• Daniel Morris, France

For me, this game is all about the trains. My daughter asks me if I'm playing "your train game again?" as I invariably am. I like to build up towns and industry with trucks and buses or trams, before making massive multi-platform train stations. It's worth the hard work and planning at the start to get the payoffs later on.

• Dr S. Peace, UK

First attempt - win ugly and learn.
Second attempt - win pretty with an elegant map that's enjoyable to watch. The challenge of building a efficient but low maintenance network posed some great problems and leads one to new solutions.
For example two new tactics I learned: 1) target 'exploding' source industries early for maximum benefit later 2) the 'merry go round' loop from source stations is quicker than having train enter stations by the same piece of track.

• James Hood, USA

I prefer connecting industries with trains, so when starting a game I usually create a train route between nearby industries. The route is as long as possible, using the initial money along with most of the loan. The remaining loan is then used to purchase the train for the route. Once the route starts paying down the loan, construction begins on a long distance route between viable industries, crossing as much of the map as possible.

My train routes are flat to allow the trains to move as quickly as possible. This also results in the rail often going through mountains, high over the landscape, or around towns. Depending on the terrain, the cost of installing flat routes can be very high, so having a profitable initial route is important. A long distance route starts as a single rail loop with one or two full-length station tracks on each end. If the source industry increases its output then additional rail loops can be added with up to four full-length station tracks at each end. Often, multiple long-distance routes are necessary to achieve the mission objective. To keep the trains running smoothly, I prefer to keep the train reliability above 50%.

At some point, goods will be produced that need delivered. If there isn't a town large enough to accept them, then I'll build a tram between nearby towns in a desirable location to facilitate their growth. I like to take advantage of the catchment area and include as many passengers as possible with a minimal amount of stations.

Runners-Up

Transport Tycoon Branded Back Packs

• Guillaume Roussel, Canada

The selected map was one of my favourites.
I played it many times before the competition and had the opportunity to try several strategies. During the competition, my starting point was to link up the oil rigs with refineries by ships. Indeed, even if ships are quite expensive, the sea is a easy way to reach two points, without any obstacles, giving the opportunity to create extreme lengths (that always pay off and is very profitable!).
I also borrow as much as I can to begin to quickly increase income.

• Songkono Thamrin, Indonesia

The game is very fun yet challenging. I had to replay it over and over to get a better score on the anniversary scenario. On my first playthrough, all the coal mines ran out of coal and that was surprising and frustrating. Replaying it, I had to switch to transporting not-coal at the start which is challenging but fun nevertheless. After that i learned that messy stations aren't always bad as long as i got that small % increase in performance rating. My biggest rating contribution is the two stations both producing goods and both can accept goods as well. Lucky me!!!

• Francois Bucher, Switzerland

One of my gameplay tactics is to first build a long distance track which is easy and cheap to build - and then, later, when I won enough money, to build the more difficult and expensive tracks.

• Paul Spencer, UK

My tactics have always been to try and make big money first, usually involving ships with coal or oil.
Once the money is pouring in then you can expand as fast as your fingers will let you.

The biggest challenge is always with railway stations and how many trains and platforms you can jam in on one site.

• Yoon Hyungsun, South Korea

Start from early 1900s - Freight Train, Start from late 1900s - Passenger Train!

• Kim Hansaem, South Korea

I like to build railroads at beginning, especially from coal mines or ore mines. Those are high income resources and having possibility to increase productivity.

• Jaap Valent, Netherlands

The scenario for this competition was a real challenge and I had to start over a couple of times before I found the best approach.
Finally I started with some tramlines in the towns to generate some income. Money made there was invested in ships which transferred oil from the oil rigs to the refinery. This gave me a steady base from which I started building rails and trains mostly transferring iron ore and chemicals. Normally I would choose coal but in this scenario the coal mines close down after a couple of years.
In the last couple of years the 20 year time limit put pressure on the game so I had to build a couple of very long train routes with lots of trains servicing the route to get my rating as high as possible before the 20 years were over.

• Clarence Dent, Australia

The key to success I believe was terrain manipulation for town growth, creating a diverse transport portfolio, continual expansion, and then ongoing renewal of the aging feet.

• Dan Conquer (real life Train Driver!), UK

My main tactic, as usual, involved constructing multiple maximum length railway platforms at each station and constructing a circuitous 'loop' track layout, allowing returning empty trains to enter a station while freshly loaded trains can simultaneously depart. I also ensure every train has a minimum of two locomotives to guard against breakdowns. These tactics combined ensure a constantly flowing movement of traffic.

• Martin Trasler, USA

I think my strategy is fairly unique, forsaking the nice aesthetics of trains, trams or buses for about 100 boats, each of which carried oil from the north sea to Lowestoft.
While it took a few months for the boats to travel, each one pretty much paid for itself after one trip. After a short while, I got the tankers to pick up chemicals from Dover on the return journey, making double the money. That got me to about 50%, with the remaining 50% taken from a combination of planes and artificially constructed train routes transporting coal, iron and steel all the way across the map to custom constructed mills and factories in the corner of the map.

Congratulations to our winners, and thanks to those of you who took the time to write up your strategies.
We hope all our players enjoyed the competition - it's been a great ride!

Thanks again to all who participated in the Transport Tycoon 20th Anniversary Competition!