Does anyone have any tips on how to play this one? I can't earn more than $100 per year (even as the B&O or the BW&P) and I can't borrow enough to pay the access fee to the next territory. If I take over another railroad I get junk bonds at 15% or higher that I can't make enough money to pay off, and I then owe too much to refinance.
Help! Lama, I love your work, but... this one may be too restrictive. Sitting for years at a time while my RR goes into the red just isn't fun. So what am I missing here?
Northeast Corridor
Northeast Corridor
The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." - James Branch Cabell
Re: Northeast Corridor
I usually start with the PW&B, but I make a couple of changes:
1. Bulldoze the Baltimore station and connect with the B&O
2. Enlarge the Wilmington station to large, so it covers all of Wilmington
after this I set up 4 trains: 2 Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia; 2 Phila-Wilm-Balto.
ALSO: I don't usually take out any bonds.
My first takeover goal is the Camden & Amboy(Trenton); it usually only has one or two bonds issued, and since I don't have any, re-issuing for a lower rate is usually possable. I then bulldoze the 'Camden' station & track and connect to the existing PW&B station in Philly.I also enlarge the station in Trenton. Adding a line to Atlantic City (single track) will boost revenues.
Finance-wise, I have the company buy back outstanding stock, this boosts the price & leads to stock splits. I use this as a source of the funds to buy the target's stock, usually waiting untill i have 100% of it. I also pick up shares of the Jersey Central (an eventual take-over target), Plus it pays dividends.
It usuall takes about 5 game years to get the ball (and some cargos) rolling, so patience is an absolute must. Hope this helps a little.
1. Bulldoze the Baltimore station and connect with the B&O
2. Enlarge the Wilmington station to large, so it covers all of Wilmington
after this I set up 4 trains: 2 Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia; 2 Phila-Wilm-Balto.
ALSO: I don't usually take out any bonds.
My first takeover goal is the Camden & Amboy(Trenton); it usually only has one or two bonds issued, and since I don't have any, re-issuing for a lower rate is usually possable. I then bulldoze the 'Camden' station & track and connect to the existing PW&B station in Philly.I also enlarge the station in Trenton. Adding a line to Atlantic City (single track) will boost revenues.
Finance-wise, I have the company buy back outstanding stock, this boosts the price & leads to stock splits. I use this as a source of the funds to buy the target's stock, usually waiting untill i have 100% of it. I also pick up shares of the Jersey Central (an eventual take-over target), Plus it pays dividends.
It usuall takes about 5 game years to get the ball (and some cargos) rolling, so patience is an absolute must. Hope this helps a little.
Re: Northeast Corridor
I really like this scenario. Mergers and acquisitions are a big part of this scenario. That is my favorite part of RRT3. To start, several of the railroads have their advantages. The BWP has a strategic, centralized location that connects with two major cities. Camden & Amboy is easy to take over, leaving the player in a good position to start investing in takeover targets. The Erie is controls 3 of the 4 New York area terminals, making it easier to score points early. My goal is to win gold medal expert with each railroad. So far I have only done it with one, the BWP.Once a player becomes chairman of a railroad, hotels make excellent investments, particularly in the major cities. But I never buy access to anyplace where I don't have it. Better to gain that access via acquisition. Also, it is good strategy to connect with other railroads. As for stock purchases, while it is OK to choose an acquisition target and start buying its stock, it helps to diversify among the profitable railroads early. These railroads are likely to do stock buybacks, enabling the player to gain larger percentages of those companies' stocks. When making acquisitions, it is always nice to try to increase presence within a major city. If a player gets control of all of the terminals in a major city, getting all of the points available for servicing that city is almost certain. Just make sure that the target company is affordable, and be careful about heavily buying the target's stock on the margin, especially during boom times. True, if a target railroad is successfully bought out, the player's margin position improves considerably. But if the target's stock goes down, which usually happens if the economy declines, an over-margined player might end up ruined by margin calls.
Life is not fair, but it is still good.
