Railway Empire 2

In order to get a CEO rating, you need to score at least 600,000 points in this scenario. There are too many random elements in this game for me to give an exact step by step solution. I will instead give my rough outline on how I started the scenario as well as when I completed the tasks.

This is definitely a difficult scenario. I got the CEO rating on my second attempt. My first attempt I played as The General (terrible choice for this map) and finished in 7.2 years. The score for that one was 550,366.

My second attempt was with The Engineer. This time I finished in 5 years with a score of 647,690.

The hardest part in my opinion is the first two sets of tasks and then opening up the area for the third set of tasks. I started with a warehouse in Presburg and fed all the local goods into it. I didn't bother separating out freight and express goods. I ran every city train as mixed. I used the Taff Valve Tank for everything but luxury lines. I used the Bavarian AA I for luxury lines. After that I single tracked out to every city in the starting region and doubled when I could afford it. While doing this I was also connecting in local resources to the other cities and built another warehouse in Kecskemet. I also take advantage of bonds and tend to always borrow to the max. When I can afford it, I would pay off the cheapest and then take out another one. At the end of my game, I had around 50 million owing in bonds. There is research available to increase the amount of bonds you can have and I recommend researching it as early as possible. I also did not run any luxury trains unless it was required as part of a task. For luxury lines, I found that decreasing the price decreased the number of passengers so I left the ticket prices at the default 100%.

Once the next tasks start, I grew Kolozsvar to build the second industry as a steel factory. Sibiu demands 2 steel per week so you can upgrade the steel factory to level 2. The demand never drops so it is a solid money maker in the early game. At this point, I was putting an Immigration Office and Maintenance Depot in every city and would only swap for a library if it was having growth issues. I didn't buy rural industries in the early game. Late game I would recommend buying so you can control the output. Same for industries, I found it easier to grow a city and place my own factory instead of buying an existing one.

Starting the next task was the last point that was a little difficult. I built a snaky and cheap line from Sibiu to Craiova and never ran a train on it. Connected that to Bucharest and built a warehouse there. That city finished with 290,000 people. You will also want to make sure that you have researched the ability to build a White Nougat factory at this point as it is needed for the next set of tasks. At this point, money was no longer an issue and I could brute force my way through all the remaining objectives. Focus on objectives first but also make sure every city is continuing to grow. It may be tedious, but it is worth it late game to have the base resources directly connected to each city.

For reference, here is when I completed the tasks in my CEO game. The game does not give gold check marks like the first one so it is hard to know if you are on track for the time bonus. The optional tasks can still be completed once the main tasks are done. You just need to pause the game and select "Rating" and it will give you your new score. There is wiggle room with the time frames so you can take a bit longer and still should get CEO.

One Step at a Time

• Set up a luxury line between Vienna and Budapest - Jan 18, 1881

• Transport a total of 250 passengers in luxury train lines - Mar 11, 1881

• Reach 220,000 citizens in the Austria-Hungary region - Oct 22, 1881

A Daunting Task

• Produce 20 loads of Steel in Kolozsvar via one of your factories - Jul 1, 1882

• Reach 55,000 citizens in Sibiu - Nov 11, 1882

• Deliver 40 loads of Steel to Sibiu - Nov 13, 1882

• Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Sibiu without changing trains - Aug 30, 1882

The First Route

• Make 10 different goods available in Bucharest at the same time - Apr 8, 1883

• Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Bucharest to Varna without changing trains - Jun 6, 1883

• Reach 280,000 citizens in the Wallachia region - Nov 5, 1883

A Fruitful Endeavor

• Produce 20 loads of Wine in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Mar 26, 1884

• Produce 10 loads White Nougat in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Jul 11, 1884

• Construct a library in Nova Sad - Jul 17, 1884

Business Venture

• Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Novi Sad without changing trains - Aug 7, 1884

• Reach 40,000 citizens in Nils - Sep 15, 1884

• Deliver 16 loads of White Nougat from region Vojvodina to region Austria-Hungary - Aug 26, 1884

A Peculiar Request

• Make 8 different goods available in Sofia at the same time Nov 17, 1884

• Reach 50,000 citizens in Sofia - Dec 6, 1884

• Transport 150 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Nils to Plowdiw without changing trains - Dec 16, 1884

Express to the Orient

• Reach 120,000 citizens in Constantinople - Dec 27, 1885

• Deliver 40 loads of Furniture to Constantinople - Jan 8, 1886

• Transport 300 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Plowdiw to Constantinople without changing trains - Jun 15, 1885

Optional Tasks

• Reach 160,000 citizens in the Greece region - Jul 29, 1885

• Transport 300 passengers from Thessaloniki to Constantinople - Jun 30, 1885

• Connect 2,500,000 citizens to you rail network - Apr 19, 1885

In order to get a CEO rating, you need to score at least 600,000 points in this scenario. There are too many random elements in this game for me to give an exact step by step solution. I will instead give my rough outline on how I started the scenario as well as when I completed the tasks.

