Balkan Express (BETA)

[Gumboots]

This is a rough beta of the ideas I had after playing Andy-rails' Balkanika scenario.

The original is a pretty good basic setup, and the train rides are great, but I thought it could be spiced up a bit. I'm also planning on fixing the broken rivers, and the terrain in a few spots, and tweaking the economy a little bit, but I haven't got around to those things yet. RoR wanted to take a look at the rough beta, so here it is.

The main changes so far are 1/ an increased Lifetime Industry Profit target and 2/ an express speed and haulage target.

The existing scenario only had a $20 million LIP target for Gold, which for this map is so low as to be insignificant. I have provisionally set it to $200 million for Gold and $100 million for Silver. I am considering having different goals tied to game difficulty level.
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The express speed target is calculated on a yearly basis, depending on the number of cities you have connected. If you make your network bigger, you have to haul more express to beat the target.

The lower target is 8 loads per connected city per year (ie: 80 loads for 10 cities connected) at an average speed of 25 mph or more. If you haul less than that, or slower than that, you get fined at the end of the year: $50 k per city connected (ie: $500k for 10 cities connected).

OTOH, if you haul more than 10 loads per connected city per year (ie: 100 loads for 10 cities connected) at an average speed of 30 mph or more, you get a bonus of the same size.

IOW, if you have 10 cities hooked up to your network then the difference between getting fined and getting a bonus is $1million. Every year. The gap in terms of speed and loads between fine and bonus is intended to let intermediate players avoid fines without giving it too much thought. I've found I can consistently get the bonuses.
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The express target is triggered when you buy access to Romania. I noticed that with the original map some people were basically skipping Greece, and buying access to Romania at the start. The new express target makes this more difficult, because as soon as you connect any Romanian cities you will have to meet the target if you want to avoid fines. Since express traffic usually needs a bit of time and a number of cities hooked up before it really gets going, attempting a Romania start now means you are quite likely to get hit with some fines in the early years.

A Romania start is still playable. It's just not a no-brainer any more. You have to think it through in more detail. Starting in Greece still works well. I haven't yet seen a seeding that makes a Greece start unplayable. It's also probably worth buying access to Bulgaria at the start, just as an alternative. Bulgaria on this map is not like Bulgaria on the old Orient Express map. It's quite lucrative, and has easy terrain. Connecting Greece to Bulgaria also gives you half price access to all other territories.

It would even be possible to work around Romania for the entire game, only buying access at the last minute to get the required connection to Bucharest. The rest of the map should be lucrative enough to allow doing this, if anyone really wants to try it, and it might be a good way to add replay value. It would be more challenging in more ways than one, because connecting Bucharest to Belgrade makes industry purchases 20% cheaper, which is a great help when going for high LIP.
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PNW - I'm considering adding a PNW target. If there is no PNW target it is easy to fuel expansion by using stock issues to the max. Requiring a certain level of PNW will restrict the use of stock and add an extra challenge, particularly if the existing requirement for no company debt is matched with a new requirement for no personal debt. Since I'm evil, I'm thinking any PNW target should be tied to CBV, in much the same way express targets are tied to size of network. This could possibly be tied to game difficulty level.

Rubber supply - Rubber only comes from ports at the moment, and the 1:1 Goods => Rubber conversion is never profitable. Without Rubber, the Auto Plant and Tire Factory are wasted slots. I haven't tried seeing how much I can force the unprofitable conversion, because there's always too much going on with the rest of the map. It may be better to just have a couple of ports supply rubber without requiring a conversion. Alternatively, rejig the conversion to make 3 or 4 Rubber for one load of Goods, with a limit set on maximum production.

Aluminum - The map will seed Bauxite mines after 1910, but by that time you're halfway through the game, and it never seems to seed enough of them to be any use. That means the Aluminum Refinery is a wasted slot too. Obvious change would be to increase the seeding rate for Bauxite mines, but honestly I don't think this map needs them. It does the same job as Steel, and there's plenty of Steel around once you get into Yugoslavia. Before then it's a bit tight, but there is some good supply in Bulgaria too, so perhaps the Bauxite/Aluminum slots would be better used by other industries. Historically, it wasn't used much before 1930 anyway.

Chemicals - Same deal as for Bauxite mines. There never seems to be enough Chemical Plants to be worth the slot, meaning the same goes for the Fertilizer Factory. This is one situation where I think an increase in seeding makes sense. There is a large demand for Fertilizer on the map, so it would be a viable industry if it could be supplied.

