Iberia-Review of Version 1.05
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:36 pm
I tried your latest Iberia Map version 1.05 yesterday and enjoyed the challenge. It is a good example of a map that challenges your ability to do thoughtful track layouts, plus well planned logistics, and the need to anticipate the need to grow a city so it can meet some future objective. In this map it is necessary to move good A from origin B to destination C at one time, then at a later time move the same good A from origin B to a different destination D. In my case I initially shipped oil to Brest and Manufacturing Goods to Barcelona, because Cadiz had not grown large enough to accept Mfg Goods. Then when Cadiz had grown, I shipped Mfg Goods there as required in the Victory Screen. In another example, I initially shipped 8-car food trains back and forth between Madrid and Barcelona, then latter stopped shipping food from Barcelona and concentrated on shipping autos from Barcelona to Madrid.
It is clearly a map for advanced players. I missed the Era 1 food goal by 2 carloads and 2 months. I met all the Era 2 goals accept 70 passengers from Ouazzane to Barcelona. I was too tired by the end of Era 2 to continue with Era 3 goals, but it was late at night and past my bedtime. Attached is my route map for anyone that’s curious. After playing the map, I studied Karstens layout where he met all goals at Robber Barron level. His layout is much more thoughtful than mine, but I noticed that he must have played an earlier version, because his layout would not have made the deliveries of 50 carloads of mfg goods (furniture) from Gijon to Marsella. His tracks do not go to Marsella. My track layouts were not very elegant with several bridges across the middle of the Mediterranean, but I had plenty of money playing at the Investor Level.
Karsten recently reviewed my Canadian Pacific map and concluded that it was a map for beginners to intermediate players. I agree with this, especially when compared to your Iberia map. It is difficult to make all the required deliveries on time, especially those requiring shipment from one edge of the map to another, even though it is only a 10x10 map. While playing it, I thought it must be bigger. My Canadian Pacific map is a 21x21 map, but it is much easier to route trains and meet delivery objectives than your Iberia map, so I decided to analyze your map and see if I could figure out why it is so difficult. Here is what I concluded.
Your first required objective is to connect the cities of Lisboa, Madrid, Barcelona, and Burdeos. Then you add the food plant, stockyard and the ship 67 carloads of food between these cities in Era 1. This establishes a main money making corridor right across the middle of the map from the western land edge to the northeastern land edge (effectively cutting the map in two, east to west). Shipping passengers, mail, grain, livestock, and food along this corridor is very profitable. This mainline east-west corridor generates most of the money needed to build the other lines, so it must not be obstructed by other lines. Era 2 goals consist largely of growing villages to cities and making deliveries of raw materials on one side of the mainline east-west corridor to industries on the other. This requires tracks that either go-around or bridge across the mainline corridor. Examples include: (1) oil from Argel at south edge of map to Brest on north edge of map, then mfg goods back to Cadiz to the west; (2) coal from Leon north of the main corridor to the steel mill in Alicante south of the main corridor; (3) wood from Oporto on the south to Gijon on the north side of corridor; and (4) furniture from Gijon on the north to Marsella on the south side of the corridor. Thanks for creating a map where I think I can see what it takes to make routing tracks most difficult. Add to this the need to grow villages to cities by making single good deliveries which are not very profitable, and you have a real challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I think you have created a nice map that is fun to play, but it can also be frustrating to people like me who do not like to build a lot of bridges across existing tracks. I may try it again to see if I can reduce the number of bridges I built the first time. Nice work!!
It is clearly a map for advanced players. I missed the Era 1 food goal by 2 carloads and 2 months. I met all the Era 2 goals accept 70 passengers from Ouazzane to Barcelona. I was too tired by the end of Era 2 to continue with Era 3 goals, but it was late at night and past my bedtime. Attached is my route map for anyone that’s curious. After playing the map, I studied Karstens layout where he met all goals at Robber Barron level. His layout is much more thoughtful than mine, but I noticed that he must have played an earlier version, because his layout would not have made the deliveries of 50 carloads of mfg goods (furniture) from Gijon to Marsella. His tracks do not go to Marsella. My track layouts were not very elegant with several bridges across the middle of the Mediterranean, but I had plenty of money playing at the Investor Level.
Karsten recently reviewed my Canadian Pacific map and concluded that it was a map for beginners to intermediate players. I agree with this, especially when compared to your Iberia map. It is difficult to make all the required deliveries on time, especially those requiring shipment from one edge of the map to another, even though it is only a 10x10 map. While playing it, I thought it must be bigger. My Canadian Pacific map is a 21x21 map, but it is much easier to route trains and meet delivery objectives than your Iberia map, so I decided to analyze your map and see if I could figure out why it is so difficult. Here is what I concluded.
Your first required objective is to connect the cities of Lisboa, Madrid, Barcelona, and Burdeos. Then you add the food plant, stockyard and the ship 67 carloads of food between these cities in Era 1. This establishes a main money making corridor right across the middle of the map from the western land edge to the northeastern land edge (effectively cutting the map in two, east to west). Shipping passengers, mail, grain, livestock, and food along this corridor is very profitable. This mainline east-west corridor generates most of the money needed to build the other lines, so it must not be obstructed by other lines. Era 2 goals consist largely of growing villages to cities and making deliveries of raw materials on one side of the mainline east-west corridor to industries on the other. This requires tracks that either go-around or bridge across the mainline corridor. Examples include: (1) oil from Argel at south edge of map to Brest on north edge of map, then mfg goods back to Cadiz to the west; (2) coal from Leon north of the main corridor to the steel mill in Alicante south of the main corridor; (3) wood from Oporto on the south to Gijon on the north side of corridor; and (4) furniture from Gijon on the north to Marsella on the south side of the corridor. Thanks for creating a map where I think I can see what it takes to make routing tracks most difficult. Add to this the need to grow villages to cities by making single good deliveries which are not very profitable, and you have a real challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I think you have created a nice map that is fun to play, but it can also be frustrating to people like me who do not like to build a lot of bridges across existing tracks. I may try it again to see if I can reduce the number of bridges I built the first time. Nice work!!
So it is best not to overdo the criss-crossing goals, because otherwise the map degenerates into a spaghetti bowl of unrealistic bridges. See what I mean in the attached completed Era three Iberia routes 