This is definitely a difficult scenario. I got the CEO rating on my second attempt. My first attempt I played as The General (terrible choice for this map) and finished in 7.2 years. The score for that one was 550,366.

My second attempt was with The Engineer. This time I finished in 5 years with a score of 647,690.

The hardest part in my opinion is the first two sets of tasks and then opening up the area for the third set of tasks. I started with a warehouse in Presburg and fed all the local goods into it. I didn't bother separating out freight and express goods. I ran every city train as mixed. I used the Taff Valve Tank for everything but luxury lines. I used the Bavarian AA I for luxury lines. After that I single tracked out to every city in the starting region and doubled when I could afford it. While doing this I was also connecting in local resources to the other cities and built another warehouse in Kecskemet. I also take advantage of bonds and tend to always borrow to the max. When I can afford it, I would pay off the cheapest and then take out another one. At the end of my game, I had around 50 million owing in bonds. There is research available to increase the amount of bonds you can have and I recommend researching it as early as possible. I also did not run any luxury trains unless it was required as part of a task. For luxury lines, I found that decreasing the price decreased the number of passengers so I left the ticket prices at the default 100%.

Once the next tasks start, I grew Kolozsvar to build the second industry as a steel factory. Sibiu demands 2 steel per week so you can upgrade the steel factory to level 2. The demand never drops so it is a solid money maker in the early game. At this point, I was putting an Immigration Office and Maintenance Depot in every city and would only swap for a library if it was having growth issues. I didn't buy rural industries in the early game. Late game I would recommend buying so you can control the output. Same for industries, I found it easier to grow a city and place my own factory instead of buying an existing one.

Starting the next task was the last point that was a little difficult. I built a snaky and cheap line from Sibiu to Craiova and never ran a train on it. Connected that to Bucharest and built a warehouse there. That city finished with 290,000 people. You will also want to make sure that you have researched the ability to build a White Nougat factory at this point as it is needed for the next set of tasks. At this point, money was no longer an issue and I could brute force my way through all the remaining objectives. Focus on objectives first but also make sure every city is continuing to grow. It may be tedious, but it is worth it late game to have the base resources directly connected to each city.

For reference, here is when I completed the tasks in my CEO game. The game does not give gold check marks like the first one so it is hard to know if you are on track for the time bonus. The optional tasks can still be completed once the main tasks are done. You just need to pause the game and select "Rating" and it will give you your new score. There is wiggle room with the time frames so you can take a bit longer and still should get CEO.

One Step at a Time

• Set up a luxury line between Vienna and Budapest - Jan 18, 1881

• Transport a total of 250 passengers in luxury train lines - Mar 11, 1881

• Reach 220,000 citizens in the Austria-Hungary region - Oct 22, 1881

A Daunting Task

• Produce 20 loads of Steel in Kolozsvar via one of your factories - Jul 1, 1882

• Reach 55,000 citizens in Sibiu - Nov 11, 1882

• Deliver 40 loads of Steel to Sibiu - Nov 13, 1882

• Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Sibiu without changing trains - Aug 30, 1882

The First Route

• Make 10 different goods available in Bucharest at the same time - Apr 8, 1883

• Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Bucharest to Varna without changing trains - Jun 6, 1883

• Reach 280,000 citizens in the Wallachia region - Nov 5, 1883

A Fruitful Endeavor

• Produce 20 loads of Wine in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Mar 26, 1884

• Produce 10 loads White Nougat in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Jul 11, 1884

• Construct a library in Nova Sad - Jul 17, 1884

Business Venture

• Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Novi Sad without changing trains - Aug 7, 1884

• Reach 40,000 citizens in Nils - Sep 15, 1884

• Deliver 16 loads of White Nougat from region Vojvodina to region Austria-Hungary - Aug 26, 1884

A Peculiar Request

• Make 8 different goods available in Sofia at the same time Nov 17, 1884

• Reach 50,000 citizens in Sofia - Dec 6, 1884

• Transport 150 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Nils to Plowdiw without changing trains - Dec 16, 1884

Express to the Orient

• Reach 120,000 citizens in Constantinople - Dec 27, 1885

• Deliver 40 loads of Furniture to Constantinople - Jan 8, 1886

• Transport 300 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Plowdiw to Constantinople without changing trains - Jun 15, 1885

Optional Tasks

• Reach 160,000 citizens in the Greece region - Jul 29, 1885

• Transport 300 passengers from Thessaloniki to Constantinople - Jun 30, 1885

• Connect 2,500,000 citizens to you rail network - Apr 19, 1885

The other guide offers a perfect target times and some details for each set of tasks, I'd like to give a detailed walkthrough and tips.

