================================
1830: Strategy Guide/Walkthrough
================================


It’s twenty years since the PC game “1830: Railroads and Robber Barons” was
released, and no-one has yet published a strategy guide
online. So I’m going to put that right. If you haven’t encountered the game
before, please read the FAQ.

I love 1830 because it’s one of the few strategy games where all the money you
make, items you craft and advanced technology that you
discover doesn’t end up being poured into military spending. It’s also a
surprisingly difficult game to win because of the trade-off
between running profitable railroads and investing in the stock market, and the
very capable AI players. One of the consequences of
the need to buy stock in order to get a railroad up and running is that the
start-of-game strategy is very different depending on how
many players are playing the game (which affects how much initial cash each
player gets).

The PC version has one big advantage over the board game version: random maps.
This creates a whole new level of strategic variation
and replayability. If you want to replay a game with the same map, the FAQ
describes how to do this. What it doesn’t say is that, if
you want to replay the game with a map that is similar but not the same, then
check/uncheck the option to bring the Reading railroad
into play.

The PC version does have one disadvantage compared to modern PC games: if
played at Hard or Hardest difficulties, the AI players are
S-L-O-W. I have tried several ways to make DosBOX run faster, but without
success. Such a game can easily take longer to complete
than the board game would!

Anyway, here’s the strategy guide/walkthrough. I usually play at Average or
Hard difficulty.

Start of Game: Four Players: Private Company bidding round
==========================================================

As I said, the start of the game – especially the bidding round – is heavily
affected by how many players are involved. I’ll start
by describing a four player game. I’m assuming a random map, for now. The
choice of personality at the start makes
very little difference that I have noticed; the AI players don't seem to play
any differently from each other.

In a four player game, you get $600 to start with. Floating a railroad normally
costs at least $402. So you have a maximum of just
under $200 to spend on buying private companies.

The Map
-------
How you spend it will depend HUGELY on the map you’ve got. You’re looking for
one of three things on the map: a starting base with
several high-paying routes nearby, to make a bunch of money early; a strategic
location where your railroad, probably with the help
of a second railroad later on, can block out a section of the map that no other
railroad can access; or a long-term super-route for
your diesels to follow. Blocking out is especially important as it brings
double benefits: a route that you can develop without
compromises, or spending on stations; and the less money the other railroads
make, the more money there is for your railroad before
the game ends.

An ideal map would give you all of these, and also the blocked-out section of
the map (and the super-route) would include the New
York tile (two yellow-40 stations with rails exiting north-east and
south-west). And the favourably-positioned railroad would have at least
three stations. In my experience, Baltimore & Ohio’s starting station tends to
end up in this kind of favourable position far more
often than other railroads do on random maps, and since it has 3 stations, I
often start the game running the B&O railroad.

One more thing: keep a wary eye for the location of the D&H hex. If it’s within
the zone you’re planning to block, you may want to
buy the D&H private company just to stop any other railroad from using its
special ability.

Map: Example
------------
I’ll describe how the map affects your decisions, using the original game map
as an example.

* Railroads with good potential for making money early: B&O, C&O, NYC, NYNH.
NYC, however, only works if NYNH isn’t yet in play;
otherwise NYNH will often head north-east on its first turn, and since that hex
is a double-10 hex (Hartford and New Haven on the
original board game map, available at
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/573603/1830-railways-robber-barons?size=large)
which is not
upgradeable, NYC may have its north-eastern entrance to New York immediately
ruined.

* Railroads with good blocking potential: PRR, NYC.

B&O is NOT in a good position for long-term expansion on the original map if
PRR is in play (and it usually is). PRR can block B&O
from reaching New York; in fact, it can block B&O from getting as far north as
PRR’s starting station (Altooma on the board game map)
on its own until brown tiles are available, and (with the help of a second
railroad) for ever after. The key hexes to double-block
with stations are the yellow-20 south-west of New York (Lancaster) and the
yellow-20 immediately west of PRR’s starting station
(Pittsburgh). These are also key hexes to control for the super-route (see
below).

NYC can easily block B&M from leaving New England (i.e. the hexes north-east of
New York) as long as another railroad can put a
station in its starting hex (Albany on the board game map). Albany is the third
hex that is important to control for the super-route.

