Made in America 1879

[belbincolne]

Played this on Normal until I lost with 21 points from 33. Nice map fairly easy game play as most industries very profitable. Trouble was that I had no idea what to do. Obviously build and haul so that things like booze lumber toys etc were no trouble. But it also needs weapons, ammunition, cars and so on and these were impossible to make. I finally hauled one car with two tyre factories at the only ports with rubber (except there never was any). No chemicals appeared on the map until very near the end (don't think the trains carrying them had arrived at their destination when I lost).

I'd also no idea what figure was required for IP (had $327m) or Personal cash - the figures appear in the Almanac but I don't know why. So I'd like to have another bash at it but can you enlighten me as to how I can get the extra points and what I should be aiming for?

[nedfumpkin]

To win this map you have to haul at least one of each cargo, although chemicals isn't included in that. Only buildable industry cargos. Some cargo you need to haul more, and these are identified when you haul the first one. Based on the number of points you have, I don't think you met those goals.

There are very few events in this scenario, and what is there is a tongue-in-cheek jab at conspiracy theories. Based entirely on that, the messages you receive are clues to the objectives in the game, so you need to pay attention to what they really say. It's ambiguous on purpose.

I found the industry profits were the easiest to get, especially after I swallowed the largest competitor, and after I controlled the petroleum industry.

[RayofSunshine]

Likewise Bel,
I was not able to get all of the required industries mainly weapons and autos. Well, there was also that of fertilizer and tires. But that was not some of the difficulties which I experienced. Mainly, the hauling of coal, plus a number of other commodities, to supply an industry, they were taken to other cities before a product could be completed. e.g. coal was the main one for the steel mill. I was on the short of of supply, so as to complete steel in an adquate amount to supply it for both the autos and weapons. also e.g. hauling coal and oil to the electric plant, it was hauled away to other cities, so wasn't able to make any profit in that industry. Then e.g. oil to the refinery, my train, although some what customized to haul the gasoline to the city ports in demand, so as to get rubber for the tire industry, the train basically would haul other commodities, even though the gasoline was available.

Now all or maybe most of this might have been due to only custom loading the consist of the product "wanted", but live and learn, and that was part of my problem.

I was able to complete the requirements of the hauling of oil and toys, but believe that there was a requirement to have an LIP of $250G, of which I was short. I just could not capitalize purchasing the commodities faster than the AIs were "gobbling" them up. My main LIP were from the purchased industries themselves. Of course, this added to the AI's profits from all the commodities I was hauling from their boughten commodities.

This is a very interesting scenario of imagination and challenge. I enjoyed it very much and recommend other players to give it a try in the attempt to complete for a medal.

[SteveS]

I wonder if the gods of the net will forgive me for bumping a 2 year old thread? Ah well....

I loved this map, thought it was really well created, thank-you Ned. Took me two goes to complete it on Expert, hobo'd the first due i think to being sidetracked by making oodles more money than was in anyway necessary, and not actually noting how long I had, a common failing on my part .

Having read Oilcan's excellent manual (can there possibly be anyone that hasn't?), I nearly always start maps with industry, and on any map that explicitly states its about industry that goes double. The first thing i did was spend every penny I had on Dairy Farms since these will continue to make money sat on their own in the middle of nowhere, and will only be improved upon (never go negative) should you get around to putting a Dairy processor somewhere nearby (and again are pointed out in the manual for just that attribute), they are ridiculously cheap at the start of this map as there seems to be no 3 years of run-time before you enter the game which there often is which makes things more market value so 2.5kk spent early on is a no-brainer to me. This generated an income stream that was useful the entire game.

I also bought every single share I could up to the max credit I could get, again before I even took it off pause, since PNW is a target and from my first play I knew I was unlikely to run into broker problems on this map after buying the dairy farms... well, unless i was really unlucky with economic status or just acted plain daft with company profits.
Reduce dividend to zero and go. after a year or two and having bought a few more dairy farms and started a lumber mill near the logs, I then spent a couple of years buying back all the stock so as to own 100% (I'm a maniac for this, even if its not a scenario goal, not sure why....heh), then increase the dividend little by little, with no money going to other tycoons/anonymous shareholders.

Figured out the targets as I went along from the messages, and although some were (I'm certain, deliberately) a little obscure it all seemed simple enough in concept. It was really then just a case of standard, build a bit of rail, join the dots, add industry as you go RRT3, obviously it's not quite that easy, but we've all done this before so I'm trying to keep the word count down a bit :). You need to keep a close eye on steel, lumber, oil in particular, but this is sort of made clear by the things that do have a target in the requirements that "are" shown.