Re: Northeast Corridor
Make that two! I just got it with New Jersey Central!Life is not fair, but it is still good.
Re: Northeast Corridor
Out of curiosity, do you ever buy territory access, or do you just wait to get it through mergers?
Way to go, by the way!
Way to go, by the way!
Re: Northeast Corridor
I just wait to go through mergers. I have never bought access while playing this scenario.I notice you are from Blair, Nebraska. I used to live in Omaha. I made it to Blair fairly frequently. In fact, I was once engaged to a woman from Blair. But that did not work out. Besides, I am quite happy with my wife of 24 years.
So how are things going up there?
Life is not fair, but it is still good.
Re: Northeast Corridor
I just scored my first gold on this one, on medium difficulty. I started by purchasing 11 shares of the B&O, taking control and then selling 1 share for the sake of fiscal sanity. 
I set up a rail line to Annapolis and ran Atlantics over 3 routes: Baltimore to St Louis connection, Baltimore to Washington and a Baltimore link to Annapolis and that other town whose name I can't remember.
Then I jacked the dividend up and began buying stock in the BWP (Baltimore, Wilmington and Philadelphia), buying up B&O stock when I could. I kid you not, that first year it split six ways - the biggest I've ever seen.
In year 3 I was able to borrow enough money to offer double the share price for a BWP merger; I had maybe 40% of the stock, but they said yes. Consolidation and connections followed. I concentrated on buying 'Northern' locomotives (in proper B&O rig, of course - the maintenance isn't much more and passengers love 'em!) for the Philly-Balt route and for my new Atlantic City line. With money coming in, I paid down the bonds, kept the dividend high and bought stock in both the New Jersey Central and the Northern RR (for Pennsylvania access). Buying up the Northern was cheap, but that let me set up routes from Baltimore to the Pennsy's Chicago connection, from Philly to the Chicago connection and on the Reading route to Allentown. The connections over the Pennsy to the Chicago connection are golden; I soon had 4 Northerns on the Balt-Chi conn route and 4 more on the Philly to Chi conn (all with green arrow priority, of course
).
To save money on the merger I concentrated on buying lots of New Jersey Central stock, and on buying up the B&O stock. Final buyout for the NJC was around $4 mil (I think). An easy Philly-Trenton connection later, the points started rolling in - from 6 to 9 per turn! Then it was time to pay down the bonds, weather a depression and save up $ for the Manhattan tunnel (a brilliant design idea; pure Lama genius). With my Manhattan connection made and a terminal in NYC proper, the points totted up to 100 in year 16. Gold medal!
Despite my initial frustration, I enjoyed this one and probably will tackle it again. I don't usually get into the stock market manipulation and 'tycooning' end of things, but this game was really fun! One piece of advice: hotels, taverns and restaurants all make LARGE money (one restaurant made $400 in a single year). Since these are the only industries you can buy, you will need to build them everywhere you can.
Thank you BikerTim - without your encouragement and pointers I'd have given up on this one. You are absolutely right to encourage mergers instead of purchasing access. And thank you, Lama - you're the best.
I set up a rail line to Annapolis and ran Atlantics over 3 routes: Baltimore to St Louis connection, Baltimore to Washington and a Baltimore link to Annapolis and that other town whose name I can't remember.
Then I jacked the dividend up and began buying stock in the BWP (Baltimore, Wilmington and Philadelphia), buying up B&O stock when I could. I kid you not, that first year it split six ways - the biggest I've ever seen.In year 3 I was able to borrow enough money to offer double the share price for a BWP merger; I had maybe 40% of the stock, but they said yes. Consolidation and connections followed. I concentrated on buying 'Northern' locomotives (in proper B&O rig, of course - the maintenance isn't much more and passengers love 'em!) for the Philly-Balt route and for my new Atlantic City line. With money coming in, I paid down the bonds, kept the dividend high and bought stock in both the New Jersey Central and the Northern RR (for Pennsylvania access). Buying up the Northern was cheap, but that let me set up routes from Baltimore to the Pennsy's Chicago connection, from Philly to the Chicago connection and on the Reading route to Allentown. The connections over the Pennsy to the Chicago connection are golden; I soon had 4 Northerns on the Balt-Chi conn route and 4 more on the Philly to Chi conn (all with green arrow priority, of course
).To save money on the merger I concentrated on buying lots of New Jersey Central stock, and on buying up the B&O stock. Final buyout for the NJC was around $4 mil (I think). An easy Philly-Trenton connection later, the points started rolling in - from 6 to 9 per turn! Then it was time to pay down the bonds, weather a depression and save up $ for the Manhattan tunnel (a brilliant design idea; pure Lama genius). With my Manhattan connection made and a terminal in NYC proper, the points totted up to 100 in year 16. Gold medal!
