Thanks for reading this guide. I recommend doing the tutorial first. This will allow you to understand most of the stuff in this guide. The guide is divided in five parts. These parts should represent different levels of progress in your economic treasure hunt.

For the first stage, I have made a video to learn. However, it is in German. Find it here:



Please notice, that this guide is not fully developed yet. It will be reworked and extended soon. If you have any feedback or questions, do not hesitate to write it below or add me in Steam.


Where to place your headquarter? Your headquarter allows you to get a free building license in the region. Since licenses are very expensive until you start making serious money, the decision where to start can be crucial. I am usually looking for two cities, which are close to each other. This allows me to supply both cities with low dispatch cost. In general, the size of the town does not matter since you will supply simple goods to the farmer's market and the hardware store only. All cities have these two shops, however: the goods demanded may differ.

perfect start

If your playstyle is focussed on heavy industry, you should look for a region that contains your beloved ores and coal. However, find out what ressources are demanded by the city. Use your research points to unlock those goods. Only unlock goods in the first row, those are the goods you can research and produce at low cost in the beginning.

Your headquarter should either be:

• In a region with your natural goods
  
• In two neighbouring cities
  
• In a city in the center of the map

Start transporting demanded ores into the city or gather water to send it to farms. Usually transporting farm products is a good way to earn first money. Do not forget to place a warehouse nearby, it will make your life easier and automazies micro-management in its small area. In the next chapter, I will tell you, which supply chains are the best to start with.

In the beginning, it is important to earn money with simple goods and simple supply chains. If you collect ores, fish, sand or wood in the beginning, sell it directly in the next city (change the destination in the building). If you go for more complex sets, do not forget to place a warehouse nearby, it will automize most of the micro-management. In the beginning of the game, all of your farms and gatheres can have only 3 harvesters. Place your buildings close to the city to avoid high transport cost. I usually prefer the sets in the following table. I usually build up what is demanded in the city. Estimations are made at typical demand in the early game.

Additional cost for warehouse and roads are not included! Last updated: 10/20/2018





A simple supply chain

Your investment will usually amortize in 10 - 18 months, so do not hesitate to take short-term loans for a faster start. Avoid terraforming, it is very expensive in the beginning and the supply chains in your first settlement won't be complex. Keep it simple!

I highly recommend specifying in one or two industries. Even though you need products from all industries to win, keep it simple in the beginning. I usually start with the orchard-set, thus I will go for a start with sodas and juices (they are usually demanded when a city gets a diner as its 3rd shop). Later I go for carpentry and papermill and usually avoid heavy industry. However, take a look on what is demanded and find out what suits you best!

Once you have researched further, start auxiliary research. You dont need advanced distribution in the beginning (it won't be needed until you produce goods with t2 and higher). If you feel slow, research the urban roads. After this, I usually focus on getting the +2's in fields & harvesters.


Once you have fully researched the +2 fields and +2 harvesters, you can start going big.

This chapter will be extended soon.

When you have these +2, I recommend not extending existing supply chains. Usually, I buy a permit in another region and set up new supply chains. My old settlement is perfectly balanced, makes fixed monthly profit and does not need any attention. It is passive money. Never change a running system.

If you realise, that one of your supply chains is not working as you want to, check if it profitable by comparing it's upkeeping cost with the sales. Are the cost higher, destroy it. Is the revenue higher, don't destroy it, but leave it there and just don't pay attention.

In this period, you aim is to grow. You want to get big as quick as possible. Use terraform to make building the perfect supply chain as easy as possible. Build up multiple factories at the same time, producing the same thing.

Hint: When you press <alt>, you will see what you are producing in each factory with a background color. Is the factory marked red for more than a minute, you should inspect it. If you see, that a ressource or good is missing, just build up further multiple factories. Remember, you are not a penny-pincher anymore.

Complex supply chain for books

Start producing complex and expensive goods like burgers, hard liquor and books. You may use other means of transport like zeppelins, boats and trucks to do so.

While doing this, keep researching stuff needed. You need all researches from the petrochemical industry and the car prototypes. Once you are finished with these researches and have a monthly revenue of 10-15 million, you can start with the last period and end the game.

To win the game, you just need to produce a car. This can be really exhausting.

As you can probably see, its not as easy as you might think. Thus, I strongly recommend you to have made decent profits already. Once you start to plan your final supply chain to build the prototype you are directly able to produce some of those items. As mentioned previously, I usually don't gather iron and copper during the starting and profit-making period, thus I dont have a supply chain for most heavy and electrical goods.

Finishing the game is not easy and can be boring, since you are not aiming for any economic target, but to get the game done.

It is useful to build 2 - 4 automotive factories in the center of the map, together with a simple warehouse, a truck depot (or train terminal or whatever) and move needed goods into the center. Make a list of what you can produce and what you still need to build up. Place new gathers close to the ressources and factories next to the gatherers. Once the goods are processed, send them to the automotive factories. Remember: You need 9 Axles, 9 Combustion Engines, 9 Exterior Bodies and 9 Interior Bodies. Transform these into 3 Body and 3 Rolling Chassis. Buy a prototype factory. Transport the chassis to the prototype factory, to win the game.