Scenario 3 - Midwest U.S. | Game scenarios Railroads Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Important! Following hints are based on these scenario settings:

Time limit - 1840-1970; Number of AI Players - 2. Randomize landscape and Randomize locations features have been deactivated.

The game won't force you to do anything. As a result, you will be able to customize the gameplay. For example, you have an opportunity to play each scenario without having to worry about the competition.

Here's the list of main mission objectives. You will have to fulfill them in order to succeed:

LEVEL 1 - Steel Town to the Windy City

You will have to complete all of these tasks by: 1885.

Level one objectives:

1) Recreate the railroad line of the same name by connecting Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago.

I'm sure that you still remember similar assignments from the previous scenarios of the game. As a result, you shouldn't have any problems understanding what has to be done here. As always, fulfilling this objective is going to be more difficult, mostly because you will have to construct longer and very expensive connections. I'd strongly recommend that you start playing this scenario in Cleveland. Thanks to that, you won't have any problems creating a track to Pittsburgh. You will be able to proceed to the remaining two cities from here. Fort Wayne is located in the central area of the map, so you should start by connecting this city to the rest of the grid. As for Chicago, you won't have to go there right away, especially since you won't have to fulfill any other tasks in that area during the first level of the scenario. The only thing you should be worried about is the competition. If you notice that AI players are laying down tracks near Chicago, it would be wise to speed up this process in order to be able to finish this connection. Otherwise you would have to spend more money, building bridges and other expensive objects. I would also like to add that Fort Wayne is going to be a small town at the start of the game. As a result, you should try and help it expand. You should also create a stable connection between Fort Wayne and Chicago. You'll need this track in the future, however building it earlier seems like a good idea.

2) Enter the steel market by building or purchasing a steel mill in Pittsburgh.

This is a fairly obvious objective. Furthermore, finishing it shouldn't be much of a problem. You will have to go to Pittsburgh that's located near Cleveland. I'm sure that this city is already connected to your main grid. I didn't have to build a steel mill from scratch. Instead, I had to participate in an auction. Thankfully, AI players won't be interested in this object (especially in the early part of the game), so you should be able to acquire it for about 100000 dollars. It's a very reasonable price, especially since building a steel mill would require you to spend 500000 dollars... I'd strongly recommend that you finish this task as soon as possible, because this will allow you to proceed with the third objective of this level. You will also receive additional income from the steel mill.

3) Help build the world's first skyscrapers by delivering 25 carloads of steel from your factory in Pittsburgh.

You shouldn't have any major problems figuring out what has to be done here, however you won't be allowed to delay this objective for too long. As you've probably noticed, the first level of this scenario is much shorter. As a result, you will have to focus all of your attention on completing mission objectives. You will have to create a very simple production chain. Start off by building or winning a steel mill (second objective of this level). Once you've bought it, you will be able to proceed with the production process. Take a closer look at your map. There should be at least two mines near Pittsburgh. You will have to connected them to your grid. The objective here is to allow the coal to be delivered to Pittsburgh. Additionally, make sure that this process isn't interrupted. You will have to build parallel tracks. It would also be wise to construct a terminal in Pittsburgh. Remember that delivering coal is very important, so make sure that you didn't do anything wrong here. Now you will have to wait for the steel to be manufactured. The last thing you will have to do is to find a receiver. Thankfully, I didn't have to look far, because Fort Wayne demanded this good and that's where I needed to go to fulfill other mission objective. If it's some other town, you will have to construct new tracks and buy at least new locomotive. Once you've created a connection, make sure that steel is being delivered properly. You should be using one locomotive with five carriages. This should be enough, especially if you had decided to ship these goods long before the time limit runs out. You could also consider buying a second locomotive, however this shouldn't be necessary. Also, make sure that the steel is being produced without any unwanted delays. This is your absolute priority at the moment.

Use the 'locate goods' feature to look for nearby coal mines. The same window will allow you to locate a city that demands steel to be delivered to it.

LEVEL 2 - There's The Beef

You will have to complete all of these tasks by: 1935.

Level two objectives:

1) Cash in on the cow craze by building or purchasing a stockyard in Chicago.

You shouldn't have any problems completing this scenario objective. There's only one thing you will have to do here - acquire a stockyard. Sadly, you probably won't be able to participate in an auction. Instead, you will have to buy it the usual way (by spending 500000 dollars on the construction). Don't worry about it, though. You're going to need this building to finish one of the upcoming goals. Having a stockyard will also allow you to receive additional income. I would recommend that you purchase this factory as soon as possible.