To unlock this achievement, You need to score at least 600K points in this "Journey to the East" scenario to achieve Chief Executive rank. Contrary to all base game campaign and scenario levels which more freedom and self-pace are allowed, this achievement is to speedrun the DLC scenario. The only thing matters is the clear time, a bottom line of 6.2 to 6.3 years with all tasks done including optional ones is perhaps the approximate time limit, you will have to try hard to hit UpliftGecko's targeted times of each set of tasks. In order to achieve that, you are more likely to do 2 runs instead of just 1 successful run to learn the map details and what have to be done at certain points of the whole progress, as it's kind of a hard level that requires precise management and all knowledge of the game, and what's more important, it doesn't allow much room of errors. However it's very straightforward and easy once you know what to do, NOT that seemingly impossible and hardcore.

Important Note: This is NOT a Play AnyWhere game, meaning that this DLC only applies to the platform you purchased it from, despite both the base game and the DLC have save data sync and transfer like many other Game Pass games, but only the base game gives freedom to load saves made from another platform. So before you make your purchase, choose carefully where you want to play it, on PC or Console. I don't know if you can still freely switch platforms with saves transferred once the base game leaves Game Pass though, meaning that if you had bought the game from a certain platform, it might limit you to play on that platform only, so if you consider buying the base game from a future sales, carefully choose what platform you buy it from.

PC advantage:
5x Game Speed available
Keyboard and Mouse input, hotkeys from keyboard work like classic RTS games to make it WAY easier and faster to play the game

Console: No major advantage
Controller input only (No KB&M support currently), 3x Game Speed at Maximum.

General Strategy
Assuming you've already read everything and had a good understanding the manual called Tips & Tricks and played all the tutorials, but if you haven't, it's strongly recommended doing that before you start.

1. Make Frequent Saves and Load when necessary
Anytime you feel the need, especially when:
・Once hit each time target
・Before issuing bonds
・Before and In the middle of making long tracks
・It's been a while since your last save
・Uncertain what to do next

2. Construct/Manage Everything/Correcting Errors While Pausing
Undoubtedly the golden rule to save time, should be done throughout the level (Obviously)
・Got money→Pause and spend all to build→Unpause to generate money for a few days→Pause and spend all to build→(rinse and repeat)
・Before Management→Pause and manage→Unpause to continue→Before Management→Pause and manage→Unpause to continue→(rinse and repeat)
・Noticed Errors→Pause and Fix→Unpause to continue→Notice Errors→Pause and Fix→Unpause to continue→(rinse and repeat)

3.Taking Maximum Advantage of Bonds and Expand Aggressively
Bonds are the main source of extra funds that boost your expansion throughout the level, you want full advantage of it. Unfortunately the game doesn't show much how bonds are calculated to offer an explicit way to be fully taken advantage of, however there are a few seemingly useful ways:

・When the game starts, immediately apply the final +10% bonus to the amount of each bonds in the Research page, the icon is a building called "Diversification" in the 1880 era. You should have +40% bonus in total then, this costs 200 research points but you start with 200.

・Since you cannot issue any more bonds if any active individual bonds exceed 10% of your current company value, and a maximum of 3 bonds early and 4 bonds half way through the game are allowed despite the manual says up to 5 bonds can be issued, meaning that you cannot issue more if already have 3 or 4 active.

・Make a save anytime when you can fully pay back one/When new bonds appear:
Calculate 10% of current company value, check all available bonds to smaller and bigger than this amount.
(Might not work at all)Take the one of the smallest amount, another smallest amount one, maybe yet another smallest amount one if you can have a 4th one at that time, then pick up the biggest amount for the last one to get maximum mount you can borrow at a time.

The point here is to always issue the bonds smaller than 10% of current company value first or it will invalid all other bonds, then choose the biggest one available as your last bond (3rd or 4th depends on progress)can be issued at that time. This should be very useful right from the start till about half way through the level, as bigger and way bigger bonds will appear as the progress goes, it takes much more time for your company to grow to that new value of 10% amount compared to the start. Also to be noticed that your company value shrinks more from the 2nd half, because trains gradually lose value while getting old and for this scenario you won't be replacing any of them. You need to load the save multiple times to find out the right order to maximize the mount you can borrow at each time. This is VERY IMPORTANT. At some point probably pass the half point of the whole level, you will issue the bond for one last time because your company won't be growing to whatever the new 10% amount of value before the level ends, so again make a save and find out the maximum amount you can borrow, probably not taking the smallest one but the one close but still below your current company value and take the biggest one at last. I was able to gain 22 millions by doing this for my last time.

4.Minimize Costs
・Lay Short and Fast Tracks While Avoid Tunnels and Bridges
Very important to save money, unless you need to make it across a mountain or river. I tried keeping Max of speed while laying and always connect multiple rural businesses when they are linear back to cities so that I don't need extra trains and only a few trains can deliver multiple goods while travel with maximum speed.

・Avoid All Unnecessary Stuff
Always stick tight to the tasks only, avoid all other costs unrelated to the tasks like building rail lines to non-task cities and assign trains to those. Also obviously, unnecessary rural businesses and city industries.

