Scenario - The North

[Storpappa]

Trying to get a perfect score and all the tasks in the Scenario - The North

My best stategy has been to buy the Meat industry to the west of Omaha in North Plains. This lets the AI finish the second task, Produce 100 loads of Meat, and after building a station in Omaha, a station in North Plains becomes a frieght express run for the 1000 loads of Meat delivered to Omaha.

My problem is trying to get all the tasks, especially the connect to 400,000 by the end of 1852.
Its far to easy to run out of resources building the rail line into Siouz Falls for cattle, and with bond sales, be unable to drop small stations with just single llines to get such a high connected population.

Trying to do this as a uni-tasker, with just hauling cattle and meat, hurts income to fund other growth. That cash is needed to connect the 4 cattle farms. You don't need to buy the cattle farms, but it does help to upgrade them early for the tasks.

Thoughts?

[Doc Savage]

Buy the Meat plant in your starting city. Connect to Omaha and start running trains with Meat priority. Connect due West (Pierre ?) to start money making and help SF grow. Get cloth going there as a 2nd industry, buy it, place it or hope for luck. Helps out SF a ton and makes good cash.

You can connect either Cattle yard your semi close to, the one north west allows expansion west for other things like cash. I buy the one to the South of Omaha later on and start shipping 6-10 trains there to drive SF production.

You can just focus on meat and make things happen, but it's a ton easier if you don't. As you say, you need the money for the other tasks. The connecting Population is one of the easier jobs once you have a solid foundation to work from.

Buy out the Omaha Meat Plant and put a Brewery in there. There's Wheat close by to profit from and you'll have a needed cargo going back to the Meat Plant cities.

Going South there's a great pair in Amirillo and OKC (?). You can drive a ton of Meat to Omaha from there.

Have to grow population to expand Meat plants, that's just profiting from short freight hook ups; don't ignore them. That drives Passengers and Mail, running mixed trains with meat priority lets you grab anything that will pay instead of just meat.

This scenario threw me at first, but it only looks complicated and hard. Once you get a feel for it, it's actually pretty easy. The real trick is to be methodical, expand with dual purpose (money and meat) and not ignore the other aspects of a successful RR.

Sorry I'm always a bit fuzzy with names...

Cheers..!

[akuarmoton]

To get that 400k people done, you really need to focus connecting cities first. Don't double track at this point unless its beer to meat line, just connect with 1 train running each route. I went west all the way to Denver, then continued that track to Amarillo. After that I headed south from Sioux Falls. Don't bother with Bismarck and Fargo. It won't take long to get that first cow task so you may delay it abit.

[gardlt]

Here I was thinking that you were trying to get a 20/20 time score. That would mean doing the 400,000 task by end of June 1851. Probably possible, didn't quite manage it yet.

[Storpappa]

Yes, that is what we are talking about

Get 400,000 population AFTER the task is a no brainer ... it's getting it before
AND the cattle, meat, and then not getting bought out because you became a uni-tasking meat hauler and have no income.

On one run, I was cleaning up the early population single run tracks - drop supply tower, fix tracks, add trains, repeat. I clicked on a line to fine nothing on it :)

I think its a great scenario, so many ways to fail

[gardlt]

Here we go. Good enough for 20/20 time. Using bonds and bonuses, tech auctions, connection offers, cheap industry offers.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1307028153

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1307028487

The population by end of June 1851 is the trickiest. The growth is important. Using single track, small stations you can still achieve growth.

For the Cattle I immediately bought the Meat industry at Sioux Falls. Then ran south to the Cattle Farm just east of Wichita: it's closer. Had the trains returning through Omaha station, so same trains were delivering the Meat on the return journey, phased this out late game since I had to realign Omaha station tracks.

Then I ran only single track from Sioux Falls to Pierre and didn't let the train carry any Meat to Pierre. Rapid City was the source for Meat for Pierre and I double-tracked that connection. Went to the Grain Farm south of Pierre and soon extended this line to North Platte with just one siding I was able to run two trains. They were set to not pickup anything in North Platte, function was just to grow the population.

Spurred off my Cattle line to Wichita. Thought it needed Alcohol, didn't check before connecting to Oklahoma City. Turns out they both needed Meat. So ran separate single track lines to Amarillo and Dodge City. Somewhere in there, the offer of Bismark connection bonus came up, so I took that with a spur and running a single train from Rapid City: needed Meat to grow.

