Win by doing all the "5" routes - achievement

[wroot]

Can't get this achievement. Maybe doing something wrong. I'm trying this on a standard map and some of the 5's are double tracks and i can't do both of the double tracks obviously, but i do all the possible 5 tracks and win a game and still don't get the achivement.

[krazy10011]

I have the same problem (can't win the poker achievement). I also can't win the trestle achievement - win using no 1 or 2 segment routes.

[wroot]

I've got Trestle, though.

[kymess_jr]

I want to do this acheivement but I'm not sure I know what the "5" routes are? Am I missing something obvious?

[EricB@DoW]

@kymess The 5 routes and the 5 slots long routes between 2 cities

[wroot]

Eric, so how should i do it? Can i do it on a standard US map and only take one owf the double 5 route?

[kymess_jr]

@raven2go thank you for that breakdown, looks like an acheivement I'll be working on for awhile!

[wroot]

Thanks. Still, should be easier than completing 12 tickets. Got 11 once..

[Dudealarm]

I did it, but it has to be on the standard map. You need to get lucky and hope that the AI doesn't claim any.

[wroot]

Just did it myself too. You have to do all the different colors.

[Praxidike Meng]

Just got it myself. Raven2go's guide was useful. Found it helped to hoard cards and finish the game in one fell swoop. If you play routes as you go and get too far ahead in terms of cars, the AI will finish quickly deliberately. So what you need to do is make him think you are struggling then bam, get five 5s in a row to end it while he's faffing about.

[Praxidike Meng]

Now, if anyone wants to do a guide on the Marco Polo one... can't get more than 19 locations.

[TheGreatBrain]

Originally posted by Napoleon in Rags:

Now, if anyone wants to do a guide on the Marco Polo one... can't get more than 19 locations.

I found the 15 ticket acheivement almost impossible, and this one is harder. I wouldn't even call the 15 ticket trick an achievement. It's more of a miracle, and getting it done has very little to do with what you do. It just happens or it doesn't.

With Marco Polo, it seems even harder because its a losing strategy. To hit 20+ cities you need to avoid taking tracks that cost you more than 3 or 4, and you need to AVERAGE about 2 tracks per route! Given the paucity of short routes that aren't in the mountains, this is massively hard.

What's worse is keeping yourself limited to short routes plays right into the prefered strategy for ALL the bots! They value burning through their cars as fast as possible over completeing tickets. On the Asia map they can have their cake and eat it too. With you working at a snail's pace on 1's, 2's and 3's, they'll smoke you on route points and then won't take a hit from missed destinations.

So, it isn't surprising to me that I've visited 20+ cities plenty of times, but...

* I've never gone out first;
* I've never managed to WIN while trying Marco Polo;
* The only time I've even been as close as within 20 points of tying the bot I only had 20 cities, not the required 22;
* Both times I've managed a chain of 22 cities the bot fully doubled my scores.

What I haven't tried is drawing a crapload of destination cards. I'm not sure there's much point as there aren't that many that mutually fit into a 22+ city tour so it may just result in even lower scores due to failed tickets AND any additional delay in getting those trains out seems likely to cause the game to end when you have oodles of trains left to place. In other words, it seems that spending turns drawing cards will hurt your ability to achieve a higher score than the bot AND will hurt your chances of visiting 22 cities.

As far as the Mongolian Horse goes, I don't see that as remotely possible. I've never had less than a dozen trains left to place when the turnlimit expired. Again, you also have to WIN for the achievement to ding.

So, with all these achievements that do not measure skill, do not measure strategic ability, don't seem to reward analytical skills, and seem to be far beyond the normal expectations of good luck, are they really "achievements" and why are they even included?

For me, going for the 15 ticket 'achievement' meant 75-95 failed before you [placed your first train, got your 12th destination card, and even taken your first turn (i.e. the bot had at least 1 linchpin ticket)] out of each 100 attempts, and the few games that actually played to conclusion ended with scores beyond NEGATIVE 100!!! I had -200s and -300s when the game just refused to give me a workable set of tickets until I'd been through the deck multiple times. You could call those Days Of Wonder-Why-I-Wasted-My-Time!? Not exactly a marketing strength putting people through that for no justifiable reason...

...And then it just happened. That game really wasn't different than most of the abject failures. In fact, the draw in which I received the last ticket I wanted I also contained the 2 tickets I was missing for an alternate workable collection of 15 tickets within 45 train cars. (2 sets of 15 that overlap on 13 of them.) On a lark I took those too, hoping that their point values couldn't change a win into a loss if I didn't complete them, and if I was going to lose anyway, then losing by another 20ish points was harmless. In the end, taking those 2 LA tickets I didn't strictly 'need' was what made the win possible — the bot snookered me on being able to complete my Montrèal tickets (without running out of trains) by claiming the 3-Blue NY-MTL route VERY soon after I started playing train cards.

Drawing up to 15 tickets had still taken 8 turns (out of what should be a maximum of 9). The bot was still long-route mad, claiming 4 6's and a 5 or two. Somehow, it just worked out.

I don't see that happening with Marco Polo, or Faster Than a Mongolian Horse. I'd love to hear about others' experiences with these, especially if they prove me wrong.

The only other achievements I still need to ding are on the India map. I haven't looked at it enough to have a feel for how 'achievable' they are.

[wroot]

I've got Mongollian Horse accidentally (wasn't even going for it i think). Maybe it was a miracle, don't know. I've tried Marco Polo a bunch of times and gave up. As with 12 tickets and all the other unhuman achievements..

P.S. Mongollan Horse is the rarest achivements in my profile, so it probably very hard. So i got lucky somehow.

[greensam88]

@wroot
For the Marco Polo achievement, consider the small routes (one and two train routes) that will help you get the required number of cities. You are correc that achievement is more challenging, but if the bot player stalls you could get lucky with this one. Good luck!

If you're still stuck on an achievement, you can check out my guide, with pictures and hopefully a better explanation for what to do.
Steam Achievements Guide