Central California

[jrbrockm]

Hi Gander,
For someone who isn't really knowledgeable about the whole buying back stock/starting new companies aspect of the game, could you elaborate a little bit on how you did that early on in the game?
Thanks,
JB

[Gandar]

Here's what I had at the end of December in the 20th year:

I can't top that. I used the approach of industry first, because those two recessions killed me. How did you get those results? and do you give lessons ?

[Gandar]

You will find that in a lot of scenarios you are only allowed to start one company or the map maker puts in penalties to avoid " Tycooning" In the days of the real railroad tycoons when the stock market was not controlled these things happened to real investors.
You start with your initial company and buy as much stock on margin as you can. You then take out a bond and have your company buy back all outstanding shares, You then sell all of your personal shares at a nice profit. Next your company issues two lots of shares and you build a bridge or track to nowhere to use up the money. Stage two you start a new company and short sell as many of the first companies shares as possible . If the number of starts is not limited you can do this a number of times.You then carry on as normal with your second company and after about 3 months you buy the first companies stock at about $1 or $2 to show another nice profit which you use to buy shares and it will put you close to control of your second company.
The game is called Railroad TYcoon for a reason, its not cheating its part of the game play. That being said ,its no fun to have an easy win that way, and most people have there own pet strategies. I used it because your darned recessions and train crashes were making it tough to hit gold on expert, as it turned out I didn't need to, and since then another screen shot was posted that knocked my shipments into a cocked hat . If that was played on expert then thats the guy we should all be talking to !!

[Sugus]

Wow! Great!
Hope, that I can reach something comparable on my next try ...

[Wolverine@MSU]

I can't top that. I used the approach of industry first, because those two recessions killed me. How did you get those results? and do you give lessons ?

I also started with Industry first, but only "small scale". I bought a Lumber Mill in Fresno at the start, let it go for a year (made $300K profit), then the next year took out a bond and upgraded it. The Steel mill in Delano was lacking Iron, which was all piling up at the town between it and Fresno (forgot the name right now). The third year, I connected Fresno with the middle town and ran a couple trains between them. Made lots of money and Economy went to Prosperity, so the next year I expanded the rail to Delano and started shipping Iron there. When Steel Mill became profitable, I bought it, and made sure to supply it with all the Coal and Iron it needed by building large stations in the cargo streams from them. Economy went to Boom, so I floated lots of bonds and built an Aluminum Mill in the midst of the Bauxite Mines, connected Fresno to Salinas and started running trains with Steel and Aluminum there with return loads of Alcohol to Fresno.

Then made the connection to Santa Maria and shuttled Alcohol to Fresno with Meat on the return runs. I also went to Bakersfield to get meat for Santa Maria. Then branched up to the Coffeee Plantations and down to Oxnard to make the Coffee runs. I had three large stations covering the plantations and just had custom consist trains hauling 6 loads at a time, adding trains as needed to haul away all the coffee that was being produced. Same with other cargoes: custom consist trains waiting at the sources for six carloads before departing and giving them priority over the rest of the fleet.

As was pointed out in other threads, you need to get the cargoes out of the destination cities to keep the price gradient favorable. I eventually had to change the custom consists from strictly six loads of desired cargo to 4 of cargo and 4 of any, with minimum loads set to 4. That way the trains weren't sitting at one end of the run waiting for price gradients to become favorable again.

I was issuing stock every year, and made sure I kept >50 share in my company. Bought into the AI until I had > 50% and then switched to it during the boom, took out some bonds and built some profitable Lumber mills, Paper Mills, and a couple of Tool & Dies in Salinas. The AI profits skyrocketed, so I continued to use it as a surrogate for building other industries that helped meet the goals, such as an Aluminum Mill east of Ventura. To make the stock I issued in my own company at its highest level, I almost always stopped the game in late December, changed the Dividend from $0 to the maximum I could, let the year roll over (which almost always resulted in a stock price increase), then returned it back to $0 in January.

I guess I got lucky, because I think I had only one very short recession midway through the game, that quickly dissipated and turned to prosperity for the rest of the game. Also, the Boom at the beginning lasted for 5 years or so, so I was eventually able to max out $10M in bonds at 5%.

[belbincolne]

I'm going to give this another go shortly but would just mention that every time I played it the seed has been very different so no one strategy will work all the time but the other thing is AI - what AI?

[Wolverine@MSU]

You can choose to have the AI when you first select the game. There's a "Number of Players" button on the left after you choose "New Scenario" and select the map.

[Gandar]

wolverine I liked your strategy. How I missed on the "dividend in Dec" trick is beyond me, its a little wrinkle to this game that I have used before a long long time ago but had forgotten all about. I must be getting old and stuck in a rut, I really must review the strategy section of this game just to find out what else I seem to be missing.

[belbincolne]

Well I read everything up particularly Gandars hints in the strategies section but also hadn't realised that you could have an AI. I suppose that proved somewhat useful as it gave you some lines to products before you'd have been able to build them yourself. Usually this isn't successful because AIs usually run so many trains yours are just stuck but in this case they only had two so it worked and afterwards I just built a short route round them. Anyway finished with Silver (only on normal I'm afraid) which is best I've ever done. Alcohol was the worst (whereas usually its been one of the best) with 32 short - perhaps I didn't concentrate enough on it - and Meat was 6 short otherwise I hit gold.

