The Baghdad Railway

[pbenn]

A most enjoyable map, lots of geography and some tricky routes to build. Planning and time (and perhaps an element of luck) needed to get loads of steel moving to qualify for more track, so a demanding start. Plenty of resources, I found myself building lots of industry as I went to exploit the raw materials (and make money!). Quite interesting enough for multiple replays. A very minor bug in the status report of loads of steel and lumber carried - they show as 0 (except, strangely, when you have just restarted RT3 and reloaded a saved game), but doesn't affect game as track cells are credited correctly.

Thanks for a good game, Lars!

[JayEff]

Here`s a trick: place your lumber and steel mills in depressions so that raw materials arrive easily of their own accord, but the product doesn`t wander off without boarding your train.

I played about half a game - all seemed to work well, and it was good fun. Good one Lars!

One possible improvement: what is Ottoman without a baksheesh plot???

[Lama]

Hi guys,

thank you very much for your comments! I very rarely visit this forum, otherwise I'd have replied sooner.

I hadn't thought about baksheesh - would have been a nice addition! Maybe if Poptop makes an edition of the game that will include fan-made maps, and if this one makes the cut, I'd think about that. What do you think would be the benefits of bribing? Track?

Consider, too, that subtracting money from the company has been the single most buggy event in the entire editor. Has anyone discovered a way to make it work 100%?

Peter, I am currently working on an RT3 version of "Mixed Local", the RT2 version of which you tested a year ago. I never finished the latter, since by the time I was getting ready to do so, RT3 was already in the wings.

RT3's economy model would go well with the "Mixed Local"-concept, and since my other project (re-making "German-American Trade") has been stalled b/c of multiplayer issues, "Mixed Local" will probably be the next one I make.

What I'll do to incorporate your suggestions from back then, will be to re-introduce the random "priority shipments" of RT1 fame. This way, there'll always be something to do; especially in the later game years, when you'll have a network that reaches every different type of cargo that is available.

In my first test, the "priority shipment" event chain worked as intended. I think that especially those players who miss RT1 will like it.

The new map won't get done for another month, since I'm going to travel for two weeks, but you can expect it late May. Maybe we'll even have patch 1.04 by then!

[pbenn]

Hi, Lama - you're right, I think the RT3 economy model will suit Mixed Local - I look forward to seeing it! (Have a good trip ...)

[JayEff]

I only read part of one book on the Ottomans, and my memory is already confuzzed. I believe baksheesh started as a way the sultan paid for a standing army, but it evolved into a caste that lived off the sultan and did little else. I forget the name of this caste, but they are a key to Ottoman history. They were stout defenders of the status quo, inertia. The sultan would have to pay the army again if they had to actually fight to defend the sultan or the realm.

They were fiercely opposed to technology, especially in the military. They preferred swords over muskets. A sultan who attempted to reform the army would find his life in jeopardy. They would certainly have opposed the introduction of a railway.

You could create a sort of mission to help the sultan secretly move weapons or soldiers about, to quell some impending insurrection against the railway. If you are successful, you get a boost in troop production (the army has successfully modernized). If you fail, the old warrior caste has killed all the sultan`s men, and razed the barracks to the ground (production -100%)... Not baksheesh, but it`s about the same sort of people.

As for bribes track could be good, or load / unload times reflecting their ability to be officious when it suits their purpose. I wonder if there was a black market for coffee or alcohol....

Also, you can check out Modern Heart of Africa, which is replete with bribery events.

[Lama]

Thanks, Peter! I'll go to Germany, among other things to check out the newest high-speed rail corridor btw Frankfurt/Main and Cologne. That should be fun.

JayEff: I think you're talking about the Janissaries. They were quite a formidable force for centuries, but decayed in the 19th (still fought admirably even in the 1857 Crimean War, though). The young officers who rebelled in 1910 put an end to the Janissaries' power in the realm, but modernization had been going on since the 1870s, driven by the Sultan. The difference between him and the Young Turks was that the Sultan wanted to rule without a parliament (and did so, 1870s-1910), whereas the latter forced them to reinstate one in 1910. I think Attat

[belbincolne]

Getting back to the subject of winning the game I'm boggled for the umpteenth time. I can connect Istanbul - Ankara and make money from the line and then build a clothing & steel mill and timber yard so (eventually) iron will arrive and there'll be steel shipments but it takes years. I build tool and die and munitions factories in Istanbul to get them to ship but still after 30 yrs I'm only half way to Baghdad. How on earth do you get there?  I managed bronze at my (4th?) attempt but that's it.

