Booze Baron - Easy Money

So, you may want to start right into becoming a rich dictator, but you wont get far without some good traits to make your money stretch at the start, but it's worth considering the long term effects of your character's traits, of which you get to pick 3. Each trait starts out at 1 star and increases 1-3 stars depending on how well you do Here are a few suggested traits to get you started, listed in alphabetical order.

Lowers a building's cost / No constant effect

• 1 Star Effects: -2% building cost
  
• 2 Star Effects: -4% building cost
  
• 3 Star Effects: -6% building cost
  
• 4 Star Effects: -8% building cost
  
• 5 Star Effects: -10% building cost

Positives:

• Lower building costs = more saved for other expenses such as imports or arrests
  
• Stacks with other building cost reduction traits

Negatives:

• N/A

Lower's a building's cost / -10 respect with the Communists, maximum wage is set to $25/month cap

• 1 Star Effects: -3% building cost
  
• 2 Star Effects: -6% building cost
  
• 3 Star Effects: -9% building cost
  
• 4 Star Effects: -12% building cost
  
• 5 Star Effects -15% building cost

Positives:

• Lower building costs = more saved for other expenses such as imports or arrests
  
• Stacks with other building cost reduction traits

Negatives:

• The pay cap can make it difficult to make your citizens happy in the long run, especially since college educated jobs start out at $20/month wages
  
• Negative relations with a faction could be difficult to fix at the start of a game when money is too tight to spend on edicts or buildings

Increased export prices / No constant effect

• 1 Star Effects: +2% export prices
  
• 2 Star Effects: +4% export prices
  
• 3 Star Effects: +6% export prices
  
• 4 Star Effects: +8% export prices
  
• 5 Star Effects: +10% export prices

Positives:

• Will stack with the export price increases from the Customs Office building, maxing out at a 40% export price increase

Negatives:

• N/A

Increases factory worker production / +10 respect with the Capitalists, -25% cost to build banks, marketplaces, and souvenir shops

• 1 Star Effects: +2% production by Factory Workers
  
• 2 Star Effects: +4% production by Factory Workers
  
• 3 Star Effects: +6% production by Factory Workers
  
• 4 Star Effects: +8% production by Factory Workers
  
• 5 Star Effects: +10% production by Factory Workers

Positives:

• More production means more exports and more money at a quicker rate

Negatives:

• The raw materials may not come in fast enough or be used up too quickly, so there may be inactivity

So now that you have your traits picked out (or settled on a pre-made character), it’s time to get into your map! Pause the game once it loads and check out your island with a quick appraisal. How many people are living on it? How much housing is there? Are there oil, salt, or mineral deposits nearby that you may want to exploit later? Where does sugar grow best?

The Rum Distillery is obviously the backbone to this concept, and it’s going to cost $15,000, so place it wisely. Keep it close to the docks, preferably with a Garage and Teamsters nearby for maximum efficiency for the workers and transportation of goods. It would also be ideal to have a tenant nearby for a shorter commute.

This will end up using up the majority of your money, so what you do with your next $5,000 is important for the livelyhood of your beautiful island.

You are going to need sugar to supply your distillery, and lots of it. You’re going to want a couple sugar plantations ($3,000 -- $6/month – !!Requires Plantador DLC!!) or extra farms ($1,500 -- $4/month). You could even change over your starter farms from corn to sugar if you’re feeling gutsy and don’t mind some starvation.

This step could be ignored completely if you would rather save some money by ignoring people’s needs of healthcare/food and using the Humanitarian Aid edit for free food and healthcare for a little while. By saving this money, you can use it to import sugar ASAP.

Islands generally start out with a fair number of high school educated citizens. There are the soldiers at your palace and some milling about in the populace, usually becoming priests when a church is built. How do you get these people to work in the beautiful new factory you just built? Make their lives awful.

Drop the wages of the soldier’s to $1/month while leaving the Rum Distillery at its default wage rate – or lowering it a bit if you want more money for exports. But make it not worth their time to remain doing their previous job. They should quickly flock to the distillery, almost maxing out the worker slots.