・Buy Rural Businesses/City Industries Before Running Trains Through Them(Mainly from the 2nd half)
Their purchase prices will go sky-rocket high after train(s) start transferring goods from or pass them. It's best to buy them when they are still cheap. This is NOT always but most of the circumstances, you can level up the production any time once you own them without worrying their prices get too expensive which you cannot afford so whatever city growths get slowed down for it later. This applies to Industries at cities as well, you also should aim for the timing of the 2nd and 3rd industry slots grow out if they haven't, then build your own to avoid it get owned by the city themselves. Some times if a non-player owned industry or rural business doesn't run well, there is a chance that you might get an offer to own it cheap, but before you accept that offer, watch what is it and how much it costs.

5.Avoid Errors/Detecting Errors
・Keep a good habit of Laying tracks→Assign directions→Build Grids at both sides of both stations from the start to avoid errors. Once it starts to generate money quick, the flow changes as Laying tracks→Assign directions→Build Grids at both sides at both stations→Build Maintenance depots at both stations→Build fuel depots along the tracks. If any of your tracks fail to run trains effectively, it eventually slows down the whole progress of city growth, causing extra time. If errors like this keep happening you will ruin your run early. Also for Maintenance Depots too, you don't need many of them at the start but later you should build one at major stations each time you build a new station. For increasing tracks and grids at stations, it's better to extend a certain length before turning the rest of unused tracks to different directions following the original 1 or 2 tracks as parallels, to expand more smoothly later.

・Detecting and Fixing Errors
Turn on "Show Warnings" and "Icons at Edge of Screen" in Gameplay settings, all warning signs from anywhere of the whole map will be displayed on screen now.

Signs of Problems: (Shapes in the triangle)

Cross: Train not transferring any goods or passengers or mails
→No needs of that goods/Full storage of that goods/Too many trains VS Too less demand/City populations too small to have enough passengers

Drop of Water: Train running out of water
→Check route and add fuel depot

Exclamation(orange): Small breakdown
→Recover as time passes

Exclamation(yellow): Breakdown
→Takes longer to recover as time passes, Train needs maintenance. Check stations for maintenance depots

Hourglass: Train waiting to be deployed
→All trains assigned will get deployed as time passes

Down arrow with 3 piles of coins: Train revenue decreased
→Normally no actions required, Trains get old as time passes so ticket prices decreases. None of this happened in my playthrough except the luxury trains.

Locomotive: Train has been waiting for a free track for a long time.
→Some train broke down on track/You forgot to assign track directions/Too many trains for a single station to handle so build more tracks and bigger grids for them(Shouldn't be happening in this scenario, you want to avoid this at all costs)

Electricity: Current locomotive are in danger of losing popularity because new locomotives are available
→No need to worry about it for this scenario since no trains need to be replaced

Other Useful Settings
・Turn off "Snow" in display settings to see the whole map more clearly
・Turn off Relevant Newspapers, Auctions and Quarterly Report in Gameplay settings, no need of these. Actions are still active during the game, but it won't be automatic popups that stop the game
・Turn on "Topography map during track constructions" in display settings to show terrain while laying tracks
・Turn on Train Usage in the pause menu (on console, upper left of screen on PC) to track train location and their Usage level (Have to be clicked each time after loading a game) Train colors indicate how much demand of traffic by train between two stations, if it turns red that means there are too less train to transfer all stuff needed including passengers, goods and mails, meaning that goods are NOT being carried at all. Simply add more trains to that rail line or/and by limiting trains to freight only and it will be fine. You have to add trains to almost all train lines made from the early game later.
・(optional)Turn on Track Usage in the pause menu (on console, upper left of screen on PC) to find seldom used tracks in more red color than usual, but it's not needed, the train usage solo above is enough.

About Tasks
Reach Certain Population of A Region or City:
The most time-consuming task among all other tasks, a high-end good that unlocks at 110k population from a city's demand list are present, no doubt it's the Top Priority for this tough clock-ticking scenario, you need to supply almost EVERY goods a city needs for its fastest growth ASAP once available.

Transfer Certain Numbers of Passengers by Luxury Trains:
High priority task among others, it's better to start this as early as possible to get it done early. Be sure to choose "Luxury" trains and check if the tracks miss anything like directions or fuel depots. Once it's done, delete all the trains to get a refund to get the money you spent back. Why so is because their travel distances are long, and don't make money while occupying the tracks.

Deliver Certain Loads of Certain Goods to A City:
Before doing this, You should build and upgrade your own industry (If you don't own it you will have to buy the slot at a high price and demolish it first) to produce enough of the goods as reserve, then Manually Load a train to deliver it.