Incidentally I don't think the shipment figures are wrong - they say that you've shipped 0 this year - but as it's 1st Jan that's obvious! What did seem wrong was that I didn't notice any discount on industries in the 1st 5 yrs. Either that or they were always discounted. I do seem to remember that the first time I played there was a 10% discount so maybe it's me thats not paying enough attention. In any case 10% isn't enough to let you buy them early enough.

[isii]

I'm having the same problems with this one, and yes, the industries are definitely discounted 10% and that's nowhere near enough to generate a cash stream.....I'm going to try again tonight and see how far I can get.

[Lama]

There are two threads in the Gathering forum (both have "Baghdad Rwy" in the title) where people discuss their winning strategies on this map, and where I added some suggestions. Since I don't want to create unnecessary duplication, I just wanted to point you guys that way.

People have made Gold on this map, as early as 1910, so it isn't impossible or even ridiculously hard. It might take a few tries, though; and a lot depends on getting a good start.

[belbincolne]

Well I finally got the hang of how to win this and got close on "Normal" so I thought I'd retry on Expert and funnily I did even better so that I "Won" with a few months in hand.  Then at the end of the year I was told I'd lost on every count - I hadn't conected Istanbul and Baghdad and I hadn't hauled enough cargo. I was credited with one ammo and one weapons although there were four carriages on each train so it seemed to have measured trains rather than loads. Harder to evaluate Oil and Clothing but I had possibly 6 trains hauling 6 loads  each of Oil yet I didn't get there whilst I'd beeh hauling clothing for perhaps 15 years so I simply must have got there. Wierd!!??

[Lama]

I'm glad to hear you haven't given up on this one, and that you have been doing better!

That other thing is weird. What did the status page say about the number of loads you had delivered? And did it say that the cities were connected?

[belbincolne]

Yes - thats what makes ir really odd because the Status Page says I'm connected to both cities but only 1 ammo and 1 weapons whereas (connecting with only 4 years to go) I'd run two custom consist trains to ensure I got the 4 and although the oil could be right at 18 I'd been hauling clothing from Ankara for 15 years and it gave 12 - which seems far more like the number of trains than the number of loads.

Once I'd realised how to get the timber/steel loads going I really enjoyed the map - incidentally I built a steel mill first and the lumber three(?) years later when I'd enough money.

[Lama]

Other than a freak bug, here's what I could imagine as a reason:

Some of the cars on your custom trains may have been less than 100% full.

If you have a weapons train with two custom cars set to wait for a full load, it can take off with one car at 100%, and the second one at something like 10% or even less - even if it is set to wait for 2 full cars.

Two trains of that sort would make for a total of 2.2 full loads, and fractions are always ignored. So even 2.9 would still mean 2 loads, as far as the game knows.

Hence, if you want a train with two full loads of weapons, have it wait for three, instead.

This doesn't explain the load count of 1 load, though.

Could it have been station placement? You could shift-E to check they're all where they're supposed to be, though again, the hidden territories are fairly large.

I agree that steel and lumber are the key, and to keep them rolling even after initiating production, so that you can always max out your annual track allotment, can be challenging. Iron is the weakest link, since it tends to disappear. Even now, replaying the map, I sometimes come short on those goods.

I wish I had known when I made the map that you can make industries appear by events - I would have placed a few extra iron ore mines, to be sure.

[belbincolne]

Thanks Lama - I bet you're right on the part score front - I never thought of that. I also never thought of building a weapons factory - just thought to get ammo/w had to carry them from Istanbul to Baghdad - well it's yet another scenario to go back to!

[Lama]

Yep, you can build wpns and ammo plants. They are actually quite helpful for providing demand sinks for steel, too, so that you never run out of places to haul it to.

I have found it challenging to get the wpns and ammo plants to crank up production, but the key seems to be frequent auto-consist service from the city where they're at, to a city that has a barrack. It seems that factories (like raw material sources) produce most, when demand is high, locally.

Have you found out what fouled up the connection event?