Lion of Africa - where to start?

[Superchief]

This map frustrates me because I have never acheived a rating higher than bronze, although I came close to sliver once because I started with the British held lands.  Where is the best place to start for obtaining the goals?  Only if Portuguese West Africa had larger towns it would be great....

[Gwizz]

I believe I played to a gold win on this map.  It did take a number of tries.

I Don't remember what I did; but I think it is the map where I started close to the coast but not on the coast.

I'll pull it up again and give it a try.

[djf01]

This map frustrates me because I have never acheived a rating higher than bronze, although I came close to sliver once because I started with the British held lands.  Where is the best place to start for obtaining the goals?  Only if Portuguese West Africa had larger towns it would be great....

Start at Khartoum, build to one of the nearby towns and start some industry.  In 1 or 2 years, when you have enough credit, built to Kampala.  Send trains from Khartoum to Kampala, and in that year sell your stock, stop everything else, then buy back in when they are about to hit those Ugandan Hotels.

[Gwizz]

That sounds like a better plan then I was going to suggest.

[Superchief]

Build a line from Khartoum to Kampala? Does it matter if I connect to Kodok & Juba along the way (neem playing that map a lot lately so I know the cities well!).

Stop everything else in the year I begin the Khartoum-Kampala run. Does this mean retire those trains going from Khartoum to either Sennar or El Obid?

What were you going to suggest Gwizz? 

I had always wanted to run from Novo Redondo to Luanda to the unnamed city (I edited the map and called it Nova Lumbaro. Got the name from a "Rumpole of the Bailey" episode) near Boma because it is a great place to run coffee-port for steel-coffee-cannery trains. The only problem is these three cities are too small to support the long runs and the terrain does not suit the turn of the century engines. Otherwise it would be great to run there, especially if Benguella, which is southeast of Novo Redondo, gains a port or coffee farm or cannery. You could build those four towns fast if it weren't for their small size.

[djf01]

Build a line from Khartoum to Kampala? Does it matter if I connect to Kodok & Juba along the way (neem playing that map a lot lately so I know the cities well!).

No, not really.

Stop everything else in the year I begin the Khartoum-Kampala run. Does this mean retire those trains going from Khartoum to either Sennar or El Obid?

No, just stop them.  The scenario goals require a minimum lifetime industry profit.  Plus I think passenger supply might be slightly crippled in this map (but I haven't checked).  I set up runs to the neighbouring

towns from Khartoum, enough to build up the credit rating until I had enough credit to afford the run up to Kampala                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                .  If you don't "stop the trains" on the short hauls when you start the Kampala runs, the share price won't fall anywhere near as much, and you won't be able to acquire as much of your company's stock.

[Superchief]

You idea worked like a champ! I've never seen my PNW shoot up that fast.

Gold was easily attained, thanks!

[djf01]

Once you know how to insider trade, boosting PNW is easy!