The things I found most tricky in chronological order were, getting coal and iron together, getting the market prices to move, since a lot of things start and stay at 0 until you build the industries, and sometimes even then until you create the next level of demand (like a tool and die to get steel price up a bit), getting lumber and steel together for weapons, and possibly hardest of all, cars, since for tires, you have to move diesel to ports that don't create rubber 'til later on in the game and then they are miles from the steel to make the cars.....

The AI's seem aggressive on stock, and on buying industry, but much less so on building rail, so I only bought out the ones that got in my way, (although having set a small but increasing dividend after getting 100% of my own company, I do tend to buy their shares on the basis that you never know, and money sitting there doing nothing is something of an anathema to me.)

As a slight aside this is the first map I've ever had to actually knock down an industry that I built myself, that hurt a bit as they were profitable.....(tool and dies that were put there to create demand for steel, but used too much of it when i wanted it later for weapons and cars, also a furniture factory so I could make more toys instead and also weapons)

Finished in about 1908. And all in all great fun.

NB, I had a quick look in the editor after playing (mind you I'm no editor master, and also don't like 'spoilers' so try not to look until i have finished the map) and I think that one of the event messages is wrong, event is for hauling 25 auto's but it reports that you moved 100 ammunition.

[Hawk]

I wonder if the gods of the net will forgive me for bumping a 2 year old thread? Ah well....

Replying in old threads is not an issue here at The Hawk & Badger Railroad.
I feel it's far better to post in an old thread to keep the subject of discussion in one place rather than have the same discussion going on in different threads.

[PaulJohann]

Hi,
Hope there is still somebody there to read this thread. I think that this is really a very interesting and challenging scenario. Played it on expert and got 32 points in 1912. Have absolutely no idea what I missed. Built everything requested and hauled everything needed (including more than 100 hauls of each of the specialized cargos with cars etc).
Could it be that there is a 3 point bonus where you can also get only 2 for some reason, or a 2 where you can get also 1, or have I missed just a 1 point request.
I even build a aluminum plant although the raw material (bauxit) was not on the map. Didn't help anyway.
Any guess what happened?
Thanks
Paul

[OilCan]

Wish I could help with an answer but I've never played this game. Hope someone else can chime in.

[PaulJohann]

Sorry for my stupidity! Missed to build a textile mill! Received the missing point (for building all industries) and got gold!!
Really enjoyed this scenario!

[RayofSunshine]

This is a very interesting sceanario, and enjoyed it very much. But I keep running into the problem of using the "Building Structures" with these older scenarios. Although they are in the menu of "buildings", I have a problem of the effectively doing what I believe they should. e.g. I used the Hopper Yard to hold logs, as the supplies usually are too far apart to get incorporated into the "large depot". However, by the time I get the 2nd batch to that facility, the 1st batch is nearly gone. That same problem occurs in the newer creations as well. I don't see that "logs" are part of the Hopper Yard agenda, but being that it is not shown, the logs are not safeguarded. Coal, Iron, and Bauxite are indicated, all of which are "supplies", so why not "logs"? Other than it has not been incorporated yet.

[SteamTrain]

I have not seen a storage for logs, but there is storage for lumber, the Shed.

[RayofSunshine]

There isn't the problem with lumber, as usually the lumber is hauled to a different or delected destination. It is the logs which are the problem. In the majority of cases, the 'camps' are spaced so that a person is "stuck" to haul the logs directly to the mill. If a 'building structure' was incorporated, a player could limit the number of engines to make separate hauls direct to the mill, to accummulate camp #1 to haul to a "storeage unit", then haul from camp #2, picking up the accummulation, and haul more logs to the mill. 1 engine vs. 2 engines. It doesn't matter if the camps are all close to the mill, but in many cases, logs have to be hauled from a goodly distance. Just something to think about.

[Hawk]

You could always set a train at the yard and have it wait for a full load of logs. Then they probably wouldn't drift off while your other trains are bringing them to the yard.

[RayofSunshine]

Well Hawk,
I didn't think of that method, and wonder if the cargo would hold until there was a full 8 consist. I just took the alternative and had engines at both supplies, and waited until an adequate supply was ready. Will give your method a try next time. Thanks much for the suggestion.