2) Reinvest your profits back into yourself; own at least 70% of your own stock.

I would recommend that you leave this task for later. You won't have to purchase your stocks right away. Make sure that you have constructed a large grid, filled with profitable connections. If you didn't sell any of your stocks, you shouldn't have any additional problems. The only thing for you to do here is to buy a required number of stocks. You won't have to participate in any other types of actions. You will have to spend a lot of money on your shares, however there's no other way to fulfill this mission objective.

3) Leverage your position as a dominant meat supplier to ship 20 carloads of food from Chicago to Cincinnati, Toronto, and Detroit.

This is by far the most complicated objective of this level of the scenario, however you shouldn't have any problems finishing it. The only difficulty is that you'll have to construct several expensive connections. I'm sure that you have a lot of money on your account, so you should be able to afford all of this. As for the cities, you'll only have some problems with Cincinnati, mostly because there's a large distance separating it from Chicago. This will force you to create a more complicated connection. You will have to start off by constructing a Stockyard in Chicago, however I'm sure that you've already done that. Having this building will be crucial to your success. Otherwise you wouldn't even be able to supply other cities with new goods. Now you will have to locate a few cattle ranches. I'm sure that there are at least two of these objects near Chicago, so you won't have to invest a lot of money on these tracks. If you're lucky, you should even be able to connect both cattle ranches with only one track. As a result, you would be able to gather resources with one train. That would also speed up the production process. You will have manufacture at least 60 carloads of meat, however each city must be supplied only with 20 carloads. If you don't want to expand your existing grids, you may consider building tracks only for the purpose of this mission objective. Once you've completed part of the task, you may as well try and destroy them. You shouldn't have any other problems with this objective. Just make sure that each city gets 20 full carloads of meat. After that, you will automatically fulfill this task. Thankfully, you won't have to be in a lot of hurry here. There's plenty of time to complete this objective.

You should be able to find at least two cattle ranches in the Chicago area.

LEVEL 3 - Race to the Finish

You will have to complete all of these tasks by: 1970.

Level three objectives:

1) Change the way Americans move by building or purchasing an automobile factory in Detroit.

Once again, you will have to build a factory from scratch. This means spending half a million dollars. To be specific, you will have to purchase an automobile factory. You shouldn't have any problems with that, especially since you should already have a lot of profitable connections. I would also like to add that selling cars will allow you to earn A LOT of extra cash. You won't have any problems getting rid of them, mostly because every large city will be demanding these goods.

2) Grow Indianapolis into a Metropolis.

This is your first encounter with an objective like this. Thankfully, there's nothing that you should be worried about. First of all, you will have to connect Indianapolis to the rest of your grid. I think that's fairly obvious. There are a lot of other cities in this area, so you'll just have to pick one of them. You could also try and establish a connection between Indianapolis and Detroit. This will be very helpful in the future, however you won't have to use this connection right away. As for the main mission objective, you will have to do a few important things. First of all, make sure that Indianapolis has at least two different factories. Now you will have to start supplying certain type of goods in order to proceed with the manufacturing process. Additionally, you should also supply other resources. Check the demand window if you have hard time finding the correct ones. For example, supplying coal seems like a good idea, especially if you plan on building a power plant or a steel mill. Remember to ship out manufactured goods from Indianapolis to other cities. If you've done most of these actions, you should be able to help the city to grow. Indianapolis will have to become a Metropolis in order for this task to end with a success.

3) Help the Indianapolis 500 organizers by transporting all 33 race cars from Detroit to Indianapolis.

Important! You shouldn't try completing this mission objective unless you have completed second mission objective. It's VERY IMPORTANT that Indianapolis grows to become a metropolis. Otherwise the citizens wouldn't be demanding automobiles. I guess you're wandering what it means - you wouldn't be able to sell them. Instead, you'd lose all your cargo! As a result, wait for the change to commence. In order to proceed with this mission objective you should focus on establishing a new connection between Indianapolis and Detroit. It's going to be quite expensive, but you should already have a lot of money at your disposal. Additionally, make sure that the automobile factory in Detroit is working at a full capacity. This means that you will have to deliver steel without any unnecessary delays. Also, make sure that the route starts in Detroit and ends in Indianapolis. It's very important, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to fulfill this mission objective. You should be able to haul 5 carloads with a single locomotive, so the train will have to return to Detroit about 6-7 times. Thankfully, you won't have to buy any additional locomotives. Instead, focus on supplying Detroit with steel and you should be just fine. There's plenty of time before this mission ends, so you won't have to be in a lot of hurry.

