Socialism map

[Gwizz]

I'm playing a Socialism centered map using the present and resent economic problems in the US in this 1895 map.  Play is differently different.  Banking changes, expanding bond use and modified interest as well as record debt, is causing some unreal economics that gives some unexpected real life consequences depending upon game play.

Playing the part of a liberal is fun.

With the unusually cold weather, I should be through testing it in a few days and will post it here then.    

[Gwizz]

This may be the toughest map I have ever made.

I played around with the economy, cargo values, etc.

This is a builders map but with the win events.

Without using the cheat codes, I have not won on this map.

But I'm still trying and it looks like I have passed the toughest part.

This is a busy map.  I spend about 8 hours to complete the first year. 

But then I'm building a number of railroads at the same time.

But you need not be as careful.  I just like to build.

I finished the second year and I'm now ready to start 3rd year.  

I missed a margin call by 100K.  I,m now about out of margin.  

I control my RR and 7 AI railroads.  Two other AI RRs are under the complete control of their chairmen.

Both built out of my way and cause me no problems.  I have merged an AI RR about 5 times.  They alway rebuild.

Mr Cook is the only Chairmen left to start a Railroad.  He tends to only buy stock. 

Doing so, he was worth more then me; but his tide has turned and now is less wealthy.

My RR is now slowing recovering from what was almost an economic disaster for it.

From now on it should be an easy run to a win for me, if I can haul enough cargo.

When I tested, I used the cheats and the map seemed solid.

I'm uploading it as a beta version called ---- Acorn Economy 101---

Some events were removed or changed to make the map a bit less political.

Acorn_Economy_#101.zip

[Gwizz]

This may be the toughest map I have ever made.

I played around with the economy, cargo values, etc.

This is a builders map but with the win events.

Without using the cheat codes, I have not won on this map.

But I'm still trying and it looks like I have passed the toughest part.

This is a busy map.  I spend about 8 hours to complete the first year. 

But then I'm building a number of railroads at the same time.

But you need not be as careful.  I just like to build.

I finished the second year and I'm now ready to start 3rd year.  

I missed a margin call by 100K.  I,m now about out of margin.  

I control my RR and 7 AI railroads.  Two other AI RRs are under the complete control of their chairmen.

Both built out of my way and cause me no problems.  I have merged an AI RR about 5 times.  They alway rebuild.

Mr Cook is the only Chairmen left to start a Railroad.  He tends to only buy stock. 

Doing so, he was worth more then me; but his tide has turned and now is less wealthy.

My RR is now slowing recovering from what was almost an economic disaster for it.

From now on it should be an easy run to a win for me, if I can haul enough cargo.

When I tested, I used the cheats and the map seemed solid.

I'm uploading it as a beta version called ---- Acorn Economy 101---

Some events were removed or changed to make the map a bit less political.

[Gwizz]

This map is a bugger.

Depending upon the random startup, any one of the 3 goals can be the toughest.

If I get a high number of the most valuable cargos, I can earn the goal for total CBV.

And, if I get a good placement of industries I can easily haul 250 loads per year for the last few years.  

Of course I have to haul 250 loads every year in the last few years of the game to reach a Gold win.

If I get some good startup placements of AI RRs it is easy to win the PNW goal as I can control and use AIs.

I normally start 2 or 3 AIs so I can place them myself.

The toughest part of game play for me, is to not haul low value cargo, except as a back haul.  

To reduce micro management I set up groups of locos.  I buy 10 or 20 at one time to hold in reserve.  

They are assigned only permanent high value routes.  I assign AI RRs the low value cargos to their routes.

I tend to use a lot of small stations that serve one industry to make this auto hauling work.

I spend two or three times a long on pause as I do running the map, just setting up the routes and making PNW.

What would I do different:

1.  I would make the wins dependent upon the # of goals completed and not assign each goal for a win event.

2.  I would make this a 12 year map and reduce the CNW to 100 million.

3.  I would make milk more valuable because of it's short rot time. Etc, Etc.

The present value of some of the cargos for long timely hauls:

Produce               $ 154K           Mail      $  72K            Fertilizer, Troops, & Passengers     $  44K

Chemicals             $ 136K           Milk       $  69K            Coffee, Autos, Food, And sugar    $  39K

Cotton & wool       $ 132K           Diesel    $  49K            Steel and Goods                         $  34K

Iron, Logs & Pulp   $ 103K           Paper     $  47K            The rest of the cargos are below   $  30K

 

The use of special managers will, of course, affect some of the above values.

