Referendum

[Bored Peon]

This has got to be one of the hardest mission maps.

First issue is the time limit. With the limited time you need to have your buildings set to deliver the happiness in advance. It takes easily 5-6 years for a Tropican to catch up to refill their happiness bars.

Second issue is Tropicans refuse to live in housing according to their income. When you have rich people living in a tenament only getting half their possible housing quality.

I mean I get the whole concept that you need to upgrade each of the 3 areas to a Cathedral, Shopping Mall, and Hospital maxed out.

For housing quality I think it is possible to build all tenaments maxed out budget, electrified, and armed guard then combine the fast food home delivery, fire station cat in tree and the fashion factory with outlet store.

However that still leaves you trying to three of the factions and super powers to their goals.

[Kiaren]

Tourism was the key for me. It starts making money faster than Industry, has a cheaper startup cost, and you'll need entertainment buildings anyway.

1) Set the Offices to max efficiency. Import experts if you need college grads to fill them.

2) Find an island with beauty, start with a tourist dock, 4 - 6 hotels to start, then some beach resorts and cocktail bars set to Tourist only.

3) Set three hotels to the +10% office efficiency mode, and leave them at the regular budget.

4) Set the other hotels to the +4 rooms mode, and minimum budget. Set all Tourist Only buildings to max budget to raise the fee.

5) keep a ratio of one well-off entertainment to two hotels.

6) Ensure your tourist traps have at least an 86 quality. Otherwise, your tourists will start wandering off to your free Wonders instead of dropping $200 at the beach.

You can experiment with Rich tourists, but I didn't need them.

You should have enough cash to start Industry in 2 - 3 years. At that point, start stealing the Collesium with the Spies, steal the "Can't die from bad healthcare" from the Pirates, raise up your industry, raise your liberty to deal with the rebels. Take the USA option, as you need that liberty anyway to clear out your rebel problems.

Keep spamming hotels and tourist traps.

Prison set to Convict labor, Courthouse, then start arresting rebels.

Research the Audience edict and spam it every chance you get.

Get a Ministry and get all Broker candidates. Buy up all the Convincing Talks, Distractions, and +Faction cards you can.

By year 8 or so you should have enough of an economy to start on your happiness. Grocery stores, Shopping malls, and mid-tier entertainment buildings. Make sure your entertainment quality is under 85, or tourists will wander over.

Food should be 90+, Fun 70+. That just leaves the factions. Spam Audience, check your edicts, and spam buildings the factions like.

Using this, I had "won" about 4 years early with over a million in the bank. I just had to wait it out at that point.