Dodge City needs Corn, so ran out to the Corn Farm to the west. Time was getting close, but I took the time to refresh bonds and then pushed to Denver, Cheyenne, Raton and Santa Fe. That was enough for the 400,000 at end of May 1851. One month to spare.

[Knoxx212]

I went right for Omaha. I also connected to Pierre. I bought the cattle ranch to the south by Wichita and tied it in to my 2-way track between Omaha and Sioux Falls.

I then bought the meat industry in Dodge City and expanded my station in Omaha. I ran a line from Dodge City to Omaha.I then connected Dodge City to Raton to get beer to Dodge to get it to grow. I also connect Dodge to Denver then Denver to Cheyenne.

I then connect Pierre to Rapid City.

I go back to Raton and connect to Amarillo following the rive so later I can to Santa Fe to Amarillo. I do the final upgrade on my station in Omaha. I then connect Omaha to Wichita and Wichita to Oklahoma City. For a time & money saver you can just tie Wichita in with the cattle ranch just place the station for growth later.

I then connect to Santa Fe from the line running between Raton and Amarillo.

Going for Dodge City quick I think hurts the AI since I double station it because it is cheaper than putting a larger station down.

The key to getting the popultion up is tying into Denver from Dodge City early and running a short line to Cheyenne transfering beer and meat to grow them. Same thing with Pierre and Rapid City. Santa Fe and Amarillo are pretty large also so a beer and meat line between them helps also.

Remember to turn up the difficulty to get a higher score also.

[troublmaker]

Originally posted by Doc Savage:

Buy the Meat plant in your starting city. Connect to Omaha and start running trains with Meat priority. Connect due West (Pierre ?) to start money making and help SF grow. Get cloth going there as a 2nd industry, buy it, place it or hope for luck. Helps out SF a ton and makes good cash.

I agree with most of this but I disagree with this sentiment. That meat plant is mostly useless. It's so far away from the cattle that you have to create convoluted and expensive lines to supply it.

It's much easier to buy the meat plant south of it and connect that one immediately. It pumps out meat immediately and the computer AI will supply it with cows right away. I changed the place (the one with randomly furniture) into a meat plant just south of Omaha and just connected cities close to cows to Omaha. It's laughably easy once you stack the board.

[Storpappa]

Originally posted by troublmaker:

I agree with most of this but I disagree with this sentiment. That meat plant is mostly useless. It's so far away from the cattle that you have to create convoluted and expensive lines to supply it.

It's much easier to buy the meat plant south of it and connect that one immediately. It pumps out meat immediately and the computer AI will supply it with cows right away. I changed the place (the one with randomly furniture) into a meat plant just south of Omaha and just connected cities close to cows to Omaha. It's laughably easy once you stack the board.

And you ended with a what score?
And ALL tasks complete?

[Storpappa]

Originally posted by gardlt:

Here we go. Good enough for 20/20 time. Using bonds and bonuses, tech auctions, connection offers, cheap industry offers.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1307028153

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1307028487

The population by end of June 1851 is the trickiest. The growth is important. Using single track, small stations you can still achieve growth.

For the Cattle I immediately bought the Meat industry at Sioux Falls. Then ran south to the Cattle Farm just east of Wichita: it's closer. Had the trains returning through Omaha station, so same trains were delivering the Meat on the return journey, phased this out late game since I had to realign Omaha station tracks.

3 years 8 months?

That would have been a popular video if you recorded that scenario.

Getting the 400,000 population is important for the income, but also to take business away from the AI competitor. I've run a game where I was bought out, in a race to buy shares of each other.

[gardlt]

I thought that's what you were trying to do when going for the "perfect" score: 20/20 time score. Unfortunately my internet speed is too slow to upload video. But, yes, you have to be quite ruthless to make things efficient. For example I used very little maintenance. Also used the Doc for faster tech.

For video of more serious gameplay, best thing I could suggest is to follow this link onto YouTube
http://steamcommunity.com/app/503940/discussions/0/1693785669868927899/#c1700542332327135581
I think he has this one on his Youtube channel, but he did better on the others.

[Doc Savage]

Originally posted by troublmaker:

Originally posted by Doc Savage:

Buy the Meat plant in your starting city. Connect to Omaha and start running trains with Meat priority. Connect due West (Pierre ?) to start money making and help SF grow. Get cloth going there as a 2nd industry, buy it, place it or hope for luck. Helps out SF a ton and makes good cash.