[Gwizz]

I haven't had time to play the Socialism Map very much for a couple of weeks.

I find by not playing every day, I forget where the demand stations are and have to look for them to change a route.

On the present game I've completed 17 years.  I've exceeded the goals for bronze and Gold, but not for Silver.

I just about double the Bronze goal each year but need the Silver RR net worth goal before I can win Gold.

For two years in a row I've earned over 25 million but I still need about 106 million dollars to reach the Silver win.

That means I need almost 36 million total each year to win the game.  So I spent some time making changes.

I've had some traffic jams on my central and Pacific routes.  So I bulldozed and built a lot of new track.  This was the first time I had run out of track and had to wait for the next track allotment.  I wasted some track in the past. I won't do that again.

I merged my two small AI RRs and rerouted the large AI RR I control, to only supply cargo to my stations.

I have changed my RR to Electric track. a few locos are old and still need to be replace.  They are becoming costly to run.  I was robbing cargo from the 4 AI RRs that I don't control; But feel that was costing me more than it was worth.  So I pulled the trains back to my main line for the last three years.

My expenses have been very high each year: For the last 17th year they were:

1.  22 million for track.  I have too much track, such as many crossings to reduce stopping of trains or to keep

          trains from turning in front of other trains thus stopping them. 

2.  50 million for locomotives.  I just retired or replaced most of the older ones.

3.  24 million for cars.  I was hauling a lot of empties to reduce micro managing trains. 

          They will now wait for full trains

4.  45 million for fuel  The electric locos should reduce this expense some. 

5.  18.5 million for overhead and misc.

     

I was making over one million on the money I borrowed.  Remember this is a Socialism map. 

I just bought back all bonds so I can to be debt free for the Gold win, even though the bonds gave income. 

My income on the 17th year was:  186 million for freight and 71 million for passengers. 

Station, industry and misc totaled 41 million.  Yea, All numbers don't add up.  Remember this is a Socialism Map

 

[djf01]

I haven't had time to play the Socialism Map very much for a couple of weeks.

I find by not playing every day, I forget where the demand stations are and have to look for them to change a route.

On the present game I've completed 17 years.  I've exceeded the goals for bronze and Gold, but not for Silver.

I just about double the Bronze goal each year but need the Silver RR net worth goal before I can win Gold.

Well, I had a crack at this map.  It took me a few goes to get the strategy right, but the easiest way to win seems to be:

- Buy a controlling interest in every AI that starts up

- Take control then immediately sell all my shares (costs me about $100k to do this, but the map starts off with plenty of free cash)

- Bulldoze the track between their main routes, and the stations too if they are in great cities.  Build another unconnected station in the sticks somewhere.

- MAX out the bond issues and issue some more stock.

- Destroy the AI's value.  There are lots of ways of doing this, but my preferred way is to buy and sell Steel Mills, then other industries till all the cash is gone.

- Go back to chairmanship of the original railroad.

After the first year I have set up pretty much all the chairmen except Cook on the path to destitution.

- I bought back a bit of my own company, just to keep the market share price above the book value to stop other chairpersons buying a stake.

- After he starting company has some track cells, start laying out a route (try to hire a track laying manager).  St Louis to Denver was a good initial one.  Laying track zipper style, you can claim 2 cell with just one cell of track.  Then join them up after.

- Start a new "slave" company with your remaining cash.  Build a terminal station at each end of "my" railroad's route, maxed out with hotels and restaurants.  Use every bit of cash left to buy new trains.

Both companies will earn squillions.  Repeat the process as track cells allow.

Even so, "earning" $250mil of CBV takes a bit of time in RT2.  I used a few other tricks to boost my CBV.  You can start an AI company with up to 49% public capital.  Buy up a many secondary industries as you can afford after maxing out your debt issuances.  Go back to the original company.  This AI company's share price will fall to just udner half it's book value after 2 years.  Merge it into your main railroad at the minimum takeover price.  Your railroad instantly doubles it's money (in CBV terms).

Once the main RR gets a reasonable size, issue stock every year, and don't ever buy any back.  That increases CBV about 5-7% each year

After 12 - 15 years I was worth > 100mil PNV, I have >$300mil CBV, I had a few dummy stations set up collecting PAX just to deliver to their home to meet the delivery target, plus about 200car loads of cattle stored up just in case.

I never made use of the Acorn cheap debt.  A true capitalist doesn't need to resort to that sort of crap.

