwaukee
Chicago East
1 track going south to Louisville
1 track going south to Indianapolis
1 track going east (towards Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, New York ...)
I also made sure only trains that have to stop at chicago get to one of the 2 stations, if a train only wants to pass from on of the east side legs to one of the west side legs, he won't interfere with any of the stations.
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Hehe, I play the Alternate USA scenario too at the moment. Nice scenario and it gets really difficult to get Gold on Expert.
I used (my usual) rail-only approach but that didn't work well, not because of the profit but because of the demand, thus I needed to build a few industries just to increase demand. Biggest problem I have is with delivery to Louisiana and to Roosevelt - the countries where one needs to deliver corn. There's just nothing one can build to increase corn demand. I fear I will miss the Gold medal.
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It helps to know what each territory will demand before playing for your gold. That way you can prepare your lines and your industries won't compete with one you may need. Like PJay said terminate you lines with industry that demands the goal cargo the most. When its grain build breweries in that city. If its cattle build meat packers. When its corn find cattle or sheep to feed.
I haven't finished a game yet but am on my second try as I had built a brewery in Omaha but needed one in the Great Lakes states on my first.
I actually start by building a textile mill in the middle of about 3 sheep ranches. This seems to be the only industry that pays well right off.
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If there are logs close to the northern border of the great plains, a lumber mill can be profitable too, but I usually start with a textile mill also.
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I use your idea of multiple drops. I just do a double drop now as its less confusing. I have collector stations and haul a custom consist of as much cargo (grain, corn, livestock) as I can. I have a drop station set maybe 10 cells right before the main destination station. This should have the price a few dollars less that the final station. I drop the cargo at this station and attempt to pick it back up (min 0 just in case demand shifts). The train then goes on toward the final stop. This will usually get a double score for each cargo and I've been averaging 30-40 load points a year once the system gets going.
What I've done in later game is not run track all over the place. Since I'm not running track all over the place, just meeting connecting and shipping goals and making money I went electric. The Bipolar is a real neat engine and pretty cheap. Also far less stops as no need for water and its pretty flat in the plains so need for sand is less.
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My hat is off to the designer of this gem. It kept me entertained for the better part of three weeks providing the right combination of track and empire building with challenging restraints. A job very well done.
The key I found was buying rights to Mexico. Coasted to a gold on expert (finally).
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I really liked the idea of this scenario but was annoyed with the constant requirment to fill varous minimium numbers in terms of hauling corn or such like. I'd rather have dealt with more discreet objectives - meet them and its done and you can worry about meeting the next objective.
My other complaint is that the territories opened up a little to quickly at one point. I distinctly recall that after a period of time all of a sudden just about every territory in teh game would go from being closed to being open. Its ratherminor but it did kind of reduce that feeling of empire building that I agree that the scenario has.
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Crikey! Territories just don't open up all at once in this scenerio unless you actively buy into them. This is one of the challenges of the game: Go in if, and only if, you have a reasonable expectation of meeting the requirements. Which also addresses the first part: When you enter a new territory have an idea of how you're going to bring the resouces of the territories to which you've rights to bear on the constraints of the newly entered one. Set up a network of trains & track which will perpetually fulfill those requirements.
Don't overlook making some money. Build/buy some industries in the newly opened territory that will compliment those in the old ones. What I liked about this one is that the constraints of one territory enhance one's ability to fulfill later ones (corn feeding the cows which you'll take to Dixie or Pacifica, eg). Sublime.
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Quote: Crikey! Territories just don't open up all at once in this scenerio unless you actively buy into them. This is one of the challenges of the game:
Well I can't prove it but I played this a number of times - lost them all - and in each case I found that the initial territories would open up much more slowly and I think the last one or maybe two took a bit - but there was a definite situation right in the middle where it seemed that access to territories came quickly on the heels of each other. Much faster then they could be exploited.
Quote:Go in if, and only if, you have a reasonable expectation of meeting the requirements. Which also addresses the first part: When you enter a new territory have an idea of how you're going to bring the resouces of the territories to which you've rights to bear on the constraints of the newly entered one. Set up a network of trains & track which will perpetually fulfill those requirements.
Don't overlook making some money. Build/buy some industries in the newly opened territory that will compliment those in the old ones. What I liked about this one is that the constraints of one territory enhance one's ability to fulfill later ones (corn feeding the cows which you'll take to Dixie or Pacifica, eg). Sublime.
Good advice though I would still have preffered to have something a little more discrete (as in black and white - just in case I'm mispelling here). I found the contant hauling into a territory to be a chore. Also it kind of started to loose its feeling of authenticity. I could see how wanting a bunch of cattle or corn or something might be part and parcel of the price for joining a Union but when you hauling stuff in in huge quantities over a long period of time one starts to wonder what the people are doing all the excess resources. It begins to jarringly defy supply and demand.
Part of my problem might have been that I was not totally fullfilling any ingle states needs - so I tended to find myself running back and forth and trying to figue out where I could find yet more corn to haul to some place which already seemed to have the majority of the corn supply for north America in its borders. I kept wondering what the heck had I promised these guys - whatever it was they clearly tricked me into doing the dirty work to give them a corn monopoly.
So I liked the history in the scenario and I liked the idea of fullfilling goals for each of the states but would have preffered something more straightforward like haul 30 corn into a territory or some such so that I could work to achieve discrete goals and judge how well along that path I am.
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Who's the sick twisted person who came up with this scenario? It's utterly impossible, and I can usually get gold on any of the campaign missions on hard settings, first shot.
Even when I strip the map of all it's resources, buy all the industries I use that are profitable, make piles and piles of money, I -STILL- can't fulfill most of the load requirements. Often, a train will refuse to go because it can't haul profitably, despite that I split destinations up so all the cities in a territory recieve goods equally. I can expand to occupy and control the entire map by 1935, including Mexico and Canada, but the load requirements are ridiculous, even when you tap every resource on the map...
Has anyone beat this scenario? It's giving me a bloody headache.
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Sounds like that SICK, TWISTED builder is VICTORIOUS
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Just make sure you haul all resources to the intended country first, then, once you delivered them there, haul them away to other cities again. This will help to keep the demand prices high. Also, although it might seem counter-intuitive, bulldozing some corn farms can help a lot. Just make sure the total annual production is still a little higher than the minimum loads/year you have to deliver.
Corn is difficult (because you can't add demand). The others are pretty easy, because you can add meat packaging plants etc...
Also, if you haul 200% of the needed resources, you're not doing good, but doing bad. This will only make it more difficult to get the requirements the next year.
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I am having the same problem Tons of cash and stuff but I can't seem to haul any corn.
I did find a way to get the grain going by shipping other resourses along with it to make it worth the trip but took awhile before I started hitting the mark every year
This issue with the corn has me about to throw the game out the windows lol
Plz let me know if you got it to go, I'm going to try hauling it away as suggested see if that will work
Alternate USA
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Penn Minuteman
- Hobo
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:39 am
Re: Alternate USA
Hello all,
I have been trying to beat this scenario on easy. My 1st time at gold medal came 4 years after the listed date I had to finish by. (The game keeps going after it is suppose to end). The 1st time, I ended up with 150 to 160 trains to get the gold.
The 2nd time I ended up with 250 trains but earned the gold on easy with 2 years to spare, then just sat back and waited for game to reach the year stated and give me my medal.
The major problem I have is a small memory leak that grows after I pass 100 trains. It always starts with with trying to upgrade alot of engines all at once. I will check them and scroll down and the game will uncheck them as they scroll off the pop up screen. By time I reach 150 trains, I need to save my game about 4 times a year to protect against random crashes to desktop.
Now for advice. Well this is going to be one LONG post. So I will break it down into sections for each territory.
1. Your start zone. Open up with a straight line from Des Moines to Omaha to the Grand Island. Single track with 2-8-0s running between the 3. Keep issuing stock at the very start of year and getting bonds. Run line from Omaha to Kansas City as soon as possible. More bonds and get into Liberal from Omaha. This makes all other cities linked to Omaha only. Omaha is your central point. Like 4 fingers off your hand (Omaha). All 2-8-0s are running 8 cars on single track. Pay off all bonds! Once all are paid in full grab the grain fields as fast as you can. Then corn. Take the crop increase for cash. By this point 1 year of stock selling will cover that cost by itself. Once you have all crop fields and no bonds start upgrading to double track. This will pay off in long run later on. (will list it here though you wont do it till later on, that double track is waiting for the H10 to show up on your train list. Upgrade 2-8-0s to H10s and run another H10 from each station to Omaha for 2 trains on each line).
2. Texhoma. Ok here we go. Pay your entry fee and drop 1 distillery in Wichita to get grain flowing from other places to that city right on Texhoma border. FROM THIS POINT ON ALL I LAY IS DOUBLE TRACK! Cross the border heading due south. Just inside of border drop a station in middle of nowhere and another distillery with it. Make sure both are outside of Wichita's station area. Then run the line due south to Oklahoma City. Run another line due east into Tulsa. Check both Oklahoma City and Tulsa for distilleries. If there is one, buy it up, if not. place one in each city. Now you have a non-upgraded distillery in Wichita, station across border, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Connect Tulsa to Oklahoma City with a straight branch line across fields. Now you need a few H10 trains, 2 of them will do a Wichita to station across border to Oklahoma City. Their cargo will be 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Oklahoma City and 8 of any cargo back to Wichita. I start one in Wichita and one in Oklahoma City so they arent bumping into each other constantly. Now do 2 H10s from Wichita to station to Tulsa. Their cargo will be 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Tulsa 8 any cargo back to Wichita. Start them at opposite ends so they dont bump into each other. Now take your branch line between Oklahoma City and Tulsa and run 1 H10 doing nothing but running 8 grain back and forth all the time. Run another H10 for 8 of any freight. This means that a train leaving Wichita with 8 grain gets you credit once it stops at station just across border then grabs the same grain and runs it down line to Oklahoma City or Tulsa to drop it off again. Thats 16 grain credits for each time 1 of the 4 trains listed above completes a circuit of it's 3 stop route. You also have that 1 train bouncing between 2 cities in Texhoma grabbing any spare grain and shuttling it back and forth for credit. This does not mean you will always see 16 times 4 (64 grain) for each lap one of those 4 trains do. This just means you have a chance of hitting a number this high. By end of game I am seeing 50 loads of grain per year going into Texhoma even thou maybe 12 to 15 are all that are crossing border. The distillery in Wichita is only so game sees a need for grain there and will move it at a profit. On north side of Wichita run tiny short lines to all those grain patches as they appear using large stations to cover 4 or 5 fields with one train. Use only the southern area of your zone for getting grain. Leave Des Moines area alone for later. I run all H10s in this scenario till the U1 appears towards end. So all trains listed from here on out will be H10s. On all the little short lines running north out of Wichita to grain fields, the trains will haul out 0 cargo and haul back 8 grain. You are pumping up Wichita with all the grain you can grab so the 6 trains going into Texhoma got a surplus to haul.