Erie comes into play late. AI players usually start by crossing Niagara Falls
(going north-west to the neighbouring double-40) but
then loop back into the USA. This means that Erie can be blocked by almost any
railroad whose tracks run west from Albany – usually
NYC, CanPac or NYNH. In fact, careful track and station placement can leave
Erie with a route consisting of just 3 stations, and no
hope of ever expanding further. If you end up having to buy Erie to help build
a super-route, it’s better to expand into Canada
unless there is already an open link to your super-route from the US side.

* Railroads with potential for a super-route: PRR, C&O, NYC, CanPac. Planning
for a super-route is a good strategy tip for beating
the AI players, because they don’t do that type of planning – it’s too hard a
problem for AI on ordinary computers. My favourite
super-route on this map is an approximately rectangular loop that goes from
Albany south to Lancaster, through Hartford, New York,
Reading, Trenton (the double-40 south-east of New York), Newark (the second New
York station), and Allentown (i.e. there must be a
cross-over in the double-10 Reading/Allentown hex). Then it goes directly west
through Altooma and Pittsburgh to Columbus (the
yellow-20 in the bottom left of the map) before going north through Toledo
(yellow-20) and Detroit (one of the double-40s) to
Lansing (grey 20, upper left of map). Then east through Windsor and Toronto
(one each of the double-40s), Barrie and Ottawa (both
yellow-20s) to Montreal (the CanPac starting point). Then (usually) make a
detour past Montreal to head south to Albany again.

To make this super-route work, you must control Lancaster, so that B&O cannot
get through and put a blocking station in New York or
nearby, and preferably Albany too, to prevent other railroads doing the same.
It’s also a very good idea to control Pittsburgh to
block out B&O (and maybe Erie too) from the western stations.

So which railroad would I start with on this map? There are various pros and
cons, but I usually buy PRR. That’s because B&O is
normally in play from the first round, and PRR can’t block B&O unless it gets
to start at the same time. Unfortunately, playing the
blocking game costs PRR some income in the first few turns, so it’s a struggle
to be able to afford a second railroad

My second railroad is a tricky decision. It’s tempting to go for NYC to control
Albany and to start building the track through
lucrative New York towards PRR at Lancaster. But if you follow the best-paying
route above, NYC and PRR can’t link up until brown
tiles are available, and at that point shutting out B&O becomes a frantic race
against time, which you will only win if you get
lucky in which railroad buys the first 5 train. So it’s safer to make C&O your
second railroad; this will let you block out
Pittsburgh and Lancaster early. It does mean that there’s a risk that NYC and
NYNH will block out Albany, in which case your super-
route will either have to detour round Albany, through the mountains, or just
use Albany as its start and end point. There’s also a
risk that NYC will put a blocking station in Trenton, but since that station
brings no benefit to NYC itself, the AI players usually
won’t do it until the very end of the game.

To make the super-route work, you really want a third railroad to help build
all those miles of track. NYC is the best choice, in
the unlikely event that it’s available; CanPac is second best; and Erie is a
poor third. Should you get NYC, then it’s a good idea
to block CanPac from building a route to the west of Albany, or into New
England; force it to build in Canada instead and it’ll end
up helping your super-route. (Or, if you have stations left, you can block out
CanPac from Canada by double-blocking Ottawa, and
force it into drowning its sorrows together with B&M in New England).

Bidding for Private Companies
-----------------------------
If you decide that you want to start the game running B&O, then you clearly
need to buy the B&O private company. It does cost more
than $200, but since it gives you two free shares in the B&O railroad, your
budget just went up to around $330. So when the bidding
starts, bid on B&O on your first bid.

At least one of the AI players WILL bid against you; yes, they really are out
to get you. So now you’re in a bidding war with the
price of B&O at $230.  You can expect to pay $235-$245 to secure it in the end.

What next? That depends on your appetite for risk. The safest option is to buy
Schuylkill Valley on your next bid, and give up hope
of getting any other private companies. (This will let you float B&O at a
respectable $82). The riskiest option is to bid on as many
other private companies as you can before someone buys SV, and then try to
force up the price that the computer players pay in
bidding wars – the risk, of course, is that you will accidentally buy a company
and blow your budget. How high the AI players go
seems to depend on the game difficulty – I have seen Fisk bid $115 for Delaware
& Hudson when playing on Hardest, but I’ve also seen
everyone pass at the first opportunity when playing on Hard. Another low-risk
option is to make sure that every private company has
at least one bid on it before SV goes (just to force the prices up a bit –
don’t worry , the AI players WILL bid against you); while
a medium-risk approach is to make a serious bid for either of the next two
cheapest -- C&SL or D&H. I generally quit the bidding for
either if the price hits $20 above list price.