Despite my initial frustration, I enjoyed this one and probably will tackle it again. I don't usually get into the stock market manipulation and 'tycooning' end of things, but this game was really fun! One piece of advice: hotels, taverns and restaurants all make LARGE money (one restaurant made $400 in a single year). Since these are the only industries you can buy, you will need to build them everywhere you can.
Thank you BikerTim - without your encouragement and pointers I'd have given up on this one. You are absolutely right to encourage mergers instead of purchasing access. And thank you, Lama - you're the best.
The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." - James Branch Cabell
Re: Northeast Corridor
I really like the scripting in this map- very creative. I tried to play my first try in a "conventional" manner, buying stock in a few companies and selling when they rose and bought out one of the cheaper companies after the first year. I fell just short of the Gold (on Expert) using this approach, so my second try I went for the "Robber Baron" strategy and was able to end up with 100% control of my chosen company and a huge pile of cash in my personal account before 1 second has ticked off of the clock. After that, the Gold goal is really simple- perhaps a little too so.
Heres how to do it:
1. At the start with the game still on pause, buy 11 shares of the cheapest company. At start this is the " Camden & Amboy".
2. Pull up the company details and perform a chairmanship takeover.
3. Issue bonds. You can do this 1 time, yielding $500k.
4. Buy back all of the remaining stock using this cash. This makes your shares price skyrocket.
5. Sell off all of your shares in this company.
6. Issue stock twice and then hobble the company. In the case of the C&A, bulldoze both stations, as they are in the way of where your main line is best placed. Some other Companies have stations you will want to use later, so just bulldoze single sections of track out between each station. The AI will never fix these and the company will go broke. Now use any remaining company cash to buy back stock. This makes the resulting stock price as high as possible, which you will capitalize on later.
7. Go back to step #1 and repeat for the next higher priced company, doing this to every company EXCEPT the company that you want to start with.
8. When you have squeezed every nickel that you can from all of the companies except your target company, buy 11 shares in it and take control. You should be left with around $2 Million in Personal Cash.
9. Short Sell 4 or 5 shares in every company (except your own of course).
10. Set up your trains in your company and unpause the game. You can let the stock price in your company dwindle some and buy back, or purchase with personal cash, all of the shares in it over the next year.
11. At the beginning of the second year, some of the companies stock value will have plummeted to below $10 per share. Buy back the shares in these companies that you had Short Sold, thus taking your profit. You may want to buy out one of these cheap companies right now, or you can wait.
12. At the beginning of the third year, the rest of the companies' stock prices will have hit rock bottom, and you can buy back your Short Sells and take your profit. At this point you should have around $6 Million in personal cash, and can easily buy %100 (or less to keep the purchase price for merging lower)of any company that you choose to take over.
After following these steps making the points for Gold is straightforward.
Heres how to do it:
1. At the start with the game still on pause, buy 11 shares of the cheapest company. At start this is the " Camden & Amboy".
2. Pull up the company details and perform a chairmanship takeover.
3. Issue bonds. You can do this 1 time, yielding $500k.
4. Buy back all of the remaining stock using this cash. This makes your shares price skyrocket.
5. Sell off all of your shares in this company.
6. Issue stock twice and then hobble the company. In the case of the C&A, bulldoze both stations, as they are in the way of where your main line is best placed. Some other Companies have stations you will want to use later, so just bulldoze single sections of track out between each station. The AI will never fix these and the company will go broke. Now use any remaining company cash to buy back stock. This makes the resulting stock price as high as possible, which you will capitalize on later.