3. Great Lakes. The same set up as Texhoma. Start at Des Moines and drop a distillery. Straight shot across border where you drop a station and distillery in middle of nowhere. Then branch into a Y and run one branch to Milwaukee and one to Chicago. Look for distillery in each city and place large station near each or if no distillery place in a heavily loaded area of cargo and place one distillery near each station. Connect your Milwaukee and Chicago "Y" with a branch. Same as Texhoma you run 2 trains from Des Moines to station to Milwaukee running 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Milwaukee and 8 any cargo back to Des Moines. Then your two trains running from Des Moines to station to Chicago running 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Chicago and 8 any cargo back to Des Moines. 1 train racing back and forth on branch line between Milwaukee and Chicago hauling 8 grain either way and 1 train hauling any crago either way. At Des Moines run a few small branch lines out to grain fields and one train per station just to gran grain and haul it to Des Moines. Dont haul anything out to stations in middle of nowhere. This is important specially with corn which we will be doing next. A cattle farm, dairy farm or sheep farm near a corn field and your hauling any cargo out. The game will steal back what your trying to pile up for those farms.
4. Roosevelt. Ok our 1st corn zone and this set up should tell you whoever designed this scenario is a Sadist. The sad thing here is that you cant build a factory that demands corn. Personal complaint of mine since going back to the founding of America corn whiskey was being distilled. But game designers are ignorant of what mountain boys do in their spare time. Ok enough ranting. Lets do it. Your 2 start cities in your home zone are Grand Island and Omaha. Omaha 1st, use a tiny curve out west side of city and drop another large station within same block as main station (this is only going to cut down on traffic at main station and by end of scenario you will see why). You wont need to run any trains at all since they are both in same block. Head north to Sioux Falls. Look for a dairy farm or cattle ranch right outside of Sioux Falls and try to straddle them if your lucky with a large station. The game sometimes pities you like that. If not drop the station on west side of Sioux Falls then continue north laying track to river south of Bismark. I always try to find 2 cattle farms right beside river. The river is important because cattle slowly make way down river towards Omaha and as train returns you will be bringing cattle back for Dixie zone later. Once you find your place along east side of river south of Bismark curve line northeast and look for more cattle farms. This is going to be a long line and you wont be running to all stations but you will see what is going on in a bit. Find 2 or 3 cattle farms near northern Great Lakes border that you can cover with a station (we will call this the GL Station). Then run your line east towards Thunder Bay in Canada, there alot of corn farms there. Make a bunch of branches to cover all the corn farms with stations. Plow under all the cattle, sheep and dairy farms near those corn farms. You need to drop a meat packing plant in Omaha and run 2 trains from Omaha to Sioux Falls to station along river. They carry 8 corn to Sioux Falls then 8 corn to River Station then 8 cattle back. Run 1 train from each corn field station in north Great Lakes to GL Station hauling 8 corn to GL Station and nothing back. Run 1 train from GL Station clear down to Omaha hauling cattle and hauling nothing back. Now run short lines from Omaha to the corn fields south of it between it and Wichita hauling corn in and nothing out to those stations. Now you have 2 trains leaving Omaha for Bismark area carrying 8 corn and making 2 stops with each load plus you got 2 or 3 trains leaving northern Great Lakes area and hauling more corn in.
And to think that is only 1/2 of the Bismark corn run. The Grand Island 1/2 of it is next. Leave Grand Island and lay track straight thru the 4 corn fields you have north and just west of it. Drop a station right in middle of them then look across border and try to find a cattle, dairy or sheep farm just on other side of border to north. Head straight past it with track and drop a station there. Then head out into open country and find 2 or 3 cattle ranches stacked near each other for your last station on this end. Run 2 trains from Grand Island to 1st station across border to end station, they should be running corn to station then 8 corn to final station then 8 cattle back. The station on your side of border should be running 2 trains from there carrying 8 corn to other side of border, 8 corn to end station and nothing back. Then run a branch line down into your corn fields south of Grand Island and place stations in those clusters. Run corn from those corn field stations straight to other side of border to end station and nothing back. You should have about 6 trains from western end of your start zone hauling corn north into Bismark. With these long hauls you need as many trains as you can get pumping corn over the border. Even with this set up I have seen years where I only shipped 15 corn over border. But also see years where I sent 50+ over. Over kill on one end. But if you drop below minimum your gonna be screwed at end of game, so dont chance it. Drop a meat packing plant in Grand Island for a profit on trains coming back from northern end of line.
4. Louisiana. Yea more corn! Ok, your 2 cities for this are going to be Des Moines and Kansas City. Des Moines is 1st up. It just north of the border. Look due south for your dairy, cattle or sheep farm and run a line to it with a station. Then find one of the farms you need for corn demand just west of St. Louis. Connect all the corn clusters around Des Moines with short lines and stations. 1 train per station hauling corn in and nothing back out to the stations. Then run 2 trains south out of Des Moines to 1st station and then to 2nd station near St. Louis and haul back dairy or cattle. Game usually has dairy farm in this area. Thats 8 corn to station across border, 8 corn to station near St. Louis and 8 dairy or cattle back. Then curver off this line and run right through St. Louis to place a station. Run 8 of any cargo between Des Moines and St. Louis for easy cash for 2 trains, just set your corn haulers to high priority. Now come off Kansas City and cross border looking for a dairy, cattle or sheep farm to place station at then run to a dairy farm or cattle farm out east of Tulsa inside Louisiana zone. Now run 2 corn trains from Kansas City to station across border to farm at end of line. Hauling 8 corn to station, 8 corn to end of line and 8 cattle or dairy back. Take all corn farms near Kansas City in your zone and run short lines to them with stations and one train per station hauling 8 corn in and 0 freight back. Connect your 2 farms at end of Des Moines corn line and Kansas City corn line together. Place 1 train running 8 corn either way so you get more credit. Go back up to St. Louis and look across border to east into Great Lakes area, you should see some more corn fields. Run track to them through St. Louis and plow under all farms that are feeding on them. Then start hauling your corn back through St. Louis to the farm to west of St. Louis and taking nothing back to corn farms. Even towards the end of the game there were a few years I didnt reach the number needed to get a boost in rating. But with this set up I never saw a year I didnt obtain the minimum to keep my rating from falling. And that is the last of the Great Corn mess of Alternate USA!
5. Dixie! It is mostly downhill from here on out. You need cattle, thats not too hard. You have been stock piling in Omaha and Grand Island from part 3. From Des Moines lay track straight to Louisville and place a station in city limits. Place 1 meat packing plant. Run 2 trains from Omaha (remember thats where you were gathering it from Roosevelt) to Louisville. Haul 8 cattle out and 8 of any back. Connect Tulsa to Memphis, place meat packing plant and run 2 trains from Grand Island to Memphis carrying 8 cattle out and 8 of any cargo back. Then connect Memphis to Louisville through Nashville and place 2 meat packing plants and station in Nashville. Run 1 train from Memphis to Nashville carrying 8 cattle either way and 1 train carrying 8 of any cargo either way. Do the same for Nashville to Louisville run with 2 trains. This is not enough cattle, you will need more. But that is easy thing to solve. Just west of Memphis on other side of border, you can branch off and head across open country to Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. At least 3 of them are going to have meat packing plants. Probably upgraded by now. If not upgraded, buy them out, if they are. Plow them under and place your own. Remember, you only want the game to see that cattle are wanted there so they migrate to that station. You dont want to process them. Run a station to each place and then run 2 trains from each station hauling 8 cattle to Memphis and 8 of any cargo back. This should fill out your cattle quota. Dont run any lines into western end of Texhoma, those will be needed for Pacifica when we get to it.
6. Florida. But we dont have a single mile of track anywhere near it! So what! my money is blasting through the roof by this point. Ok this is going to be a LONG HAUL! I use straight hauls across Dixie with no towns in way. I actually lay the entire stretch in one shot if I can. Check your Chicago/Milwaukee area for any dairy processors. Your are going to lay straight line from chicago due south to the very northwestern corner of Florida near Mobile. Place a station and dairy processor inside of Florida zone and then run track straight east into Tallahassee with another dairy processor. Go back up to Chicago and run a branch off of it up and into Minneapolis where there should be an upgraded dairy processor. Plow it under and place one of your own so all those dairy farm slowly migrate to it. Now run off your long main line to any dairy farms in great lakes area and place a station near each. Lets get your milk to the market. It is a very long haul, so if your taking milk from Chicago/Milwaukee area, you need to run 3 trains from the start station to station inside of Florida border then to Tallahassee. Each one is 8 milk to station, 8 milk to Tallahassee and 8 of any cargo back. For Minneapolis, use 4 trains on this set up. For the random stations near dairy farms just use 2 trains hauling milk to Florida and nothing back. Now from Tallahassee connect St. Augustine and Tampa in a triangle, then connect St. Augustine and Tampa to Miami. Place station and dairy processor at each. Then run a train between each station carrying 8 milk either way and a train between each station carrying 8 of any cargo either way. Now once all that milk actually gets there. It will bounce around like marbles inside a paint can being shaken. Giving you credit for each stop.
