Midgame

[Able Archer]

I believe I'm entering Midgame, and have a couple of questions. I'm in late 1923, I have a crew of 6 or 7, many vehicles, 20(ish) corners, 5 fronts, and 3 locations (Homemade Beer, Garage, small bootlegger club). I've also explored a lot of space locally. I'm looking to expand into a tier 2 product next.

I'm having trouble finding customers outside of my corners. I've only found 2 outside. Most folks outside are willing to sell me crocks, or buy cigs. Beyond that, though, not much. And, I'm not finding common connections to the core people I have met.

And I've met some wonderful folks. Mrs. Halvarsson is awesome. She's introduced me to her daughter and nephew. But she's tapped out. I have 17 favors with her, but nothing to spend them on. :P

Am I just at a point where I need to "push through?" I kind of thought that was the case...10 or so turns ago, but still have really stagnated.

Oh, I burned through a lot of "they know someone you should meet" favors, with a huge number of those going to products that I had found in a safehouse, but can't produce right now.

Many thanks!

(Edited to correct date of my game to 1923 from 1933.)

[maydayp]

time wise you are at the endgame it ends in december 1933. (you can continue after that) you should have more then 3 locations or 5 fronts by this point, and you need to upgrade your bootlegger to accept a second type of alcohol. It should be your main source of sales. not using your crew for selling booze. (it's good if you have an abundance and your bootlagger gets over full, but otherwise no need to sell it to other places) get another t1 product deliver it to your expanded bootlegger and expand your front. check out the guide mentioned in the topice Early Strategies.

[Able Archer]

Originally posted by maydayp:

time wise you are at the endgame it ends in december 1933. (you can continue after that) you should have more then 3 locations or 5 fronts by this point, and you need to upgrade your bootlegger to accept a second type of alcohol. It should be your main source of sales. not using your crew for selling booze. (it's good if you have an abundance and your bootlagger gets over full, but otherwise no need to sell it to other places) get another t1 product deliver it to your expanded bootlegger and expand your front. check out the guide mentioned in the topice Early Strategies.

Sorry, significant typo there. That should be I'm in late 1923 (not 1933).

[tpvanorman]

There are three possible reasons that a new business you uncover won't buy your booze:
1) They just don't buy anything illegal
2) They don't know you well enough to buy from you
3) They buy booze that you don't know about yet

The game will indicate which reason is in play- if they don't know you it will say something to the effect of "he hesitates for a second, you get the sense that he trades in illegal items but doesn't trust you enough." If they buy booze you don't know about, it says something like "you get the feeling he trades in items you don't know about." When you mouse over the business, there will be question marks in place of items you can't currently buy or sell, but might be able to trade in later.

Obviously there's no point worrying about Case #1, if they don't want to buy booze you're not going to change their mind.

Case #2 can be handled in several ways- the easiest is to get an introduction from someone who knows them. Check their connections and see if any of their acquaintances owes you a favor. If not, see if any of the acquaintances knows someone you know, you can chain together several introductions to get to the person you're interested in.
Another option for Case #2 is to buy items from their business, particularly if you have friendly/chatty/curious crew members. You can even pay them extra for the stuff you buy to improve their relationship. Once it's high enough, they'll trust you enough to buy your booze.
Sometimes these businesses will offer you quests- completing them will also usually boost your relationship and let you sell to them.
Finally, your last option with these businesses is to expand your territory to include them. Once a business is in your territory, the game will show you what kinds of booze they buy. Of course, they still won't do business with you if they dislike you for some reason (maybe you killed one of their relatives, or they resent being extorted for protection money.)

Case #3 means you need to learn more skills and complete more quests so you can learn about and produce new kinds of alcohol.

It sounds like Case #3 is probably your biggest issue- you said that you only produce one type of alcohol- Homemade Beer. Look at the businesses in your territory and see what other kind of booze would sell well, and try and start producing that. Most likely, some of the businesses that currently don't want to buy from you will buy some other product, like brick wine or moonshine.

On a side note, I'd usually want to produce at least two types of alcohol before I started building a bootlegger, and I don't think I've ever built a garage (although I probably will at some point.) There's no reason you would need enough vehicles to require a garage if you only have one type of booze production

Hope that helps

[Maehlice]

"Know-a-guy" missions are based on what you have in stock.

