The Ark and saving Manchester.

[TradeGy]

As the title alludes to I've been trying to do the Ark (on medium) while also saving manchester but I simply cannot get enough coal, its hard enough to get the 8k coal you need in reserve and then getting another 6k and four automatons that I can send to manchester... I'll be frank I have no idea how to get enough supply to do it

[Syn]

I didn't seem to have much trouble with it. Make sure to have 2 fully upgraded coal mines with automatons, and at least 2 coal thumpers.
You shouldn't need more wood and steel by then so you can pull off other automatons to dedicate to coal, maybe some charcoal kilms too though I don't recall needing them.

[erneiz]

You only need one thumper, but put 2 gatherers near it. 2 advanced coal mines and 1 normal thumper was more than enough for me.

[theworld]

I have no idea how you could not complete it on time, unless you customized the scenario.

You need Advanced Coal Mines and Fully Upgraded Automatons. That's it.

[TradeGy]

How do you people have the time to:

- Scout for enough Steam cores
- Build a Steam Wall Drill, 2 Steam Miners, 2 Steam Coal miners and 1 - 2 of the 2nd tier Hothouse
- Still upgrade for the heat and other misc upgrade
- Build 13+ Automatons
- Get 600 Wood/Steel, 2000 Food and 6000 Coal, that you send to Manchester
- Get 5 houses, 500 food in reserve, 8000 coal in reserve

When I do it I run out of time trying to get the coal.

[theworld]

1)Extended shift Law.

2)Late game you can research Automaton Engineers to man Workshops with them and Research 24x7.

[TradeGy]

Originally posted by TheWorld:

1)Extended shift Law.

2)Late game you can research Automaton Engineers to man Workshops with them and Research 24x7.

I already use the extended shift for my research, didn't know about the automaton thing tho. Still I don't think I have the time to get that too in my playthrough, might have to watch someone to see where we differ.

[xfor]

You don't need the wall drill. Two steam sawmills are enough. Two steam coal thumpers with 8 gathering posts work great. No need for coal mines then. But be sure to upgrade the steel mines quite early, since there is no other way to obtain more steel.

Also be sure to use the extended shifts law for workshops from the beginning and keep it enabled at all times. Have at least two workshops in the beginning, make it four when you have the first automatons. Use two scout teams when it says "the search for steam cores".

Spoiler about scenario's ending requirement:
You only need to fulfill the scenario's objectives, then it's immediately over. If you manage to do it a few days before the deadline, the cold phase in the end won't hit you. At least for normal mode. On hard mode, the cold phase starts way earlier.

[orloglausa]

Once you know how to beat it on normal, you can beat it trivially on hard before the cold phase, if you're really on the ball. I nailed it first attempt (due to my general wary/paranoid approach to games like this), but the real thing is that you just read the objective text. Pause if you need to (spacebar by default), and make sure you see what it's asking. If it doesn't ask for advanced technology you wouldn't ordinarily use, don't use it.

[Xee]

I did this first try, was fairly easy. Unfortunately I got the 2/3 bug with "return scouts" so despite doing everything else perfectly the bug made me kind of "lose" the mission.

Anyhow I did this with 2 steam coal mines (didn't even do the upgraded ones), late in the game I built 2 steam coal thumpers each with 3-4 camps and was pumping out autonomons (had around 14 in the end).

[GtheOMighty 神]

how to u even get that many steam cores? i only got enugh for one steam cole mine, food factory (don't remember the name), factory and a wall drill. and u say u got 14 pluss robots? how

[Anger Gingermane]

Originally posted by CrhonicalTheHaremKing:

how to u even get that many steam cores? i only got enugh for one steam cole mine, food factory (don't remember the name), factory and a wall drill. and u say u got 14 pluss robots? how

Try starting the match out by immediately researching Emergency shifts. Your first research should be faster gathering. If you start the game off by immediately building your Workshop and starting gathering research as soon it's built, you'll be able to trigger Emergency shifts on the first night and finish Beacon by the morning. You can start exploring the scouting locations by day 2 and if you go to 2 or 3 before returning back to your base, you'll have plenty of time to finish. Just make sure you begin scouting South as soon as the South Pass opens to visit all the locations before the storm reaches them. I met all requirements with a few days left and well over 20 Steam Cores.

[mike]

I just did it on the default difficulty with almost 2 days to spare. Here's what I did:

* Plan to ensure that I would have all of the supplies needed for the game. Plan to have one and only one extra house. All houses in range of fight club. All houses at range 1 of central core. One infirmary next to core. 3 workshops next to core.
* I did as @Anger stated above. Get scouts out ASAP. I would leave most/all scouts out until they had reached the end of that direction, or I really needed a steam core.
* Keep all Workshops and all humans on long shifts (don't need the cook on long shift except when building up the food). Do emergency shifts on workshops very often. Ignore the complainers. Emergency shifts as soon as possible on those gathering up the loose steel, wood, and coal. Long and emergency shifts quite often.
* Get the advanced steel plants with automatons up quickly.
* I didn't do any automaton researchers.
* I had two hothouses during the food buildup.
* I did not do coal mines. I did two of the improved coal thumpers very close to each other. (I built a 3rd near the end, just to finish a day. I kept 3 camps next door so all could fetch from any thumper. All run by automatons. If the coal pile built up, then I had a 4th camp that I could put humans or another automaton on. Then, I built a 5th camp.
* No wall drill - there are enough trees. I ended up building 3 sawmills (top one ran out first) all run by automatons all the time. Always one running, most of the time I had 2 running. Faster sawmils and range. I didn't do steam sawmills.
* I had 2 cores left over.

* Automatons need to recharge 2x per day at the central power/coal plant or at a steam hub. It appears that the steam hub needs to be "on" but doesn't need to be on shift. So, I put most/all of them on short shifts, and kept them right next to the Ark units. Thus the steam core warms the ark during the day, and automatons recharge there.