Colonial India

[muffle]

Hi All, I downloaded the Colonial India Map but am unable to haul 100 load of weapons to Lucknow (requirement for Gold) any strategies/tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[OilCan]

It has been a long time since I played Colonial India. If I recall right, you have to exchange cotton for weapons at the port and, if I still recall right, that's not as easy as it sounds.

You may have tried this, but you have to ship cotton to the port at a loss. In otherwords, use a custom consist of cotton only. And you have to keep finding new spots to haul cotton from; robbing textile mills and stations with large cargo stacks of cotton. At the port, you need trains waiting for weapons with a custom consist of weapons only (3 cars max) with a priority rail status so nothing slows them down.

I forget how many weapons can be exhanged per year at the port. I mention this because it does no good to haul extra cotton to the port beyond the amount needed for the maxium exchange allowed - you will not get any additional weapons. You can however, send extra train loads of cotton to the port and STOP the trains on the track just outside the station until the next year rolls around and then restart the trains again.

It takes considerable micromanagment of your cotton and weapon trains. (Did I just say 'micromanagment'?)

On my custom consists, I like to add the last car as 'any cargo' and set the maximum number of cars one less than the total consist (not counting a caboose). The 'any cargo' allows for at least one car with a high profit and it helps offsets your hauling for a loss. And I usuall set up 3-5 cars total in the consist, no more. The exception is when there is plenty of supply and the haul requirement is very high as well, then I'll set up a full consist.

I know it costs more money to run many trains with small consists than fewer trains with full consists; but I'm ususally feeding a mill or factory and I want the raw resource arriving in small, steady amounts so the mill can keep cranking at full speed rather than have the mill slow down between large loads.

In Colonial India, you may want to count the stack of cotton cargo available at a station and set your custom consist for one car less.

There! I've been more chatty than I intended to be. Hope this helps.

[muffle]

Thanks so much! I micromanaged like mad and still failed! I will try all your tips and let you know. thanks again!!

[AdmiralHalsey]

All I need to do is connect Darjeeling and I will win gold. One small problem though. No matter which why angle I try the tracks can't connect to Darjeeling at all due to the steep angle of the grade. Does anyone know how to connect to the city? Thanks.

[Gumboots]

Never played this map, but have you tried a tunnel or bridge to ease the grade?

[AdmiralHalsey]

Yes and it doesn't help.

[Blackhawk]

Well I just downloaded the map and took a look at it. That's a very sharp mountain grade that goes from almost flat land to extreme mountains with sharp edges making it difficult to even slowly ease up the slope. Throw in that you have to build with connected track and it becomes even more difficult. I wasn't able to figure out a way to get up the mountain before I became frustrated with it. It seems you only need to make it up halfway up the mountain where you can place a large station to cover the city, but it's still difficult to find a way to get there.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

This was not the only difficulty I had with this scenario.

There is this effect where if you haul liquer or meat to certain provinces it destroys your train stations which messes up your whole train system. Very annoying and the only real answer is to make sure that such cities are not part of the rail net. That of course means tracking which provinces you can't haul cargo into and its a complicated situation involving the player essentially compiling a list out of RRT3 and figuring out which provinces are where. Kind of more out of game work then I'm really willing to invest. Better to either not have these annoying events or just hit the player with a monetary penalty.

[Gumboots]

Sounds like a fairly easy editing job, if anyone wants to do it.

[RayofSunshine]

I am not of much help either. First off, I don't really like mountainous terrain, and these are of an extreme steepness. With such, I didn't get very far with this scenario. Oh, I try or make an attempt, as some one has takent the time to create the scenario, as well as the terrain, BUT....

[Gold Boy]

It takes about £8m, but you can bang a tunnel in from the bottom of the Himalayas to Gontal (ish), and then circle back.

The Farleigh does the climb with a full load.

[TheBonobo4]

Can also confirm it is possible to connect to Darjeeling, though it ain't pretty. Tried it in sandbox, essentially you can build a huge tunnel from North of Calcutta to Kathmandu, then build a few bridges and tunnels to Darjeeling. And the gradient for me was 9 in the tunnel, so only Shays and Fairlies can make it. It might be possible without access to Nepal, like I said I did it in Sandbox.