7. Go back to step #1 and repeat for the next higher priced company, doing this to every company EXCEPT the company that you want to start with.
8. When you have squeezed every nickel that you can from all of the companies except your target company, buy 11 shares in it and take control. You should be left with around $2 Million in Personal Cash.
9. Short Sell 4 or 5 shares in every company (except your own of course).
10. Set up your trains in your company and unpause the game. You can let the stock price in your company dwindle some and buy back, or purchase with personal cash, all of the shares in it over the next year.
11. At the beginning of the second year, some of the companies stock value will have plummeted to below $10 per share. Buy back the shares in these companies that you had Short Sold, thus taking your profit. You may want to buy out one of these cheap companies right now, or you can wait.
12. At the beginning of the third year, the rest of the companies' stock prices will have hit rock bottom, and you can buy back your Short Sells and take your profit. At this point you should have around $6 Million in personal cash, and can easily buy %100 (or less to keep the purchase price for merging lower)of any company that you choose to take over.
After following these steps making the points for Gold is straightforward.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
Re: Northeast Corridor
I've tried twice - and failed twice - to play as the Erie. THere's just too much overhead and not enough cash. Next time I'll try building a competing line to the Jersey Central instead of connecting to it.
The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." - James Branch Cabell
Re: Northeast Corridor
If you follow the twelve steps I listed in my previous post and follow it up with quality RRT3 gameplaying, it is really hard to not get Gold on any level every time.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
Re: Northeast Corridor
I hadn't tried using Erie as my starting company, so I gave it a try. Result: Gold on Expert. Starting with one of the lower income railroads takes few years longer (13 instead0 of 11)than the better ones. One advantage that Erie does have is that it starts out with access to the "Manhattan Tunnel" and you can make a station there right in the beginning, and of course you dont have to save up $5 million to buy it to qualify for Gold.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
Re: Northeast Corridor
I just got gold starting with the Erie, but I had to buy my way past the Manhattan Tunnel.
I prefer to leave the AI players alone - the AI is crippled enough; it doesn't need me putting spanners in the works. The most I'll do is connect a line for them to run on so that they can pay me; I've figured out you can't make money on the Chicago link or St Louis link unless you own the B&O or the Pennsy.
What I did was to build my own line from Newark to Trenton, demolishing Hoboken. Then (slowly - there isn't very much money early on!) I connected to Atlantic City. I'd been buying up a little of the Northern where I could, so I bought enough stock and borrowed enough money to buy the Northern. With hotel-restaurant-tavern combos in Newark, Trenton and Baltimore I connected the Buffalo link to Scranton and finally made a little bit of money.
With points few and time pressing, I bought into and bought up the Reading. The Allentown route is profitable and it gave me access to Philadelphia (connected to my own station in Trenton, and equipped with HRT industry). An economic crash set in, and money became VERY tight. Then it was time to crack the BWP (Baltimore, Wilminton and Philadelphia RR). World War II had come and traffic was picking up, so I was able to run up a massive debt ($8 mil, at 9% to 14% interest) to buy the BWP, buy access to Washington and make the necessary connections.
With six to eight points coming in each year and Washington connected, the money began to roll in. I paid down enough debt to get a lower interest rate, refinanced as the economy improved and then borrowed and saved enough to make the Manhattan connection. Gold came up with (I think) two more years to go. At least three times I thought my company would go down in flames, but I stuck it out, gambled hard at the end and came out OK. The Erie just doesn't generate the same money that the B&O and Penn do, and it has lots more overhead than the Jersey Central. Fortunately I used a lot of my early stock purchases on other stocks, and let the other railroads pay me dividends that the Erie couldn't.
Does anyone ever use the 'bonus' engines (GG1, Zephyr, Mallard) or the improvements (track water pans, Pullman cars, air conditioning)? When I need them, I can't affort the purchase price.