I thought I'd try and win the game here, but guess what - in true lying republican style - I got shafted.  I delivered all my cargos (350 as it turned out), but no dice. 

Then I merged my slave company, and it still didn't fire - and before I cold get it to the end of the 20 years or whatever it was, the profitability of the combined entity collapsed and I eventually didn't meet the PNW condition :-(.

So Gerry, you know where you can stick your acorns :-)

[Gwizz]

It sounded like you did everything right.

Was your RR debt free?

Just curious, didn't you make anything from the negative value bonds you floated?

About one million was as much as I was able to get in one year.

Remember under Socialism things do tend to crunch in the end as debt nips off everyone's tail.

[djf01]

It sounded like you did everything right.

Was your RR debt free?

Pretty sure.  I suppose I might have forgotten to repay the bonds I inherited from my merged entities, but I don't think so.  I just figured it checked the loads in the last year.  I knew I'd won - and more time doing than I'd anticipated - and I really didn't have the urge to go and try and debug it.

Just curious, didn't you make anything from the negative value bonds you floated?

No.  I found trying to use the AIs to make a profit - other than my slave which I kept largely debt free - only enriched the chairmen also holding stock.  They would eventually have enough to start starting their own annoying railroads mid/late game.

[douglascaixeta]

Seems like a very interesting map. I will play, but first I have 2 questions.

I control my RR and 7 AI railroads.  Two other AI RRs are under the complete control of their chairmen.

[...] I have merged an AI RR about 5 times.  They alway rebuild.

Seems like you can control various companies at the same time. How can you do this, if when you get control to an AI company the AI take over your company and mess up with everything?

At least with me, when I have most shares of more than 1 company, when I assume control to the AI company, they screw my main company, selling all my electric trains and buying coal trains, making a huge debt. Also change cargos and destinations, and all in less than a month.

You also sad:

To reduce micro management I set up groups of locos.  I buy 10 or 20 at one time to hold in reserve.

How you manage this? If I buy 10 locos for reserve, only the maintenance costs will take me to bankruptcy.

[Gwizz]

Controlling an AI Company:

AI railroads can change things,  So, I limit that latitude.

1.  Buy controlling interest;  Take control, Then, Remove the AI's city stations and only haul freight.

2.  Or, leave the city stations and trains and don't build any connecting track to that original track.

3.  Doing this allows the AI to make a profit and possible expand without connecting to the AI's

      other track and stations you build.

1.  Build track elsewhere, unconnected, from one cargo type to one of your RR's demand stations.

2.  I normally haul low value cargo with the AI, to where that cargo will produce a more expensive cargo that I can haul.

3.  I seldom back haul from one of my stations back to the AI station.  Some times I will stop for a cargo that the AI station needs.

4.  I don't use a caboose on a back haul except on my own RR.

Buying extra locomotives:

I buy extra locos for the AI when I expect the AI to be profitable.  I don't believe they have the same expensives as my Railroad.

I buy extra locos even on my own RR as this map gives makes enough money to pay extra expensives. 

I enjoy this game play since it is more like the real railroads operate.  As profits grow I tend to improve my trackage.

If an AI has some trackage I need, where I control this AI, I use the AI to remove the trackage and even a station.

I then build my track in place of the AI trackage and any stations.    I tend to build two or three stations at big city area

and run a direct route bewteen this area and another big city area.  I let the AI haul to these areas and I haul the produced cargos. 

I have a new version of this map that I'm play testing.  It will be a few day before I attach it.  It has a lot of changes

and should be easier to play.

[RSimpkinuk57]

Gwizz,

I think Douglascaixeta's point is that, to demand an election and so make yourself chairman of another company, don't you have to resign from your own company leaving a "committee of shareholders" in control? - who'll mess up in your absence.

This is what you do, right?

1) PAUSE GAME

2) resign from main company

3) get elected to AI company chairmanship

4) demolish/rebuild AI company to suit self

5) resign from AI company

6) get elected back to main company (is it still as you left it?)

7) now (and only now) unpause game, so the committee have had no "time" in control at all

regards, Richard

[Gwizz]

You are correct.  ;)    Thanks RS the added info.

I should have been a little clearer on the fact that I always make changes on pause and return to my

own RR before restarting the game.    :O

My point was to control what the commitee might do when they operate the AI RR. 

I never let them control my own RR.

Misc. comments.

An AI will look for cargo piling up at a station, his or yours with connected track.

If it finds some, it will add a train or two. 