I've had no luck in the actual scenario itself, I need to think of a strategy. Funnily enough my first go (on Medium) was my best, I had Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta connected by about 1856, and making decent profit (I can't remember exactly how much), then the rebellions in 1857-1859 ruined me. Stock price plummeted, and I became unprofitable, effectively ending that play through. So this scenario is likely going to be exceptionally tough.

[RulerofRails]

I downloaded this map myself ages ago, but the economic setup didn't seem immediately compelling, and I ended up playing another map instead. However, now that I understand and enjoy working the Express market a lot more this map was a great play.

There are a couple posts that cast doubt on some seeding aspects of this map.
For example these posts by JayEff: viewtopic.php?p=8998#p8998; and viewtopic.php?p=5879#p5879. I don't agree. I think that the seeding works well for a light industrial presence and therefore strong rails one. I enjoy this type of game and I imagine that the scenario was designed this way. I'm actually quite impressed that the creator understood the game enough in 2005 (according to the timestamp) to make a map this refined.

I will address the other issue mentioned in the posts I linked to above. Ports. I believe that the JayEff forgot that there are 5 different valid resource types that can be exchanged for weapons at the various French ports. I had no issue with the Cotton -> Weapons conversion. It was profitable and healthy for me. I tried to do a spread between the various conversions available and I never needed to haul any cargo at a loss to the ports. If there was an issue with Cotton, there are 4 other exchanges that provide plenty of opportunity to get the job done in the time given. You could do the whole map without using the Cotton conversion.

My playstyle was to NOT build (or encourage) more than a couple industries that would make the proscribed goods (Meat and Alcohol). I like to think that this is the intended easiest playstyle on this one. I used auto consists for the short trips, until in the early-1870's I received a violation notice. Then I took the step to set some consists to Express only in that area to avoid a repeat failure. The important thing here is that while the violation notice mentions a handful of territories, you will only lose stations and track in the specific territory where the violation actually took place. Not a game-breaker for me.

Reaching Darjeeling is no problem if you follow Gold Boy's suggestion. Build a tunnel from the plain up to Gangtok, arriving at the lowest point of that small valley. Should be an 8% grade. Then double back to climb the rest of the way up to Darjeeling itself with reasonable grades. Access to Nepal isn't necessary, just be careful to line the tunnel up so that it won't cut into Nepal. This might mean starting a bit further east on than seems necessary at first glance. Not hard to do.


WARNING! Spoilers ahead! If you want to discover the map yourself stop reading here.
Suggestions for getting off the ground are to avoid the Delhi area until the trouble blows over there. I did a cracking start by going there ealry on (but with a twist as I headed east first to get the Lumber, Paper, and Coal haulage before striking quickly towards Delhi) getting the company up to $5+M profits, but only to get ripped apart by the political turmoil. I abandoned that play.

One of the most important early game boosts comes from choosing the extra cash, the better credit seems a joke compared to the effect of some similar events in other scenarios. Choosing the cash gives a big boost to share price as well and will be of great benefit if the player wants an extra $200k+ if he chooses to go heavy on issuing his stocks. Probably recommended on an intitial attempt if things are seeming a bit tight. In my normal style, I didn't do any issuing. I used this boost to quickly gain 50% ownership with minimal personal debt (max $500k or so).

On the second attempt (successful this time) I bought a Dhaka Lumber Mill and a Paper Mill in the next town to the east (Agarjala) I then had just enough money to connect to Dhaka and run two of the cheapest trains (Alders?) in the first year for a 500kish first year. Second year I connected to Agarjala and Shilong. Building Hotels for the Agarjala to Dhaka rotue immediately as this seems about the perfect distance for express at this stage of the game. I also built my only proscribed industry (a Distillery next to a Produce farm just east of Hyderabad territory). In the third year I extended north for the Coal, Logs, Pulp, and some Rice available in Dispur. Then I started basically saving for the AI takeover with an occassional expenditure like upgrading the Lumber Mill when it was appropriate.