1.06 cargoes - None of these are currently enabled. The whole economy runs on 1.05 cargoes. A few well-chosen ones are probably worth having. I don't like maps that just blindly enable all cargoes, because I find the cluttered interface annoying, so would want to consider what range I end up using.

I might get rid of Rice. It is grown in parts of Europe (the Italians are big on it) but in RT3 it's only really used as a feedstock for the Brewery, and nobody in Europe brews sake. Same with Sugar vs the Distillery. Plenty of slivovitz in the Balkans, but they don't make rum.
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Anyway, zip of the current rougho beta is attached, if anyone wants to play with it.

[RulerofRails]

I'm trying to get into a play of this. When getting serious about it, the first thing I noticed off the bat is that the seeding isn't optimal.

Couple reasons.
I feel resource density is too high outside Greece. With enough cash at the start to get out of Greece all it does is water ones mouth to go somewhere else.

There is some of the repeated industries in neighboring cities going on. Also some cities can have multiple industries of the same type at game start. Just as an example, Bucarest in my seed has 3 Lumber Mills at game start in addition to two warehouses that have a slight demand for Logs. Same thing in Sofia. Skopje also has 3, but it doesn't have any warehouses. Kutakya, Pristina, Sarajevo, Craiova, and Stara Zagora (with two warehouses) all have two. A bit too many eh?

But the main thing is to do with the game's poor RNG itself. The load count of existing loads on the map at game start on the various seeds can vary massively.

Compare this

with this

The number I am mainly looking at is the Existing Column, especially the Total figure. So that's 766 loads on the map in the first seed versus 1463 in the second. That a difference of 603. But that's not all of it. Maybe, my sample size is low having only run maybe a dozen seeds, but the game tends to prefer the seeds at either end of the spectrum. Out of the dozen plus I ran only one was around the midpoint (1096).

That was one of the non-random seeds that occurs when entering the game and loading this at the first scenario. The other non-random was around 790. I realize these static seeds vary by machine and exe file. The main point being that at least for me, if you test the map in what I always assumed was the normal way, after freshly entering the game, with a reload (better "random generation") we are looking at 30-50% more resources possible. I would be interested in what you are seeing.

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I randomly tried starting a seed with low existing loads, I believe the number was 793. The game is throwing out lots of new industries so it's presumably playing catch-up. Stayed in Greece, snagged a Textile Mill in Ferai for $750k, then built an Oil Refinery in Larissa (3 wells seeded there at start, with a 4th within the first year). Issued stock, also had to get just a tinge of profit from the Textile Mill to build the Refinery. So, got a bit lucky for a first year profit of $990k.

BTW, with the $200M industry profit target, I'm almost thinking that rail starts can't compete here. Essentially there's little worthwhile to haul in Greece initially, nothing consistent. You can try to buy in somewhere else, to chase a rich opportunity, but rail starts overall are looking like a longshot for competitive completion time especially since high quality track is called for to chase speed. There could always be that golden egg though.

Any idea what the storyline is here? Obviously the Greek economy is poor (contributing is the harsh terrain that is not letting buildings seed). In terms of a cohesive story, why do you have access to Greece in the first place? I'm scheming and scheming how to slip out of Greece.

There are fundamental weakness to demand on Peninsulas in the game. Even if there were no rugged terrain, there is no background support (surrounding cities) to the demand map. Ports can do this, but using too many can introduce "fishing" problems, and their effect is perhaps too strong. Overall I find that they don't let the sort of price differentials that give a good profit develop as easily as normal.

Not meaning to bash the map. Really just wondering are you regarding the seeding as mainly ok, or is there a more substantial re-jig coming? It's probably pretty foolish to compare the finer points of strategy and balance beforehand. In the meantime I will play a bit on the casual side to test out the nifty express system.

PS. Did you notice that Brindisi (Italy) is sitting a couple squares into the ocean? The cities on Crete are slightly into the water, but I think that may be a room issue.

[Gumboots]

Must admit I haven't got into playing with the seeding and economy yet. I just took the existing map and was seeing how it played, then came up with the express idea. I agree that both could do with a bit of tweaking, but haven't given it much thought as I was chasing other things. I also haven't been doing the load>exit>load trick and have just been playing them as they come on first hit.