An AI train can change what it hauls, the most valuable cargo is hauled first.

It needs cars on its' haul list to changes the consist. 

If it has only a caboose on the return trip, it can change that caboose to a revenue car to haul back.

If the loco has no cars, running light for the return trip, The AI does not add cars to haul.

If AI trackage is connected to more than 2 stations,  then it is important to keep the

stations cleared of waiting cargo.

 

(I have allowed haul back cargo when that cargo produces more valuable cargo to

haul back to my station.  I then keep a loco at my station to load and haul the valuable cargo)

Generally you need to keep cargo cleared from a station that the AI may connect to.

It is possible for the AI to travel on your trackage when

connected to your RR and haul some of you cargo. 

You can benefit by being paid for their use of your trackage. 

You pay the AI when you haul on its' trackage.

If it takes cargo you need, then keep a loco or two there to quickly load and haul it

The AI may not have the money to build trackage and make connections.

I will normally spent its bond money, unless I want it to expand then I leave it buyable bonds. 

The AI can buy more bonds then you can; But rarely does.

An AI will not build a station in a city that has had a station in the past. 

I will sometimes block a city from AI use.  I build a small station, then bulldoze the station.

I tend to leave AI's broke before I return to my own RR.

If the AI is running in the red, then the extra locos I bought with its' money can be

put into service if and where needed as the AI will have no money to do so.

I'm sure there are other things I do, that I'm not thinking of.  ::)

[douglascaixeta]

Thanks Gwizz, thanks RSimpkinuk57, for the tips.

I wanted to use them but I didn't succeed to get control of any of the 11 companies. They buy stock back really fast.

It's a hard map indeed.

I will keep trying.

[Gwizz]

If you don't get a good seeding of industry, restart the map until you do.

Remember there are cargos on this map that pay very well.  Try to

make use of them with a simple startup railroad.

I normally do very little with my railroad until the start of the 2nd year.

Bonds are better than and extra money I hold back allows me to take control of

a few if not all AIs during the first year.  Run AI locos on your rails for extra cash.

I normally keep my AI RRs profitable;  But it is easier to disable them and sell their stock.

Their stock prices will drop and you can buy back the stocks later. 

The AI chairmen will sometimes beat you to the stocks making it harder to gain control.

I'm putting more status reports in my next map to make it easier to see goals and to

offer some tips.

All aboard I'm now leaving the station. 

[Gwizz]

All Status reports are done.  I greatly reduced dialog about Socialism.

The thought came to me how to modify the margin call.  Made other changes.

How to:

Tried the map.  It starts with two Railroad ready to run.

I added a 2nd AI railroad and bought 51% of its' stocks.

Ran the map for a few months.  6 More AIs started. 

One of the AIs owned all his stock and was well built on a route I wanted.  :'(

Took out 3 million in bonds and bought 51 % of stock of the remaining 5 AIs.

Ran the game for a couple of months when two more AIs started.

One AI chairmen owned 9 shares of stock. I tried to take over this AI first.

I ran out of purchasing power at 9 stocks. 

Ran the game for the rest of the month and received a margin call.

paused and had some of the AIs buy back stock until their actions took me out of margin.

Ran the game for a month and received a 2nd margin call.

Had the AIs Buy back more stock which again took me out of margin.

Ran the game for another month,  Had a 3rd margin call.

The value of some stock had dropped in value but two of my profitable trains paid me.

I again had  the AIs buy back stock and used the increase price of this stock

to buy the last two shares and bought 90% of the last AI to gain control of 9 AI railroads.

With only one AI that I don't control, I'm in good shape to run to gold.

I did buy back a little of my stock and sold the excess AI stock I held.

Had the AIs buy back this stock.  With some I had them take out bonds to do this.

Now with the first margin call I could have done all of the above on one pause a bit cheaper.

But I wanted to test & see how the mix of train profit,  the AI buying back stock to

increase its value and the expected drop in other stock value would affect my purchasing power.

Having the AIs start with more dollars and having some cargo values set higher, helped.

So this method might not work as well on the normally constructed maps with normal dollars. 

I still need to finish testing this map to check the win.

[Gwizz]

I've Been so busy, I've only completed 3 years.

I spent a lot of time trying to control every AI RR.  Almost exceeded.

I added 2 AIs to this map.  That make 12 plus the two I started and my Railroad. for 15 total.

I merged 3 AI and two of the chairmen started a 2nd RR.  I now have 14 railroad on the map and don't control 2 AIs.