I prefer to leave the AI players alone - the AI is crippled enough; it doesn't need me putting spanners in the works.
The most I'll do is connect a line for them to run on so that they can pay me; I've figured out you can't make money on the Chicago link or St Louis link unless you own the B&O or the Pennsy.What I did was to build my own line from Newark to Trenton, demolishing Hoboken. Then (slowly - there isn't very much money early on!) I connected to Atlantic City. I'd been buying up a little of the Northern where I could, so I bought enough stock and borrowed enough money to buy the Northern. With hotel-restaurant-tavern combos in Newark, Trenton and Baltimore I connected the Buffalo link to Scranton and finally made a little bit of money.
With points few and time pressing, I bought into and bought up the Reading. The Allentown route is profitable and it gave me access to Philadelphia (connected to my own station in Trenton, and equipped with HRT industry). An economic crash set in, and money became VERY tight. Then it was time to crack the BWP (Baltimore, Wilminton and Philadelphia RR). World War II had come and traffic was picking up, so I was able to run up a massive debt ($8 mil, at 9% to 14% interest) to buy the BWP, buy access to Washington and make the necessary connections.
With six to eight points coming in each year and Washington connected, the money began to roll in. I paid down enough debt to get a lower interest rate, refinanced as the economy improved and then borrowed and saved enough to make the Manhattan connection. Gold came up with (I think) two more years to go. At least three times I thought my company would go down in flames, but I stuck it out, gambled hard at the end and came out OK. The Erie just doesn't generate the same money that the B&O and Penn do, and it has lots more overhead than the Jersey Central. Fortunately I used a lot of my early stock purchases on other stocks, and let the other railroads pay me dividends that the Erie couldn't.
Does anyone ever use the 'bonus' engines (GG1, Zephyr, Mallard) or the improvements (track water pans, Pullman cars, air conditioning)? When I need them, I can't affort the purchase price.
The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." - James Branch Cabell
Re: Northeast Corridor
Not sure what's going on here. All companies begin with access to the Manhattan Tunnel. Playing as Erie I tried to connect about a year after start and found I had lost access - don't see the event for that. 
But playing as Jersey Central was able to issue a bond at takeover, drive a bridge to Manhattan and make $$$. And $$$. And more $$$. By the end of that game I had bought the Reading, the BWP, the Virginia Central and (!) the Penn, electrified all of it with a fleet of GG1s, had Pullman service, A/C and no debt...
There must be an event that closes access to the Manhattan Tunnel after takeover, but I confess I don't see it.
But playing as Jersey Central was able to issue a bond at takeover, drive a bridge to Manhattan and make $$$. And $$$. And more $$$. By the end of that game I had bought the Reading, the BWP, the Virginia Central and (!) the Penn, electrified all of it with a fleet of GG1s, had Pullman service, A/C and no debt...There must be an event that closes access to the Manhattan Tunnel after takeover, but I confess I don't see it.
The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." - James Branch Cabell
Re: Northeast Corridor
I think your right about all companies' having access to Manhattan tunnel at the start, and I also do not see any events that change that later. 
It must be written into an event however, and I guess the trick is to build a bridge and station on the island before the game starts if you have Erie or Jersey Central as your start company.
It must be written into an event however, and I guess the trick is to build a bridge and station on the island before the game starts if you have Erie or Jersey Central as your start company.All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
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belbincolne
- Engineer
- Posts: 526
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:28 am
- Location: Colne, England
Re: Northeast Corridor
I'm a bit puzzled. Haven't played it for years so gave it a try on Normal. It's just dead easy using absolutely normal strategy. Before game started bought the majority of shares in New Jersey Central took it over and connected to Manhattan with one Atlantic. No bonds needed so right away was off to a flying start with 4 points p.a. for hauling to/from there.