7. Republic of Arizona. Last milk zone. From Liberal run a straight line to edge of this zone. Try to avoid alot of tunnel. Place a station and dairy processor right inside of border then run your track through Flagstaff, Phoenix and Tuscon. Place station and 1 dairy processor in each city. Now go back to your starting zone and place dairy processor in Liberal unless there is one there you can buy. Run short lines to all dairy farms in your zone near Liberal with one train each hauling milk to Liberal and nothing back to dairy farms. Now your going to run 2 trains from Liberal to station on border to Flagstaff. 8 milk to border, 8 milk to Flagstaff and 8 of any cargo back to Liberal. I also ran 1 train from any other city in my start zone to the border station and then to Flagstaff with this set up that had milk stocked up. Then ran off my Omaha line that ran up into Bismark for corn earlier. Looking for dairy farms in northwestern Great Lakes to drop a station at all dairy farms. Shuttling milk straight to Flagstaff and nothing back. I had about 4 stations up above Minneapolis with a train each. Then i ran 2 milk trains, 1 between Flagstaff and Phoenix and 1 between Phoenix and Tuscon. Then ran 2 regular trains hauling any cargo for cash. If you look into western Texhoma you will find a few dairy farms you can run track to and place stations out of Tuscon and haul milk in other end of this line. It will be used later for Pacifica too so there will be more reason for double track. Just haul all milk in and nothing back to the dairy farms. Another 3 stations with a train each should do fine.
8. Pacifica. I put you to sleep haven't I? Well take some Vivarin and wake up. It all easy from here on out. Cattle in and logs out. Cattle 1st. This is simple!. No need to buy into Mexico. The Rio Grande has them all floating down it into Texhoma and you can build along it. From Tuscon go due west to San Diego and north into Los Angeles. Drop 1 station and 3 meat packing plants at each. Upgrade all 6. Now go back to Tuscon and follow that track you laid to the east for dairy farms. Check El Paso for meat packing plant. If it has one upgraded, plow it under and buy your own or buy it outright if not upgraded. 2 trains from there to San Diego hauling 8 cattle in and 8 any out. then run a branch along the Rio Grande River placing 3 or 4 stations so that their block falls over the river itself. 2 trains per station hauling cattle to San Diego and nothing back. Then look for cattle farms to west of Dallas (remember your already stealing the cattle in cities for Dixie). Steal straight from the farms for San Diego. Just leave a few farms so there is some for cities that can ship to Dixie. Run 1 train between San Diego and Los angeles hauling cattle and 1 hauling any cargo. What you steal from river will fill you up fast.
Ah logs. This even easier. Grand Island lay track due west to Boise. Place 1 station and 4 lumber mills. Upgrade all 4 mills. Lay track to all lumber camps on other side of border. 1 train per station hauling logs to Boise and nothing back. If Reno has a mill, run a station up there and plow that mill into rubble. Haul the logs from there to Boise. If you have to, you can tunnel through to all lumber camps on far side of mountains along coast. Even go to the cities like San Francisco and Portland. Place station in city if it has a mill. Haul logs out after plowing under mills. Go back to Grand Island and place 2 furniture factories and upgrade. Now run 2 trains from Grand Island to Boise, haul any cargo to Boise and lumber back. Those trains coming back will be 2 solid rows of gold bars for cash on train window. You got Pacifica running. Watch numbers and if you see your low on logs, run another short line to grab a few more or run more track in western Texhoma if you need more cattle.
9. New England! Home stretch. All that is needed here is to ship massive amounts of freight into the zone. From Chicago I run a line to Toledo and place a station then run a train between the 2. For the rest of this, every connection I make, I will run 2 trains. Pittsburgh is gonna get ugly fast for traffic but we want cash stacked up for the credit. Track from Toledo to Pittsburgh with 2 trains. Pittsburgh to Columbus with 2 trains. Columbus to Cincinnati running 2 trains from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh. Cincinnati to Charleston with 2 trains and 2 trains from Columbus to Charleston. Pittsburgh to Syracuse with 2 trains. Pittsburgh to Toronto with 2. Syracuse to Toronto with 2. Syracuse through Ottawa to Montreal. 2 trains on Syracuse - Ottawa run and 2 trains on Syracuse - Montreal run. 2 trains from Ottawa to Pittsburgh and 2 trains from Montreal to Pittsburgh. Connect Montreal to the Boston area near all the factories. Doesnt have to be in Boston itself, just close. 2 trains from Ottawa to Boston area and 2 trains from Montreal to Boston area. Boston to New York with 2. New York to Philly with 2. Philly to Washington D.C. with 2 (make sure station is inside of border!). Washington to Richmond with 2. Branch line for Virginia Beach with 2. Connect Charleston to Richmond with 2 trains. this allows freight to leave and then flow right back into New England for more credit off same cars. Then just run off Richmond to any place with cargo in short lines to pump up Richmond for more freight to get into zone. I finish it off with a straight line across mid-west from Omaha to Pittsburgh and Des Moines to Pittsburgh with 2 trains from each city.
I had all excellent 2 years before the game stated I had to have them. But since the victory conditions are messed up a bit. I had the total pleasure of watching my trains race around for 2 full years before it gave me my gold. About 250 trains were used. My 1st success I only got all excellent 4 years after game should have ended. But I mention that because I only had 150 trains running in that game. The only difference between the 2 was I used about 30 more trains I considered needed in 2nd game. the rest of all those extras were mostly from playing around. And the 1st game I also wasted time when I shouldn't have.
Well there is 5 hours of my life and the sun is coming up!
Please feel free to work with all I typed above and tweak, improve or remove what you think I wasted effort on. Would love all feedback and input. But I need to sleep now. Will choo choo when I wake up. I can be beaten on easy. Now to see if it can be beaten on moderate.
Sincerely,
Pennsylvania Minuteman (Bill)
I have been trying to beat this scenario on easy. My 1st time at gold medal came 4 years after the listed date I had to finish by. (The game keeps going after it is suppose to end). The 1st time, I ended up with 150 to 160 trains to get the gold.
The 2nd time I ended up with 250 trains but earned the gold on easy with 2 years to spare, then just sat back and waited for game to reach the year stated and give me my medal.
The major problem I have is a small memory leak that grows after I pass 100 trains. It always starts with with trying to upgrade alot of engines all at once. I will check them and scroll down and the game will uncheck them as they scroll off the pop up screen. By time I reach 150 trains, I need to save my game about 4 times a year to protect against random crashes to desktop.
Now for advice. Well this is going to be one LONG post. So I will break it down into sections for each territory.
1. Your start zone. Open up with a straight line from Des Moines to Omaha to the Grand Island. Single track with 2-8-0s running between the 3. Keep issuing stock at the very start of year and getting bonds. Run line from Omaha to Kansas City as soon as possible. More bonds and get into Liberal from Omaha. This makes all other cities linked to Omaha only. Omaha is your central point. Like 4 fingers off your hand (Omaha). All 2-8-0s are running 8 cars on single track. Pay off all bonds! Once all are paid in full grab the grain fields as fast as you can. Then corn. Take the crop increase for cash. By this point 1 year of stock selling will cover that cost by itself. Once you have all crop fields and no bonds start upgrading to double track. This will pay off in long run later on. (will list it here though you wont do it till later on, that double track is waiting for the H10 to show up on your train list. Upgrade 2-8-0s to H10s and run another H10 from each station to Omaha for 2 trains on each line).
2. Texhoma. Ok here we go. Pay your entry fee and drop 1 distillery in Wichita to get grain flowing from other places to that city right on Texhoma border. FROM THIS POINT ON ALL I LAY IS DOUBLE TRACK! Cross the border heading due south. Just inside of border drop a station in middle of nowhere and another distillery with it. Make sure both are outside of Wichita's station area. Then run the line due south to Oklahoma City. Run another line due east into Tulsa. Check both Oklahoma City and Tulsa for distilleries. If there is one, buy it up, if not. place one in each city. Now you have a non-upgraded distillery in Wichita, station across border, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Connect Tulsa to Oklahoma City with a straight branch line across fields. Now you need a few H10 trains, 2 of them will do a Wichita to station across border to Oklahoma City. Their cargo will be 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Oklahoma City and 8 of any cargo back to Wichita. I start one in Wichita and one in Oklahoma City so they arent bumping into each other constantly. Now do 2 H10s from Wichita to station to Tulsa. Their cargo will be 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Tulsa 8 any cargo back to Wichita. Start them at opposite ends so they dont bump into each other. Now take your branch line between Oklahoma City and Tulsa and run 1 H10 doing nothing but running 8 grain back and forth all the time. Run another H10 for 8 of any freight. This means that a train leaving Wichita with 8 grain gets you credit once it stops at station just across border then grabs the same grain and runs it down line to Oklahoma City or Tulsa to drop it off again. Thats 16 grain credits for each time 1 of the 4 trains listed above completes a circuit of it's 3 stop route. You also have that 1 train bouncing between 2 cities in Texhoma grabbing any spare grain and shuttling it back and forth for credit. This does not mean you will always see 16 times 4 (64 grain) for each lap one of those 4 trains do. This just means you have a chance of hitting a number this high. By end of game I am seeing 50 loads of grain per year going into Texhoma even thou maybe 12 to 15 are all that are crossing border. The distillery in Wichita is only so game sees a need for grain there and will move it at a profit. On north side of Wichita run tiny short lines to all those grain patches as they appear using large stations to cover 4 or 5 fields with one train. Use only the southern area of your zone for getting grain. Leave Des Moines area alone for later. I run all H10s in this scenario till the U1 appears towards end. So all trains listed from here on out will be H10s. On all the little short lines running north out of Wichita to grain fields, the trains will haul out 0 cargo and haul back 8 grain. You are pumping up Wichita with all the grain you can grab so the 6 trains going into Texhoma got a surplus to haul.
3. Great Lakes. The same set up as Texhoma. Start at Des Moines and drop a distillery. Straight shot across border where you drop a station and distillery in middle of nowhere. Then branch into a Y and run one branch to Milwaukee and one to Chicago. Look for distillery in each city and place large station near each or if no distillery place in a heavily loaded area of cargo and place one distillery near each station. Connect your Milwaukee and Chicago "Y" with a branch. Same as Texhoma you run 2 trains from Des Moines to station to Milwaukee running 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Milwaukee and 8 any cargo back to Des Moines. Then your two trains running from Des Moines to station to Chicago running 8 grain to station, 8 grain to Chicago and 8 any cargo back to Des Moines. 1 train racing back and forth on branch line between Milwaukee and Chicago hauling 8 grain either way and 1 train hauling any crago either way. At Des Moines run a few small branch lines out to grain fields and one train per station just to gran grain and haul it to Des Moines. Dont haul anything out to stations in middle of nowhere. This is important specially with corn which we will be doing next. A cattle farm, dairy farm or sheep farm near a corn field and your hauling any cargo out. The game will steal back what your trying to pile up for those farms.
