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2nd century strategy guides


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Hi,

I'm new and just started playing RRT2. It is the best sim game I ever played.

I did the classic campaign, (easy mode as Im a novice) and got gold easily everywhere (except Peoples train and Cape to Cairo) of the Second Century I only did the campaigns I liked. Antartica Rising and Remember America I like very much, but I can't find a way to win the gold..

Are there strategy guides for those or the entire Second Century that go further than the standard issue that came with the game?

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Just ask questions and we will try to help.

Most of the game play for 2 is the same as for TSC.

reading the hints will help you solve TSC problems even if help for the map you want info on, is not listed.

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Okay Gwiz, here's my question. Do you have a good strategy guide specificly for the campaigns Antartica Rising and Remember America?

The standard manual/strategy guide is helpful with Remember America but not very elaborate and the places it mentions on the Antartica map that aren't even there..  ???

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Playing the campaigns on Easy is something I cannot really comment on. But People's Train and Cape to Cairo are not difficult and are probably relatively easy compared to the last 2 scenarios of the 2nd Century Campaign.

The biggest obstacle players have to overcome is not playing intensely and agressively, and spending a lot of time sitting back and watching when they should be developing. Another is playing like the AI plays.

For Remember America, I would probably select 30% acceleration, start with careful manager selection, 2 Hudsons on single track between Lincomaha and Durant and a 1 year stop the trains strategy. Shortly after you can buy out and destroy the other companies or even stay in one of them as they already have access to all territories. Continue development for an easy win, using whatever other strategies you wish designed for scenarios requiring only high PNW. Of course there are less severe ways to win and this may very well be just as winnable with ther same start but without stop-the-trains.

Antarctica Rising is a little harder but I recall that hauling coal to ports pays quite well and demand stays unusually high. I might take a closer look at it tomorrow.

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Thanks Loco, this would be enough for now..

Another question: In the Remember America scenario; If I go for the option to first invest in the oher companies (wich generates the most starting money the fastest) and I decide to take over that company how do I do that?

Can I just claim the chairmanship if I got over 50% shares or something?

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51 percent ownership allows you to take control.  If you think you may want to return to the old company, make sure you will be able buy 51 percent of it. Sometimes you can take control of a company with a lower percentage.

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Of course "stop the trains" is a natural consequence of my start as the stations are about a year apart, so on single track its probably a matter of slowing one down a bit and speeding one up a bit after they pass each other.

Of course I doubt all this was anticipated early in the game's history, so starting between cities closer together and not selling your stock at all, but playing agressively from within your own company is likely enough to win this scenario, probably the way I actually played it back in (the real year) 2000 or whenever, probably at least once with the damning remark about some other company having beaten me :).

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Thanks Loco, this would be enough for now

lol...fat chance!!

Antarctica Rising; just a few comments (actually I think I got a little carried away but here it is anyhow):

The AI's should not be able to start a 2nd company if you merge theirs into yours. So a preferred strategy is to get 51% ownership in each of them and merge them. Sooner may be better than later for this as they may start to grow richer faster than you or you may risk bankruptcy if the market turns at the wrong time. A well-timed merge will save you from bankruptcy.

On the other hand, you could take an entirely different approach of not owning their stock but rather setting up a system that steals their cargos so that late in the game their stock will be low in value. Then sometimes if you buy all their outstanding shares, the chairmen will dump their shares and then you can do merges. But there likely will not be any outstanding, so alternatively you can save the game and try to buy the companies for the maximum offer price, which might succeed maybe 1/3 of the time, so you can keep doing this (saving and reloading) until you get them all (cheating sort of).

The above two can be combined if you like and if your finances allow, to steal cargo of the 51% owned company to reduce the price of the merge at the cost of a lower PNW and likely a thinner margin. I seem to recall though that its very hard to bring down their share values and your efforts may very well hamper your company more than theirs.

The next question is how much control do you want over where they start up? Building a small station in a city will keep them out. Starting your company between Ilya Valley and Goodenough will give you little control over where they start but will also give you a good "Stop the trains" start and give you all that extra power to begin purchasing their shares so you don't need to be too concerned about where they start. In fact I recall having them all in the same area has the advantage that they limit each other's expansion. Alternatively, starting between Adelie and one of those cities gives you the opportunity to build and bulldose small stations in several Cities like Hope and Edward, to preserve them for your next expansion.

Of course you could also start between Hope and Edward, and/or do whatever else you wanted.

I think I prefer an engine like the Mikado for this scenario as it is an excellent engine and does very well on grades and corners.

I recall development of various lines around the shores shipping coal, etc. to the docks to be very lucrative, so do lots of that too. I think the scenario has something done to it internally by PopTop to keep the coal demand at the ports abnormally high, but I could be wrong about this.

A stop the trains opening will lock the PNW win, and so development of high CBV becomes a target. That means issuing stock every year without worrying too much about buying it. It also means don't pay dividends as that just decreases CBV.

Actually the key to these scenarios is to develop as agressively as possible. You must be agressive in taking out loans and doing major expansions. Adding an even number of major stations at a time is best for scheduling runs. Also, there may be good opportunities to own and develop some industry in this scenario once you have a good infrastructure. Just remember that cargo must be delivered to a demand site for the industry to make money.

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lol...fat chance!!

