Hawk & Badger Railroad Forum

This is my latest map, called Rails over Las Pampas. Mineral resources are sparse, only having some limestone quarries for the cement industry, the main business in Uruguay is sheep and livestock breeding. In this scenario 3 types of additional ports are buyable to support the import of steel, paper, automobiles, lumber,machinery, aluminium, coal, electronics and medicine in change for meat, wool and clothing via the very important port of Montevideo (the capital). Game start in 1877, shortly after the railway between Montevideo and Durazno (opened 1874) was sold to a British consortiom, due to lack of funds for further expansion. Testing the map, I had a silver medal (on expert) at the end of the game in 1940. Any comments, advice or suggestions are (as usual) welcome

NOTE: this map has now been published under the title "Uruguay" version 1.0

Due to a "personal hardware problem" (tennis elbow) I'm not able to play RT3 or any other games. But I'll give all these new maps a try each as soon as I can ... e.g. in some weeks.

Pampas in Uruguay? I think they are in Argentina...

I have checked it in Wikipedia. Argentina is known for its "Pampas", but this sort of landscape is predominant in Uruguay.

Ok, I stand corrected but I think this Could lead to confusion.
But the scenario looks interesting in spite of the many one house cities,
How do reach goals with This? I'm trying, I'm REALLY tryin g.

Perhaps the title of the map rather should be just "Uruguay". It will give room for a new and better Argentina map (maximum size) with the title "Rails over Las Pampas". In the real world, the towns and villages in Uruguay are really small, offering only little passenger traffic, some are just a station collecting sheep, cattle and wool. Most railways are radiating out from the capital Montevideo (1.3 mill. inhabitants)

Good call!
That's the case in most of S.A.

Version 1.0 is now avaiable in the archives

What are the goals for the medals?

grashopa wrote:What are the goals for the medals?

Go to the South America page of the web site and click on the link that says 'English Briefing' and scroll through the images as described in the black box at the top of the page that says 'Image Viewing Instructions'. That's what they're there for.

Haha I had no idea that was there! I always just clicked on the log in link on the page without looking at it. Nice website you've got here :)

Hawk,
A thread last Dec 2012, indicated that the V1 was available in the Archives. I keep forgetting to ask, but I have not been able to find it, ether in "new maps" or in the SA category. Where am I "missing the boat"?

It's in the archives, in the South America section, right at the top. It's called Uruguay.

yeah, he changed the name, but didn't do anything about the one house cities.
I tried it for few turns and ended up frustrated
So, I added a couple houses here and there, plus a couple of farms, orchards and what not, but really in a very limited amount.
The result was better playability, and then, it got... boring. I'm sorry but I seen better from Arop^.

OOPS! I just did not pay attention to the bracketed (Uruguay) in the title. Didn't make that deduction. Tanks for the info "again".

The Pampas in Uruguay is very sparesly populated.

Example: The capital Montevideo has a population of 1.3 million....in RRT set to 400%, the typical population of one of the few small cities on Las Pampas is less than about 50.000.....is set to 35%, and a typical village on the pampas is less than 2000 inhabitants....is set to 10-13%.

Building this map i have checked every city/town/village/place shown on this map on the internet, and only a few real cities were found. Las Pampas is a rather desolate place to live, it's cowboy country with more cattle and sheep than people, some stations are only places with a few houses nearby, where livestock and wool is picked up and only a little goods is delivered in return! Sometimes a passenger or two shows up, boarding or disembarking the daily mixed train, and less than an hour later everything is very silent for the next 24 hours. The game starts with 85% population density in 1875, in the real world almost nothing was to be found on Las Pampas in the beginning.

Owned by a British consortiom and nationalized in 1948, railways in Uruguay were never very profitable. In todays Uruguay, railways are in a very desolate condition, mostly freight only and with some local passenger trafic around the capital Montevideo.

I admit this map is somewhat difficault to play. You have to build a solid industrial base of your own, or your railway will have to struggle for its life for the whole game, clothing, meat and wool is delivered for export in Montevideo, exactly as in the real world and you will only get a little, steel,oil, weapons and other imports in return. Your (mostly mixed trains) trains often have to return half empty to the Pampas. In Montevideo you have to build 3 types of buyable ports to make the export flow. Personally I found it a challenge to play this map under these conditions and won the silver a few years before run out of time

PS:I could change the size of the cities, but then we can wave goodbye to realism

I think that Arop is right about the population density between real life and the game. BUT , with my little tweecking (twicking?) -just adding one or two houses here and there- improved the results and profits considerably. I doubt that it interferes with the realism that the map tries to maintain. Let me repeat myself: just a trickle of houses and industries -mostly cattle and/or farms- would permit meeting the goals somewhat easier.
And then, I had a little trouble relating raw materials -crystals, fer instanz- with the proper wharehouse or port.
But thanks for your input.

Quit unofficially I have made a fictive map out of my Uruguay map, called Walusia (beta1). Making fictive maps gives you the "artists fredom" compared with maps from the real world. More cities/towns and villages are added, and the natural resources are more versatile than the real world Uruguay map. In the Uruguay map a corner of Brazil and Argentina was shown stripped from all cities because of different gauge and no access (in the real worlds) for Uruguayan National railways. Somtimes I find it's more fun to build/play fictive maps, in North American or European style or a mix.

Comments, problems, errors? Take your pick.
An interesting concept of goals but I found it nearly impossible to attain 1000 livestock. Ranches seem to be too far distant to the demand locations. Even when I build "Meat Slaughter Plants".

I did manage to get all the rest of the goals prior to 1940, but didn't get any medals, even though I played into 1941.

The instructions are to connect 73 cities, excluding Buenos Aires. But I found 74 of them. My comment is that although the instructions indicate the necessity to connect 73, the year end ledger shows 72.

Although I had sufficient revenue a few times in the purchasing access to Buenos Aires, I didn't see the necessity. Maybe if the funds were more available earlier in the playing, I might have considered it.

And I didn't find any benefit for hauling "crystals" to the Port C. No profits as usual with it or Furnaces.

Otherside I didn't find any other problems or have the system crash.

Which version did you play? Confusing, but this map has been submitted to Hawk under the title "Uruguay" version 1.0 with the errors mentioned corrected and the 1000 loads changed to 500. Due to the break of gauge no rail connection has ever been established to Argentina or Brazil in the real world. The Uruguayan standard gauge is an isolated railway system, built by a British consortium and later nationalized.