How to get the Trans-Siberian Railroad Achievement

[Thomas]

It took me six tries to get this achievement even with reading forums / discussions on it. I want to provide tips that I either did not notice or understand and provide you with a sure way to get it the first time you try.

1. Map - Go for the inland sea on a huge map. The reason for this is that the land portion of the bottom and top of the map will be all land from one end to the other.

2. Start - Start in the information age (no need to try to go through all the other ages).

3. AI player / City-States - I chose only one AI player and no City-States. Makes the map less complicated. Also turn off barbarians.

4. Victory Condition – Domination and turn everything else off including turns (you really need unlimited turns to get this achievement to activate). If you choose Gandhi as your AI you will not have to worry about him starting a war with you.

5. Starting City / Capital - The achievement states "60 tiles away from your capital" so you must place your capital carefully. I decided not to set up my first city (St. Petersburg) when the game opened but instead sent the settler to the edge of the map. All other units I put to sleep. I created the city on the last Hex on the edge of the map. Then I placed the other settlers (and the ones I created) 10 hexes from each other starting from the capital.

6. Straight Line - I created my cities as close to a straight line as the terrain allowed.

7. Traders - I used only one. Starting in the capitol and slowly connected one city at a time to the capital. I found that having multiple traders made my previous attempts confusing. I had one trade route that was 107 hexes long but I did not get the achievement. When I tried to send a trader from my capitol on that route I could only get in the high 50's hexes long no matter what I tired and the trader would not connect to all the cities along the route.

8. Use the Shift Key and the Return Key to bypass all the dialogues, unit movements, city building requests, etc. Shift+Return = Next turn. You can just keep hitting it until your trader goes to the new city and back establishing a trade post. It makes creating the trade route easier.

9. City Buildings – You really must also create an entertainment complex in each city. I learned this the hard way that if your citizens do not have enough amenities they will rebel and create barbarian units (even if you have barbarians turned off). I lost two traders this way without noticing (as I was hitting Shift+Return without paying much attention to the game). This is the only must have building. However, I would recommend building a commercial hub and a holy site. You will be hundreds of turns into the game before you get the achievement. Might as well get wealthy while you are at it.

Once you have a line of cities from one end of the map to the other and your trader connects them you will be awarded the achievement. You can then build up your cities as normal and play the game as normal.

[pitonsnaboca]

if you turn off city growth as soon as you settle each city wouldn't it avoid any riots, thus preventing the need for amenities/entertainment complexes? :)

[paugus]

This would probably be seen by more people that need to see it if you posted it in the guides section. I got lucky when I did this achievement, just made a half-hearted attempt and got it.

[Pluto]

As it turns out, you can't build railroads and get this achievement. It has to be normal roads.

[holdoffhunger]

You say to worry about barbarians and amenities. Can't we just turn off barbarians? (And still get the achievement?)

[holdoffhunger]

Turning off barbarians was okay! Got the achievement. Btw, nuked/pillaged roads will not count as connected.

[Nightmare576]

Do you need to play as Peter? I thought I had this one but I was playing with a different leader

[Sstavix]

Originally posted by Nightmare576:

Do you need to play as Peter? I thought I had this one but I was playing with a different leader

Look out! Thread necromancer alert!

But to answer your question, yes. This is one of those civilization-specific achievements where you HAVE to be playing a specific leader in order to get it. Fortunately, Russia only has the one leader, so you don't need to decide which persona would be the best to choose.

And it took me three tries before this one popped for me. Don't get discouraged, it's a tricky one. Good luck!

[gdshore]

Actually, Pluto, I did it with railroads and from ancient age. Took me '7' tries, in each iteration on the inland sea map there would be a mountain range extending from map edge to within 4-6 tiles of the sea. On my seventh try i ran a settler and escort south to the edge of the mountains, then back up to a position in straight line from my last city. Transferred Markus to the new city and produced settlers from there. When I finally achieved a city at 75 tiles from my capital drove a railroad from several points and when it was completed, POP the trans-Siberian railroad. (found you had to be a little beyond 60 tiles, thus 75) It took me more than a year, tried it on almost every map possible (including True Start Huge Earth) before hitting on Inland Sea. Still took 7 tries.

[jmerry82]

It's that non-wrapping property. Almost all of the game's maps are, topologically speaking, cylindrical. And that makes it nearly impossible to go far enough.

If you want a TSL map that gives you a chance, a map of Europe or Asia alone would be a better bet than the whole world. The TSL Europe map included with the game almost works even at a mere Standard size; it's a distance of about 55 from the St. Petersburg starting location to the farthest reaches of the Iberian peninsula. Or you could move east - if there were a Russian leader that started in Moscow, that map would work for them with no special effort except maybe forcing the land route.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

When I got that achievement I was playing on a huge inland sea map. That made it fairly easy to make a long route relatively early in the game. Still think it took me either 2 or 3 tries though.