Overview
It is a significant jump from normal (CFO) to hard (CEO) difficulty, this guide will provide a template to get you started and get your first billion $ until 1910.
Intro
Please give me feedback in the comments how it worked out for you and if you use other successful strategies.
I like min-maxxing but tried not to game the system.
It’s certainly possible to optimize this further, i omittet additional steps that only provide minor benefits to keep this guide short.
Additionally i omitted strategies that would make this non-repeatable, like contracting.
To keep it short and easy to find the values needed its mostly written as bullet points, let me know if something is unclear.
I will put the reasoning behind some points between [ and ], i.e. [this is a reasoning comment]
Let’s go
Start 1900 CEO (Hard) difficulty
Start in Philadelphia!
Almost all sliders have 20 steps, so 5% per step. If i tell you to set the slider to 30% move it to the left and then click 6 times the button on the right.
– branch in New York+Chicago size min/max (min size, max dealerships)
– license a phaeton in price range $600-700, preferably with low manufacturing requirements <=30, sell it for $2200
[lower prices cars get a Gouging Penalty when sold at this price, higher priced cars get you less profit, the lower the manufacturing requirements the cheaper the production of a car and the more cars you can build in a given factory]
– buy the cheapest outsourced phaeton <$1400, buy 1800 (150 per month), sell it for $1850
– marketing: newspapers 25%
– design parts (10 month, finished 11/1900) [part prices drop in month 12 of every year about 5-15%, so buy finishing 11/1900 we get the price drop right away]
— chassis: FR+leaf springs, length 30%, width 30%, frame height 30%, frame weight 50%, maximum engine length: 5%, maximum engine width 15%, all chassis design sliders 50% but durability 20%, all design focus sliders 80% but dependability 20%, all materials sliders 20%
— engine (8hp): I2 Gasoline, L-Head, bore 35%, stroke 70%, length 100%, width 90%, weight 100%, revolutions 50%, torque 50%, fuel economy 20%, all design tech 25%, focus performance 20%, focus fuel 20%, docus dependability 100%
— build the same engine but E85 fuel
— gearbox: N2R (Non-Synchronized, 2 gears, with reverse), all design performance 25% but shifting ease 80%, all quality 25%, low gearing: 0%, high gearing 50%, maximum torque 50%
– IPO (go public) for about $3 million
– immediatly sell additional shares until you own only slightly more than 50% of your company [if you sell more the shareholders can fire you when they are unhappy what they will be shortly]
– build a factory in New York 14/1000 (14 lines, 1000 cars) ($6.7 million, finished 7/1902)
– Bond $6+ million maturity 1908 => you should now have about $13 million
– 12/1900 design a phaeton: all interior 50%, all customize 30%, all design 30% but dependability 100%, all testing 30% but performace+utility+reliability 100%, 19 month (7/1902)
(!) save the design (“Summary” button on the left => Save), we will use this for the rest of this guide
+ add a trim with the E85 engine
– design a sports car (same stats as phaeton)
+ trim with E85 engine
[at the beginning of the game gasoline and E85 are equally important, so we build both. Additionally you will get more market share when building multiple trims, even if they are identical]
[why a sports car: margins are good and our 8 hp engine is more that most competitors have]
[the goal is to build a “good enough” car with low manufacturing requirements, i found it not necessary to change the sliders for other car types so we use the same everywhere]
– Bond $5+ million maturity 1910, you should now have $17-20 million
– factory london 14/1000 ($6.8 million, finished 3/1903)
– don’t buy more outsourced cars, “end production” and stop selling
– max out and lock research teams (about $400k per month)
– redesign branch in philadelphia+new york+chicago, max size/max resources
– your factory in New York is completed (we can produce about 1200 per month due to our low manufacturing requirements instead of 1000)
– sell your new cars for about $1800 (phaeton) and $2150 (sports), sell your licensed phaeton for $1450
– enable auto production + auto recondition, enable Factories => Restrict Shipping to the Same Region/Continent
– your factory in london is completed
– build branch in london+paris+berlin+vienna max/max [max size+max dealerships]
– build branch in glasgow+liverpool+birmingham min/max
– end production of your licensed phaeton, from now on we will only build and sell our own cars
– reduce sports price by about $150 (more competition)
– sell your cars in europe with $250 reduced price (there is much more competition)
– marketing newspapers 50%, billboards 10%, magazines 10%, sporting 5%, events 5%
– factory in Chicago 14/1000 ($7 million, finished 5/1905)
– major upgrade your parts [this boosts your stats massively for only a small increase in price and manufacturing requirements]
– design cars C+C22+R+S+T with additional E85 trims (all from template), 24 month 5/1905
– redesign you current cars with the modified parts (new trim => “Quick design” Button)
– your new factory in chicago is completed and your new cars are designed
– sell your new cars for the same price in europe from now on
– you can increase your prices about +$500 as demand is much higher that you are able to produce
– max upgrade factories in new york+chicago+london (+4 lanes)
– build factory in Zurich 14/1000 ($7.5 million, finished 3/1907)
– factory upgrades complete
– build factory in Sydney 18/800 ($9.3 million, finished 10/1907)
– design new parts 10 month, finished 11/1906
— chassis ladder+F4+swing axle, same as before but ride comfort+performance+braking 80%, durability 50%
— engine (16hp), same but SOHC and reduce length and width so it fits the same chassis size
— engine (28hp), same as 16hp but add supercharger and rev+torque 80%
— gearbox N3R, same stats as before but performance focus 50%
— gearbox N5R, same stats as N3R but 5 gears+performance focus 100%+technology all 50%+maxium torque 100%
– redesign factory Philadelphia 14/1000 ($6.5 million, finished 3/1908)
– build factory in Paris 16/1400 ($8.8 million, finished 3/1908
– build branch St. Louis+Baltimore max size and max resources
– build branch Brussels+Amsterdam+Hamburg+Copenhagen+Munich min size and max resources
[the reason for the twho engines and gearboxes is, that you get more marketshare with multiple cars of a type, you could simply duplicate the trim without changes and get much of the same result, but that feels too gamey for me]
– payback your loans
– factory in Zurich completed
– max upgrade factory in Zurich (+4 lines)
– add branches in Rome+Milan+Naples+Marseilles+Leipzig min/max
– factory in Sydney completed
– add branches in Sydney+Melbourne min/max
– major upgrade all new parts
– new generation of your cars (16hp+N3R and trim 28hp+N5R) + new cars FS+LS+Pickup+SB+R22 (same two trim setups) 22 month finished 11/1909
– redesigned factory in Philadelphia completed
– factory Paris completed
– you may reduce prices a few hundret $ to sell more cars and so get overall more profit
– open branches in Boston+Cleveland max/max
– your new cars are designed
– sell your cars
– you can keep selling your old cars
– you can increase prices massively, at least 500$
– max upgrade all your factories worldwilde (+4 lanes)
– you probably receive a GCM award for all your new vehicles, great for image! We should now be undisputed leader in image and almost any other category
You are now the largest company in the world,have the largest market share (>$1 billion) and best image, congratulations!
(In fact you can hit $1 billion market cap already in 1906 if you are lucky)
Let me know in the comments if this was helpful and if there are any questions.
Additionally i would love to know your strategies.