Reply To: How To Play

[evilteuton]

#1125

Alright! rnlf did all the groundwork already.

Most of your time will be spent keeping your train well-supplied with coal and new military wagons. Whatever you do, don’t leave train combat to the AI. Transarctica is a beautiful and really cool game but almost unplayable by modern design standards. You need to fight all train battles manually. The losses you suffer otherwise are unacceptable and will really slow you down.

Train Combat
The Transarctica will occupy the bottom track, the Viking Union trains the top one. You have to destroy all military wagons and troops to win. Try to leave merchandise wagons and coal tenders intact so you get some loot for your trouble. Wagons are destroyed by either three cannon hits or one explosive charge. Infantry is slow and cumbersome to control so I usually just use cannons, and deploy infantry for defense.

If you lose a single train fight it’s game over. Since you have to “win” them all anyway, we’ll need different metrics for what counts as a defeat. Save whenever your crew spots another train. Finish the fight and take inventory:
-lost a coal tender? reload
-lost too many cranes, mammoths, or “slaves”? reload
-lost important merchandise? better reload
Honestly the losses from these fights can seriously set you back and cause a snowball effect of misfortune. The only wagons you should consider acceptable losses are machine guns, cannons, and maybe barracks. Try to let your military wagons take the heat but don’t let any harm come to your, uh, infrastructure? Resources and such. As long as you have coal and cranes you can buy as many new cannons and soldiers as you want.

I can just go on and on about this game, big fan.

Here’s a simple list of the story objectives you need to complete, I hope this isn’t considered a spoiler or anything. You can find all the hints ingame but if you get stuck and want to peek…
1. Get Harpoon in Baku
2. Get Drill in Rum
3. Get key for Oslo from The Philosopher
4. Get Geiger Counter in Oslo
5. Go to Omsk and get the Boiler (this has a time limit)
6. Blow up the “ancient power plant” (the most frustrating step)
7. Enter the Himalayas
8. Defeat the Minotaur