Ethiopia - testers needed (yet again)

[grashopa]

Is the fertilizer supposed to double the production of farms? I ran this on 1.06 and fertilizer was doubling the production of produce and grain. I then switched to 1.05 and produce production only seems to go up 20%, but coffee and grain production are still doubling.

[RayofSunshine]

Brunom,
Have been doing an amount of sorting thru my Editions of scenario inventories, and playing a number of the RT2 scenarios, so have not played much with RT3. And don't check the RT3 threads very often. Missed your "help" scenario, but do like your new creation of the Ethiopian landscape. Looks like some difficult terrain, but is considerably more appealing than the usual "flat" of your previous creations. I am looking forward to your initial "beta" posting. Good Luck.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Had a good time with this scenario, finally beating it on my 3rd play through on Hard.

Found that picking out a number of industries and feeding them was pretty much the key. As is often the case getting the steel industry up and running made buko bucks even though I had to build the steel mill and then haul coal and iron from opposite ends of the map to it. Coffee requirement pretty much fulfilled itself I found. I think I had one dedicated train on that duty through some chunk of the scenario but it was not a real issue - the coffee wants to go where your trying to get it so its simply a matter of running enough trains to get it there.

[TheBonobo4]

This scenario is brutal! Playing for the first time on Expert (though I previously have tried this scenario before, but about or 3 years ago, so I can't remember what to do to be successful with it). Most years I barely make any money. It's currently about 1935, I own Hotels, post offices etc, 2 chemical plants near Djibouti, and a Textile Mill in Harare (I think, a city not far from Djibouti). I picked the French to ally with, but am now thinking that wasn't the best decision (I would like to know what the offers are for the UK and Italy). I actually declared bankruptcy in around 1926, because I lost money 2 years in a row, and had $10M in bonds at around 11%. Probably my own fault for taking out too many bonds, but it was the only way to expand as I wasn't making enough otherwise.

Like I said, it's around 1935, so I've got about 15 years left. I still need around $9M more in Industry Profit, just to get Bronze. I've got a line from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, and Aksum (though I've lost control of Aksum thanks to the Italian invasion), and then from Addis West to a town I can't remember the name of, but it is possibly the Western most town in Ethiopia. The gradients aren't too bad, I've had worse but they're not easy to build on either. Locomotives are more expensive than usual, (especially during the period where the war taxes were introduced, making them around $1M each), I've built no electric track as it doesn't seem worth it. I'm using P8's (I think they're called, they're available around 1900 and are decent on hills and cost $120K in this scenario). The only good thing is I've hauled enough Coffee for Gold, (I think, certainly enough for Silver).

So yeah, 15 years to go, I'm barely making money, and will be lucky if I get Bronze. I need to rethink my strategy yes, but does anyone have any tips or help? I realise I need more Industry, but I never really had enough money to buy it. My first year I think I connected Djibouti to the starter stations, then to the next town on the way to Addis Ababa, but I'm wondering now if an industry start would have been better?

Oh and a small note, there was some message that popped up at the start, but I stupidly clicked it too fast to read, so I don't know what (if anything) it said.

[Gumboots]

You can always look in the editor to see what that message was.
I've never played this one. Had a look at it once or twice, but never got around to actually playing it through. I might drag it out for a run. Brunom's maps are usually pretty good, and some people are saying this one is easy, while others are saying it's hard.

[TheBonobo4]

True. I don't think it said anything of importance, probably just something introductory, like welcome to Ethiopia. I'll check the editor any way. And yes, it's a fun map, but I need to figure it out for sure, as it is very difficult in my opinion.

[RulerofRails]

I refreshed my memory a bit on this.

There is an industry profit requirement. You HAVE to use industries. Mostly I prefer to not use industries, but you are just delaying the inevitable here. I don't see the point in not just using them from the start. There is a 10% reduction in industry cost to help as well. On a low density map, cargo loads on the map need to build for a few years before rails will be an attractive option. Fix the track, run the Shay if it will be profitable, then invest all other cash into industries for maximum ROI.

I regard industrial competence as Advanced, 2nd tier in this game because when buying/building we can consider the flows of cargo down the line and after time has passed, thus managing a large share of the map economy. 1st tier is doing similar managment of nearly all the overall economy but at a more advanced level using the movement of trains to manage cargo flow (often a rails only strat, obviously not for this map). One of the keys is to study carefully the price map and the geography. If you search for industrial profits you will find some more detailed info that might help you to improve in that regard.

Here are some links to get started.
viewtopic.php?p=39413#p39413
viewtopic.php?p=35717#p35717
viewtopic.php?p=40740#p40740