Borduria After the War

[belbincolne]

Funny isn't how some scenarios get a lot of comment - like LA & LA and now Dispatcher - and some none.

This one is less successfull. Principally because a requirement is IP and it isn't counted always registering Nil. As, at the start, railroading is very unprofitable I found Industry to be the only way to have any chance of success. I assume therefor that there is no possibility of anyone getting any medal (not that I was going to!).

The scenario is different and I found it pretty hard. One reason is that your start is on an island with limited resources. I never got on well enough to contemplate building off it but the bridge will surely be very expensive (over $6m on the one try I had).

Most (all but one?) of the AIs will go bust so you can take over their lines for two-thirds their value and I assume this will include the rights of entry to their country - there being one nationalised railroad in each. However I was unable to test this because I took one over before it went bust to get rights into it's country and got rights to every country - I assume this is another flaw in the scenario. Provided you've enough money (and don't do it if you haven't!) it is easy to expand once you have a base and railroading will be slightly profitable in good years.

Even in normal years I wasn't making a profit from railroading and gave up when my directors got fed up with me - after 15 of 40 years I was well ahead on loads carried (and pretty certain I should have been on IP as I was making $1m p.a.) but had less than 5% of the required CBV and PNW and hadn't been asked to carry out any of the five special conditions which are the medal requirements. Maybe they kick in later but there was no point in my carrying on.

The idea is interesting and, as I said, a bit different so worth another play but I'd like to have a version 2 with the errors ironed out. I'll be interested to hear what other players have found.

[proudcanadian]

Thanks for the review, Belbincolne. I did try to make this one quite challenging, but I have realized in my recent playthroughs that for some reason, resources are VERY sparse on this map. I honestly can't imagine why, as I left the resource settings almost identical to the ones Arop put in the original map. I'm unsure what I should do to increase the seeding of farms and mines, though.
I'm unsure about the ledger reading, might be an error because I left it the same as in Arop's version as well.
I like to play scenarios that include the option of merging companies, however, it wasn't my intention that you gain access to all nations by merging just a single company. Oddly enough, I'm sure that I restricted access to just the nation each line started in. If this is always the case, I may have to disallow mergers.
Anyway, thanks for playing, and I'm glad to get some feedback on this one. No doubt once a few more people comment, I'll release a V2 to fix all the problems.

[Hawk]

Is this review about Borduria (by arop) or Borduria After the War (by proudcanadian)?

[belbincolne]

Borduria after the War - hadn't realised there was a Borduria - for some reason I haven't got it, must find and download. If you can change the Title of this subject please do.

[Hawk]

Title changed.

The original Borduria is right under this map, next row down.

[Gandar]

I am playing this scenario right now, the first time around I did get the haulage and the Industry requirements I found that I had to go the industry route at the start just to get going, so meeting the Arboria requirement of $50 mill IP was no problem but I ran out of time before I could meet the lumber haulage required by Sylvania ? , So it would seem that the events are working as scripted. Now all I have to do is be better organised. I was nowhere near the other targets, I had 50% of the stock but my net worth was only a third of the CBV it seems the stock market is not being kind to me, [what else is new] and I only had a book value of 50 mill, share buybacks and bonds sort of reduced my net worth.
So far though it is a challenge, and I am about to buckle down and see if I can do better, perhaps if I vote for the president that gives the track discount, rather than the revenue increase., by the way do you know if the revenue increase applies to industry or just to train income ?
I always try for gold whenever I play but this time I will be happy to medal.

[belbincolne]

Interesting - I'll give it another try and see if IP registers this time - did you take over another company and, if so, did you get rights to all territories rather than just one?

I also downloaded the original Borduria and played to Gold on Expert. Know why I didn't bother before. It's an 85 year scenario - far too long for me - and there are absolutely no problems at all. Just do everything - rail - industry - buy back stock. Everything is extremely profitable and I got the Gold requirements after 47 years. Played on for another year and not registered so obviously it only fires at the end of another 38 years and I couldn't be bothered to carry on.

[Gandar]

Not doing so well this time around, I didn't build rail on the island but took over the other AI, but the tasks haven't kicked in, last time as soon as I built a bridge to Arboria then I was notified of the $50 mill IP, and then when I connected to the next country I was told of the 30 loads of lumber, so it must be that you have to have connected rail back to Arizia to activate the special conditions.
On taking over other companies I only got rights the territory they were in.