If you have the resources to start and feed a new business, just do it. If the demand turns out to be too low, you can always roll it into a teir 2 business.

To get in better with the locals, schedule an above-market-price purchase using a friendly/social driver. You can even stack multiple partial purchases in one turn to drive up the relationship.

Do this with anybody and everybody.

[Able Archer]

OK, thanks--I think I'm mostly concerned about Case #2 described by TPVanorman. My relationship with these folks tends to be zero, with no connections that I can identify (except cops). I hadn't tried buying things at above-market price.

By the way, I built the garage because I had a couple of extra vehicles just sitting out on the streets, acquired through missions. And, seemed like a good idea at the time. :P I thought somehow they would move to the garage or something. I guess not. I'll just sell them, I suppose.

[maydayp]

Originally posted by Able Archer:

OK, thanks--I think I'm mostly concerned about Case #2 described by TPVanorman. My relationship with these folks tends to be zero, with no connections that I can identify (except cops). I hadn't tried buying things at above-market price.

By the way, I built the garage because I had a couple of extra vehicles just sitting out on the streets, acquired through missions. And, seemed like a good idea at the time. :P I thought somehow they would move to the garage or something. I guess not. I'll just sell them, I suppose.

you can use the garage like a storage. and I'd keep the vehicles, as you gain more fronts you can hire more people, and thus will need them

also, do you have any quests that you can finish? that will make them happy

[Able Archer]

Originally posted by maydayp:

Originally posted by Able Archer:

OK, thanks--I think I'm mostly concerned about Case #2 described by TPVanorman. My relationship with these folks tends to be zero, with no connections that I can identify (except cops). I hadn't tried buying things at above-market price.

By the way, I built the garage because I had a couple of extra vehicles just sitting out on the streets, acquired through missions. And, seemed like a good idea at the time. :P I thought somehow they would move to the garage or something. I guess not. I'll just sell them, I suppose.

you can use the garage like a storage. and I'd keep the vehicles, as you gain more fronts you can hire more people, and thus will need them

also, do you have any quests that you can finish? that will make them happy

Working on raising funds for one or two missions. Also, want to expand for another alcohol.

Do the vehicles just stay on the street? (Wasn't clear with how you said that...)

[maydayp]

yeah they just stay on the street, have yet to have them raided or stolen. Just make sure you have any cash out of them, so you can use it. it's still counted in your total.
by storage, I mean for excess production/purchases. like bottles or stoneware containers. things you don't need now, but might later, like Furniture or building supplies (wood)

[Maehlice]

I've also never had an empty vehicle disturbed. I park my extra cars outside social meetings and cheese the "teleporting" mechanic to more easily attend them.

Speaking of which, those are also great ways to make new acquaintances.

[Able Archer]

Originally posted by Maehlice:

I've also never had an empty vehicle disturbed. I park my extra cars outside social meetings and cheese the "teleporting" mechanic to more easily attend them.

Speaking of which, those are also great ways to make new acquaintances.

That's a great idea! I missed a couple of them due to mis-clicking or just being too far away. I think it was a dinner party, come to think of it, that gave me the two empty ones I have right now.

[Imzai]

Come on the official CoG discord if you want to post the screenshots of the game you're having and maybe it will be easier to see what's your situation.

Other than that, I think you are still way in the early game with only 1 real production operation. That is a reason why you aren't seeing many buyers. Once you open up another T1 production, you get quests to unlock more buyers. The game usually provides some known buyers of T1 and T2 products. I am not sure how much of the map you have really explored if there're only 2 buyers outside your 20 corners and you say you have explored much of the local space.

I probably also highly recommend against getting a garage in your first 5 buildings because you really don't need it. Repairs at public shops are more cost efficient than wasting a building slot so early on a garage.

[Friederich]

Yes, push through. If u want more favours with people u dont haave any conections just buy them stuff for 20% more and you should get a favour and a better relation.

[kurth6255]

jacking prices early game is tempting but really handicaps you at this point cus nobody likes you enough.

since I stopped getting 20 percent over on everyone I sell to until I'm at least +40, my relation problems have alleviated a good bit

don't be afraid to sell something on the low for those precious relation points too, just not too often