in hoc signo vinces Transarctica

Advice to play and win in Arctic Baron

Play and win without cheating

You do not need to cheat to win! But if you want to reach the end faster...

In order to win in Arctic Baron, you will of course need soldiers, fight material like cannons and gun machines, and some other elements like slaves --see blow.

All of those require lignite-money, so you will have to trade and/or exploit mines.

Very profitable trade!

The list of cities and their ressources in Arctic Baron is available. But if you want to make fast big benefits:

• Paris buys caviar at very high price (40 baks)
• Athens buys fishing ropes and wood at very high prices
• Tibesti buys fish and alcohol at very high prices
• Amsterdam buys furs at very high price
• London buys alcohol at very high price
• Plants always sell good (45 baks) if the city does not produce them, the same is valid for antiques.
• Gorki buys plants for 55 baks
• Krasnojarsk and Kiev buy wolf meat at 50 baks
• I think there are other good deals to find, I have not seen everything.
• One easy trade is Gorki/Saratov. The prices are not very high but there is plenty of stuff to buy and sell quickly.
• Nomad tribes can supply you with antiques which will sell very well quite everywhere. They buying prices are also honest.

The Mammoths

You can buy / sell mammoths at mammoths fairs, but also try to capture some if you see a flock. You need to have soldiers and / or slaves to start hunting. You also need cattle wagons to accommodate them.

Mammoths worth much. They are a valuable resource for mining, a little less for the repair of bridges and fighting train.

Soldiers

• Abu Dhabi sells soldiers for 6 baks only!
• Moscow sells soldiers for 10 baks each
• Other garnisons sell them for 12 baks.

I made an Excel-Transarctica file with multiple tabs, in order to optimize trading. You will find in it the way to know who sells what you want to buy, at what price you will find what wagon, etc.

The super-map

I rebuilt the super-map of Arctic Baron, with the cities in different colors depending on what they do. Click to see larger:

You will also see in red the scenario elements, except of course the hidden base. The mined tracks are also marked.

Train combat

The combat interface is a problem, it is slow and not very practical.Nevertheless hours of great stress await you!

The spies

They are free as far as you have a spy-wagon in the Transarctica. One is enough, since you just need to go take more when you need, for free.

The spies are not very much useful, I think. They are needed in order to find and blow up the secret base; for the rest, they give you informations that will be hard to use, due to the fact that time runs and distances are high.

Some players will use the spies to destroy ennemy trains with missiles. I was not personnaly able to do it.

Some help in order to find de solution and win the game

First, you have to avoind train fights as much as you can. You might win many, and lose the game with one lost fight.

At each fight, you will get slaves and wagons. Sell their content as fast as possible. You should only keep 3 or 4 XL freight cars, not more. Each wagon costs you coal using the following formula:

E = ½  m v²

The Transarctica's mass is m, and rises with each wagon you attach to it, and with the content you add. Soldiers, slaves and mammoths are not counted. If you do not want to spend all the game seeking for coal (Lignite and/or Anthracite), limit you usage!

For this:

1. The only mandatory wagons are canons, machine guns, barracks, and a small amount of freight cars. Remove all unnecessary wagons in a workshop-station.
2. Try to never have a tender destroyed in a train fight. They can not be destroyed or removed from the train, so you will tow a dead-wagon during the whole game.
3. Limit your speed. Cruising at max speed has no interest, except to flee from a Viking Union train. I used to play and win with never going faster than 75 km/h --except for the bascule bridge.
4. Spend Anthracite in preference to Lignite: it has a better performance and can not be used as money!

Be wary of the great tunnels and, the wolves : their harm is a proportion of your ressources. So, the stronger you are, the more they plunder you! Hundreds of soldiers and machines guns will never be enough. Use track-cars with missiles to clean up the way.

One last tip: The refrigerator wagon is useless, of course! This game is set in a frozen world, no product has need for this wagon.