When the bidding round finishes, you must set a price for B&O shares. Since
your railroad’s initial capital will be ten times the
share price, it’s normal to set the share price as high as you can afford. The
only time when it might be worth going low is when
it’s critical that you start your second railroad as soon as possible, and so
you want to hang on to as much personal cash as you
can in the early stages.

If you decide not to start with the B&O railroad, then your bidding strategy
won’t be that different. You don’t need the B&O private
company any more, but your budget is at most $200 (or $265 if you’re planning
to buy the Pennsylvania Railroad), and if you want to
start your railroad with a decent share price, you may want to spend less than
that. I would usually attempt to purchase the three
cheapest private companies, expecting to get two of them (or one if it’s not
SV); the main exception is that, if I’m after PRR, I
may well make a serious bid for Camden & Amboy, for the free PRR share.

The first stock round
---------------------
In a four player game, the first stock round is pretty straight forward.
Assuming you get to buy the president’s certificate of your
preferred railroad, you buy enough shares of that railroad to float it, and
that’s it. Because the AI players will probably also have
enough money to float one railroad each, they will do the same

As written above, it’s normal to push your railroad’s stock price as high as
you can afford, unless there is a really compelling
reason to buy shares in another railroad.

The second stock round
-----------------------
The second stock round has one big difference from the first: it’s permissible
to sell shares. You may well find that the AI players
buy one or two shares of a railroad they don’t own, then sell them, then repeat
the trick on another railroad’s stock. They may even
sell one share of their own railroad to have the cash to play this game. The
purpose is to force down everyone else’s stock price.
[If you are relying on shares as an investment (though in the second stock
round, you shouldn’t be, as floated shares lose value in
the first round!), beware of this trick, especially early in the game when
dividends are minimal and so almost all the gains from
investing in shares come from rises in the share price.]

If you want to try the trick yourself on this or (more likely) subsequent
rounds, check the stock market first. Any share that is
priced at the bottom of its column cannot have its value further reduced by
share sales; it can only lose further value if the
railroad owner decides to withhold earnings in an operating round. Also be
aware of the effect that dropping a share into yellow,
orange or brown zones could have.

Railroad building: first few turns
----------------------------------
Your first couple of turns with your railroad are likely to be pretty easy to
decide on. You want to build some kind of rail network
as fast as possible, so build towards a nearby paying (preferably high-paying)
hex. You do not need to buy a train until you have a
network in place, but since you claim your income before you buy trains during
a game round, you need to plan this at least one turn
in advance. It’s therefore normal to buy at least one 2-train after the very
first round.

If you manage to build a network that crosses 3 paying hexes, and your original
station isn’t in the middle, then a second station
on either of the other two hexes will increase your income (as long as you have
a second train). If you are playing a block-the-map
strategy, though, stations might be more useful if they are held back for use
as blockers later.

3-trains, and accompanying green tiles, usually become available quickly in a
4-player game, and that brings an end to what I’m
calling the Start Of Game, and takes us into the Early Game.

Start Of Game with different numbers of players
===============================================

Two players
-----------
With two players, you would expect to run two railroads from the start, and to
own at least two of the private companies. Running
two railroads from the beginning makes blocking much easier, so it’s usually a
good idea to pick two railroads that can block one or
more other railroads pretty quickly.
It’s worth noting that having only two players reduces the likelihood that the
AI player will bid against you for private companies
– there just isn’t enough time before someone buys SV. You should adjust your
bidding tactics accordingly.

Three players
-------------
With $800, you would normally expect to start the game running one well-funded
railroad and to have a couple of private companies.
An alternative approach, if your map suits it, is to start the game with PRR
and one other railroad; that gives you a maximum budget
of $63 for private companies and/or pushing up your railroads’ share price.
Bear in mind that this tactic MUST pay off early,
because your rivals will buy second railroads as soon as 3-trains appear and
they sell off their private companies.