Scenario Overview
The toughest part of the whole level is the first half, you will struggle to only build things necessary while waiting for money to expand. The hurdle here is to increase the population of at least one city to 110k to unlock the demand of White Nougat in the first region, any one or two from Vienna, Preβburg, Budapest and Kecskemet will do, while going for each sets of tasks. You have plenty of time to do this from the start until the end of the 4th set of tasks, but if you didn't aim for it from early, you will lose a lot of time from the 5th set of tasks, ending up in 6+years thus failing the speed run. Any time you finish setting up everything necessary for the current tasks, always go back to the 1st region to check and manage things. At the beginning of the 3rd set of tasks, another hurdle is to lay a track across the mountain to reach a new region, it can be hard for some people since the gradients of the mountain area varies a lot, and the cost of bridges and tunnels can slow down the whole progress. My recommendation here is NOT to make across any mountains but to lay a track along the mountains, to reduce the cost and NOT to mess up with gradients. The correct start and finish point is from Sibiu to Craiova. Once you've done delivering 16 loads of White Nougat to the first region, the rest of this scenario is like a spurt in a race, You will be taking one last advantage from bonds for a massive amount of money and then build the rest with it while pausing the game. The optional tasks become active when the last(7th)set of tasks start, from there, just one final effort. There are totally 5 logistics networks needed to be built, while the 2 from the 1st and 4th region are kind of making up for each other's shortcomings, another 3 are totally separated. Should you have any questions about how warehouses work and industry interactions, a center hub of logistics can only provide up to 9 goods, 6 from warehouses and 3 from each industry. Goods not from it should be delivered directly from other rural businesses by exclusive trains. Industry interactions mean product from one industry supplies another in the same city like Cloth and Clothing, Wooden Planks and Furniture, omitting the needs to deliver these between cities. The last 2 optional tasks of reaching 2M500K population and grow the Greece region can be ignored if you are fast enough. For Research options, there are only 3 things needed for story, Luxury Trains, White Nougat and the one above White Nougat to reach it. You shall focus on increasing revenue, loads/seats, reducing maintenance time and cost once the icon shows 2 or 3 stars. Lastly, the Engineer is the character you want to use as he has a 30% off of building tracks. The "Taff Vale Tank" locomotive is the one you need for 99.9% of the level, for luxury trains, the express type called "Bavarian AA I" and later you unlock "kkStB 170" are all sold to get refund later.


Scenario Walkthrough
Unless I say any trains need to be set to non-automatic like luxury or freight only, all are set to automatic.
Rural businesses get random names when building station near them, so I will just say the goods like grapes, sugar, cheese and etc. I eventually made all stations to 4 tracks (both sides of course) except 1 or 2 for 6 tracks in the first half, from the 2nd half I build 6 tracks (both sides of course) for most of the new stations. Stations with 4 tracks can come up with 2 pairs of parallel tracks, they are all used to connect rails from different directions, so do as stations with 6 tracks to connect 3 directions. I put my completing dates behind UpliftGecko's on each task, you can see how a single delay can cause more delay after.

1st Set: One Step at a Time
・Set up a luxury line between Vienna and Budapest - Jan 18, 1881 Mine: Mar 10, 1881
・Transport a total of 250 passengers in luxury train lines - Mar 11, 1881 Mine: Aug 14, 1881
・Reach 220,000 citizens in the Austria-Hungary region - Oct 22, 1881 Mine: Sep 7, 1881

Apply +10% of bonus bonds and get your total balance to 2.18M(2 bottom 130k bonds, and one final 460K one) before you start to build. Aim for all 4 connection bonuses and setup a maintenance depot and warehouse at Preβburg. From Budapest onward to Kolozsvar I only single-tracked and some times one-trained between each 2 stations until I setup everything for Kolovszar to grow its population to unlock its 2nd industry slot in the 2nd region for the 2nd set of tasks, to save money. Set that warehouse to lumber, grain, cheese, sugar, olive and wooden planks for now. I used double tracks connecting lumber, sugar and cheese, since multiple trains run on it. One train delivers lumber and grain by going left and right of Preβburg(stops setup: lumber→Preβburg→grain→Preβburg), another 1 delivers cheese and sugar(stops setup: cheese→sugar→Preβburg→sugar→Preβburg so it can stop by sugar if it doesn't get full load of cheese), for their similar distances to Preβburg. The cheese and sugar here seem to be insufficient to supply further cities, but the actual demands of these 2 aren't much at all, so these 2 are capable of supplying Kolozsvar too. I single-tracked grapes to livestock to Vienna, and setup one train deliver grapes only to both Vienna and Preβburg(stops setup: grapes→Vienna→ Preβburg→Vienna→grapes) for the 1st set of tasks since the needs aren't too big. I assigned 2 trains for round trips between cities at the start, then once I get more monetized I assigned 4 to 5 trains depend on traffic demands. Once the first 3 bonuses are all given, next add certain fuel depots along the tracks.