Sometimes workers at previous jobs can be stubborn and not leave, so you may have to fire a few and close off their job slots to make sure they don’t return. At least for now. If your island starts with a high school, there should be a pool of eligible adults to fill these spots soon enough.

Generally at this point, you have no money and your citizens are getting livid at you for not fulfilling their basic needs, such as food. This is when you want to use the Humanitarian Aid edict (Cost: $0 – Requirements: Food and Healthcare satisfaction below 40 – Effects: Constructs an Aid Corps Camp on the island, which provides free food and healthcare to citizens. Nationalists relationship is lowered while camp is on the island.) and hope they don’t riot, as you have no soldiers.

Hope there are no natural disasters or events that put more strain on your already maxed out wallet.

If you imported sugar, you should start seeing some money come back at this point, on top of foreign aid from the US and USSR. Do not spend it! It may be tempting to give the public some housing, but save it. Spend it on more imported sugar for a bigger export.

When you have a decent buffer of money, roughly what you started with, go ahead and upgrade the Rum Distillery for spiced rum. If you’re doing better than that, maybe throw down a few ranches for supplementary money, as they are a pretty cheap source of cash.

It may take a while, but you will accumulate a large chunk of money once it gets rolling. It shouldn't take more than a few short years if everything goes well. The Humanitarian Aid edict will run out well before you have a huge stash of money, so be ready for some emergency spending.

Because your citizens are going to be unhappy. Really, really, really unhappy. Factions may hate you. People may have died in huge numbers. You will likely have a rebel problem, and a pretty big one at that.

It's a problem, but it can be fixed by throwing money at it. Just like all of life's problems.

Depending on how bad things got, you may have to do a lot quickly. Depending on how many people became rebels, a decent army may be the way to go. Be aware, this will hurt the likely already low liberty of the citizens, but it will keep your palace safe.

If rebels aren't a problem, fulfil the basic steps of starting a map:

• Food - This depends on how you used your starter farms and if you put down any ranches before. If there is a food issue, import some corn and put up a few cattle ranches. Have a Fisherman's Wharf or two if the coastline is big enough.
  
• Clinic - There should be college-educated citizens just milling about still. If they didn't die, rebel, or leave.
  
• Church - Hopefully you have an influx of highschool-educated citizens, but if not, spend some money on hiring them
  
• Entertainment - Cabaret does really well
  
• Housing - Apartments or houses near the factory and farms. Houses will boost happiness more, but they house less people and cost more. Decide depeneding on your money situation vs their happiness.

At this point, the Enviromentalists are usually livid. So are the Religious, Military, and most of the other factions. Just work your way through the list from most unhappy. This is usually the Enviromentalists, Religious, Communist first.

Do nothing to anger these factions more. This means don't put up any lumber mills or mines yet, because the Enviromentalists will protest and shut down your distillery for a while. They are the biggest threat to your productivity. Do things to make money without aggitating them until you get a few landfills going.

If money becomes an issue while trying to settle your angry city, build a salt mine if salt is avalible, then put a cannery next to it. It should produce canned fish if you have the wharfs up, along with pineapple if you have any pineapple farms working.

Put up a church or even a cathedral if you have an excess of money. Once people are able to attend church, it will slowly raise on its own. Make sure there are enough priests and buildings of worship.

Communists will be slowly getting happier at this point, as there should be more healthcare, housing, and food. Issue the Free Housing edict and Food For The People edict if you can afford it.

Just think, all your problems were solved by throwing massive amounts of cash around. Cash earned by the hard work of the proud, dedicated citizens of Tropico. And for only a few years of soul destroying hardship. But by the end of it, the people on your island should be happy. Happier than they ever have been, with great housing and high wages. Lots of food. Lots to do. Lots of free time to relax and enjoy life.

At least, in theory.

Being a booze baron could go wrong, depending on any natural disasters or rebel attacks. Be aware that this tactic is pretty risky and can backfire quickly. I've had games were a trio of tornados just happen to come down and destroy my whole island. It's not a guaranteed to work 100% of the time plan.

But overall, isn't your beautiful island worth the risk? To build a better Tropico, for a better tomorrow?