A big part of my industrial revenue came from Hotels plus some farms I inherited when I took over the French company in the 4th or 5th year of the game. The main draw for the takeover was the Territory access rights available. It's actually possible to do a "cold-turkey" merge (human player owns none of the rival AI companies' shares) right at the start of the scenario. But I didn't want to do that as it would just make the map too easy. I bought out 50% of that company on margin and then used bonds for the financing to get the job done. I then developed from the French companies' tracks in the south. I captured the population centers there and then caught the main cities on the way north towards Delhi. Eventually connecting the whole network together later in the game. Hope this gives some ideas. Good luck with this map.

[TheBonobo4]

Finished this one last night, on medium. Got the silver, but a few things I'd note.

Firstly I didn't realise until about 1873 or so that the ports don't just make weapons but rather they produce weapons in exchange for iron, sugar, and lumber. Add that to the fact that despite there being 4 French ports, only the 3 on the east coast actually made weapons. Maybe the other port wasn't profitable and got destroyed, I don't know. But at the end of the game I only managed about 90 of the 100 weapons, but I managed everything else for gold.

With regards to building to Darjeeling, I built a station to Gangtok, with a tunnel that had a constant gradient of 5 percent, costing about 7 million. And then I built another tunnel with a gradient of 4 to Darjeeling itself. Unfortunately this means that only fairlies and maybe consolidations can handle it, and to be honest if connecting to Darjeeling wasn't necessary I would not do it, there isn't enough cargo for it to be worthwhile.

Also, since net worth isn't an issue you can just issue stock and have no dividends for extra cash. Refinancing bonds to 5 or 6 percent as well massively helps, and I took the extra cash at the start, which I think was an extra 2 million, I don't know how the extra credit would affect things.

This scenario also became a lot easier since the AI company was unprofitable and had about 1.5 million in bonds, so I bought it for 1 million early on, also this gave access to all of India, whether this was a big or intentional I don't know, but it saved a fortune on access rights!

Also because of the rebellions early on, go for industry until about 1860, I made good money on random breweries and farms, and by the game end had around 60 cities linked up with most money coming from express, hotels etc helped a lot on this map since there are loads of passengers, and was making about 10 million profit a year.

Traffic and congestion was an issue, I had double track from the ports up to Lucknow, but I'd like to see more locomotives since I used almost exclusively cramptons until 1870 and then Stirling and dukes. I guess that's just typical of the period though.

And finally as was mentioned earlier, when 1883 came and I got the silver, I also got a notice saying that since I hauled 9 loads of alcohol to Muslim areas I was in trouble, but since the scenario had ended I didn't get to see any effects. So I'm not sure what if anything was affected. It didn't look like I lost any track or trains, but mainly it's annoying since there's no way to know about this event until it happens unless you've played the map before. Seems kinda dumb to me.

All in all a good map, though weapons haulage is definitely the toughest goal, I had everything else done by about 1880, and mostly because connecting to Darjeeling took a lot of money and I was trying to find the best route. Also the train running from Gangtok to the town nearest the Himalayas at the bottom ran out of sand and water, since I could only build a service tower at the bottom and couldn't fit one before Gangtok station, I had to reroute the train to service after hauling up to Gangtok. Even then I think the train still runs out of sand and water.

Oh and the silver medal Tibetan monk thing. I'm not sure what that is meant to mean, but then I'm not a Tibetan monk.

[Gumboots]

I just took a look at the briefing on the archives page, and there is no mention of weapons at all. All it mentions for requirements are industry profits, revenue, company debt and city connections. Why is everyone so concerned about hauling weapons if they're not required for a medal?

BTW, I do think it's annoying that he's provided a logo which must be used to prevent the game crashing. It would be much better to provide the logo as an optional extra, so the game would run without it.

[TheBonobo4]

I just took a look at the briefing on the archives page, and there is no mention of weapons at all. All it mentions for requirements are industry profits, revenue, company debt and city connections. Why is everyone so concerned about hauling weapons if they're not required for a medal?

BTW, I do think it's annoying that he's provided a logo which must be used to prevent the game crashing. It would be much better to provide the logo as an optional extra, so the game would run without it.

