Four Roads to Berlin

[TheBonobo4]

I can't see a thread linked for this one in the archive so I'll make a new thread. Anyway, I tried this one for the first time today, on Expert, just to see what the scenario is like. You start in 1829 by default and the scenario states that you have 170 years for Gold, not that you'll need them, taking us to 1999. So let's have a look then.

The scenario uses the same map as the State of Germany campaign level or Germany scenario level, but with territorial changes. There are plenty of cities, but the territories themselves are interesting. For me, the cities in 1829 were mostly tiny, and the game starts with your company and 3 others. You cannot have AI in this scenario, instead, your player owns all the shares in all 4 companies, named (in German), North, South, East (which you start with), and West. You can only start in Berlin and 4 other cities to the North East of Berlin, in a territory called East (or similar), and there are 3 other territories surrounding Berlin (itself in its own territory called Berlin), for the other 3 directions North, South, and West. So far, all seems okay.

The objectives seem straightforward. Gold requires you to connect every city on the map, including Copenhagen (which is surrounding by water and requires a suspension bridge to access, thus only being doable after 1895), haul 200k loads in total, and haul a certain amount of loads to certain areas, although these areas weren't specified to me, but I'm guessing it was the areas not immediately surrounding Berlin.

As I can only start in Berlin, and it is 1829, I built a Large station in Berlin, and connected up to Stettin, one of the 4 cities in Ost territory. I bought a Dorchester locomotive, set it to 7 cars and a caboose, and off it went.... making basically no money, because there was basically nothing to haul. Hmm okay, this isn't good.

To make matters worse, you cannot buy any industry in the game, besides Post Offices, Taverns, and Restaurants. For some reason you cannot buy Hotels. So you have to run track and trains. You also cannot Issue Stock, Buy Back Stock, Buy/Sell Shares, take out bonds, or declare bankruptcy.

Finally, I wondered if I'm supposed to build track and trains as the East Company, let them run for a bit, and then something, anything, would happen and I'd get an in game event. By about 1840 (11 years into the scenario), I got bored and quit. I also even tried taking over chairmanship of the North company, but alas, that does nothing, as the other 3 companies start with 0 track, and 0 money.

This scenario therefore seems utterly broken. Has anyone else ever tried this one, and if so, do you have any tips on how to beat it?

[Gumboots]

For anyone who wants it, the map is here: Four Roads to Berlin

I haven't tried this map yet, so can't offer any tips.

[RulerofRails]

This is not a "normal" scenario. From my understanding the author intended it to be so. Look at the length. From what I understood it's meant to be a "sim" that will keep you playing for 100+ years. Part of this seems to be a lean starting seed. This is a quote from the author himself:

[out of context removed]... in 4 Roads to Berlin, Rail Baron East and Bridging the Mississippi, AIs were critical in creating chaos, but those were scenarios in which I was trying to create the traffic jams that RT2 frequently resulted on wooden bridges in the original North America thru the ages (version 3 of which is NA Railroad Sim in 1.06).

Because of the length of the game, there is no rush to get started. Here's a brief report on half-way through my play:

Is there a thread here for 4 Roads to Berlin? Half-way through it (for the first time), but have to let it rest for a bit. It's 1912 and I recently completed the major building part (1910), up to 100,000 on the hauls. I am interested in how people started this map. I waited about a year and a half until I saw a good Milk demand ready to be exploited before laying any track between the closest 3 cities with all Large Stations. Anyway, just wondering what others did as you made a good starting challenge.

A delayed start seems to be a solid strategy. The main reason for this is to let cargo build up on the map. At first there are so few houses etc.. that demands are weak so the initial simulated "3-year" economic period sees low cargo production rates. So, the initial period is even leaner than normal. The river run of Landsberg to Berlin can't really go that wrong. Just sit and get interest for a few years till you see more cargo on the map. Then slow-play it carefully. Don't be in a rush.

Once you connect all the cities you can in the first area, you will be advised to swap into a different company and build that up. It will be tight to get things rolling, but once economic activity picks up it will be business as usual.

[Orange46]

I am sorry that I missed this discussion. This was one of my favorite scenarios and I am glad that there are still new players out there. RulerofRails usually figures out how to beat me at my own game.