4. Roosevelt. Ok our 1st corn zone and this set up should tell you whoever designed this scenario is a Sadist. The sad thing here is that you cant build a factory that demands corn. Personal complaint of mine since going back to the founding of America corn whiskey was being distilled. But game designers are ignorant of what mountain boys do in their spare time. Ok enough ranting. Lets do it. Your 2 start cities in your home zone are Grand Island and Omaha. Omaha 1st, use a tiny curve out west side of city and drop another large station within same block as main station (this is only going to cut down on traffic at main station and by end of scenario you will see why). You wont need to run any trains at all since they are both in same block. Head north to Sioux Falls. Look for a dairy farm or cattle ranch right outside of Sioux Falls and try to straddle them if your lucky with a large station. The game sometimes pities you like that. If not drop the station on west side of Sioux Falls then continue north laying track to river south of Bismark. I always try to find 2 cattle farms right beside river. The river is important because cattle slowly make way down river towards Omaha and as train returns you will be bringing cattle back for Dixie zone later. Once you find your place along east side of river south of Bismark curve line northeast and look for more cattle farms. This is going to be a long line and you wont be running to all stations but you will see what is going on in a bit. Find 2 or 3 cattle farms near northern Great Lakes border that you can cover with a station (we will call this the GL Station). Then run your line east towards Thunder Bay in Canada, there alot of corn farms there. Make a bunch of branches to cover all the corn farms with stations. Plow under all the cattle, sheep and dairy farms near those corn farms. You need to drop a meat packing plant in Omaha and run 2 trains from Omaha to Sioux Falls to station along river. They carry 8 corn to Sioux Falls then 8 corn to River Station then 8 cattle back. Run 1 train from each corn field station in north Great Lakes to GL Station hauling 8 corn to GL Station and nothing back. Run 1 train from GL Station clear down to Omaha hauling cattle and hauling nothing back. Now run short lines from Omaha to the corn fields south of it between it and Wichita hauling corn in and nothing out to those stations. Now you have 2 trains leaving Omaha for Bismark area carrying 8 corn and making 2 stops with each load plus you got 2 or 3 trains leaving northern Great Lakes area and hauling more corn in.
And to think that is only 1/2 of the Bismark corn run. The Grand Island 1/2 of it is next. Leave Grand Island and lay track straight thru the 4 corn fields you have north and just west of it. Drop a station right in middle of them then look across border and try to find a cattle, dairy or sheep farm just on other side of border to north. Head straight past it with track and drop a station there. Then head out into open country and find 2 or 3 cattle ranches stacked near each other for your last station on this end. Run 2 trains from Grand Island to 1st station across border to end station, they should be running corn to station then 8 corn to final station then 8 cattle back. The station on your side of border should be running 2 trains from there carrying 8 corn to other side of border, 8 corn to end station and nothing back. Then run a branch line down into your corn fields south of Grand Island and place stations in those clusters. Run corn from those corn field stations straight to other side of border to end station and nothing back. You should have about 6 trains from western end of your start zone hauling corn north into Bismark. With these long hauls you need as many trains as you can get pumping corn over the border. Even with this set up I have seen years where I only shipped 15 corn over border. But also see years where I sent 50+ over. Over kill on one end. But if you drop below minimum your gonna be screwed at end of game, so dont chance it. Drop a meat packing plant in Grand Island for a profit on trains coming back from northern end of line.
4. Louisiana. Yea more corn! Ok, your 2 cities for this are going to be Des Moines and Kansas City. Des Moines is 1st up. It just north of the border. Look due south for your dairy, cattle or sheep farm and run a line to it with a station. Then find one of the farms you need for corn demand just west of St. Louis. Connect all the corn clusters around Des Moines with short lines and stations. 1 train per station hauling corn in and nothing back out to the stations. Then run 2 trains south out of Des Moines to 1st station and then to 2nd station near St. Louis and haul back dairy or cattle. Game usually has dairy farm in this area. Thats 8 corn to station across border, 8 corn to station near St. Louis and 8 dairy or cattle back. Then curver off this line and run right through St. Louis to place a station. Run 8 of any cargo between Des Moines and St. Louis for easy cash for 2 trains, just set your corn haulers to high priority. Now come off Kansas City and cross border looking for a dairy, cattle or sheep farm to place station at then run to a dairy farm or cattle farm out east of Tulsa inside Louisiana zone. Now run 2 corn trains from Kansas City to station across border to farm at end of line. Hauling 8 corn to station, 8 corn to end of line and 8 cattle or dairy back. Take all corn farms near Kansas City in your zone and run short lines to them with stations and one train per station hauling 8 corn in and 0 freight back. Connect your 2 farms at end of Des Moines corn line and Kansas City corn line together. Place 1 train running 8 corn either way so you get more credit. Go back up to St. Louis and look across border to east into Great Lakes area, you should see some more corn fields. Run track to them through St. Louis and plow under all farms that are feeding on them. Then start hauling your corn back through St. Louis to the farm to west of St. Louis and taking nothing back to corn farms. Even towards the end of the game there were a few years I didnt reach the number needed to get a boost in rating. But with this set up I never saw a year I didnt obtain the minimum to keep my rating from falling. And that is the last of the Great Corn mess of Alternate USA!
5. Dixie! It is mostly downhill from here on out. You need cattle, thats not too hard. You have been stock piling in Omaha and Grand Island from part 3. From Des Moines lay track straight to Louisville and place a station in city limits. Place 1 meat packing plant. Run 2 trains from Omaha (remember thats where you were gathering it from Roosevelt) to Louisville. Haul 8 cattle out and 8 of any back. Connect Tulsa to Memphis, place meat packing plant and run 2 trains from Grand Island to Memphis carrying 8 cattle out and 8 of any cargo back. Then connect Memphis to Louisville through Nashville and place 2 meat packing plants and station in Nashville. Run 1 train from Memphis to Nashville carrying 8 cattle either way and 1 train carrying 8 of any cargo either way. Do the same for Nashville to Louisville run with 2 trains. This is not enough cattle, you will need more. But that is easy thing to solve. Just west of Memphis on other side of border, you can branch off and head across open country to Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. At least 3 of them are going to have meat packing plants. Probably upgraded by now. If not upgraded, buy them out, if they are. Plow them under and place your own. Remember, you only want the game to see that cattle are wanted there so they migrate to that station. You dont want to process them. Run a station to each place and then run 2 trains from each station hauling 8 cattle to Memphis and 8 of any cargo back. This should fill out your cattle quota. Dont run any lines into western end of Texhoma, those will be needed for Pacifica when we get to it.
6. Florida. But we dont have a single mile of track anywhere near it! So what! my money is blasting through the roof by this point. Ok this is going to be a LONG HAUL! I use straight hauls across Dixie with no towns in way. I actually lay the entire stretch in one shot if I can. Check your Chicago/Milwaukee area for any dairy processors. Your are going to lay straight line from chicago due south to the very northwestern corner of Florida near Mobile. Place a station and dairy processor inside of Florida zone and then run track straight east into Tallahassee with another dairy processor. Go back up to Chicago and run a branch off of it up and into Minneapolis where there should be an upgraded dairy processor. Plow it under and place one of your own so all those dairy farm slowly migrate to it. Now run off your long main line to any dairy farms in great lakes area and place a station near each. Lets get your milk to the market. It is a very long haul, so if your taking milk from Chicago/Milwaukee area, you need to run 3 trains from the start station to station inside of Florida border then to Tallahassee. Each one is 8 milk to station, 8 milk to Tallahassee and 8 of any cargo back. For Minneapolis, use 4 trains on this set up. For the random stations near dairy farms just use 2 trains hauling milk to Florida and nothing back. Now from Tallahassee connect St. Augustine and Tampa in a triangle, then connect St. Augustine and Tampa to Miami. Place station and dairy processor at each. Then run a train between each station carrying 8 milk either way and a train between each station carrying 8 of any cargo either way. Now once all that milk actually gets there. It will bounce around like marbles inside a paint can being shaken. Giving you credit for each stop.
7. Republic of Arizona. Last milk zone. From Liberal run a straight line to edge of this zone. Try to avoid alot of tunnel. Place a station and dairy processor right inside of border then run your track through Flagstaff, Phoenix and Tuscon. Place station and 1 dairy processor in each city. Now go back to your starting zone and place dairy processor in Liberal unless there is one there you can buy. Run short lines to all dairy farms in your zone near Liberal with one train each hauling milk to Liberal and nothing back to dairy farms. Now your going to run 2 trains from Liberal to station on border to Flagstaff. 8 milk to border, 8 milk to Flagstaff and 8 of any cargo back to Liberal. I also ran 1 train from any other city in my start zone to the border station and then to Flagstaff with this set up that had milk stocked up. Then ran off my Omaha line that ran up into Bismark for corn earlier. Looking for dairy farms in northwestern Great Lakes to drop a station at all dairy farms. Shuttling milk straight to Flagstaff and nothing back. I had about 4 stations up above Minneapolis with a train each. Then i ran 2 milk trains, 1 between Flagstaff and Phoenix and 1 between Phoenix and Tuscon. Then ran 2 regular trains hauling any cargo for cash. If you look into western Texhoma you will find a few dairy farms you can run track to and place stations out of Tuscon and haul milk in other end of this line. It will be used later for Pacifica too so there will be more reason for double track. Just haul all milk in and nothing back to the dairy farms. Another 3 stations with a train each should do fine.