[belbincolne]

Well I've just played it right through and its obviously captivating as its now 1am

I got no medals cos CBV and PNW were far too low (70m & 18m respectively) carried 11,000 loads and fulfilled 2 criteria - although in fact it was three.

When I took over an AI I only got rights into its country this time - made little difference because I bought all the AIs eventually. Once again IP didn't register at first. I made very little money to start with and it was only when I started to get the handout that I finally managed to connect all the towns - building the expensive bridge last (cheaper than I'd expected presumably you'd increased the normal cost reduction during the reccession). I was then given all the tasks one after the other. I got the first immediately (connection) and the second (alcohol) very quickly and with a year to go got the iron message - but the Almanac remained at 2. The Almanac also now started to record IP (must have been counting from inception because it started at 25m) and, although the only thing I did for the last few years was buy farms etc I could still only get IP to 38m.

I've no idea how I was doing with lumber because there's no count but I'd got 5 trains with 8 cars (o/k thats 7 x 5 = 35) going and I think at least one was on its 2nd trip and its hard to see how I didn't get the target but possibly some still hadn't reached their destination (or maybe I chose a town just on the wrong side of the border - I did that with iron but was able to rectify in time).

Anyway for version 2 it looks as though the merging is o/k and it was a completely oddball problem that I got them all on try 1. The main improvement would be an increase in resources - and recording all the task transits in the Almanac so you know how you're progressing. In Arops original all the farm and industry were far more profitable - as was the carryings from them - although in the last few years when I'd connected all the countries they seemed to improve vastly. Not being able to build industry - or buy stock on margin - makes the scenario much harder of course.

Maybe you should also reduce the CBV and PNW targets - but if you can increase the resources on the map that might make things easier - but it would for the AIs too so they might not be so easy to take over.

Anyway I (obviously) enjoyed playing it and as its now nearly 2am I'm off to bed

[Sugus]

Started onto the island by first buying the distillery in Ariza and laying a track from there to Rocky Pass and a little bit later to Bhelu and Wrocha. Seems to start better than expected (due to the comments in this thread). After three years, I bought the additional trackless, but already liquidated company (don't remember the name) - and all of a sudden I had access to any region!

I assume, that's not in the sense of the author (and me )! So I stopped immediately - and now I'm impatiently waiting for the corrected version 2 ...

[proudcanadian]

Sorry about the delay, everyone, I'm getting around to it, but I've had a hard time fitting RT3 in with my current schedule. It'll at least be a few more days before I get V2 released. Thanks for the comments everyone!

[belbincolne]

Aha. sugus has solved my original "one-off" problem. I too bought the liquidated company 1st time but not the second. I'm also not having much time for RT3 right now as in the next 2 months I've got 5 weeks holidays including right now so writing this from Derbyshire.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Well I've just attempted this. I see no sign that what I was playing was the coveted version #2. Essentially I'm having some similar problems as the above players though the island is profitable if you snag milk farms as fast as possible and the dairy processor in Azziz. That said profitable is not really good enough considering the victory requirements. I keep finding that I'm getting off the island with 15 or so years to spare - not nearly enough time to meet the five victory requirements of the surrounding nations. Also, as others have noticed the IP tracker is not counting.

[proudcanadian]

Well, I did a little bit of tweaking, and the resources are looking much better now, as in, you will now be able to make money in this scenario.
One problem, however, is that the industry profit counter is still showing zero. I don't know what could possibly be causing it.
I just want to hold off and see if anyone has any idea what could be causing the IP counter problem.
Thanks for being patient everyone!

[proudcanadian]

Well, seeing as no one's replied in a week, I suppose that I'll get it ready to send to Hawk. Thanks for your comments again, everyone!

[Hawk]

the industry profit counter is still showing zero. I don't know what could possibly be causing it.

Maybe try testing against 'on screen players company only' and 'on screen player only', instead of 'all companies' and 'all players'.

[proudcanadian]

Thanks, Hawk! That appears to work, so I'll probably be sending V2 to you soon.

[Sugus]

Did I impatiently miss anything concerning a V2?

[proudcanadian]

No, Sugus, you didn't and I should be sending V2 to Hawk sometime this evening.

[Hawk]

Version 2 is now available.

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/rt3_other.htm