TSC Campaign #14 - Elbow Room: Help needed

[Wabash Jeff]

Gentlemen,

Since my previous plea for help I've managed to finish the RT2 campaign and have worked my way through most of The Second Century campaign.  I've found TSC campaign scenarios to generally be tougher than the original 18, and once again I've reached an impasse and could use your collective wisdom.

I'm stuck on scenario #14, Elbow Room.  It's the one where those geniuses in Europe decided it's a good idea to drain the Mediterranean Sea to get more land.  The objectives are to deliver 100 loads of chemicals to the Geocore plant (bronze), earn $12M in industry profits (silver), and reach $45M in personal wealth (gold) by 2032, with the scenario start in 2010.

While earning the bronze medal is a cakewalk, I've yet to come close to silver or gold.  Starting cash is tight ($1.32M if you max everything out), track and locos are expensive, the terrain is fairly hilly, and I seem to spend the entire scenario cash-constrained to a modest railroad, having dumped a lot of my money into industry purchases trying (and failing) to achieve the silver medal.

Any tips?

Wabash Jeff

[Gwizz]

I didn't spend much time playing Campaign maps.

This could be the map where you need to push the throttle wide open on your trains.  But I'm not sure about this.

[UlfSun]

I'm stuck on scenario #14, Elbow Room.  It's the one where those geniuses in Europe decided it's a good idea to drain the Mediterranean Sea to get more land.  The objectives are to deliver 100 loads of chemicals to the Geocore plant (bronze), earn $12M in industry profits (silver), and reach $45M in personal wealth (gold) by 2032, with the scenario start in 2010.

I haven't played this for a long time, and it is a hard one.

First, I think there is a bug in the win conditions (I think that it checks for 12M in industry investments, rather than profits.

Anyway, I found that starting as a stock exchange wizard is the best for this scenario. Don't start any company, but just invest in the others (there is usually at least one of the other companies that do really well). Then, after a few years of aggressive investments, start selling out your holdings in the other companies. If you succeed, you will have maybe $4M to start with, and then you can afford to build a large and profitable network.

I slight variation is to actually start a small company, only to secure that no-one "steals" the Madrid area (I have not seen this happening, though) and to start collecting chemicals. Do your stock exchage wizardry, and then start a new company (and buy your small company).

Heavy expansion is the key, then. As connected track is not a requirement, you could build small networks serving industries. Passengers don't pay that well, except for fast long hauls. North Africa (Egypt, Libya) is relatively flat,

and have both population centres and industrial opportunities.

You may need to boost your PNW by buying back stock, and a recession the last few years may be fatal.

[UlfSun]

I'm just curious if you had any success with the scenario?

[kocisz]

After not having achieved gold, but getting the right results, i checked it - the 2nd condition is mistaken. As it was said it counts industry investments not profits.

Being way to far to correct it, i've just invested money and made the scenario gold.

The way to achieve it is to connect Athens with Izmir, then deleting bussiness in two years time.

After that move to Spain.

You should also remember to have at least 2 chemical plants in near of GCP.

[Digitalworm]

On 9/26/2006 at 10:30 PM, UlfSun said:

First, I think there is a bug in the win conditions (I think that it checks for 12M in industry investments, rather than profits.

Tyvm Ulf, I can confirm you are correct.

Once i boosted my industry investments above 12k, gold finally trigged!

[jeffryfisher]

It's also possible to edit those maps (and someone may have fixed it already). While it's even possible to change the coding, the simplest (and safest) fix is to correct the text to match the coding that's there.

[breakman1]

Someone has fixed it.  And it is available on this site's downloads area.  The fix is to change to lifetime industry profits of 12M to match the briefing. 

https://forum.dune2k.com/files/file/568-geo-core-plant/