I'm wondering if the terrain is what is causing the large variability in seeding. If something tries to seed one side or another of an optimal spot, it may not be buildable. It may also be related to the high number of industries in some places. They may be conflicting on initial seeding attempts, with the result that nothing gets built. Just a thought. Dunno if it's relevant or not. Have you run into anything similar on other maps?

I have found that all seeds so far seem to be playable, but haven't kept records of loads, etc. Will keep an eye on those now that you've mentioned it.

AFAIK there's no storyline as such apart from "Here's a map. Go play trains." I don't have a problem with starting outside of Greece. Although the author probably didn't consider it, I think being able to start several ways is an advantage for replay value. So I view a Greece start as something to play if you want to try a Greece start. Ditto any other territory.

I think a rail start could compete on this map, although I admit I haven't tried it. I've been playing mixed industry and rail from the start. Once you really get established there is so much cash rolling in that you can pretty much buy or build anything anytime. I think you could catch up on industry profits, even with a rail start, providing you didn't leave it too long.

The other point is that Romania, although good on this map, isn't the sole economic powerhouse. So there is always the option of building around Romania until near the end of the game, if you want to try a strategy with low quality track and no express goals. If you buy access to Romania in January of your second last year you will have all of that year until the target first triggers, then all of the next year before any fine or bonus is applied. This gives you a clear 23 months with access to Romania before you have to worry about any express speed/haulage goal. That should be easily enough to wind up the game.

The only catch would be that you wouldn't get the Belgrade to Bucharest connection earlier, meaning you wouldn't get reduced industry costs earlier, which would make getting the high industry profits significantly more difficult. But that could be circumvented by making the connection either Belgrade-Bucharest or Belgrade-Istanbul, as one obvious option.

Re Brindisi and Crete: I haven't paid attention to them, as I'm planning on there not being any rail access to them anyway. But if they need minor tweaks for eye candy and/or port locations then that's certainly doable.

[RulerofRails]

I haven't been keeping an eye on it for too long, but I remember that the Coast to Coast map has a big range in loads available at game start also. Hence, the comments that sometimes Florida is popping with Produce farms in some seeds. One of the maps (don't remember the name right now) based on that map has pre-laid track and that makes a big difference to company health.

Well, Joan gave a great strategy. I'm four years in. I don't know if I just got really lucky, but with the 4 wells at Larissa things are looking pretty good. I stayed in Greece until I had maxed out bonds. Bulgaria is the only adventure so far. I built a little track. Farms are seeding in (boom times) almost as fast as I can buy them (remember I started with a low count seed). Haven't had enough cash to spend on track. Currently have 25 loads of Diesel sitting in my stations with a delta of $62 per load to full strength. Looking forward to a good year! But, .... should I wait to build a Textile Mill on the south of the river at Calarasi since I suspect industry profit will take the longest to reach?

[Gumboots]

Sometimes the oil wells at Larissa don't seed until later in the game, but I agree they are a good bet if they are there at the start.

[RulerofRails]

I finished the run in June 1915. Turned out that a long period (5+ years) in the mid-game was in depression. Burnt the track south from Bursa to Rhodes and to get to Athens and Durazzo.

Built service spurs. Used a suspension bridge to get past Mount Olympus. Was running 49 trains on Mixed consist. Went into Romania in 1904, so as I was getting serious I could use the Class 500. Missed the first bonus, and later on 3 more when my average express speed dipped to 30mph. Most of the time I was sitting on 31mph, with maybe one 32.

One comment I would make is that a speed goal makes me shy of going into the mountains. Think of it this way. I tend to connect to the easy places on flat ground first. If I aim to hit a target with these, that's good for the time being. However, I want to expand quickly early in the game so maybe I built some Steel Bridges and didn't make routes as fast as possible (easier grades, curve radius etc.). Bottom line is that I aiming for this goal, and I did enough to reach it. (I know I used Mixed consist here, but I'm taking the example of a less experienced player).

But, later on I want/need to go to the mountains. Well, those routes are naturally slower and even with good building they will probably be slower if run at decent capacity. So this will drag on my average speed overall. In consequence, at this point in the game I have to spend millions on upgrades (basically a loss in ROI terms) BEFORE I can really go into the mountain routes. It would be neat if the player can unlock some upgrades somehow. These are worth a bit on this map.

Maybe something simple like for each 3 cities connected pulling power rises 1% and speed by 1%? Maybe a couple specific cities that are hard to reach could have a special extra boost.