Five players
------------
With $480, you can just afford one railroad, and maybe Schuylkill Valley too.
The exceptions (as ever) are PRR, which needs one less share to float it, so
you might be able to buy both SV and C&SL, if you’re
lucky; or B&O. You cannot float the B&O railroad on the first stock round, but
if you buy the B&O private company for $240 or less,
and you price the railroad’s shares at $67, you’ll be able to do so on the
second round, because the private company gives you $30
per turn until the railroad opens.

Six players
-----------
The only railroad you can float in the first round is PRR. The AI players may
well float a railroad or two since they’ll help each
other out by investing in stock, but no-one will help you.

A realistic alternative here is to spend a couple of turns just investing in
other players’ railroads to make some money, both from
dividends (minimal at this stage) and also the rising share price. However,
since no railroad will earn any money in the first
operating round, their share prices will all fall in the first round (and there
will be no dividends), so it might be best to do
nothing at all in the first stock round! Then buy shares in the second stock
round, and use the profits from them to float a
railroad in the third round.

You could invest in private companies; they’ll take a number of turns to repay
your investment, though, so that money is effectively
lost until they do. If you do invest in private companies, then the best
repayment time you can hope for is from B&O (if you buy at
$240 or less, then the $30 per turn added to the free shares gives a repayment
time of 2-4 turns, depending on the price the shares
are floated at); C&A (3-5 turns, depending on purchase price, where PRR is
floated, and how PRR performs in the first few turns of
the game); or SV (4 turns). Unfortunately, the lack of cash in this game makes
it unlikely that either PRR or B&O will be floated at
high share prices, which makes a 4-turn repayment most likely … and if you’ve
bought the B&O private company, you should have enough
cash to float the B&O railroad after 4 turns (or 3 if your other investments go
exceptionally well), so it’s unlikely to do any more
than pay for itself.

Early game
==========

By now, you should be running one or two railroads, and may own one or two
private companies. Don’t buy more than one 3-train for
each railroad.

The introduction of 3-trains has two significant effects. The first is to bring
green tiles into play; the second is to allow
railroads to purchase private companies.

Green tiles
-----------
Green tiles are really helpful in building rail networks. They can also be
useful in blocking. The trick is to learn what brown
tiles do not exist; then you can select a green tile that cannot possibly be
extended in a particular direction by a brown tile.
Two green tiles that I use frequently for blocking are adaptations of the
yellow straight-line-through tile. Imagine the rail line
in the yellow tile is vertical; so using clock-face directions, the line enters
the tile at 12 o’clock and exits at 6 o’clock. Now
let’s say I’m trying to block another railroad who wants to merge with my line,
coming in from 4 o’clock. There is one green tile
that adds a tight corner to a straight line, and if I play that so that there
is now a new route from 12:00 to 2:00, then there is
NO brown tile that will provide a route across that tile from 4:00 to anywhere.
Similarly, there is a green tile that extends the
12-to-6 line with a separate loop from 8:00 to 10:00; if I play that one, there
is only one possible brown tile to upgrade this with
(it links the two lines, providing a route from 12:00 to 8:00 and another from
6:00 to 10:00). No routes to either 2:00 or 4:00 are
possible.

There is a third green tile that is useful for temporary blocking of green-30s.
If we assume that a yellow-20 has a line running
through it from 12:00 to 6:00, and a rival is approaching from 4:00, then there
is a green-30 tile with exits at 6:00, 8:00, 10:00
and 12:00. It will eventually be upgradeable to a brown-40 with exits in all
directions, but it might buy you time to block that tile
with a couple of stations.

One thing to watch out for is green-30s on the edge of the map, or next to grey
tiles. If the green-30 has any of its exits blocked
by a grey tile or a map boundary, it will never upgrade to a brown tile. So if
you have a choice of exits for your green-30 tile,
choose wisely.

Buying private companies
------------------------
The rule of thumb is: once 3-trains appear, wait until the turn before the next
stock round, and then have your railroad buy your
company/companies for the maximum price.

The reason for waiting is that your companies pay you money every turn, so
buying them early simply wastes that money.

The reason for paying the maximum price is for you to invest it in other
stocks, or a new railroad. You’ll get a much better return
for your money that way than from leaving the company open.

Once your railroad has bought the company, it’s eligible for the company’s
special benefits. Only two of these are relevant to
railroads, rather than to share-holding players; these are:
* Champlain & St. Lawrence: Ability to lay an extra hex of track on the C&SL
hex. Whether this is worth doing depends on whether that
hex is anywhere near your railroad or your super-route. On the original map,
it’s just east of CanPac’s starting station in Montreal,
and is pretty much useless unless you’re running CanPac.