8. Pacifica. I put you to sleep haven't I? Well take some Vivarin and wake up. It all easy from here on out. Cattle in and logs out. Cattle 1st. This is simple!. No need to buy into Mexico. The Rio Grande has them all floating down it into Texhoma and you can build along it. From Tuscon go due west to San Diego and north into Los Angeles. Drop 1 station and 3 meat packing plants at each. Upgrade all 6. Now go back to Tuscon and follow that track you laid to the east for dairy farms. Check El Paso for meat packing plant. If it has one upgraded, plow it under and buy your own or buy it outright if not upgraded. 2 trains from there to San Diego hauling 8 cattle in and 8 any out. then run a branch along the Rio Grande River placing 3 or 4 stations so that their block falls over the river itself. 2 trains per station hauling cattle to San Diego and nothing back. Then look for cattle farms to west of Dallas (remember your already stealing the cattle in cities for Dixie). Steal straight from the farms for San Diego. Just leave a few farms so there is some for cities that can ship to Dixie. Run 1 train between San Diego and Los angeles hauling cattle and 1 hauling any cargo. What you steal from river will fill you up fast.
Ah logs. This even easier. Grand Island lay track due west to Boise. Place 1 station and 4 lumber mills. Upgrade all 4 mills. Lay track to all lumber camps on other side of border. 1 train per station hauling logs to Boise and nothing back. If Reno has a mill, run a station up there and plow that mill into rubble. Haul the logs from there to Boise. If you have to, you can tunnel through to all lumber camps on far side of mountains along coast. Even go to the cities like San Francisco and Portland. Place station in city if it has a mill. Haul logs out after plowing under mills. Go back to Grand Island and place 2 furniture factories and upgrade. Now run 2 trains from Grand Island to Boise, haul any cargo to Boise and lumber back. Those trains coming back will be 2 solid rows of gold bars for cash on train window. You got Pacifica running. Watch numbers and if you see your low on logs, run another short line to grab a few more or run more track in western Texhoma if you need more cattle.
9. New England! Home stretch. All that is needed here is to ship massive amounts of freight into the zone. From Chicago I run a line to Toledo and place a station then run a train between the 2. For the rest of this, every connection I make, I will run 2 trains. Pittsburgh is gonna get ugly fast for traffic but we want cash stacked up for the credit. Track from Toledo to Pittsburgh with 2 trains. Pittsburgh to Columbus with 2 trains. Columbus to Cincinnati running 2 trains from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh. Cincinnati to Charleston with 2 trains and 2 trains from Columbus to Charleston. Pittsburgh to Syracuse with 2 trains. Pittsburgh to Toronto with 2. Syracuse to Toronto with 2. Syracuse through Ottawa to Montreal. 2 trains on Syracuse - Ottawa run and 2 trains on Syracuse - Montreal run. 2 trains from Ottawa to Pittsburgh and 2 trains from Montreal to Pittsburgh. Connect Montreal to the Boston area near all the factories. Doesnt have to be in Boston itself, just close. 2 trains from Ottawa to Boston area and 2 trains from Montreal to Boston area. Boston to New York with 2. New York to Philly with 2. Philly to Washington D.C. with 2 (make sure station is inside of border!). Washington to Richmond with 2. Branch line for Virginia Beach with 2. Connect Charleston to Richmond with 2 trains. this allows freight to leave and then flow right back into New England for more credit off same cars. Then just run off Richmond to any place with cargo in short lines to pump up Richmond for more freight to get into zone. I finish it off with a straight line across mid-west from Omaha to Pittsburgh and Des Moines to Pittsburgh with 2 trains from each city.
I had all excellent 2 years before the game stated I had to have them. But since the victory conditions are messed up a bit. I had the total pleasure of watching my trains race around for 2 full years before it gave me my gold. About 250 trains were used. My 1st success I only got all excellent 4 years after game should have ended. But I mention that because I only had 150 trains running in that game. The only difference between the 2 was I used about 30 more trains I considered needed in 2nd game. the rest of all those extras were mostly from playing around. And the 1st game I also wasted time when I shouldn't have.
Well there is 5 hours of my life and the sun is coming up!
Please feel free to work with all I typed above and tweak, improve or remove what you think I wasted effort on. Would love all feedback and input. But I need to sleep now. Will choo choo when I wake up. I can be beaten on easy. Now to see if it can be beaten on moderate.
Sincerely,
Pennsylvania Minuteman (Bill)
Re: Alternate USA
Most of the advice I have seen on this scenario suggest to start exclusively in the Great Plains and wait a little while before entering other territories. Actually, I have had good experience with getting track laying rights to Texoma right away at the start. Granted, relations with Texoma get strained in the early going, but there is more than enough time to make it up. Also, next to New England, Texoma is the easiest territory to improve relations with. Meanwhile, the profits from hauling diesel from the stations in Texoma really boost the profits and help the player get better positioned for the other challanges in the scenario.Life is not fair, but it is still good.
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Grandma Ruth
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Re: Alternate USA
I have never actually played the Coast to Coast scenarios so I'm starting with this one and I'm finding it hard going! It's a while since I played with 1.05 anyway, so getting used to it again is not so easy.
Has anybody got Gold on this one? I'm playing on Hard and have so far got 4 Excellent ratings and 2 Good - 3 territories I haven't even thought about. The war between Arizona and somewhere else has just begun so I'm going to try those two next but it does involve an awful lot of micro-managing.
At this point with over 100 trains I'm hauling more than I need but I have "cheated" by making an event that fires every October and tells me how much of everything I've hauled. (I don't think this is cheating really because you could, in theory, keep track of how much you were hauling - I just don't have the patience!) Anyway, when this event fires, if I've made my quota I stop the trains and then they count for the next year's target.
If you had more patience and were really clever what you would do would be to get to Excellent and then not haul any more than you need - just the minimum. Then you could divert those trains to the other territories. At the moment I'm hauling enormous amounts of grain I don't need because I've already got Excellent in those two territories but I'm too lazy to follow my own advice!
The shareholders don't like it when you run a lot of trains that aren't very profitable, I've found, so I think I may get in trouble before the end though I'm making money hand over fist and haven't got any debt outstanding at this point.
Maybe at the weekend I'll try and make more rational use of all these trains. Real life will intervene before then, I'm afraid - I have a job interview on Thursday
Has anybody got Gold on this one? I'm playing on Hard and have so far got 4 Excellent ratings and 2 Good - 3 territories I haven't even thought about. The war between Arizona and somewhere else has just begun so I'm going to try those two next but it does involve an awful lot of micro-managing.
At this point with over 100 trains I'm hauling more than I need but I have "cheated" by making an event that fires every October and tells me how much of everything I've hauled. (I don't think this is cheating really because you could, in theory, keep track of how much you were hauling - I just don't have the patience!) Anyway, when this event fires, if I've made my quota I stop the trains and then they count for the next year's target.
If you had more patience and were really clever what you would do would be to get to Excellent and then not haul any more than you need - just the minimum. Then you could divert those trains to the other territories. At the moment I'm hauling enormous amounts of grain I don't need because I've already got Excellent in those two territories but I'm too lazy to follow my own advice!
The shareholders don't like it when you run a lot of trains that aren't very profitable, I've found, so I think I may get in trouble before the end though I'm making money hand over fist and haven't got any debt outstanding at this point.
Maybe at the weekend I'll try and make more rational use of all these trains. Real life will intervene before then, I'm afraid - I have a job interview on Thursday
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Grandma Ruth
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Re: Alternate USA
Finally, finished this scenario - it's been driving me Here's my thoughts on it:
Comments
Sorry to start with negative comments, but once these are out of the way I’ll get on to the strategy!
First, just a warning about a quirk of the RT game itself. On the station screens, there isn’t always enough room to show the complete picture about cargo demand and supply so you need to take a wider view to see where the cargoes are. Click the cursor on the cargo you’re interested in, then zoom out and you can see where that cargo is and where it’s dearer or cheaper than the station you’re looking at. I found I needed to do this a lot.
Overall, I was disappointed in the quality of this scenario. I wouldn’t make these criticisms of one of our own maps as it’s easy to make little slips but I would expect better quality control in a commercial scenario. There are typo’s and mistakes in some of the dialogues that should have been caught before it was published.
One major error is in the win/lose events, where the game years are all over the place. The Gold is the only one that works – but we’re going for Gold, anyway! If you are familiar with the Editor, I suggest you put this right before you start the game. Otherwise you can just have the satisfaction of knowing where you stand at the end of 1950, even if the game doesn’t!
I think the New England target is out by a couple of 00’s – surely it should be hundreds of thousands rather than just thousands of dollars? Also I don’t know if they are deliberately using the word “goods” instead of “cargo” to confuse the player or if it’s a mistake but if it’s deliberate it’s a shabby trick, in my opinion!
There wasn’t anything of a storyline, either, which I like to have. Even a completely bonkers story like The Zany Land of Baffania – which I can recommend – is better than this, which is contrived and doesn’t have any internal logic to it. The alternate history didn’t impress me much, probably because I’m not that familiar with the real history of the United States to begin with.
Finally, the status page wasn’t too informative. I had to make a new one that tells you what your score actually is, I don’t think I could have kept going otherwise. There wasn’t much incentive to keep on hauling the cargoes around so at least seeing the score mount up was something.
Having said all this, I’ve been playing it for weeks now quite obsessively as I wasn’t going to let it defeat me! The only other scenario to affect me like this was Orient Express and I actually dreamed about that one.
Strategy
My general rule in this scenario was to take a conservative, neutral line on all the choices. I didn’t take the fertiliser offer or take sides in the war and so on. I also took no notice of those new industries that pop up – this was after spending a long time and a lot of resources servicing an aluminium mill that really wasn’t worth it in the long run.
I issued bonds each year, at least until the recession started to bite and I wanted to keep the shareholders happy, and borrowed a modest amount as necessary.
Don’t forget to keep hauling the minimum once you’ve made it to “Excellent” in a territory – it’s very frustrating to have to suddenly go back to hauling the max for a year.
I mostly used the H10 2-8-2 engine, taking advice from Bill the Penn Minuteman and also using low_grade’s excellent spreadsheet to compare locomotives. This spreadsheet also made me realise the potential of the Zephyr, which I had dismissed as only a passenger train but which I used to some effect for everything.
I started by placing a textile mill right in the middle of the sheep farms by Omaha – there were usually some in most of the re-starts (of which I made many!). Then I placed a small station by it and connected this to Omaha, Des Moines and Wichita. I ran this line for a bit to make some money before expanding into other territories.