One owns all his stock and two stations and he connected to 3 of my stations.  I have 3 of my stations pulling

cargo away from him. and I bulldozed my three stations he had connected to.  I know it is hard to bankrupt an

AI since they can get cargo out of thin air.  Sometimes a chairman will except a higher price for a merge. 

Some chairmen will refuse to budge.

The other AI is in a bad way and should be easy to buy out.

I've put many of the AIs deep in debt to give them more cash.  With a down turn in the economy, it payed off. 

There is only one place where I still want to build track;  But, my rich AI took over this territory. 

I've threaded my way part way through his territory using AI track so I didn't have to own the expense of

unused track.  I will merge these AI RRs when the time comes.

I didn't like some of my random events.  So, I made some changes to these.

Well, we had lots of rain today;  And, the creek is really running dirty as it cleans itself out. 

Days like this allow me more time to run the map.

 

[Gwizz]

Played another 2 years last night.  Merged one AI and three more started a railroad company.

I now have move AIs in operation than I allow in the editor,  :O

I did agree to hire one manager for the whole game; But on pause I hired another manager to take

advantage of his skills.  I lost him and got another manager back shortly after I came off pause.

I wonder, since the manager given to me by the game was not on the list of managers I allowed for the map,

maybe the bigger list of game managers was opened up.  The managers that are now starting a railroad

are not on my list.  Two of them did not build any track or stations.  I don't think there are any cities left 

for then to build in. 

The rich AI that I don't control is still adding track and I'm no closer to merging him than I was before.

I did finish threading my rail through his territory.  I may just give up stealing cargo from him.

The higher value of cargo is keeping all AIs alive and making money.

[Gwizz]

Finally able to again work on my map.

On the manager I agreed to keep for the whole game in exchange for money, I found I had made that manager a one time event. 

I fixed that.  I have now played through 6 years.  I have had about 17 or 18 AIs start up.  Some for the 2nd or 3rd time. 

Two I was not able to control from the start.  One took an important route I wanted and it built 3 stations and added two

of my stations to its' route.  I scraped my two stations and removed the track, thus cutting the AI line so it had only two

usable stations to haul from.  I built two stations next to the two AI stations and with a shorter distance to travel,

I started robbing its' cargo with two locomotives.

The last three AIs to start up didn't build a railroad and it was easy to take control away from those Chairmen. 

At this point I used my strongest AI to merge 3 AIs whose track, I didn't need.  I merged 4 more AIs leaving 4 railroads in operation.

I ran parallel track on the route of the strongest AI I didn't control.  The AI was no longer using his track so the profit was mine.

This AI is slowing losing net worth and I may still be able to merge him if I offer him enough money.  The same with the other AI.

 

Before I paid off my bonds, I was receiving about $1.5 million each year in profit from my reverse interest bonds. 

The bonds had an average of about a -10 percent interest rate.  The best interest came from two with a -17% interest rate. 

My strongest feeder AI has $9 million in bonds with an average of about -7 % rate.  You could call this carbon credits or stimulas money.

Remember this is a socialism Tycooning map where only a few get very wealthy by minipulating others and the market.

And, everyone else becomes like poor slaves controlled by these very wealthy people.

My PNW is now about double of what I need for a gold win, coming from my merging.  This year I became debt free. 

MY company is still short the profit it needs for Gold, And, I only have about 50% of the hauls I need for a gold win. 

I had used a lot of small stations to lock out an AI from building to these cities. 

I'm now bulldozing most of them and track I don't need to reduce costs. 

My strongest feeder AI supples low value cargo to my demand stations and has alway made a good profit.

As I take over Smaller AI companies I bulldoze stations and turn the haulage over to MY strong feeder AI.

It is running about 115 locomotives.  That is more than I have. If I merge this AI I should have enough hauls for gold.

One problem,  This AI wants over 40 million to merge with him.  I now have about 3 million in cash.

I have rerouted the locos from the merged Railroads and fixed some track for less congestion and high speed running.

In the editor I made a few minor changes to the map.  Added some snow,  Eased some grades, etc.

Now I will have a go at earning those last two requirements for a gold win.

[Gwizz]

A couple days ago I played the map for two more years. I now have enough hauls for gold.

All I need now is for my company to reach $250 million.  With 12 years to go, it should be easy.

Since I retired all my bonds my income is now mostly in hauling.  I didn't buy any industry this time.  The economy on this  map seems to make them less of a benefit.

