Tycooning AI RR companies

[Gwizz]

These strategies work well with AI Railroads.

General use AI strategies for the Tycoon:

1, Take over control of an AI RR after buying 51% of its stock.

2. Disable an AI by cutting its' track and/or spending its money.

3. Use an AI to deliver cargo to your station or industry.

4. Merge an AI to increase the size of your RR.

5. Stop its trains causing The AI to buy more locos before merging.

Less used strategies:

The value of an AI company mostly depends upon the value of its

stock and upon the delivery of its' cargos.  The more AI stock you buy

the greater its value & the more dollars you have to spend to merge it.

.   An AI will cost less to merge if you float a bond & have the AI

.   buy back its stock.   Also, then you can sell some of the stock you

.   own in the AI company to reduce value even more, but do not go

.   below your 51% stock ownership, unless you know it will lose

.   money. Then you could sell its' stock and more shares short. 

.  AI companies tend to go down hill financially if they don't make

.  enough money. To keep an AI company alive, give it 2 supply

.  cargo cities you don't plan to use.  Run the AI trains on crossed

.  flags to these cities.  Then it should be able to support a couple of

.  locomotives delivering cargo to your demand industries on red flags

.  using low costs to run locomotives on track unconnected to its' other

.  track.  If connected, the AI could buy a locomotive to haul between

.  this station and another connected station.  AI Trackage that is used

.  to deliver cargos to your demand industries should not have more than

.  one AI station.  Use care when back hauling to this AI station;Otherwise

.  the AI will change consists and back haul cargo from your station.

.  It will always haul the most valuable cargo first. Best to not haul any

.  cargo back, not even a caboose which it can change to a cargo car.

.  If an AI is making lots of money and has track cells to use, it can expand

.  or even start another RR unconnected to its original trackage.

Strategies more specific to my Chicago Maps with limited track cells:

On my Chicago Maps, AIs seldom build track when they first start

up;  because they are only given 10 cells of track to start with,

but gain another 10 cells every time another AI starts up. 

If 10 AIs RRs start up, the first one to start will end up with 100

track cells. The second to start up will have 90 track cells, etc.

after all 10 have started. 

If an AI has 20 or more track cells most will build track and stations

within a month or so.  It is best to pause the game right after the

notification that one or more AIs have started a new company.  You

can use some AIs to only build track or buy locomotives, then you can

merge these companies, although best to wait a couple of months to

do so.  When you merge an AI company, The old deposed AI chairmen

will need to have made or have money to re-start another company if

you want him to. Normally he will need over 100 K to start another company.

I tend to start the first AI myself with minimum cash and use it to hire

the stock manager.  This company does not need to make a profit since

all you have to do to use this manager, is to take control of this AI when

you want to buy any stock.  I change my chairmanship away from this

company when I sell stock.  AI companies can go deep into debt and build

track and stations if they are left with too many track cells and dollars to

use.  Sometimes you want this to happen to speed up the game. 

Other managers I try to hold in reserve, are:  The managers that reduce

the cost for building track, buying locomotives, building bridges, building

stations, etc.  Park these managers with profitable AIs, since these AIs

will need positive cash to hire another manager allowing you to hire their

old manager.  Retrieving a manager is easier if your company is close to the

managers company.  Below or above on the companies list.

You can also park managers that add profitability

to an AI company that you want to keep solvent.

Usually an AI will slowly fall into negative cash flow.  With 51% ownership

you can still manage its trains, but you will not be able to change its manager

without the AI having positive cash.  Often an AI will acquired many track

cells but without the AI having positive cash you will not be able to use these.

Also if you know an AI is losing money you can sell all of its stock and also sell

a few more of its shares short.  Later you will be able to buy this shares back

at a lower price and keep the difference from what you sold them for. (your profit)

If you hold on to its stock and the value drops it will reduce your net worth. 

I will often take control of a new AI and use it to Merge other AIs that have

negative cash flow.  Doing this releases the managers I can't hire.

Merging an AI will not give you their allotment of track cells.  They are just lost.

On my Chicago maps your RR will not receive track cells when another RR

starts up.  This is caused by how the events were programed.

Basically, the following is how the managers list works:

Generally it seems that the list is sorted by how much the hiring fee is for

each manager.  The one with the lowest hiring fee will be at the top of

the list.  Normally, You will only see the top two on the list.  Sometimes

other managers will pop up and the games random generator will also change

the two you normally see.  To move a manager up the list so you can hire him,

has to be done in stages, one company at a time and each AI has to have

positive cash flow.The managers that are working for some RR are not on the list. 

I don't believe many of these AI strategies are used much by the average player. 

They add another level of fun and difficulty to the game.

This discourse is longer than I intended.  I hope it is helpful to someone.

[Gwizz]

Some cheats for AI tycooning.

With limited track laying:

You can expand the length of rail by laying track in every other cell.

Then go back and fill in the space between these track cells. 

This method doesn't count the in-between track segments that

are layed against the track cells you are allowed to lay.

Of course you can also lay electric track one cell at a time over

normal track, free.  Also laying double track on every other cell and

then coming back to fill in the blank space with track will cost less

then a continuous planting of track.