* Delaware & Hudson: Ability to place a station and track on the D&H hex,
instead of the railroad’s normal track laying action. This
can be a nightmare for blockers, as you may have built your blockade only to
find a rival railroad’s station springs up behind your
defences.  The only permanent solution is either to buy D&H yourself, or to buy
trains as fast as you can to get to brown tiles and
the mid-game. (On the original map, it’s very rarely played; the hex is off the
super-route, it’s in the mountains, and if the
Reading/Allentown double-10 hex has already been laid, it’s unlikely there will
be a route from Scranton – the D&H hex -- into New
York).

4-trains
--------
After a couple of stock rounds of the early game, you may well have enough
money to float another railroad (depending on the number
of players; in a 6-player game, you may have to sell the 6th share of your
current railroad to raise enough funds. Don’t leave
yourself with less than 5, though, or you could suffer a take-over). Other
players may well be in the same position.

Once the new railroads are floated, they will probably start buying 4-trains.
This doesn’t actually affect the current game that
much; your railroad(s) should simply replace their 2-trains with a 4-train, and
everything else stays the same.

However, you might choose not to equip all your railroads with 4-trains,
because having a 3-train and a 4-train will prevent you
from buying a 5-train, and 5-trains last until the end of the game, unlike
earlier models. If it looks like the 4-trains are going
to sell out quickly, then consider holding back (with one of your 2 railroads)
to buy a 5-train instead. If, on the other hand, the
4-trains will be around for a while, then go ahead and equip both railroads
with one, especially if there aren’t many players in the
game and you confidently expect to be able to afford a 3rd railroad soon.

If the 4-trains are close to selling out, start withholding earnings (or
splitting revenues, if you’ve chosen that option). Ideally,
each railroad you own should have a bank balance of $400-700; but in most
games, having on with about $200 and another with about
$500 will suffice. You’ll need this money early in the mid-game.

Mid game
========

The mid game begins when someone buys a 5-train. Brown tiles become available,
and the rush to buy trains that will last until the
end of the game starts too.

Brown tiles
-----------
There isn’t much to say about brown tiles except for double-40 hexes: upgrade
these the way YOU want as quickly as you can. There
are so many options for upgrading these from green to brown that a bad upgrade
can seriously damage your routes … but an upgrade
that you choose can seriously damage someone else’s. On the original map, being
first to upgrade Buffalo/Dunkirk and Toronto/Hamilton
to brown tiles is the key to blocking Erie out of the rest of the map.

For the rest of the game, use brown tiles either to upgrade payouts on your
route or to complete your blocking. Upgrading New York to
brown is pretty valuable as it raises your income by $20 per turn, or $40 if
you’ve built a route through both New York stations.
Most other upgrades will be worth only $10.

5-trains and 6-trains
---------------------
Ideally, you want every one of your railroads to finish the mid-game with
either a 5-train or a 6-train. Unfortunately, there aren’t
enough of these trains available for every railroad to achieve that. This is
why you need money in your railroads’ accounts: to get
ahead in the race to buy trains.

If your railroad already has a 3-train and a 4-train, then it will have no
spaces to buy a 5-train, and so can continue withholding
earnings for a turn or two to save up for a 6-train. If it has only a 3-train,
however, you want to buy a 5-train as soon as
possible. If this railroad is poor but your other one is rich, then buy the
other railroad’s 4-train instead.

Once you have bought your 5-train and your 6-train, you haven’t finished saving
money yet. Diesels will arrive very soon, and there
is more than one advantage to being the first to exchange a 4-train for a
diesel.  To be a true robber baron, you need to be the one
who makes that exchange, and to achieve some of the tricks described in the
next section, too.

Mid-game stock rounds: getting ready for diesels
------------------------------------------------
You are likely to have two main concerns during the stock rounds of the
mid-game. One will be floating another railroad, if the
number of players in your game permits it; this is often a useful way to get
enough cash to buy the first 6-train and/or contribute
to the diesel-buying budget.

The other concern is to figure out which railroads will be train-less once the
first diesel is purchased. The rule of thumb is to
make sure that there are as many of these railroads as possible, but none of
them are yours. So make sure you don’t own more than
one share in these railroads, as you don’t want them to be dumped on you in the
first stock round after diesels (or even before
then, if an AI player is forced to sell stock to fund the purchase of a diesel).