This small station “Omaha Mills” was the focus of my attention throughout the game. I kept trains there filling up with clothing constantly (as far as I could), which seemed to help the mills’ productivity. I added new mills as the amount of wool and cotton standing there became ridiculous and ended up with four, all upgraded and working at 100% with a profit of about $2m between them.
I decided after several false starts to go into Arizona and Pacifica after Texahoma, not an obviously logical order.The timing and order of entering the territories also depends on your answer to the WW1 and other choices – I stayed neutral on everything so relations were a bit poor all round but not disastrous. Obviously you’ll go into the ones with the worst relationships first if you can. I tried to follow Penn Minuteman’s strategy but it just didn’t work for me – I couldn’t keep the company profitable and the shareholders happy at the same time and was sacked more than once!
Texahoma
First I expanded through Oklahoma City, Wichita Falls and Dallas, taking the grain trains through each city so getting double or treble credits for each train. Feels a bit like cheating but I don’t think you could win this scenario otherwise. There are worse things you could do!
After a while I went off West through Lubbock to El Paso so I could then go to:
Arizona
Forget the fact that you can get extra credits during the war, I intended to get this out of the way early along with Pacifica. I was expanding into this territory by 1917. From El Paso the line passes close to the Mexican border so stations on the Texas side can pick up milk and livestock (for Pacifica, later). The first station in Arizona is right on the Mexican border as well, picking up a dairy farm on the other side. This connects to Tucson and so far the track grades aren’t too bad and the Pacific can cope with them.
So bounce the milk trains along these Arizona stations until you need to expand to Phoenix and Flagstaff, which will involve steeper grades and the H10 engine in 1918. I resisted connecting to Flagstaff as long as I could as it’s a difficult connection but had to do it eventually.
My strategy in Arizona was to connect as many milk farms as possible and bring one or two loads of milk from each to the Tucson auxiliary station. For this you can use the Pacifics you will already have. Then an H10 picks up a full load and bounces up through Tuscon, Phoenix and later Flagstaff. You might not be able to do this every year – sometimes you might just make the minimum but there’s plenty of time.
Pacifica
I expanded from Arizona to Pacifica in 1923. There are two elements to Pacifica, logs and livestock, and different strategies for each. Don’t be confused by the “from” and “to” – it boils down to the same thing when you are carrying cargo within Pacifica itself, you get the credit when it delivers in either case.
Livestock first as it’s the livestock which you have to haul to get the minimum credit. Later on you may find it possible to run custom consists of both logs and livestock as the demand changes.
Livestock:
First difficulty is building the line down to San Diego, which is awkward and probably needs a bridge. In this particular map, San Diego is the magnet for livestock so there’s no need to expand any further at first.
Run a train or two from local cattle ranches in Arizona or over the Mexican border to make the minimum for the first year or so, whilst you are running full trains from Lubbock, Omaha and anywhere else that has a big build-up of livestock. These trains will take well over a year to get to San Diego and it’s only when they get within striking distance that you need to think about logs. When they get into Arizona, stop them but beware – this will cause share prices to fall so you must keep up your profits from elsewhere. Keep the textile mills going: they should make at least $300k - $400k each.
Logs:
In this particular map, Los Angeles wanted logs as well as San Diego so I made LA the main focus for logs at first. The connection from San Diego to LA along the coast is not too bad. Go to the overview screen and put it on logs, and you can see the colours shading from red to almost green. This will show you the route you need to take from the farthest logging camp to LA. You might also connect to San Francisco if there are logs by there.
I found the logs quite easy as you are bouncing along making a stop at each station and being credited with the loads each time. Be guided by what the livestock’s doing – if you are having a year when you can’t haul much more than the minimum livestock, then keep the logging trains at the stations filling up rather than uselessly hauling logs about that won’t count. This doesn’t upset the share price so if you want a train not to run, it’s better to keep it filling up to 8 cars at the station rather than stopping it on the track.
Great Lakes
Only haul what you need! For the first year, I made two new stations, near Omaha and near Des Moines, where there were collections of grain farms and left a train at each to fill up 8 cars of grain. Plus an existing train calling at Omaha and one calling at Oklahoma City, which I gave a custom consist of 2 grain, 6 diesel. 26 loads in all and done within the year – but only just!
This bit should be fairly easy. You should expand gradually towards Pittsburgh, which you will need to connect later. So Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus (and Milwaukee in the other direction if you like) make a nice crescent to run a couple of trains with grain and other cargo.
I ignored the new grain farms. Some people say you should always buy new industry and they might be right but I had my hands full with the textile mills.
Dixie
I made the connection through farms around Dallas, through Louisiana to Jackson. By now there are 30 loads of livestock at San Diego begging to be released! So bring them to Jackson. Meanwhile see what you can get out of the Dallas farms. You will have to expand to Birmingham and Montgomery but there was an excess of cattle for me.
Louisiana
I had to buy Louisiana to get to Dixie and this is one of the more difficult ones at first as demand for corn isn’t high. Once you get the corn bouncing around the place from one city to another, things will get better. Initially my line went from Dallas to Baton Rouge but I made spurs out to any- and every-where that wanted corn!
New England
New England is the easiest but, depending on how you answered the WW1 question, it could take as long as 14 years to get excellent. So remember to connect by the mid-1930’s. As I said above, I think this target is a mistake. It’s easily gained by one train back and forth between Pittsburgh and the Great Lakes cities.
Florida
For a year (or ideally more) before going into Florida, haul as much milk as you can to neighbouring territories. There was already a dairy processor in Montgomery, which helped. I expanded into Florida through Dixie, the line going through Jackson and via a useful collection of dairy farms to Tallahassee. You could also approach it via Baton Rouge. Once there, expand fairly soon into St Augustine, Tampa, Miami, and bounce the milk around between them. This territory is rich in produce: don’t forget to make money on that as well as meeting your milk target.
Roosevelt
My last one on this attempt. 1939 is the latest you can realistically start your last territory, just so you have a year’s leeway at the end. Roosevelt was neutral so I knew it would take the last ten years if I achieved the target every year.
I connected through Sioux Falls and joined up to all the farms I could find on the way to Bismarck. By now I’m just calling them SF1, SF2, etc. Run trains from the cornfields around Des Moines to SF, then another nippy one or more to run around the farms.
Timescales for achieving Excellent in each territory
1905 - 1910: no expansion
1910 - 1926: Texahoma
1916 - 1930: Arizona
1923 - 1936: Pacifica
1931 - 1944: Great Lakes
1931 - 1946: Dixie
1931 - 1947: Louisiana
1937 - 1949: New England
1938 - 1949: Florida
1939 - 1949: Roosevelt
In spite of its faults, an interesting game if you can bear the micro-managing. I certainly learned a lot about how industry works and some of the features of RT3 itself.
Here's my thoughts on it:Comments
Sorry to start with negative comments, but once these are out of the way I’ll get on to the strategy!
First, just a warning about a quirk of the RT game itself. On the station screens, there isn’t always enough room to show the complete picture about cargo demand and supply so you need to take a wider view to see where the cargoes are. Click the cursor on the cargo you’re interested in, then zoom out and you can see where that cargo is and where it’s dearer or cheaper than the station you’re looking at. I found I needed to do this a lot.
Overall, I was disappointed in the quality of this scenario. I wouldn’t make these criticisms of one of our own maps as it’s easy to make little slips but I would expect better quality control in a commercial scenario. There are typo’s and mistakes in some of the dialogues that should have been caught before it was published.
One major error is in the win/lose events, where the game years are all over the place. The Gold is the only one that works – but we’re going for Gold, anyway! If you are familiar with the Editor, I suggest you put this right before you start the game. Otherwise you can just have the satisfaction of knowing where you stand at the end of 1950, even if the game doesn’t!
I think the New England target is out by a couple of 00’s – surely it should be hundreds of thousands rather than just thousands of dollars? Also I don’t know if they are deliberately using the word “goods” instead of “cargo” to confuse the player or if it’s a mistake but if it’s deliberate it’s a shabby trick, in my opinion!
There wasn’t anything of a storyline, either, which I like to have. Even a completely bonkers story like The Zany Land of Baffania – which I can recommend – is better than this, which is contrived and doesn’t have any internal logic to it. The alternate history didn’t impress me much, probably because I’m not that familiar with the real history of the United States to begin with.
Finally, the status page wasn’t too informative. I had to make a new one that tells you what your score actually is, I don’t think I could have kept going otherwise. There wasn’t much incentive to keep on hauling the cargoes around so at least seeing the score mount up was something.
Having said all this, I’ve been playing it for weeks now quite obsessively as I wasn’t going to let it defeat me! The only other scenario to affect me like this was Orient Express and I actually dreamed about that one.
Strategy
My general rule in this scenario was to take a conservative, neutral line on all the choices. I didn’t take the fertiliser offer or take sides in the war and so on. I also took no notice of those new industries that pop up – this was after spending a long time and a lot of resources servicing an aluminium mill that really wasn’t worth it in the long run.
I issued bonds each year, at least until the recession started to bite and I wanted to keep the shareholders happy, and borrowed a modest amount as necessary.
Don’t forget to keep hauling the minimum once you’ve made it to “Excellent” in a territory – it’s very frustrating to have to suddenly go back to hauling the max for a year.
I mostly used the H10 2-8-2 engine, taking advice from Bill the Penn Minuteman and also using low_grade’s excellent spreadsheet to compare locomotives. This spreadsheet also made me realise the potential of the Zephyr, which I had dismissed as only a passenger train but which I used to some effect for everything.
I started by placing a textile mill right in the middle of the sheep farms by Omaha – there were usually some in most of the re-starts (of which I made many!). Then I placed a small station by it and connected this to Omaha, Des Moines and Wichita. I ran this line for a bit to make some money before expanding into other territories.
This small station “Omaha Mills” was the focus of my attention throughout the game. I kept trains there filling up with clothing constantly (as far as I could), which seemed to help the mills’ productivity. I added new mills as the amount of wool and cotton standing there became ridiculous and ended up with four, all upgraded and working at 100% with a profit of about $2m between them.