Expanded as fast as I could within free territories and got credit rating up then took bonds to get into Philli and rapidly got the points for that town too. I also connected to other lines and (forgot to check) assume I made some money from AIs using my line. When bonds dropped to 5% I borrowed 16 and bought rights to all other places and connected. From then on although money was a bit tight at times the only town I didn't get the point for was out of Washington so got Gold 5 years early.
Then had two very quick tries on Expert. Can only buy 8 out of 20 shares in NJC. First time my takeover attempt was refused second try accepted BUT then found I couldn't continue their line into Manhattan. Congestion (even on Normal) has always made track laying in the cities difficult but couldn't conquer Manhattan so will have to give it another try later when I've more time.
Expanded as fast as I could within free territories and got credit rating up then took bonds to get into Philli and rapidly got the points for that town too. I also connected to other lines and (forgot to check) assume I made some money from AIs using my line. When bonds dropped to 5% I borrowed 16 and bought rights to all other places and connected. From then on although money was a bit tight at times the only town I didn't get the point for was out of Washington so got Gold 5 years early.
Then had two very quick tries on Expert. Can only buy 8 out of 20 shares in NJC. First time my takeover attempt was refused second try accepted BUT then found I couldn't continue their line into Manhattan. Congestion (even on Normal) has always made track laying in the cities difficult but couldn't conquer Manhattan so will have to give it another try later when I've more time.
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belbincolne
- Engineer
- Posts: 526
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:28 am
- Location: Colne, England
Re: Northeast Corridor
I'm even more puzzled now.
Only NJC and Erie have rights to Manhattan at inception contrary to whats said above.
I had three attempts on Expert and on the third I was able to take over NJC with 8 out of 20 stock and - this time - I could connect to Manhattan without any difficulty and have large station and a train without a bond. Second train after a couple of months and third after six so I had 4 points in the bag at end year one.
By year three I was able to take over a failing company with rights to Philli and the following year one with entry to the third city (Atlantic?) so whilst I'm not always getting points for these two I'm piling them up and have only Washington to get into. I've also scarcely any bonds so can buy into Washington with ease. I've also connected to AIs so hope I'll be picking up cash from them.
All in all this looks to be a pretty easy scenarion even on Expert using only normal playing tactics - provided you make several starts until you're successful as above.
Only NJC and Erie have rights to Manhattan at inception contrary to whats said above.
I had three attempts on Expert and on the third I was able to take over NJC with 8 out of 20 stock and - this time - I could connect to Manhattan without any difficulty and have large station and a train without a bond. Second train after a couple of months and third after six so I had 4 points in the bag at end year one.
By year three I was able to take over a failing company with rights to Philli and the following year one with entry to the third city (Atlantic?) so whilst I'm not always getting points for these two I'm piling them up and have only Washington to get into. I've also scarcely any bonds so can buy into Washington with ease. I've also connected to AIs so hope I'll be picking up cash from them.
All in all this looks to be a pretty easy scenarion even on Expert using only normal playing tactics - provided you make several starts until you're successful as above.
Re: Northeast Corridor
I just launched this scenario and checked all of the territory access for each company and they all do have access to Manhattan at the start. The question we were discussing above was about what event turned them off after the game was started. If you get a company with the game still paused at start and build onto manhattan you have access from there forward.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
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belbincolne
- Engineer
- Posts: 526
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:28 am
- Location: Colne, England
Re: Northeast Corridor
Very odd. As I said only two companies had rights when I launched it. So started it up again and still only the same two companies have rights.
Just got Gold on Expert 4 years early compared to 5 on Normal with only normal game play used.
Just got Gold on Expert 4 years early compared to 5 on Normal with only normal game play used.
Re: Northeast Corridor
My experience was the same as Stoker's - all companies have access to Manhattan until you unpause and start playing, then access closes. If you have control of the NJC or the Erie you can set up shop in Manhattan from day 1 (I suppose the C&A could too, but I've never tried playing that one).
The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." - James Branch Cabell
Re: Northeast Corridor
Thank you for the compliment EPH! I am always glad to know that I have helped somebody. Feel free to e-mail me if you want. Maybe we could exchange a few more ideas.Life is not fair, but it is still good.