I was able to get new bonds as this is my 2nd time, by paying back a 130k one and getting another 640k one. You shall save and load to find out where to see current company value and what amount is for the next possible bonds. Then build a returning/2nd track from Budapest back to Preβburg. Once you get enough research points of 100, apply the luxury train (looks like a ticket) in the research page immediately and then assign 3 luxury trains from Vienna to Budapest. For Kecskemet, after getting its bonus, I connected both lumber and grain there by a single track and assigned 1 train to load both, similar to the cheese and sugar back at Preβburg, it should somehow supply the city. The first 3 cities should be growing fast with 2 upward-arrows now, 200K population isn't too many here, even though Debrecen is growing slow for scarcity of goods. Setup another maintenance depot at Kecskemet. Once the luxury trains finish their job, delete them to get refund. We will have to buy/build and upgrade both the iron rural business and steel industry to level 2 in the next set, since it costs 2 units iron to produce 1 unit of steel. And a unlocking fee of next region always awaits you.

2st Set: A Daunting Task
・Produce 20 loads of Steel in Kolozsvar via one of your factories - Jul 1, 1882 Mine: Jul 1, 1882
・Reach 55,000 citizens in Sibiu - Nov 11, 1882 Mine: Nov 2, 1882
・Deliver 40 loads of Steel to Sibiu - Nov 13, 1882 Mine: Nov 27, 1882
・Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Sibiu without changing trains
- Aug 30, 1882 Mine: Oct 13, 1882

Next region costs around 500k for me, each time you unlock a new region it costs quite random prices, usually 1M+ so keep that in mind. Reaching 55k in Sibiu and growing Kolovszar are the next priority. I double tracked and assigned 2 trains between Kolovszar and Sibiu, they somehow supply each other and a new olive near Sibiu are also useful, I setup a warehouse and maintenance depot at Kolovszar, and run a train from that olive directly back to Kolovszar and add a fuel depot from the 2 cities. Sibiu simply doesn't need other goods. Once Kolovszar unlocks its 2nd industry slot, it some times gives a bonus for that slot. Build a steel factory and buy the iron rural business. Connect that iron by 2 tracks 2 trains and coal by 1 track 1 train back to Kolovszar, start to produce iron. Once you get enough money, upgrade both to level 2, and we are done for it. Check research points and apply some properly, you can go for extra freight loads and discount on building tracks.

This is my 3rd bonds time, paying back a 130K one but 1.4M one. The next bunch of things are to build return tracks for stations on the way here, and add more trains in between. Connect the Olive/Livestock to your tracks between Kecskemet and Debrecen, build then assign 1 train back to Kecskemet. Setup another warehouse at Kecskemet for lumber, grain, olive, sugar and cheese. Then assign 4 luxury trains from Budapest to Sibiu, they will finish the job soon, delete them once the task is done. Now it's time to deliver cheese and sugar to Kecskemet, 2 trains are enough for these. Also 2 trains from the livestock and olive back to Preβburg. Preβburg is likely to have its 2nd industry of a cloth factory, but we don't start supplying it with wool now. We will eventually produce Wooden Planks and Furniture in Kecskemet since it's close to lumber for further growth of the first 4 cities.

The next set of tasks will cost you a lot of money about 2M(millions) to start, 1 regions of 1M to unlock and a long single non-bridge/tunnel track from Sibiu to Craiova of 800K in total, separated by 2 parts because the maximum length of tracks have a limit. Don't connect Szeged and Temesvar at this time, you don't have to worry about it now.

3rd Set: The First Route
・Make 10 different goods available in Bucharest at the same time - Apr 8, 1883 Mine: Jun 20, 1883
・Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Bucharest to Varna without changing trains
- Jun 6, 1883 Mine: Aug 17, 1883
・Reach 280,000 citizens in the Wallachia region - Nov 5, 1883 Mine: Dec 29, 1883


This is the first obstacle for some people, laying a single track from Sibiu to Craiova along the mountain isn't very easy, you can make multiple saves for parts of the whole track since the next joint cannot be deleted if end up in extreme gradient change, sharp turns or any other limits. The maximum gradient change allowed is 10% for each part without it becoming red or greyed out, perhaps keeping the same latitude for short curve parts and gradually lose latitude for longer straight parts work the best for you. You might get prompted to connect to Brasov for a bonus, but if you do so you cannot delete it or it will ask you to connect it again first before other cities. I was lucky to have my 4th bonds time at this time, got a new 2M with no payback of the old since the oldest met maturity.

Bucharest is a perfect hub for a warehouse, grapes and cheese are below, olive, lumber and livestock are all around it, its instant meat industry is to supply surrounding cities with meat. Craiova produces cloth, it will be our supply of both cloth and clothing to NOT just here, but also for Constantinople later in the last set of tasks. A grain near Craiova can supply Bucharest but need a warehouse. Russe produces wine which is also convenient. For Bucharest it's easy to build wooden planks and furniture industries later, non of these industries need upgrades yet. I only 6-tracked Bucharest here and 4-tracked Craiova, left Varna and Russe 2-tracked only. I didn't connect Pitesti to NOT mess up with gradients. You shall leave livestock as the last one as the demand of meat will not increase for a while, but keep on eye on it. The lumber here in the mountains can cause trouble, I connected mine to the midpoint from the olive here to Bucharest, it cost me 650K only for the first single track. Finally I assigned 4 luxury trains for the task here. Don't forget to add fuel and maintenance depots on the each track here, as well as activating new research items. While Varna, Craiova, Bucharest and Russe all got double-upward arrows for that total 280K population, I connected the wool to Craiova and move back to the first region.