There are exceptions to this rule of thumb. The first exception is when you
have priority in the next stock round; then you
(probably) don’t need to sell any shares now, you can do it at the beginning of
that stock round. The second exception is when an
AI player is so broke that he can’t afford a diesel even with his own money; in
that case you’ll bankrupt him and the game will
end, and you’ll end up with a low score. And the third exception is where you
actually WANT an AI player to dump a railroad on you;
you’re prepared to accept that it will have little cash and no trains, in
return for acquiring a railroad that helps in blocking or
in building your super-route.

The final option is more common than you might think, because railroads that
are dumped often have very low stock prices, in the
yellow, orange or brown zones. This may be the only way you can buy another
railroad, if your current holding puts you near the
limit for the number of shares per player. It also means that you can hold more
than the usual six shares in that railroad, if the
stocks are orange or brown. You can use this to your advantage over the next
few turns.

Late game
=========

The late game begins once diesels are in play. Your primary goal now is to buy
a diesel for each railroad that you run; your
secondary goal is to complete blocking; and the third is to complete your
super-route.

Buying more diesels is expensive, but I never try to save money by trading in
5- or 6-trains; you want to keep these to run
lucrative sidelines to your super-route. You just have to save up. If you own a
railroad that has shares still in the bank, remember
that paying out dividends will return some money to the railroads’ own
accounts. Conversely, if you own more than six shares of a
railroad with orange or brown stock, then I often keep withholding earnings
from that railroad, as that both helps to save for a
diesel and also keeps the stock in the orange/brown zone. Only once that
railroad has bought a diesel would I start paying myself
the mega-dividends for 3 turns, until I am forced to unload some shares at the
next stock round.

You may well have cash to spare in the stock market by now. In that case,
consider buying high value shares from other players’
railroads. Even if you have successfully blocked these railroads, they will
typically pay dividends every turn; the dividends may be
low, but at higher levels, share values can jump as much as $40 per turn. So
each share in a railroad with a $150-$200 route with
shares at $142 will effectively return just under $100 in share value over 3
turns, plus $45-$60 in dividends; that’s equivalent to
a cheaper share that has a respectable $450 route (so pays $135 per share in
dividends over 3 turns) and goes up $10-$20 in value
over 3 turns.

End game
========

Your score at the end of the game is based on how much money you have
accumulated (cash and shares), with modifiers for the
difficulty; the number of players; and the number of rounds. It is NOT based on
how much other players have earned, or how much you
beat them by; the main purpose of keeping their earnings down is to give you a
bigger proportion of the money in the bank.

The main thing you can do in the end game to adjust your score is to keep an
eye on the amount of money left in the bank. Ideally,
the bank should break during a stock round, or during the first operating round
after a stock round. If the bank is getting very
empty in a 3rd operating round, you might even swap your trains around between
railroads to reduce the amount that they earn, just
to prolong the life of the bank, and therefore the game, for one more set of
operating rounds. (It’s tricky to get your earnings
down by the right amount, though).

Another thing to watch out for at this stage is the AI players using up their
railroads' remaining stations to block you, even if it
brings them no benefit. They don’t do this very often, and whether they do
might depend on the difficulty level – but it can be a
big nuisance. You did design your super-route to cope with this possibility,
didn’t you? … OK, no I often don’t either.

You can do the same to them, but the benefits are very low, because your score
is judged on how much money you make, not how little
they make. Unless your actions affect the time at which the bank breaks, it’s
not worth doing.

The final ratings go in bands of 400, with the lower half adding “Thought of
Himself As” for all but the lowest and the highest. The
lowest rating (under 400) is “Wandering Hobo”; 400-800 is “Track Worker” (so
400-600 is “Thought of Himself as a Track Worker” and
600-800 is “Was a Successful Track Worker”); 800-1200 is “Conductor”;
1200-1600, “Businessman”; 1600-2000, “Tycoon”: and  over
2000, “Crushed the Opposition under an Iron Heel, Earning the Right to be
called Robber Baron”. My best score ever was just over
2700, achieved on (IIRC) Hardest difficulty on a random map with either 4 or 6
players (it was a long time ago!).

And if you need me to wish you good luck, then you haven’t read this guide
thoroughly enough.


John KC Kingston, June 2015