I decided after several false starts to go into Arizona and Pacifica after Texahoma, not an obviously logical order.The timing and order of entering the territories also depends on your answer to the WW1 and other choices – I stayed neutral on everything so relations were a bit poor all round but not disastrous. Obviously you’ll go into the ones with the worst relationships first if you can. I tried to follow Penn Minuteman’s strategy but it just didn’t work for me – I couldn’t keep the company profitable and the shareholders happy at the same time and was sacked more than once!
Texahoma
First I expanded through Oklahoma City, Wichita Falls and Dallas, taking the grain trains through each city so getting double or treble credits for each train. Feels a bit like cheating but I don’t think you could win this scenario otherwise. There are worse things you could do!
After a while I went off West through Lubbock to El Paso so I could then go to:
Arizona
Forget the fact that you can get extra credits during the war, I intended to get this out of the way early along with Pacifica. I was expanding into this territory by 1917. From El Paso the line passes close to the Mexican border so stations on the Texas side can pick up milk and livestock (for Pacifica, later). The first station in Arizona is right on the Mexican border as well, picking up a dairy farm on the other side. This connects to Tucson and so far the track grades aren’t too bad and the Pacific can cope with them.
So bounce the milk trains along these Arizona stations until you need to expand to Phoenix and Flagstaff, which will involve steeper grades and the H10 engine in 1918. I resisted connecting to Flagstaff as long as I could as it’s a difficult connection but had to do it eventually.
My strategy in Arizona was to connect as many milk farms as possible and bring one or two loads of milk from each to the Tucson auxiliary station. For this you can use the Pacifics you will already have. Then an H10 picks up a full load and bounces up through Tuscon, Phoenix and later Flagstaff. You might not be able to do this every year – sometimes you might just make the minimum but there’s plenty of time.
Pacifica
I expanded from Arizona to Pacifica in 1923. There are two elements to Pacifica, logs and livestock, and different strategies for each. Don’t be confused by the “from” and “to” – it boils down to the same thing when you are carrying cargo within Pacifica itself, you get the credit when it delivers in either case.
Livestock first as it’s the livestock which you have to haul to get the minimum credit. Later on you may find it possible to run custom consists of both logs and livestock as the demand changes.
Livestock:
First difficulty is building the line down to San Diego, which is awkward and probably needs a bridge. In this particular map, San Diego is the magnet for livestock so there’s no need to expand any further at first.
Run a train or two from local cattle ranches in Arizona or over the Mexican border to make the minimum for the first year or so, whilst you are running full trains from Lubbock, Omaha and anywhere else that has a big build-up of livestock. These trains will take well over a year to get to San Diego and it’s only when they get within striking distance that you need to think about logs. When they get into Arizona, stop them but beware – this will cause share prices to fall so you must keep up your profits from elsewhere. Keep the textile mills going: they should make at least $300k - $400k each.
Logs:
In this particular map, Los Angeles wanted logs as well as San Diego so I made LA the main focus for logs at first. The connection from San Diego to LA along the coast is not too bad. Go to the overview screen and put it on logs, and you can see the colours shading from red to almost green. This will show you the route you need to take from the farthest logging camp to LA. You might also connect to San Francisco if there are logs by there.
I found the logs quite easy as you are bouncing along making a stop at each station and being credited with the loads each time. Be guided by what the livestock’s doing – if you are having a year when you can’t haul much more than the minimum livestock, then keep the logging trains at the stations filling up rather than uselessly hauling logs about that won’t count. This doesn’t upset the share price so if you want a train not to run, it’s better to keep it filling up to 8 cars at the station rather than stopping it on the track.
Great Lakes
Only haul what you need! For the first year, I made two new stations, near Omaha and near Des Moines, where there were collections of grain farms and left a train at each to fill up 8 cars of grain. Plus an existing train calling at Omaha and one calling at Oklahoma City, which I gave a custom consist of 2 grain, 6 diesel. 26 loads in all and done within the year – but only just!
This bit should be fairly easy. You should expand gradually towards Pittsburgh, which you will need to connect later. So Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus (and Milwaukee in the other direction if you like) make a nice crescent to run a couple of trains with grain and other cargo.
I ignored the new grain farms. Some people say you should always buy new industry and they might be right but I had my hands full with the textile mills.
Dixie
I made the connection through farms around Dallas, through Louisiana to Jackson. By now there are 30 loads of livestock at San Diego begging to be released! So bring them to Jackson. Meanwhile see what you can get out of the Dallas farms. You will have to expand to Birmingham and Montgomery but there was an excess of cattle for me.
Louisiana
I had to buy Louisiana to get to Dixie and this is one of the more difficult ones at first as demand for corn isn’t high. Once you get the corn bouncing around the place from one city to another, things will get better. Initially my line went from Dallas to Baton Rouge but I made spurs out to any- and every-where that wanted corn!
New England
New England is the easiest but, depending on how you answered the WW1 question, it could take as long as 14 years to get excellent. So remember to connect by the mid-1930’s. As I said above, I think this target is a mistake. It’s easily gained by one train back and forth between Pittsburgh and the Great Lakes cities.
Florida
For a year (or ideally more) before going into Florida, haul as much milk as you can to neighbouring territories. There was already a dairy processor in Montgomery, which helped. I expanded into Florida through Dixie, the line going through Jackson and via a useful collection of dairy farms to Tallahassee. You could also approach it via Baton Rouge. Once there, expand fairly soon into St Augustine, Tampa, Miami, and bounce the milk around between them. This territory is rich in produce: don’t forget to make money on that as well as meeting your milk target.
Roosevelt
My last one on this attempt. 1939 is the latest you can realistically start your last territory, just so you have a year’s leeway at the end. Roosevelt was neutral so I knew it would take the last ten years if I achieved the target every year.
I connected through Sioux Falls and joined up to all the farms I could find on the way to Bismarck. By now I’m just calling them SF1, SF2, etc. Run trains from the cornfields around Des Moines to SF, then another nippy one or more to run around the farms.
Timescales for achieving Excellent in each territory
1905 - 1910: no expansion
1910 - 1926: Texahoma
1916 - 1930: Arizona
1923 - 1936: Pacifica
1931 - 1944: Great Lakes
1931 - 1946: Dixie
1931 - 1947: Louisiana
1937 - 1949: New England
1938 - 1949: Florida
1939 - 1949: Roosevelt
In spite of its faults, an interesting game if you can bear the micro-managing. I certainly learned a lot about how industry works and some of the features of RT3 itself.
Re: Alternate USA
Ha ha! So you actually dreamed about Orient Express! That's also one of the few scenarios that drove me crazy, but all the same I now remember it better and with more fondness than any other original RT scenario.
Just wanted to caution folks playing this with the 1.06 version of the game, it's way too easy if you use custom consists to ship at a loss. I had forgotten as I was playing if this was for 1.06 or 1.05, so I thought I'd check the map page and forum here to see. It's 1929 and my network is complete and I don't think I'm going to miss another hauling requirement, so basically all I have to look forward to is maybe 8-10 years of very fast, which is not very fast on my system with 270 trains running!
Looks like there may be some more chicanery before the end, so I guess I'll bear with it.
I also was shocked to be reminded that this was a professional scenario. As has been stated, typos, like Florida's goal saying that you need to haul 20 milk to improve relations but less than five CORN will worsen relations? And the confusing use of the word cargo for New England's goals, etc, etc.
Looks like I came up with pretty much the same strategy that everybody else recommends right off the bat, which makes me think that this really wasn't a very well thought out scenario. Textile mills in Omaha, etc. Did make the blunder of building two Breweries in Omaha before I knew what the hauling goals would be...
Just wanted to caution folks playing this with the 1.06 version of the game, it's way too easy if you use custom consists to ship at a loss. I had forgotten as I was playing if this was for 1.06 or 1.05, so I thought I'd check the map page and forum here to see. It's 1929 and my network is complete and I don't think I'm going to miss another hauling requirement, so basically all I have to look forward to is maybe 8-10 years of very fast, which is not very fast on my system with 270 trains running!
Looks like there may be some more chicanery before the end, so I guess I'll bear with it.
I also was shocked to be reminded that this was a professional scenario. As has been stated, typos, like Florida's goal saying that you need to haul 20 milk to improve relations but less than five CORN will worsen relations? And the confusing use of the word cargo for New England's goals, etc, etc.
Looks like I came up with pretty much the same strategy that everybody else recommends right off the bat, which makes me think that this really wasn't a very well thought out scenario. Textile mills in Omaha, etc. Did make the blunder of building two Breweries in Omaha before I knew what the hauling goals would be...
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Grandma Ruth
- CEO
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- Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:17 am
- Location: West Yorkshire, England
- Contact:
Re: Alternate USA
Tell us how you get on. I presume you switched to 1.05? Even so, I think you might find the problem is keeping profitable and therefore not losing control of your company, which I did several times. That particular hazard is even worse in 1.06, where if you're not careful you'll have 200 of your 270 trains running at a loss and then wonder why the shareholders don't like you! 
Re: Alternate USA
I just got the bronze medal, hard level, recently. It was my first medal on this scenario on the hard level. I can see why the haulage requirements would be easier if one could haul cargo at a loss, and also why it might annoy the shareholders. As for New England, I agree that the haulage requirements there seem strangely easy compared to the other "countries". But the programming is very consistent regarding this requirement, so that must be what was intended.
As for strategies, I am going to stick by my advice of getting track laying rights in Texoma right at the start. The profits in Texoma are much better than in the Great Plains, enabling the player to get some much-needed money for growth. It is usually a good idea to issue stock at the start of each year, unless the stock price is low and thereby annoying the shareholders. From there, I like to get to Louisiana and the Great Lakes fairly quickly. After that it varies, but I do not like to save New England for last. The milk available in eastern New England is very helpful with Florida.
As for the various options, I like to remain neutral in both World War I and the Roosevelt election. The Roosevelt election involves putting up an expense that, over several attempts, will have no gain on average. In other words, the player loses about as often as wins. Better to keep the $1 million. With World War I, I think it is better to lose a little ground with each interested country than a lot with some, even if it means gaining with others. But I like the fertilizer option. The player not only recoups the expense with higher crop production, but the extra loads that become available help with haulage requirements.
