I need some help

[Adam_Da_Chef10]

I recently bought this game,and I want to be better at it,but I don't know how. I completed the first mission with ease,but I can't even come close to beating the other missions. Anytime I think I'm getting somewhere,it all goes to hell and only becomes worse as time goes on. Not matter what I do,this always seems to happen. Any tips or advice you could give me that could help me get better at the game without having to read massive,confusing walls of text?

[trar]

I haven't played in a little while myself, but I'll try to give you some tips.

I'd recommend playing a couple scenarios, potentially on lower difficulty levels, to get your bearings.

The AI is wonky. They always get revenue equivalent to what an Easy Economic difficulty-level player company would get for hauling 2-4 cars of random stuff from station to station, and it's usually passenger/whatever cargo they can haul. They can keep pace with a well-run efficient player company, but not always: the AI also likes to build track on very steep grades and has trouble maintaining railways for extended amounts of time. If you merge with one(which you should do for property rights if you do it at all), make sure you can upgrade stations and locomotives, and rearrange cargo rosters. Exploit this when you can.

The classic mission difficulty starts easy, but gets harder by the sixth mission. For the second mision, try starting by running two passenger trains from NYC and Albany, and quickly expanding (single track at first) west towards the Great Lakes. You can mostly focus on passengers; routes from towns from Pennsylvania and further out to NYC or even Albany will bring a lot of money. Even more from Ohio and Chicago.

Efficiency is great. Hire and fire managers that will give you the best benefits when you need them, pick the best locomotives for the particular work they will do and the time period (such as the Pacific for flat passenger runs in the early 1900s, 3-Trucks for going to and from mountianside coal mines in the late 1800s; GG1 is the best locomotive in the game when it arrives in 1935). Lay track efficiently, and make sure you use it as best as you can; you don't need to construct loops for trains to turn around at stops because they do that automatically, and you only need 3-way intersections when trains are actually going all three ways. You can construct one medium/large station to collect resources at one spot; building station attachments will let them sit in the station longer.

Speed is directly tied to revenue, so it's almost always a good idea to pick mission bonuses, hire managers and pick choices that increase locomotive speed. Puhing the throttle on newer locomotives can help too.

In scenarios where it's important to grow your personal wealth, you need to create a profitable company, start buying up your own company's stock (preferably before the other tycoons), and raise your company's dividend to give yourself money. That's the gist of it, at least.

Good luck.

[Noteperson]

dip's advice is very sound. A few more general pointers from me:

Click on the little "globe" icon on the left side of the screen and then select a type of cargo from the bottom center menu to highlight sources and sinks for various types of cargo. This will allow you to connect the supply and demand of different car types and turn easy profit on your lines.

Also, when you set up your train routes, consider the different pick-up and drop off options at each stop. The pick up options can be set using the little stoplight icon in each stops entry: green is just pick up tthe scheduled cars, empty of not, yellow is wait for half the cars to be filled before departing, and red is wait for ALL cars to be filled. If you're not micromanaging, setting the option to yellow can save you making a lot of unprofitable trips.

The drop-off options are set by clicking the little flags on each stop. You can tell a train to not sell cargo that isn't demanded at a stop and leave it there to be picked up later, or leave it on the train to be sold at a later stop. This can help you avoid selling valuable cargo for much less than it's worth.

Hope this helps!

[whyadamwhy]

These two guys gave you great advice. I've actually been working on a guide recently because there isn't one here on Steam, and a lot of the older sites that hosted boards and guides have gone extinct. Writing a guide is a good excuse for me to play the game again anyway. For now you can read up on more detail over at GameFAQs.com, where a lot of the game mechanics will be described in detail in the guides there. If you're determined to finish Handle on the Breadbasket without reading up first then let me help. Start with New York–Albany line, but you'll want to quickly add Philadelphia–New York as a second route because it will generate more revenue than Albany. Don't overload your trains because they're really slow in the era; no more than 3 cars per train. You can continue to add more non-essential cities to your route, but never take your eye off the prize. Your route west should begin in Albany because the terrain is flatter up north; the track is cheaper than going over the mountains, and the trains will run much faster. I hope this helps, Have fun!

[LEGO_Rocket-Man]

I have something to add to the plentiful good advice provided here. While it may be unethical, an excellent way to increase personal wealth in a game with other players (AI or otherwise) is insider trading. Get the majority of shares for a competeing company, a lot of money for yours, and use your company to merge with the competeing company by buying the shares at the highest possible paying price. You will get a large chunk of cash and and opponents railroad will be eliminated. CAUTION: this only works once or twice before the AI catches on and buys up all the stock, so make sure it works the first time.

[PFC Alcatraz]

hey can someone help me with this game

[Maxim]

i always started with transporting people