Stopping the trains of the other company?? Hahaha! I never dared to let the AI take over my company in order to run things with the other company. Somewhere in a manual I read that the AI is only able to manage passenger cargo well and that it's horrible in freight and therefor can destroy my company..

Any thoughts on that?

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Stopping the trains of the other company??

Where did that come from? Stop the trains is a technique you use in your own company to schedule deliveries at a precise point in time. Just like in real life. Do you need a blueprint for this? I'm kind of guessing about what you do and don't know here.

Hahaha! I never dared to let the AI take over my company in order to run things with the other company. Somewhere in a manual I read that the AI is only able to manage passenger cargo well and that it's horrible in freight and therefor can destroy my company..

Any thoughts on that?

Lets just say until you get a lot more playing experience, never go off pause unless you are in "your" company, unless you do it experimentally and have a saved game to go back to. The AI only builds in "virgin" cities but hauls whatever to wherever and buys engines it doesn't need if a station gets into too much of an excess cargo situation. A good player can quite successfully manage several AI companies at a time as well as their base company but that's not adviseable unless its absolutely necessary for some reason. Taking over one of the AI companies  in "Remember America" for its territory access and making it "your" company is another matter and should be accompanied by the complete dismantling of your original company before ever going off pause. Likewise for the dismantling of any company.

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I double up track pretty fast, so I seldom need to stop trains, I dislike micromanagement and I can't imagine how experts can run multiple companies at the time, is this maybe the reason why Im not on top of the game yet?

I read the official manual and strategy guide and I understand the three basics of the game: infrastructure, management and financials.

Infrastructure is in the line of my study.

Management goes well too, I check where demand is high, use the particular managers when needed, carefully make my decision wich type of engine is most suitable.

Financial matters I like as well. Just befor profitable trains come in I buy my own stock, I buy more stock when economic situation has been bad and is to be expected to improve and I always try to get a majority stock as soon as possible in other companies.. (my purchasing power I keep as low as possible)

So now you have any idea what level I play. BTW, with the info here on this forum I got the gold also with the Peoples train and Cape to Cairo Im working on now..

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Where did that come from? Stop the trains is a technique you use in your own company to schedule deliveries at a precise point in time. Just like in real life. Do you need a blueprint for this? I'm kind of guessing about what you do and don't know here.

My bad, I never heard of the stopping-technique. I thought you used it to make the stock value go down so you could merge for a less high price..  ???

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...Remember America I like very much, but I can't find a way to win the gold..

Are there strategy guides for those or the entire Second Century that go further than the standard issue that came with the game?

I was just working on this one recently.  It took me a good 6 trials and losses to get a winner, but when I did win I went straight to gold.  I couldn't believe it when I finally figured it out, but don't get stuck with the attitude that the first thing I do is start a company.  I just bought stock and kept buying it, carefully of course until I had turned my 120k starting funds into a net worth of about 4M.  Then before the economy crashed, which it usually does in this one, I sold the stock.  I ended up with a little over 3M in cash by 2049 and started up a new company with 100% my own funds, then just took care of business.  In most of my tries the AI totally neglected the Plains Federation, Canada, and the Ozark Union, so there should always be a place to build.  I'm sure there are other ways but this worked great.  ;)

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I just got the gold medal on the 7th map in the classic campaign for the first time ever.  I always had the silver because the gold requirement of being the only railroad.  I bought stocks much more aggressively and concentrated on dividends and not expanding too much a lot more than I normally do until I had over 50% control of all the railroads.  Then I assumed chairmanship of the one with the most cash and merged with the other AI railroad.  After a short while I notice mine had built up about 2M in cash and I couldn't afford to buy it but I owned about 99% stock so I assumed chairmanship back to my original and forced it to spend all it's money by personally selling some stock and having the railroad buy it right up (on pause of course), then I retired all of the trains.  Then went back to the bigger company and was able to afford the merger.  I think it's kind of cheaty, but when certain conditions are called for... And I was still operating withing the rules of the game but it sound like a strange thing to do, strangle your own railroad.

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  • 3 months later...

Robber Baron, you mean (assuming you siphoned off the money).

How did you keep the computer players from starting up new companies? Did you wait until you had all the other qualifications, then eliminate the other companies all at once, so that for a brief instant you were the only company?

I ask because I make it a point to "kill off" the AI companies, but they always start up new companies. There are occasionally times I'd like to buy those companies, to save money or effort building track or stations, but if I do a buyout, that's money in the AI player's pocket, which he uses to start up a new company, and retain majority shares. The switch in the Editor to prevent this from happening doesn't seem to work, and I'm wondering if I can somehow script an event to allow any number of initial players, but prevent them from starting new companies when I grab their initial companies.

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When you merge an AI, To keep him from starting another company, 1st have the AI buy back as much of his own stock as possible.  The fewer the shares, the lower the stock price will be, as I can also sell some of those I own to further reduce the share price. 

After taking control of the AI, I sell some of my shares and keep one more share block than the AI chairman owns or I might sell all of my of my shares at the higher price, before I have the AI buy back his own shares, except for the number of shares I need to buy back at a lower price to regain the 51% control of his stock for merging. 

TheDS, 

If you attach you strategy guide to one of your posts, I will post it on the ternimal.

I'm sure it will be used.

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