As for strategies, I am going to stick by my advice of getting track laying rights in Texoma right at the start. The profits in Texoma are much better than in the Great Plains, enabling the player to get some much-needed money for growth. It is usually a good idea to issue stock at the start of each year, unless the stock price is low and thereby annoying the shareholders. From there, I like to get to Louisiana and the Great Lakes fairly quickly. After that it varies, but I do not like to save New England for last. The milk available in eastern New England is very helpful with Florida.
As for the various options, I like to remain neutral in both World War I and the Roosevelt election. The Roosevelt election involves putting up an expense that, over several attempts, will have no gain on average. In other words, the player loses about as often as wins. Better to keep the $1 million. With World War I, I think it is better to lose a little ground with each interested country than a lot with some, even if it means gaining with others. But I like the fertilizer option. The player not only recoups the expense with higher crop production, but the extra loads that become available help with haulage requirements.
Last edited by BikerTim on Mon Aug 03, 2009 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Life is not fair, but it is still good.
Re: Alternate USA
One thing I found useful was to work the pairs of territories that required the same product, e.g. send corn trains to stations in Louisiana, where trains are waiting for corn to take to Roosevelt. It allows a single load to contribute to two targets and stops the first territory getting too full and depressing the price (I'm using 1.05). It may require a little management as prices fluctuate but it works efficiently. I usually found it better to use separate trains for each territory rather than send one train on a three-point route to both territories as the price would sometimes fall at one station and the train would then halt and fail to serve the other territory.
The double-haul tactic encourages a strategy of acquiring most of the territories in a sequence of pairs.
To help collect enough corn at cheap enough prices I built a remote station or three at a cattle ranch or sheep farm that was attracting the stuff, or where there were lots of corn farms close together. I always built large stations in the countryside, ideally covering three or four corn farms, to lift as much surrounding product as possible.
I'm quite sure the New England target is out by a factor of 1,000. I developed New England and kept track of the value of what was naturally hauled and the numbers looked about right. Multiply by 1,000 and New England becomes an achievable challenge. I've changed the target in my copy of the scenario but haven't played it since.
The double-haul tactic encourages a strategy of acquiring most of the territories in a sequence of pairs.
To help collect enough corn at cheap enough prices I built a remote station or three at a cattle ranch or sheep farm that was attracting the stuff, or where there were lots of corn farms close together. I always built large stations in the countryside, ideally covering three or four corn farms, to lift as much surrounding product as possible.
I'm quite sure the New England target is out by a factor of 1,000. I developed New England and kept track of the value of what was naturally hauled and the numbers looked about right. Multiply by 1,000 and New England becomes an achievable challenge. I've changed the target in my copy of the scenario but haven't played it since.
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renatinho
Re: Alternate USA
WOW! Got gold on expert.
I must say it´s not a hard scenario, it´s kinda easy, the problem is that you must have a lot of patience. It took me about 6 hours to beat the challenge, with 634 trains.
Definitely the longest and exhausting scenario. I acheived the goals in 1938, then i had to watch to game going for 12 years to complete the mission.
Now, i just want to relax...
I must say it´s not a hard scenario, it´s kinda easy, the problem is that you must have a lot of patience. It took me about 6 hours to beat the challenge, with 634 trains.
Definitely the longest and exhausting scenario. I acheived the goals in 1938, then i had to watch to game going for 12 years to complete the mission.
Now, i just want to relax...
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RayofSunshine
- CEO
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- Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Re: Alternate USA
It has been some time since I played this scenario, considering that it is the first scenario on the list of RRT3. Had a lot of fun with the challenge, but was not very successful getting any medals. I alienated FLA and the Great Lakes Feds, in a vote, and was only able to get their Strained level to just Neuteral, even though I was running a constanct supply of grain to GLF and milk to FLA. However, after reading some of the strategies of the previous players, I have will try to use a different approach or system on my next attempt.
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HurstLlama
- Cat
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Re: Alternate USA
I have been struggling with this scenario for a while now, but I have hit a problem that I can't work out - trains eternally waiting for cargo.
For example I have a train at a station in which there is 8.2 loads of corn, the train has a consist of a minimum of 1 unit and a maximum of 6 of corn and a destination where is corn is wanted and the price is higher than the originating station. Yet the train does not load up, it just sits there for year on year "Waiting for more cargo".
Can anyone shed any light on this?
For example I have a train at a station in which there is 8.2 loads of corn, the train has a consist of a minimum of 1 unit and a maximum of 6 of corn and a destination where is corn is wanted and the price is higher than the originating station. Yet the train does not load up, it just sits there for year on year "Waiting for more cargo".
Can anyone shed any light on this?
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Wolverine@MSU
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Re: Alternate USA
Are you using a Custom Consist or Automatic Loading with corn as the cargo? Are you playing in 1.05 or 1.06? When using Automatic Consist or playing in 1.05 (even for Custom Consist) the destination price must be at least $2 more than the origin price.
Re: Alternate USA
Okay, I have my questions to throw into this mix. I am playing on 1.05 and have been trying Penn Minutemans method. In trying to send grain to Texhoma, I am able to send two trainloads of grain then after that, the demand/profit drops too low for me to send. This is even with building and soon after upgrading a distillery in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Also, I don't seem to make the tons of money in the great plains as soon, as what I gather others have made. I don't do poorly, but also, there is no indication how many years of play in these player strategies how long it took them from each stage to the next, so not sure if I may be going from one to the other too quickly or what I may be doing wrong.
Also seems I may want to try buying a few milk farms and cattle ranches to start out with, as for quite a few of the early years, I move a ton of milk and cattle between Omaha, Liberal and Kansas City.
I also forgot to add, that for whatever reason, I don't seem to get the grain movement to Wichita when I build a distillery there.
Also seems I may want to try buying a few milk farms and cattle ranches to start out with, as for quite a few of the early years, I move a ton of milk and cattle between Omaha, Liberal and Kansas City.
I also forgot to add, that for whatever reason, I don't seem to get the grain movement to Wichita when I build a distillery there.
Re: Alternate USA
I just got my first ever gold medal on this one. I think the only comment I can make is "never give up"!
Life is not fair, but it is still good.
Re: Alternate USA
Hi y'all -Grandma Ruth wrote:Tell us how you get on. I presume you switched to 1.05? Even so, I think you might find the problem is keeping profitable and therefore not losing control of your company, which I did several times. That particular hazard is even worse in 1.06, where if you're not careful you'll have 200 of your 270 trains running at a loss and then wonder why the shareholders don't like you!
I know that nobody has played this scenario for years & years, but I thought I'd give it a try since I've completed all the other CtC scenarios recently. I did manage to get gold on expert with Alternate USA many years ago when CtC first came out. So, anyway, the game progressed pretty straight-forward, tho I made a mistake in buying steam engines for the mountains while continuing to use the electric engines elsewhere. Turns out the steam engines racked up much more maintenance & fuel costs. I managed to complete all the goals by 1944 (excellent relations with all nine of the countries which now make up the USA). But my bottom line was struggling and the profit per share was less than $2.00 because I had issued so much stock (over 3 million shares last time I looked). With the main goals completed I could retire a few of the unprofitable trains, and even bought back a few hundred thousand shares of stock, but the shareholders became increasingly unahppy. In 1945 we entered one of the L-O-N-G Recession-Depression cycles, and I got my one-year notice in Jan 1946
-- got my walking papers in Jan 1947. Dang! Well, I just let it run on very fast for the next 4 years 'til the end of 1950 when -- lo & behold! -- it gave me the Expert Gold! (even though I no longer controlled the danged RR company) 
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RulerofRails
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Re: Alternate USA
I have played it about a year ago, when I had the opportunity to get back into the game and not long before I signed up here. This scenario isn't really that tight on the time limit, and with nice precise management getting the hauls is pretty easy. My main strategy last time was to keep things clean and simple. Also to make sure finances are strong before spending good money on the haul goals which will at best likely be break-even. Wherever possible (except for the Corn requirement) I built up enough factories in one square of a city within each territory that would consume the total requirement I needed to deliver every year. Also a little extra capacity as I slightly oversupplied in case of break-downs or other disruptions. This also helped re-coup the transport costs as I got profit from these industries. I was surprised at how easy it was using this strategy as I had been overwhelmed by it the first time I ever played it as I thought that since it was "SUPER HARD" micro-managing would be required. I made a paper list to try to count the loads, pausing after every train arrived and ending up with a real mess as I neglected making money so finances were poor as well. When I found out that the medal wont fire before 1950 I realized how stupid this wasCliff wrote:I know that nobody has played this scenario for years & years,
. The medal is awarded simply on the basis that it is 1950 and that the territory relations are all EXCELLENT.-
traindriver
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Re: Alternate USA
it is a very difficult balancing map.
Re: Alternate USA
This is ONE of my favorite scenarios. I like it to change my thoughts from the scenario I am attempting to write.
the scenario I am working on is a TM game, soon to be put out for additional help on some of the problems I am having. But, back to Alternate USA.
I do find it very challenging. I have not made a good score with it, YET.
the scenario I am working on is a TM game, soon to be put out for additional help on some of the problems I am having. But, back to Alternate USA.
I do find it very challenging. I have not made a good score with it, YET.
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Grandma Ruth
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Re: Alternate USA
I wasn't at all sure where to post this, sorry!
I think everyone who's played this scenario has been frustrated by its shortcomings, little annoying things like the win not being triggered. Also I found it very difficult to keep track of how many loads of stuff I'd hauled, so I've made a few tweaks to the original. The only major thing is to make the revenue requirement a bit more realistic (though it's still not much of a challenge!).
By the way, I think this is supposed to be played without the 1.06 patch or at least without using the "custom" consist. A fine line between cheating and
So here's a new version - the Alternate Alternate USA.
I think everyone who's played this scenario has been frustrated by its shortcomings, little annoying things like the win not being triggered. Also I found it very difficult to keep track of how many loads of stuff I'd hauled, so I've made a few tweaks to the original. The only major thing is to make the revenue requirement a bit more realistic (though it's still not much of a challenge!).
By the way, I think this is supposed to be played without the 1.06 patch or at least without using the "custom" consist. A fine line between cheating and
So here's a new version - the Alternate Alternate USA.
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Alternate Alternate USA.zip- (3.76 MiB) Downloaded 170 times