You MUST wait for Indianapolis to become a metropolitan region. Once this has happened, you will be allowed to proceed with the last objective of this scenario.

This picture shows the most important cities of the region:

1 - Indianapolis; 2 - Chicago; 3 - Louisville; 4 - Cincinnati; 5 - Lexington; 6 - Pittsburgh; 7 - Cleveland; 8 - Columbus; 9 - Detroit; 10 - Toronto; 11 - Fort Wayne.

Red lines show three cities that need to be connected in the first place (not necessarily in a straight line). Green lines show four cities that need to be connected later during this mission. You will be allowed to demolish these tracks once the objectives have been completed. Blue line shows two cities that need to be connected during the final phase of this mission. This will allow you to proceed with the supply process.

Additional hints for the entire scenario:

Let's start off by choosing a city. This choice is going to be very important, because some of the mission objectives will require you to connect different kinds of cities within a given time limit. You will be given a few propositions - Indianapolis, Lexington or Cincinnati. I would recommend that you choose Cleveland for your start city. This city is located in a very suitable spot. There are two large towns in the area. Furthermore, one of them is Pittsburgh. You're going to need to connect this city to your main grid in order to proceed with one of the mission objectives. Make sure that this connection has been established. Once this is done, I would recommend laying down tracks to the south. Connect Columbus to your existing grid. This is also a big city, so you'll be able to transport passengers right from the start.

Now you should focus most of your attention on creating additional connections. Bear in mind that they must be profitable. You could also expand your existing lines, by transporting passengers and mail. Once you've gathered a larger amount of money, take a closer look at the factories that are located in this area. You should be able to find a lot of mines and farms in this area. You should add some of these objects and connect them to your existing grid. Additionally, don't forget about the main objectives of the scenario.

You should establish a connection between Cleveland and Pittsburgh as soon as possible.

Start moving towards the western part of the map. Start off by creating a connection that will allow you to add Detroit to the existing grid. Adding Fort Wayne is even more important. You will need to establish this connection in order to proceed with one of the primary objectives of this level of the scenario. You can ignore Toronto for the moment, however you'll get back here later during this mission (you'll need this city to fulfill a second level objective). Keep expanding your grid. You should also consider adding smaller towns, however this won't be necessary. Just make sure that all of your existing connections are highly profitable.

Your next big step is to establish a connection between Fort Wayne (or Detroit) and Chicago. I've already mentioned before that it's going to cost you a lot. There's a high probability that the competition is currently occupying these sectors of the map. As a result, you will have to establish this connection quickly or decide to build a larger number of bridges. The choice is yours, however if you decide to wait you will have to spend more money on this connection. There are also some farms and ranches in this area. Consider adding them to your grid, especially since you'll need some of these factories later during the game.

Laying down tracks that lead to Chicago will probably cost you a lot. Make sure that you have enough funds to pay for this investment.

Now you should concentrate all of your efforts on completing the remaining mission objectives. I assume that the first level tasks have already been fulfilled. You will probably need to create a lot of expensive and complicated connections. I'd personally recommend creating a separate line that would allow you to connect Detroit with Toronto. This will allow you to speed up the selling process. Don't use the Chicago-Fort Wayne route, because you would probably have to build a second bridge and that's just too expensive. As for the Cincinnati objective, try creating a single line that won't have too many bridges or tunnels. You could also consider adding this town to your grid earlier in the mission, however this won't be necessary.

Once you've dealt with the mission objectives, you will be able to proceed to the third level of this scenario. Thankfully, most of these takes will involve only one city - Indianapolis. As a result, you will have to create a lot of connections in that area. One of them should go to Detroit. This is going to be very important. You'll need this connection to fulfill one of the more important goals (supplying Indianapolis with automobiles). Also, try connecting Indianapolis with all the cities from this area. This will allow you to earn some extra cash, transporting passengers and mail. Thankfully, you won't have to worry about the competition too much. AI players shouldn't be considered a serious threat. The only difference is that you'll have to construct more bridges to avoid their grids, however you should have enough money to do that.

It would be wise to create a new line that would connect Indianapolis with Detroit. This will allow you to fulfill one of the mission objectives.