From now on it's a revisit and upgrade of the first region, things here become tedious and quite boring, I'd recommend saving it first. Time won't pass much since you will do everything when paused. Check populations, demand and supply levels of each first 4 cities. Double-track the supply line from grapes, livestock to Preβburg, 4-track both sides of Preβburg with 2 new grids, and add 2 direct trains from the grapes here to Preβburg and set the original grapes→Vienna→Preβburg train to supply livestock to Vienna only. We will supply meat from Preβburg directly to Novi Sad. Next I 6-tracked both sides of Preβburg and replaced the grid, there were already many trains across it so I laid direct tracks from sugar to the Preβburg→Budapest line to alleviate the traffic burden. Also added necessary fuel depots and added maintenance depot at Vienna and Budapest. One additional train of cheese and sugar for Preβburg. Then I got a popup of being offered of that poor 2nd cloth factory for a cheap 130K, then connected the wool to the tracks of Preβburg→Budapest and assigned 2 trains. Kecskemet already had its 2nd industry, but I couldn't afford tearing it up for a wooden plank factory. Then 4-track and new grid Budapeset, 6-track Kecskemet with a new grid.

It's time to go back check Bucharest and surrounding cities. I was able to build a wooden plank factory in Bucharest and a clothing factory Craiova in as its 2nd, and add some trains for the lines showing red locomotives. Now it's time for a preparation of the 4th region, I connected, 6-tracked both Szeged and Temesvar. In the next set Novi Sad gets the priority to grow, the demands are lumber and cheese from Temesvar, meat from Vienna, whereas grapes, grain and sugar from nearby, bread is supplied from Szeged. so setup a warehouse and assign the goods there. I was able to connect both lumber and cheese, and setting up the warehouse before the next set of tasks begun.

4th Set: A Fruitful Endeavor
・Produce 20 loads of Wine in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Mar 26, 1884 Mine: Mar 26, 1884
・Produce 10 loads White Nougat in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Jul 11, 1884 Mine: Feb 22, 1884
・Construct a library in Nova Sad - Jul 17, 1884 Mine: Oct 16, 1884

From this timing the demand of train traveling significantly increases, meaning that your income is quite an amount but some lines may fall to red trains, you should consider changing some trains to freight exclusive rather than only adding more trains to avoid saturation of tracks. This period of the current set is known to be messy, tedious and troublesome as the most patience/concentration-testing time of the whole level, but once you complete it the rest is quite a breeze. I was able to gain my 5th boost from bonds of 4.5M once this new set started.

6-track Novi Sad and connect tracks from Temesvar, Szeged and Osijek, including sugar, wine and grain, also lay a pair of parallel tracks from the bridges of between Budapest and Kecskemet to Novi Sad, since direct train from Vienna are coming through it instead of passing through Kecskemet and Szeged, also later white nougats may also use this line. I only 2-tracked from Novi Sad to Osijek because only grapes is needed, you need to buy the wine industry here for the task, and a immigration offices a small boost to Novi Sad once it reached 30K people. As library unlocks at 50k population, it shouldn't be hard for it to grow. I replaced the first industry in Novi Sad with White Nougat level 2. Don't forget to assign trains, and add fuel and maintenance depots. Then it's all set.

Kecskemet and Preβburg are likely your best bets to reach 110k population. An university is required to reach the population from 100K to 110K, once both cities reach 90K, build one at each city. Buy the 2nd industry of Kecskemet, change it to wooden planks and build a 3rd of Furniture and upgrade them to level 4 and 3 respectively. Check the lumber supply, I broke down the grain and lumber here to connect both of them back to Kecskemet by their own rails. Then I assigned 3 trains and 2 trains for lumber and grain respectively. For Preβburg, buy the cloth industry if you didn't get offered of it for cheap and build a 3rd as clothing, and upgrade them to level 4 and 3 respectively. Then you want to run trains from these 2 cities to exchange these productions. I manual loaded trains by prioritizing those 4 goods. You might end up in doing this from the 5th set of tasks, but hopefully not, I could start manually load white nougats immediately after it starts, but if you can't, focus on increasing the population. Add one more train for wool transfer, and connect the salt below wool to both directions to Preβburg and Budapest. Run 2 trains to each cities with salt, then build and set a warehouse to wooden planks, furniture and salt at Budapest.

Then I unpaused the game and started overseeing and checking between 2 regions. I was able to grow Preβburg to 110K+ and Kecskemet to 108K before Novi Sad reach 50K. From the beginning of this set my money started to generate quick, and now it was even quicker, I didn't bother checking the bonds.