I don't know if it fits well with this particular map, but if we were to be realistic on any famous express route, like the Orient Express, this could be simulated by territories under the cities along the "corridor" of the real line having a much higher passenger production level than the rest of the map. Obviously could use warehouses with Passenger demands in those cities as well. We cannot control the passenger destinations so there would be a fair bit of local traffic branch from the main line, but we should see some heavy express usage along said corridor. A fairly unobtrusive way to mark cities is to but a space between the letters. Like this: I n s t a n b u l


Other thing I thought I would toss out there is to have an Express haulage count. Probably not mapwide. I'm thinking this is mainly for Greece, but I'm also quizzing if there should be another for Turkey? I have a potentially substitute suggestion for avoiding burn track, see below.

I really wish we could get hold of the number on express revenue in the editor. Anyway, one idea to potentially help avoid burn track is to have the far flung connection goals to also include a certain number of loads of passengers and/or mail hauled FROM those cities (they would need their own territories). The only way to cheat this count would be to build two stations in a city and even that would be a bit hard. Building a second station can be prevented with an event to destroy any station placed in the territory as long as that city counts as "Connected" using "Terr. connects to City". For example Turkey connects to Rhodes. Only downside would be that you couldn't build a service spur in that territory cause those buildings would just vanish each time you tried to place them.

I think it makes good sense to increase the range on the locos especially in the mountainous regions. To connect mountainous towns with low grades, sometimes less direct routes are needed. I might use double the water stops in extreme cases.

PS. In terms of the economy and multiple industries in the cities, well it does actually make the industry profit less straight-forward, I would stop short of calling it "challenge" as it's mainly annoyance.

[Gumboots]

I tend to not like using burn track. I was using the track to Rhodes and Durazzo. Durazzo especially, since there is very good freight haulage there.

For express, I was running P8's in the hilly sections, with them set to full consists. I found this was fine when running a lot of Atlantics on the flatter runs to help boost speed. But then I still have Lirio stats on my 1.06, so I agree the Class 500 would be better with default stats.

I used a lot of stone bridges and double track on those runs too. Some steel bridges in the hillier/lower priority sections, but even most of that was double tracked. Almost all my roster was split into freight and express. Only had a handful on mixed traffic. With this combo I was finding I could hit the express bonuses every year, and they get very lucrative if you can nail them.

And IMO, if one of the goals is express haulage then you should take a penalty if you start with a crappy system. You would have to upgrade it to get higher speeds, so I think that's fine. If this stops some superman expanding as fast as he wants to, he'll just have to be more clever, right?

There is already an express haulage target. Why do you want an extra one for Greece and/or Turkey? Is this to stop burn track? If so, it could be done with express or with any cargo, just on the basis of loads in and out of any station. Those can still be cheated by bait and switch though, so the dastardly way of doing it is to have a revenue requirement instead. I've used that before, most notably my California map revamp.

I'm finding Greece generally works well anyway since there is enough going on there to reward normal track and service. I think southern Turkey is lacking a bit. The Rhodes goal feels a bit artificial and a bit of a waste of time. Might have to think of something to give it a purpose.

Regarding the range thing: I found that with standard range and service on spurs there was no problem. I did use a couple of inline facilities for long runs, but most trains never needed them. I'd only see the increased range being useful for beginners who don't know how to use spurs, so they have some chance of avoiding express speed penalties.

But I'd be open to having that as a purchasable upgrade. Something like 10% added loco cost gives 20% added range.
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Re territories under the main route for Orient Express: I had been thinking the same thing the last couple of days. Would also have requirements to connect all the towns on the main route. It's always tempting to do a new OE map with more realistic terrain, so you couldn't do the old "follow the Danube" trick. I was looking at it last night, funnily enough, now that I can get clean heightmaps out of the updated MicroDEM. It would work really well as an 832x576 map, extending from Salzburg to Istanbul.

[RulerofRails]

I don't like burn track either. But, it made strategic sense here. The ROI from those track connections I "burnt" was, in my guesstimation, on the low side compared to industry, in the first place let alone with the 20% discount. The Industry profit goal raises the priority of industry profits still more. So, industry buying is at priority over the connections. That' why I made them last. My suggestions were some ideas that could potentially change the optimal strategy so that you had a reason to have them connected for some time before the end of the game.

