Slave companies

[GuineaPig]

I've been looking around some of the posts here (glad to know I'm not the only one playing this game 10 years on), and I kept seeing "slave companies" mentioned as a tool to win games.  I think I understand the gist of what they are, but could someone fill me in on how you integrate them with your own RR and retain "control" of them? 

[Gwizz]

In history, Tycoons normally controlled small companies.

To control, I gain a majority of their stock.  Sometimes I add or remove some of their track and set most of their locomotives on one way trips hauling cargo to one of my stations.  It is best to send them to where there is a cargo demand for what the AI is hauling.  This give the AI some earning power so it can stay alive.  This is important if you plan to enlarge an AI company.  Never use AI trains to haul both directions, otherwise, the AI will change the cargo it back hauls.  I never back haul, not even with a caboose.  It will change a caboose to a cargo car.  Sometimes I only haul one type of cargo with an AI train.  Even bulldozing houses,etc. to limit the available cargo.    Also, use enough locomotives to haul all of the cargo.  Otherwise the AI will add more trains that will back haul the cargo.  I have sometimes left an AI with no locomotives, knowing it will go into debt to buy locomotives.  After a month I go back and reroute its' new locomotives. 

Last but not least; use the AI bonds to buy back the AIs stock.  Then you can sell some of the stock you hold and still control 51% of the company.

[GuineaPig]

Hmm, this is interesting.  Had no idea the AI wouldn't mess with your trains if you set it up this way. 

I tried it on the Prince of Steel map.  Used some extra cash to make a company dedicated to hauling logs into Montreal.  Built the track originally right into my main terminus there, but the traffic was so large I made a dedicated station.  Unfortunately, this medium station picked up some houses, which caused problems as the AI made trains to haul some of them over to Bancroft, even though the station there had no demand for it.

I guess if the AI has any place they categorize as a "town" (4+ houses), they'll haul passengers and mail to and from it?  Because there was no attempt to haul passengers/mail from Bancroft before when I was directing trains into my Montreal terminus.

[Gwizz]

The AI will almost always haul the most expensive cargo first.

I try to place the AI drop station so that its' placement doesn't cover any houses.

[GuineaPig]

So I've been fooling around with slave companies.  Typically I have trouble keeping the AI companies afloat on some of the TSC scenarios played on normal (especially if I created them); I guess it helps more if the expert +20% revenue bonus is in play.

Also, there are a couple problems I always seem to have concerning routing.  Do people typically let the AI trains run mostly on track you own, generating the revenue for the parent company and leaving the subsidiary with a small %?  I find that often there are congestion problems where traffic on the main line is significant enough that AI trains take a long time to reach their destination.

Secondly, when hauling cargo to a destination that the AI train has delivered, I typically find it hard to send back the train with a cargo in demand the other way.  Is the profit margin on the raw material so marginal that it is more economical to run a load of ~4 cars of food one way (say, 25 tiles or so) and then have it come back empty (saving money on fuel)?  If there isn't the prospect of bringing cargo back, is it more profitable to assign an AI train to do it (increased revenue, goes directly to parent company)?

[cogeo]

This will never work, I'm afraid. AI companies can do the most stupid things, like dumping cargos to stations not demanding them, or all of the sudden, get deeply into debt, and build the most stupid track you can (or cannot) imagine! Ahh, and get some Pacifics, to haul all this coal and timber!

[jeffryfisher]

AI companies can do the most stupid things... get some Pacifics, to haul all this coal and timber!

You left out the "up a 9% grade"!  ::)

[GuineaPig]

I've refined my slave company strategy a bit.  Was playing "Remember America."  I created one large company, American Land Holdings.  After a couple years of investment, I purchased stations in Old Topeka, Wichita, and Lincomaha.  Then I created another company to run trains in between the stations and other resource gathering stations.  I set up routes with trains; some were direct runs between cities, others were routes from the depots to the cities with no backhauling.  Then, I resigned as chairman and re-assumed control of American Land Holdings.  This way, the subsidiary AI company would do what it did best: running the trains profitably, while the parent company took the money off the top from station revenue, industry profits, and some very small trackage fees.  I repeated this everywhere there was a potential for profit, with the parent company retaining control over all non-track infrastructure and the subsidiaries running the trains and paying dividends.  By the end, I had 6 subsidiaries, all profitable, bringing around $1 mil in profit each year for the main company, and paying cumulative dividends to me of another million each year.

[Gwizz]

On the map I've been testing, I set up one AI to only build bridges as this AI had the bridge building manager.    Another AI had the 30% discount manager on Electric locomotives which it operated on my track.  Another AI had the 40% track discount manager.  It built the spurs for other AIs that they used to pick up demand cargos.  Another AI had the station discount manager.  I used it to build small stations to block cities not yet connected.  Another AI had the Stock discount manager.  I would take control of this AI when ever I worked in the stock market.  My money was used to buy 51% ownership in all of the AI Railroads.    It also helped to have each AI first buy back its' own stock which lowered the stocks value and allowed me to sell some of the AI stock I controlled while still holding 51% control.    The Tycoons of old operated in this manner.