I agree with most of this but I disagree with this sentiment. That meat plant is mostly useless. It's so far away from the cattle that you have to create convoluted and expensive lines to supply it.

It's much easier to buy the meat plant south of it and connect that one immediately. It pumps out meat immediately and the computer AI will supply it with cows right away. I changed the place (the one with randomly furniture) into a meat plant just south of Omaha and just connected cities close to cows to Omaha. It's laughably easy once you stack the board.

The SF meat plant is hardly useless. It's a key player in the drive for 1,000. I end up owning the meat plants in SF, Amarillo and Dodge City, sometimes Rapid Falls but lately not. The three pumping is enough to clear the goal. RC is more for growth and supply.

I used to hook up and buy the cattle farm East of Witchita, but now I buy the Cattle Farm near Amirillo, it's a quick shot for the ship cattle task. Witchita's farm gets hooked in as I start pushing SF for the 1,000...

I use Rapid City to fuel growth, you need a couple cities to push Sioux Falls. I run a couple single lines to Denver and such just for the pop bonus, I don't really push meat from that far out.

If you can catch the price at a lull, you can buy the AI's cattle farm and let them do the 100 cattle task for you... I usually connect it to Dodge City as well long before I buy out the AI of the day. Most times I just tap it for DC.

Anyone check to see if Omaha's cattle count..? I usually swap it to a Brewery to help other meat cities grow as you have to hit pop caps to expand factories... I don't think it does, but doesn't hurt to ask.

Cheers..!

[DeathMaster]

Sorry to necro this thread but.. Is no one else having difficulties with this? I've had little to no trouble getting President ranking on several other scenarios, but when I look at the global achievement statistics this is assumed to be (one of) the easiest... Yet, about 10 proper attempts in now, I still don't feel I'm getting close.

Whenever I manage to get a good start, I either fail to get 400,000 people connected, or a few steps later my competitor is doing rather well, making my hostile takeover take too long.

I've tried many of the suggestions mentioned here, is there anything I'm not seeing?

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Storpappa:

Trying to get a perfect score and all the tasks in the Scenario - The North

My problem is trying to get all the tasks, especially the connect to 400,000 by the end of 1852.

You can fail it and still make president score. I did it the other day. Just make sure to do at least half the tasks in the yellow.

Set AI to very hard and pause is on normal. Should be a cakewalk with the new signal stations.

Use the industrialist, this will save you so much money. You can buy the Sioux Falls meat factory for like 150-187k without getting into a bid war with the AI. Also buying factories without auctions later makes it easy to steal them out form under the AI.

If you do not use the industrialist then fake the AI into buying useless factories first (bid liek once or twice), then do an auction on what you want.

Focus on delivering meat from Sioux Falls and Rapid City. Build up the Pierre, Rapid City, Fargo, Bismark area. Focus on the meat/beer and cloth trading, dont need much more than that because delivering meat should be your most your income.

Dont bother trying to grow Omaha, because all you do is clog your meat deliveries. Especially now that you are limited to one station.

Have your cattle trains from down south haul meat back to Omaha after delivering to Sioux Falls. I think I had somewhere around 16 cattle trains from Wichita cattle to Sioux Falls. Then I had 12 freight trains haulign away meat from Rapid City.

Use the 2 and 4 platform signal stations. Except in Sioux Falls use the warehouse and set it to cattle to avoid the cattle cap of the city. One of them at the grain farm in the middle of Fargo, Pierre, and Bismark is awesome.

Go straight for the Dragon train that is all you need for an engine.

You can also cheese it by connecting Amarillo and Dodge City cattle farms then scrap it. The same if you bother to connect 400k task.

[Halifax789]

I am running into a problem in this scenario - I run 4-6 trains shipping cattle to my starting center, but the meat shipments to omaha stay very low. When I look at Omaha, the stock of meat is usually at 10 with a 0.2 demand. Is demand in Omaha supposed to be so low?

Is there supposed to be a meat plant already in Omaha? does that mess up the meat demand?

[Bored Peon]

Omaha has a special building that accepts meat deliveries.

If you are not delivering meat to Omaha then you are shipping it elsewhere or do not have meat prioritized on your loads.