I talk about rail being able to give better returns than industry in the short term, but that is for the normal condition. This depends on being able to expand freely, on relatively benign terrain, and being able to run high traffic concentration where necessary. This map doesn't tick those boxes, having restricted access, some challenging terrain and speed requirements. Rail still works fine economically, but it's just me chasing the advantage.

I will mention that the main thing for me with speed goals is track laying. As I said, I'm always trying to chase the advantage (even though I said it's a casual play). Both in relation to grades and curves. The game doesn't give the curves I want, so I'm laying lots of small sections to try to increase curve radius. This is probably fairly futile. I estimate in my play that I wasted a good amount of time, perhaps 30%, laying track. When I replay, I'm just going to have to suppress this. But to really optimize speed, I suppose I could spend a whole day worth of time laying out the ultimate network as a sandbox.

I should try this map with a split system. I will try to start on a low carload seed but this time buying into Bulgaria or Jugoslavia. Maybe I will challenge myself by waiting till I make all the required connections before buying any industry.

I had a look on a map and there is a narrow strip of flat land between Mount Olympus and the coast where the real railway runs. Also, after looking at the satellite maps, my suspicion is confirmed: Greece isn't this green in real life.

[Gumboots]

Yup, I get that it often makes strategic sense if you're just going for the fastest win. I just prefer to play it without burn track, unless I'm already bored with the game.

[RulerofRails]

Well, made a few bungles but they're history now.

Just FYI, I've been playing with the default cars and price islands re-instated. Anyway, I started in Jugoslavia (right in the top left corner of the map) and had a successful first year with big runs between the cities ($919k). Second year was about equal and then the third year things picked up to 2.5-3M. With the last of my bonds I bought into Romania in 1898. I had been using the Stirling to get those high initial profits. This was a mis-step for sure, but even after replacing all express with P8s, because I was trying to run the railroad to make money, their acceleration just wasn't good enough to hit 26mph. I was getting 24s and 25s, even after spending millions on improvements (well, what I could since I was getting hit by the fines). Bad flatspot on growth which hung around until 1905 when the Class 500 showed up, and I could finally beat the fines. Last play I was cherry-picking routes with large cities that were further apart. This play I expanded more normally as is needed to get a better ROI from rails since I wasn't building industry until my railway was complete.

I also purposely paid full price for access to all the main countries (missed the one city wonders), so Bulgarian access came last. In the end I connected to 78 cities before I started building/buying industry. There were a couple small ones like Delfi, Coriza, and Ezine that I didn't think were worthwhile.

I was hoping to finish at the end of 1922, but the game ground into Depression so the industries just didn't quite have the mustard. I did quite enjoy this play where I setup the railway and then worked on the industries. This way I can finance the railway better, then optimize cargo production to give plenty of goods for my rails to haul.

My suggestions to avoid burn track were redundant in hindsight, too similar to the major express target. What about if the industry profits target starts from when the connections are made? If you earned some previously, that's fine, but depending on difficulty level say that you need for example to earn $200M more for expert level.


The reason I suggest the range on locos possibly being increased, I'm talking journeys like Braila/Galtia - Bucarest need a water stop at each end. Also the low grade routing for Serrai - Salonicco. It wouldn't take that much, but from feel, it seems like it shouldn't be necessary. In the end, my roster was very simple, for each new city, a service spur and two Class 500s, one freight, the other express. This kept double-track to a minimum since the express trains were designed to run mainly on their own "section" of the line. Any place of interaction with other express engines was double-tracked. I did freight the same way, just because it was easy to copy the train and redo the consist.

The main thing I did to manage the express speed later in the game was to add a caboose to the express trains. They weren't reliable enough at Average rating with the 13 ton express cars. In terms of numbers, my goal for express loads was 780 (once rail expansion stopped), I achieved a peak of 980 in one year, but saw some decline once the "Auto use exploding" newspaper came up. A couple years were close, but then in 1922 things seemed to have picked up a bit again (859). Speeds were sitting on 31,32mph. Somewhere along the way I had a 30 and missed the bonus. That was a signal that I needed to add some more cabooses and do replacements of the 10+ year olds.

[Gumboots]

Braila to Bucarest and back is fine with only one spur at Braila. It shouldn't need a water stop at both ends. Alexandria to Constanta is also fine with a spur at each end, although they will run out of water a few yards before the stations at each end. That's no problem since the remaining distance is short, and express will just coast in without losing much speed.