Anyway thanks for the scenario which has been fun after several plays - and for all the hints.

[belbincolne]

Well posted yesterday and it seems it didn't manage to appear Anyway twas to say I adopted all the strategies here and in that forum and on Normal managed to get silver and was only just short of gold (2 commodoties). Thought therefor I'd have a go on Expert and failed dismally - was $15m in the red at the finish as well. I actually achieved bronze but didn't get the medal - maybe although play doesn't finish until after 21 years the test for medals is at the start of year 21 (as it should be) when I was slightly short. Anyway its a real fun scenario to keep playing at

[RayofSunshine]

Well Tycooners,

I didn't come any where near the medal results you seem to have acquired. Did manage to get the required Bronze level of commodities, but ended up "walking down the track".

This is a very interesting scenario mainly in imagination, not to belittle the map terrain itself. Although not a successful Tycoon, and possible obtained the level of "Hobo", I really enjoyed it.

My demize was in 2 levels. If the economy was not in Recession, it was in Depression. I was elated when the economy was able to attain a Normal. It did manage to swing thru the Prosperity and then Booming in the last 3-4 years.

But it was the Crashes. Well, both in the economy and the engines. Everything went well with them for the first few years, and then..BBBBOOOOMMMM. Just a good thing that there were not any earthquakes to help wipe out track or depots. LOL

I did not have any problems with the "custom" consists, to get good revenue. It was odd that the aluminum and steel were "demand directed" to a city with a tool-and-die and nothing to Salinas. But it didn't penalize the revenue allottment.

Not to discredit any of the user created scenarios but I believe that this is one of the top scenarios which I have played. I won't attempt to "rate" it, as there are just too many which fit into the level of imagination, talent, and I won't forget the time which is devoted for those creations.

[Gandar]

But it was the Crashes. Well, both in the economy and the engines. Everything went well with them for the first few years, and then..BBBBOOOOMMMM. Just a good thing that there were not any earthquakes to help wipe out track or depots. LOL

I did not have any problems with the "custom" consists, to get good revenue. It was odd that the aluminum and steel were "demand directed" to a city with a tool-and-die and nothing to Salinas. But it didn't penalize the revenue allottment.

Ray I will thank you not to suggest earthquakes I found the scenario difficult enough as it was. He doesn't need any help to make it tough !
As for the aluminum and steel being redirected I think that it was an outstanding little piece of scenario planning, I can't wait to see wht happens after he learns how to play the game. I look forward to some grat scenarios.

[jrbrockm]

Hi All,
I hope you will give it another try with version 2 which should be appearing soon. A few fixes thanks to many helpful suggestions, as well as some new things.
Enjoy,
JB

[Hawk]

JB - While looking for something else I noticed a file in the upload folder from you. Is this the latest version of Central California, ready to be updated in the archives?

[jrbrockm]

Hawk,
My apologies, I thought I sent an email about it. Perhaps, I hadn't. Yes, hopefully this update will fix the medaling issues as well as and a new twist.
Thanks,
JB

[Hawk]

Got the new version updated. Sorry it took so long.

[ishaybas]

Hey, I didn't read the long thread, so maybe I am saying the obvious,
but just wanted to say that I cracked this one on expert/gold after like 15 years,
so it is very much possible ..

Hint: Connect Fresno and the other city on the southwest side that needs steel and aluminum,
as soon as you can, and have trains deliver steel and aluminum from Fresno, and shipping back alcohol to Fresno.

Also, you could cheat by having an alcohol train pick alcohol from Fresno, and then bring it back again to Fresno.
But why would you ...

[Optimizer]

Nice scenario!

I tried it on Normal, and got a silver medal. The meat was my Achilles heel.

This scenario would be much more fun with some news flashes. There was a lot going on in California during the post-war years, wasn't there?

A challenge separate frome delivery would also be interesting.

My subjective rating, at a scale from 1 to 5:

Balance: 4
Finish: 3
Atmosphere: 3

[RayofSunshine]

Gardner,

Your comment on the scenario being adapted for the 1.05 Patch, as commodities did not get revenue when there wasn't the demand. Well I am using the 1.06 Patch, and although it has been a time since I played the Cen.Calif, I don't believe I had a problem in the same direction.

I do remember that clicking on the "supply" that the revenue or commodity, both did not give a "demand" direction, as well as a $0 revenue. This may have changed in time, but I was able to haul the "custom" commodity to my intended destination.

The reason I did not get concerned with the lack of revenue, there was a requiement of a specific commodity, and also I was obtaining a profit on the purchased industry.

Also, I had to watch the aluminum commodity, as there was a tool-and-die, to which there was a demand, so I just did not run a train between the alumimum supply and that particular industry.

I must have done something right, as I was able to get the GOLD.

[Gandar]

Ray this scenario is entirely different if you play it in 1.06. You are able to ship for no profit or even at a loss in 1.06. In 1.05 the train won't leave the station unless it will make a profit.So you have to move the goods away from the receiving cities to ship more.
So if you want an easier game, play it in 1.06, if you want to play it as it was designed you play in 1.05. Its a good map whichever way you play.