I maxed-out the bonds for my main AI feeder RR.  This is the only AI I now control.  The other two AIs I don't control are losing money and are not expanding.  With 10 million in bonds, my feeder AI is making almost 1.5 million per year off negitive bonds.

I have a few more of my stations to bulldoze but first will replace them with AI stations.  I will reroute the AI trains to haul only low value cargo but have them use my rails more.  I will reroute my trains to only haul high value cargo and to stay only on my rails.

By having fewer stations well fed with demand cargo by the AI RR, I can let my train run with much less attention.  I think I can win gold at 10 years if I don't get a bad resession.

Well my break is over. I need to get back to work.

[Gwizz]

by DJfo1

I thought I'd try and win the game here, but guess what - in true lying republican

style - I got shafted.  I delivered all my cargos (350 as it turned out), but no dice

I owe DJfo1 an apology,  I used the same win events on the map I'm now

working on.  When I won gold, I got credit for a Bronze win. 

Same thing happened to DJfo1 on the original map

and to anyone else who played it.  If they won Bronze then they got credit for Gold.

On the original map I had the effects backward.  # 1 for Bronze and #3 for Gold.

Apparently I had forgotten to correct them after I tested the map.

On the new map that I've beem working on, I didn't like the balance

so I made a few more changes so I will continue the testing.

[Gwizz]

With all the rain we have been getting over the last few day, I have been able to do more map testing.

I tried to limit the number of AIs that started up by by using the 4th AI to issue 8 million in bonds.  I used his money to place a small station at almost every town.  I then bulldozed the stations to restrict the AI from building his business.  This AI did well enough to start paying off his bonds.

The negative side of placing so many stations is it stopped the other AIs chairmen without a railroad from starting a railroad.  I had bought all the stock in the remaining AIs to keep them from buying stock.  I already owned most of the stock anyway.

Those chairmen without a job, just did nothing with their pocket full of cash. 

I restarted a saved game and this time 3 of the chairmen did start a railroad.  Two of them owned all of their stock.  Not what I wanted.

For the method I'm using to work, I need at least 6 to 8 AIs that I control and later merge since I will use these to build my track. 

I went back further, to a saved game.  My plans this time is to leave two towns in areas like Cotton farming for an AI to start in.  I will only block towns I want for a station. I will use the AI to not only haul lower value cargo but to haul only one type of cargo depending upon where the cargo is sent.  So far I have a coal and iron hauler,  One for cotton and wool,  one for logs and pulp and one for grain and sugar.

I plan to haul the more valuable cargos of:  Produce,  milk, diesel,  goods,  lumber,  paper,  beer,  chemicals and fertilizer.

Passenger and mail will be hauled by all railroads.  I will use crossed flags at the demand stations and red flags for all drop points where another RR will pick up the cargo.  This should keep the AIs that I control alive.

The whole process is to reduce micro management. 

Looks like rain again. So, I should have some time today for testing.  We have been having more rainy days then sunny days.  It makes for a lot of greenery.  But has been drowning my garden.

   

[Gwizz]

Up date on the Ecomimics map.  I almost have what is needed for Gold.

One problem I still have is congestion. 

The main crossing at Cheyenne always get congested even when crossing at an angle to the main line for no stopping.  When testing is complete I will build a large crossing 4 tracks East and West and 4 tracks north and South, all with angle croassings.  These tracks will all be within a large diamond.

All AI rail will be built after my rail diamond is done.  I may use an AI to build this diamond then merge the AI RR  later.

San Fransico is the other congestion area that will get special attention to limit congestion.

Otherwize I have been running all trains with only minimun micro-management.

I check the AI trains once each year and I check my trains depending upon what I do with the AI trains.

I buy more trains then I need so I let them wait for cargo on red flags.

Most of the AI trains wait for cargo on red flags,  to keep them from buying more trains that back haul cargo.  In the beginning I put the AI trains mostly on my track, hauling to one of my stations.

Then as I am able to build up my system and buy locomotives, I take control and build AI trackage, cutting their connection to my track.  Sometimes, I let them haul to their own station,  that I build next to one of miy stations.  They haul the demand cargo and return empty for more .  I haul the manufactured cargo,  using a loco that is waiting for the new cargo to appear.

[MaglevForever]

Gwizz, any updates on this map? I tried to play it a couple of times, but the game crashes when some of the AI's try to start a company in the first year. Did this happen to you?

[Gwizz]

I thought the map was working.   I'll check it out.  Thanks for the update.