West of the desert of Xinjiang, on the slopes of the Pamir mountain ridge, lays the land of Shivastan.

During the second half of the XIX° Century, under the rule of Czar Nicholas II°, the Russian Empire, as a part of its expansion in Central Asia, put Shivastan under its rule.

To assert its control over the area, sparsely inhabited by turkish speaking, muslim communities, the Russians built the fortified settlement of Nizhnishin, at the confluence between the Shiva river and the smaller Alay river.

The russian settlers managed to cultivate the few arable land, despite the harsh mountain climate.

However, during the turbulent years of the russian revolution, the indigenous turkish elite rebelled to set up an indipendent emirate in the region. When the soviet governement, after a decade of war against the rebels, finally reclaimed Shivastan, the village of Nizhnishin was almost totally vacant and ruined.

In the year 20th of the revolution, the soviet governement decided to establish a new settlement in the area where Nizhnishin once stood. The first settlers, mostly russians, with some volga germans, poles, jews and ukrainians, arrived in the area during the winter of that year. The AAR won't be played on the map of the previous section, but on the improved Winter Shivastan map.
A team of geologists and agronomists was sent directly from moscow to assess the mineral and agricultural potential of the valley. The results were promising. As you can see, we do not have a lot of buildable land (which makes sense in a mountain map), and it will be a challenge to use it effectively! The map is quite rich of arable land, and there are some large ore and petrol deposits. However, if we do not expand beyond the standard 9 tiles, we won't be able to exploit them all..
The starting tile has a highway, rail, water and air connection. The incoming rail line is already split in two, to allow two separate rail lines: one for cargo, one for passenger. As we will see later, it is critically important to separate cargo and passenger train traffic, if we want to avoid trouble in the middle to late game.The map has two additional highway and air connection, but to get them all with only 9 tiles we will have to plan strategically our expansion.

Following the steps of the czars, in the year 22th of the revolution the soviet government sent in Alexisgrad a young italian architect, engineer and urban planner, Giuseppe Caslini, to turn the disorderly settlement into a real town. Caslini planned a thick, grid-based urban tissues, with large, long avenues with few intersections.

• I will be using, as my base grid, squares of ingame 35x35 units, which will combine to form, where possible, a big 70x70 square having as a boundary the arterial avenues.
  
• The arterial avenues (6-lanes, in violet), are specifically designed for goods transportation, and only makes intersection every 35 units, which allow a smooth, quick flow on them.
  
• The secondary/collector avenues (4-lane, mostly with tram track loop, in orange), connect to the local roads (2-lane, in orange) inside each block.
  
• On the arterial avenue, there will be pedestrian overpass/underpass, to allow people to cross them from the middle of the block

Of course, Caslini took a step to step approach. The large, central commercial avenue was quickly built next to the pre-existing settlement. The rest of the arterial/collector grid network was only drawn with gravel roads around the village. At that point, however, there was no reason in upgrading it to real avenues (and actually not even to a standard road). At the meantime, the soviet planners built the first industrial complex and a small coal plant.

During the first decade of its life Alexisgrad grew at a slow but constant pace, under architect Caslini's careful planning, pushing deeper east into the Alay river valley. A new, larger industrial area was built on the soutern shore of Alay, while the northern shore kept its traditional agricultural specialisation.

Caslini had plans for an even greater development, but they were stopped by an anonymous accusation of counterrevolutionary activity, that put Caslini and its team under investigation by the NKDV. While Caslini was finally discharged, an important member of his team disappeared in the gulag system, and Caslini himself felt tired and demotivated. Then, with the start of the second world war, the Soviet Union had to dedicate all of its ressources to the war effort, thus all construction projects in Alexisgrad were put on hold. Many young people were drafted, and the city entered a period of stasis and poverty. During the war, Caslini was killed by a flu, and was buried in Alexisgrad cemetery. His daughter collected all of her father's work, hundreds of pages of projects. Those would prove extremely valuable in the years to come.

• I plan to seriously invest in railroads. As i already said, there will be two separate line: one for passenger (P), the other one for cargo (C).
  
• As you can see, on the top of the map, at the start of the rail connection, there are two close cargo stations, connected by a road. They work as a transfer terminal. The logic behind it is well explained in chapter 3 of the high train traffic solutions guide: in a nutshell, it allows to keep your internal cargo line disconnected from the external line. LAter, the external cargo station will be upgraded to the train+ ship transport hub from AD.
  
• I want to build a passenger hub inside the city, providing a terminal passenger train station, with at least three platforms, and the bus station from AD.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union became the dominant continental power, extending its rule to most of Eastern Europe, Persia, Xiinjang, Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. On the first anniversary of the end of the war, "Victory Day", General Chernenko, Secretary General of the Party, established the "Eurasian Union", as the successor State of the USSR. Alexisgrad had suffered greatly during the war, but the dire time were now over.

Chernenko and its advisors decided that Alexisgrad, having an extremely protected and segregate location, yet strategically close to the newly conquered regions of Persia and Xiijang, should become a major Eurasian center. The first two Five-Year Plans after the war allocated many resources to achieve this goal. Chernenko personally selected Alina, the half-russian daughter of Comrade Caslini, to complete its father vision.
The first priority was connecting Alexisgrad to the railway line, the true backbone of Eurasian power. The original, still existing Alexisgrad station was little yet functional.

