Overview
Generic guide for any scenario – advanced industrial model, advanced financial model, no modifies – learn how to achieve economic dominance in game.
Railroad tycoon 2 – economic dominance the easy way.
Out of pure love for this game i decided to write this manual which can be expanded if any interest. I still consider Railrod Tycoon 2 the best game of its class even after many years.
So this guide will deal with basic steps you need to do to achieve economic dominance in advanced industrial and financial model. Not really dealing with any medals here but you can apply fixes where applicable. I am playing with Europe scenario and up to 9 AI opponents. Beauty of this game is that you can make things even harder by harder scenarios or revenue modifiers but lets stick with no modifiers and advanced model.
First thing in this scenario is to select a nation – I opted out for Germany due to proximity of Berlin and Dresden but you can choose any two close cities with lots of housing and/or with industrial compliance. Opt out for maximum player investment and you need around 500k of outside investment. Create two stations, double tracks, two trains and houl mass of passengers – this will create influx of money you need for your financial schemes from the start. Now before you run day 1 issue bonds and buy back you own stocks. It may look like the worst decision because you need money everywhere but trust me – this will save you millions in short run as you will not be spewing loads of money on dividends for outside investors. You may need a year or two but once you have 100% ownership of you stock you can start looking forward.
So, now second step is to assign dividend policy – around 20% of annual profit should be enough and with this money you buy every stock you deem worth. Buy at margin only your own stock at the beggining if you can. Dont buy at margin unknow AI companies as they tend to be inclined towards bankruptcy.
So, … with first two steps we dealt with your own private well beiing. You now own 100% of your stock and have money to buy stocks. Now you can develop your company. Few general guidelines:
– Advanced industrial model means you only haul passengers, mail and industry where there is demand. Period.
– Pay special attention to company managers and hire and fire them regulary as they can really make a difference at various periods.
– Selecting trains with low operating costs is single most essential thing you need to do if you want to weather boom and bust cycles.
– Be careful when taking over AI opponens as they tend to be rather inefficient and can destroy your financial structure.There are no mergers in this game – what you can do is buying other companies and liquidating them into your own.
– Buying industry gives rather small return on invested capital so you are probable better off somewhere else – until you have no idea where to put money.
– Having cash is ironically probably the best investment as you will be receiveng insane amounts of interest when economy crashes – it is quite normal in late game that economic crash is your most profitable cycle.
– When expanding create passangers/mail trains everywhere and then work on industry.
– 4x passanger 1x dining car is very profitable on medium to long trips.
There is more, this is basically quick, clean and neat way.
