Cuba before Castro II

[Hawk]

Well, today's arop's 64th birthday. I still haven't heard back from him. I hope everything's OK with him.

[RulerofRails]

I hope everything's OK with him.

Me too. And a happy birthday to him when he reads this!

[RulerofRails]

I had a go of this one. I can say that strategy-wise it is the best Arop map I have played. There are events which change the economic structure enough to make me think instead of just trying to max out industries. As well as some good historical events. I liked it. Thanks Arop!

Whether it was intentional or not, the industry output reduction of the first ten years is applied only to YOUR industries. (The newspaper message doesn't specify this.) This makes for some good strategy in the early stages as far as industry investment which is of course a medal goal. Only the best industries will pay off bond financing and I didn't buy any farms or mines to make sure the maximum of cargo was on the map for later. Track-laying is very restrictive here, but this was enough to keep me interested in the map.

I started in 1884, and by 1910 I owned everything on the map that I thought was worthwhile and was debt free (personal and company). I had around 300M CBV, LIP, and PNW. At this point I ran out of things to do except to connect one or, if I was lucky, two cities each year. I almost called it quits, but peeked in the editor to see when the Sugar price went up. I decided to wait it out on fast speed as I wanted to observe the effects closely on the price map. The initial increase was instant game-wide, this gives me the idea that maybe a temporary event with one week duration (if possible?) may be something to try sometime in an attempt to keep prices sane.

What appears to have happened here is the First World War event was copied and renamed for the Second World War but the date wasn't changed. Both events fire simultaneously making the usual wild prices break-out more violently (100% increase!). All the outbreaks were vertically separated here so haulage profits increased significantly as the outbreaks were captured for haulage quite well. Enough, in fact, that I got the gold medal at the end of 1919. I kept my mainline off the coasts so this kept Sugar and Coffee from stockpiling on the coast and going out to sea. I let the game run for another year and Coffee (everywhere) and Sugar (in the middle of the island) prices were still around $1000 but I didn't observe any new breakouts occurring. I am unsure how long it would take for prices to go back to normal.

[RayofSunshine]

That is odd, as I had some correspondence in Jan, and he (Irop) didn't make any comment as to any problems.

[Stoneman]

Cuba Before Castro II (and its predecessor) is one of my favorite RT3 games.

I thought I had screwed up when the sugar prices went, well, bananas. But I am glad to see from reading here that that was intentional.

My wife and I have been to Cuba three times (all via American Airlines from Miami on US State Dept approved Religious Trips). I had played the game a lot before our first trip. This helped me to understand the geography of the Island, much better than I would have learned from just staring at maps.

The mountains in Cuba are quite high and when you get east to Santiago, the RT3 game really helps you to understand the geography you will see while touring.

Of course, what RT3 cannot show you is how warm and friendly the Cuban people are. These were great experiences that we had and our trips were grounded on a firm understanding of the layout of the Very Large Island--thanks to arop and HawkDawg.

I commend Cuba Before Castro II to you, both as a fun RT3 game and as a nice send off before you take your first trip to Cuba.

Thanks again to arop and Hawk. I had not known the arop produced SO MANY games. I will seek out his games in the future!

Cheers

Ed

[aiven]

I had a go of this one. I can say that strategy-wise it is the best Arop map I have played. There are events which change the economic structure enough to make me think instead of just trying to max out industries. As well as some good historical events. I liked it. Thanks Arop!

Whether it was intentional or not, the industry output reduction of the first ten years is applied only to YOUR industries. (The newspaper message doesn't specify this.) This makes for some good strategy in the early stages as far as industry investment which is of course a medal goal. Only the best industries will pay off bond financing and I didn't buy any farms or mines to make sure the maximum of cargo was on the map for later. Track-laying is very restrictive here, but this was enough to keep me interested in the map.

I started in 1884, and by 1910 I owned everything on the map that I thought was worthwhile and was debt free (personal and company). I had around 300M CBV, LIP, and PNW. At this point I ran out of things to do except to connect one or, if I was lucky, two cities each year. I almost called it quits, but peeked in the editor to see when the Sugar price went up. I decided to wait it out on fast speed as I wanted to observe the effects closely on the price map. The initial increase was instant game-wide, this gives me the idea that maybe a temporary event with one week duration (if possible?) may be something to try sometime in an attempt to keep prices sane.

What appears to have happened here is the First World War event was copied and renamed for the Second World War but the date wasn't changed. Both events fire simultaneously making the usual wild prices break-out more violently (100% increase!). All the outbreaks were vertically separated here so haulage profits increased significantly as the outbreaks were captured for haulage quite well. Enough, in fact, that I got the gold medal at the end of 1919. I kept my mainline off the coasts so this kept Sugar and Coffee from stockpiling on the coast and going out to sea. I let the game run for another year and Coffee (everywhere) and Sugar (in the middle of the island) prices were still around $1000 but I didn't observe any new breakouts occurring. I am unsure how long it would take for prices to go back to normal.

Been a while since I posted in this thread, but anyway :) Perhaps someone could fix the date on the second world war event and then reupload the map :)