Just played this one again. I was having some problems with the TM map I am tweaking with the AI going crazy with engine purchases and wanted to refresh my memory about what the expert at this situation (Orange46) had done in his maps. I didn't find much done in the editor, but perhaps I over-looked it. It's easy to miss stuff there. I decided to play this one anyway since it had an infinite line of credit for the AI (issuing bonds is enabled) to see what happened. I finished all the objectives in Jan 1885 at which point there were 506 trains on the map.
My company had 49 trains but had already retired 7 or 8 of the returning haul-to-Charleston trains as my game was starting to lag a little. In this game I tried to be conservative with train purchases, but I did connect to the western settlements as I was bored waiting for mid-game contracts to end. Consequently I had a stronger economy on the map, which no doubt encouraged the AI to buy more engines after all.
The way I build my maintenance stops close to the stations in such a fashion that several spokes radiating from the city can use the same facilities is a problem here because this method chokes up more than the service in the middle of nowhere like the AI use. My way is much more efficient, but the AI doesn't have the first clue about maintenance except for when it builds track.
Strategy:
There is talk about building a wooden bridge at Davenport. I didn't even bother, but went straight for a stone one. If you do this in poor economies you will save a fair bit.
My tip for finding traction at the start is to do the before-mentioned Adrian-Toledo-Detroit connection and build Hotels in each city. To kick-start growth, look for Milk and Produce. If there is a town surrounded by 3 Dairies, that is a good supply and making that connection is quite safe using bonds. If there isn't a good opportunity with Milk (or in conjunction with it), look to expand south to Fort Wayne using bonds when there is a good price differential between Toledo and Fort Wayne (or another city with no steady natural migration supply). For this to work you need to have gathered a decent supply of Produce with your network.
In my game, I had no Milk but had gone east to Cleveland as this was an extra Produce supply. I had 20-30 loads in total on my network (most at Toledo) at the time I went to Fort Wayne. The price potential was around $25, I bought enough new trains to haul all the product and received at least $20k per load when the trains arrived.
I waited about six months after these arrivals for the price in Fort Wayne to drop. With the money and a couple bonds I connected to Lafayette with a price differential for Produce of about $19, but still good for $17k or so for each of those loads. With that money and a bond or two again, I went to Terre Haute and on to Evansville where my Milk supply was. Further bonds and I branched to Indianapolis.
With Hotels all-round this is a second cluster of cities that also gives a stable express income. With two good express city clusters we get connecting express traffic between them which will help to keep the Lafayette-Fort Wayne-Toledo line profitable. At this point I had a railway with a very solid revenue base without much fuss.
Designing a network according to the supplies of resources on a map is a little like painting where creativity and adaptability is the difference between good and great. This is meant as a suggested strategy to get established and not a point by point connection guide. The later companies will have better resource supply possibilities, but the same ideas should help when jumping to them as well.
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