Salonicco all the way to Komotene, on minimum grades all the way, also works with a spur at each end. Ditto Komotene around to Harmanli. I still think range is adequate for anyone running maintenance spurs.

Buying into Romania in the gap years between the B era intro and the faster express locos would penalise you, especially if you were playing for maximum city connections and no industry.IOW, not such a good strategy. Not sure if it needs anything done about it, but am open to ideas.

I prefer industry profits from game start myself, largely because I think if it is left until later in the game it may become tedious towards the end, when you'll end up just buying every farm in sight just to use up piles of cash and make some extra profit.

My rosters tend to be double Atlantics (LIrio stats) for express on all major routes if the terrain suits them, with double track of course. Then however many H3's and P8's I need to deal with the relevant freight. That way I get plenty of fast express haulage with minimum delays, and have enough of a speed buffer to enable me to get away with P8's for express in the hilly sections.

I must admit I haven't tried playing this one with default loco stats yet. Lirio's stats pack has some faults, but for this period they are definitely better (and more realistic) for express and default cars, IMO. They mean you can run Atlantics and Class 500's on full consist with no caboose, and get away with it.

[RulerofRails]

I prefer industry profits from game start myself, largely because I think if it is left until later in the game it may become tedious towards the end, when you'll end up just buying every farm in sight just to use up piles of cash and make some extra profit.

You could always try it. Personally I'm always eager to go after ROI so I never got to the point of buying everything in sight (maybe this is not true for other players?). I also regard such an effort as maximizing the resource potential on the map, which I also enjoy, and in my opinion is in fact easier (less thinking required) to do once your network is established and the effects of demand transmission through the stations, thanks to your train routing setup, have stabilized. Also, as I mentioned before with Lumber Mills, this map is setup with multiple industries of the same type likely to appear in some of the cities. With this idea there's less chance for parasite industries to spring up to spoil yours. A: Because seeding should be pretty stable that far into the map and, B: the time period when you are collecting industry profits is shorter (7-10 years instead of 15-20+).

In my play I did buy a few things at "normal" price, but vast majority of my purchases were with the expectation of a rise in ROI (for example buying the Steel Mill after placing a Tool and Die beside it, Lumber Mill after placing a Furniture Factory, etc.). This was a suggestion in regards to making sure track isn't "burnt." Doesn't matter if you don't like it. You agreed that Rhodes connection is not worthwhile. I'm curious about what solution you come up with.

[Gumboots]

I have tried it, hence my comments about just buying everything to get industry profits. I was running into that even with the current LIP goal. I think making the LIP count start later will just make the game longer without making it more interesting.

Still not sure what to do about Rhodes. Haven't given it much thought yet.

[AT41B]

I haven't played this one yet, but I was about to do so. I saw in the 'Verification check' there is no logic errors. But, I am puzzled about the effect of event 'Express tally'.
Will company variable 3 work as it shows?

[Gumboots]

Yep. RT3 does the operations sequentially. So that event sets CV3 to mail hauled, then adds pax hauled to that, then adds troops hauled to that. I tested it to make sure, using known haulages for the different cargoes, and it works just fine. If you have a train come into a station with 4 pax and 2 mail in the consist, when it unloads the status page will update correctly.

[AT41B]

Thanks Gumboots, now I will try to play the scenario without wondering if it works or not. Thanks again.

[Gumboots]

I don't know if it fits well with this particular map, but if we were to be realistic on any famous express route, like the Orient Express, this could be simulated by territories under the cities along the "corridor" of the real line having a much higher passenger production level than the rest of the map. Obviously could use warehouses with Passenger demands in those cities as well. We cannot control the passenger destinations so there would be a fair bit of local traffic branch from the main line, but we should see some heavy express usage along said corridor.

For some reason I was idly thinking about this, after having not thought about it for ages, and I had an idea which is worth testing.

I think it might be possible to set up an event to measure express speed by territory. You can adjust several things on a per territory basis, so perhaps combining a YTD or LTD express speed condition with "Force test by territory" would allow checking express speed by territory. This is potentially useful for an Orient Express scenario, because you could set a higher express speed requirement on the main route while still allowing lower speeds without penalty on branch lines. You could also set different express speed requirements for different sections of the main route, with a higher requirement on the plains.

I'm going to look into this and see if it can be scripted.

Edit: And the answer is no. "Company Av. Speed" overrides everything else, and it only tests on the basis of that.