The transformation of the industrial area, located on the southern bank of the minor Alay river, was monumental. A deep canal was digged in the stream bed of the Alay river, reducing its width dramatically and thus gaining precious land. Then, a direct highway connection to the industrial area was built on the newly gained land, and the preexisting bridge was replaced by an interchange.
At the same time, the first freight train station was built. As I pointed out before, if you want a succesful railway system, it is very important to separate passenger traffic from freight traffic.

Alexisgrad in its rising prosperity. In the picture below, you can see that I have two rail lines, one for people, one for goods. They both flow into the international line at the outskirts of the city

During those years, the dark, silent remnants of the original zarist settlement of Nizhnishin were left untouched by the renovation frenzy.

During the '50s, Alexisgrad faced further development. To cope with the rising population, a new district was built, in a simple yet elegant style. To give some seasonal variety to the pictures, I have used the environment changer mod.
The apartments of the new districts became the home for the rising socialist middle class, made of party and State bureaucrats, teachers, scientists and engineers.
With the post-war population and traffic boom, the old passenger station became increasingly overcrowded. Thus, a new, massive station was built in a free lot close to the center of the city, as once planned by Caslini.
Just as planned, a cargo interchange station was set up on the shores of Shiva River.
As you can see the goods are transferred by road from the internal cargo rail system to the external rail connection. That filter allows for having far less trains, with a far higher individual load. Thus less cluttering and a far more efficient cargo system.
Where the original Soviet Union had been an atheistic State, the new Eurasian Union tried to find a compromise with the Orthodox faith. While the Great leader Chernenko was totally deprieved of religious sentiment, he was convinced that a reformed orthodox church, strictly connected to the soviet ruling class, could be used to streghten the patriotism of the people, the stability of the State, and - of course - his own rule. This explain the building, during the year 1951, of a massive Cathedral, named to Saint Peter, to celebrate the victory in the Great Patriotic War.
A picture of the cathedral during summer 1955.
With the rising political prominence of Alexisgrad, the original local government building became unsufficient. Here a picture made during winter 1950:
During the five subsequent years, a new house of soviets was built to the east (left) of the original local government building and, in between, a synagogue for the jewish population (again with the same logic that led to the edification of Saint Peter Cathedral). Behind them, a new commercial area arose.
Finally, a major hospital was built, providing Alexisgrad citizen with one of the best healtcare offered in the Eurasian Union.

As Alexisgrad population continued to growth esponentially, it became necessary for the local government to quickly create new residential areas. The beautiful constructions created in the fifties were expensive and slow to build, so the government choose instead to resort to panel buildings, the use of which was sprouting in the whole of the Eurasian Union. The first of the new panel neighborood was Kemerovo, built in the northeastern corner of the city. But others were to follow.

Life in the panel buildings was not necessarily pleasant, with families crammed in small appartments. Yet, for many people, life in Alexisgrad was way richer in opportunities than living in the countryside.



A big movie theater was built in the middle of Kemerovo to provide the people with some entertainment - and propaganda, to remember them how lucky they are to live in the great Eurasian Union.
In the meantime, at the town center, the commercial area was completed with the building of a "GUM", a State Department Store (Gosudarstvennyi Universalnyi Magazin), that had already been planned in the previous decade but not edificated.
Finally, the tram network was extended, to cover almost the whole of Alexisgrad. The trams (in purple) circle in bidirectional, intersecting loops (every loop is 2x1 squares, not 1x1, and they partially superimpose on each other). The stops on the different loops are as close as possible, to allow people to swiftly move from one to another.

The panel buildings in Kemerovo had been built very close, far closer than the usual standards of the Eurasian Union. But building space in the valley was scarce, and the Government wanted to save space for future expansions. Nobody was really surprised when, the first of february 1971, the flame caused by a broken electric heater led to a catastrophic fire that killed 60 people.
After a quick recovery from the disaster, the building projects were resumed, with some minimal improvements of security standards. You can see the great expansion of the high density residential area, on the left of the town, and the start of a new industrial zone, built around two roundabouts connceted to cargo stations, just below the town center.
In the newly built residential area, the local government experimented a BRT (bus rapid transit system). A BRT is a bus network which is separated from the normal road network, and avoid intersecting it using grade separations (bridge, underpass, etc). If you build it right, it qualifies as one of the very best transportation options in Cities Skylines, since it is as quick and powerful as the underground metro, for a fraction of the cost. But it requires more space and planning of course.
It proved hightly effective. Afer a lot of experimentation, I built the BRT as a tight loop, using one way roads to put bus stops (one at both extemities of the loop, and then one on each side for each direction, every 20-30 squares, connected with pedestrian overpasses) and high-speed highway ramp in between. You can easily create a grid of BRTs, north-south and west-east, not intersecting between each others (with grade separations: bridge, underpasses, etc). You just need to build "transfer" bus stops at those crossing to allow pedestrian to go from the N-S lines to the W-E lines. Such a network work incredibly, a lot of your cityzen will stop using their cars, since BRT travel at about 80 km/hour, leaving the roads free for cargo!
Lastly, the train-river port hub was significantly improved. I managed to optimize my cargo hub. Basically, it receives (a) cargo from the ship, (b) some cargo cargo trucks from the external highway connection, and (c) a lot of cargo trucks from the left station, which is connected to the external railroad. The hub then spawn cargo trains and send them on the internal lines. Using a railroad loop allows the trains to use both platforms of the hub, doubling its capacity.