If you play the scenario, the goals for gold do change as you play.

[Gumboots]

Yeah I looked in the editor. Dirty tricks FTW.

Ok, if the author is going to play dirty tricks, I reckon the player should too. Best way to start is a cold turkey merge on the French company. As RoR says, it will work right at the start of the game, without you owning any of the French company's stock.

All you do is immediately put in a merger attempt at the lowest possible price. This will cost your company $1,560k but as part of the deal you pick up $2,000k of French cash and no additional debt. Net result is that your company starts the game with an extra $440k and full access rights to all relevant territories. It's a no-brainer.

For locomotives: at the start of the game the only one worth using is the Baldwin, unless you are hauling large amounts of express. If you want to haul express the Beuth is the better choice. It's not faster, but it has a good pax appeal rating and adequate reliability for lighter consists. The Firefly isn't worth using, due to its extra cost and terrible reliability.

Once the Crampton becomes available it would seem to be the obvious choice for express, but this is probably a mistake. It is only faster than the Beuth on dead flat terrain. Once grades hit 2% the Beuth is just as good uphill, and on a 4% grade the Beuth murders the Crampton. The Beuth is also significantly cheaper to run and has a higher pax appeal rating.

The upshot is that if I had to haul a lot of pax in a very short timeframe on dead flat terrain I would use the Crampton, but for general express haulage I would use the Beuth.

The American 4-4-0 is hardly worth considering in this scenario, unless you need a few fill-in's between the Baldwin and Connie, but if you are playing with default loco stats and cargo cars the 60 mph rocket-powered Consolidation becomes a no-brainer for general haulage once it is available. I frankly probably wouldn't even bother with the Duke or Stirling, except for pure pax consists.

[zzc]

Building density was tuned down, I think the map maker didnt really like that poptop maps were quite easy late game, with lots of industry to buy.

The weapons to lucknow can be quite hard since most of the weapon ports are quite a distance. Using freight only trains might help - takes abt 6 months time one way.

The meat and alcohol events - this was quite funny, but the map maker only provided half a solution - theres a recipe that changes alcohol to furniture, the factory is disabled. There was no room for another recipe, all 12 are used. I think its quite creative the recipes.

[Kepler]

Wow. I find this really weird. My name is Eric; I'm the guy who created the Colonial India scenario, way back in the summer of 2004. At the time, I was living in Edinburgh, Scotland, doing research for my PhD. (I work in the History of Science, hence my user name of Kepler, who is my hero.) I would sit in the libraries & archives all day, come back to my student flat, make dinner and type up my notes as I ate. (This is back when many manuscript rooms would not let readers bring in laptops; so all notes had to be taken by hand.) But then, what is a poor foreign student (who was missing his wife back in North Carolina terribly) to do with the rest of his evening? Well, sit around and create a massive and terrifically difficult RRT3 scenario, of course! How strangely gratifying to see people still making the occasional post about it. (I mean, c'mon, people, get a life!)

I had originally written a 'Cheat sheet' for the scenario, for those who were too frustrated with it to keep trying, but that file has apparently not found its way to this forum. Many posters here have discovered and shared those cheats, such as quickly buying the French RR, laying track to Gangtok in order to get to Darjeeling, etc. Some people complained about the goals for Gold changing in the middle of the game, or about the unexpected events. But here's the thing: I am an historian. History is the story of things changing, of sh!t happening, of the unexpected. Someone else noted that this isn't a scenario that you can just "ride out" to the end the way so many other scenarios are written. This is true, and it's exactly what I intended.

Well, that's all I had to say for now. But if anyone has any questions, feel free to post them. I'll try to keep an eye here and answer.

Cheers,
Eric

[Gumboots]

TBH I'd just do the track to Darjeeling as burn track. The line didn't open until 1881 anyway, and going to Gangtok with a massive tunnel, then doubling back, seems completely bonkers to anyone who knows how the line was built in real life*. I don't usually like burn track in RT3, but in this case I think I'd just run the cheapest connection from Siliguri and not care if it ever had a train on it.

*I realise that map scale can do weird things to railway lines in RT3.