5th Set: Business Venture
・Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Novi Sad without changing trains - Aug 7, 1884 Mine: Nov 13, 1884
・Reach 40,000 citizens in Nis - Sep 15, 1884 Mine: Dec 20, 1884
・Deliver 16 loads of White Nougat from region Vojvodina to region Austria-Hungary - Aug 26, 1884 Mine: Dec 26, 1884

Once saved, I immediately manual load by banning all other goods but white nougats and sent trains back to Preβburg. Also assigned 7 luxury trains from Budapest to Novi Sad. The rest of the level is a breeze now, but it can still end up in errors so I'd recommend keeping up what you've been doing since start. Then I changed some settings to achieve a 125% efficiency on all personnel: engineer, stoker, conductor, and security since money is quite infinite now: Training 160%, Wage 110%, Recruit 110% and Welfare 120%. Also spent research points.

For Nis to grow only 5k population, I connected the cheese with another pair of tracks to Craiova and assigned 2 trains to Nis directly to save time, and run 4 trains from Craiova for grapes, cloth and clothing. Nis is the production base of wooden planks and furniture for our final destination Constantinople, but 2 trains from the lumber here are enough to supply both. I bought the wooden planks here, also upgraded the cloth and clothing factory at Craiova to level 4 and 3 respectively. Then I built a warehouse at Nis to supply Sofia cheese, lumber, cloth and clothing later.

This set of tasks was very short, and next is a bit longer but still very short.

6th Set: A Peculiar Request
・Make 8 different goods available in Sofia at the same time Nov 17, 1884 Mine: Apr 8, 1885
・Reach 50,000 citizens in Sofia - Dec 6, 1884 Mine: Apr 4, 1885
・Transport 150 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Nils to Plowdiw without changing trains - Dec 16, 1884 Mine: Mar 25, 1885

Officially the 2nd time you need to lay a track across a mountain by a tunnel, the point here is to build the station in Sofia as far as you can so that length of the down-slope track can buffer the gradient down the mountain there. This can take a few tries. Tunnels don't allow the full copy and paste of parallel tracks but if you separate the whole tracks into parts with the tunnel only and others, it will some times work. I ran 2 trains from the olive above Bucharest to it directly, another 2 from Bucharest to supply meat, and as said above lumber, cheese, cloth from the warehouse at Nis. Then I made haste to connect Plowdiw making both stations 6-tracked, and then ran 5 luxury trains from Nis to there. Then I built up and upgraded a furniture factory in Nis to level 3, and upgraded the wooden plank factory too.

7th Set: Express to the Orient
・Reach 120,000 citizens in Constantinople - Dec 27, 1885 Mine: Apr 6, 1886
・Deliver 40 loads of Furniture to Constantinople - Jan 8, 1886 Mine: May 20, 1886
・Transport 300 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Plowdiw to Constantinople without changing trains - Jun 15, 1885 Mine: Feb 17, 1886

Optional Tasks
・Reach 160,000 citizens in the Greece region - Jul 29, 1885 Mine: SKIPPED
・Transport 300 passengers from Thessaloniki to Constantinople - Jun 30, 1885 Mine: Nov 6, 1885
・Connect 2,500,000 citizens to you rail network - Apr 19, 1885 Mine: SKIPPED

The last part consists of the final set of main tasks and optional tasks at the same time, I skipped the optional Greece region but only went for the one to run luxury trains from Thessaloniki to Constantinople. I was able to setup everything before unpausing the game, while taking a final bond in the middle of 22M. The final destination Constantinople needs to be supplied by everything from grapes to toilet paper except the industrial materials in the middle of the list, a breakdown of these goods is:
Grapes: Self-sustainable
Livestock: Nearby livestock, need to be upgraded to sustain the output
Grain: Self-sustainable
Lumber: Below Sugar
Meat: Self-Profuct, need to be upgraded to sustain its own demand
Sugar: Below Corlu
Fabrics: From the fabrics near Edirne
Other Industrial Materials in-between: NO NEED
Cheese: The cheese from Varna through warehouse
Wine: From Edirne
Bread: From Corlu
Olive: On the way from Thessaloniki to Edirne
Cloth: From Craiova
Clothing: From Craiova
Wooden Planks: From Nis
Carpet: Self-Profuct, need to be upgraded to sustain its own demand, also the rural business needs level up
Olive Oil: Grow Edirne to 40K people to build factory there and upgrade it
Salt: On the way from Thessaloniki to Edirne
Furniture: From Nis, 40 loads of this as probably the most time-consuming task
Toilet Paper: Self-Profuct as the 3rd factory once reach 90k people.

Firstly I bought all the rural businesses needed here in order to upgrade them now since I got kind of infinite money, then 6-tracked both Edirne and Corlu, 8-tracked Constantinople, connected all 4 pairs of tracks to all 4 directions. I intentionally used a Corlu and the sugar below (4-tracked)as repair stations to alleviate the burden of Constantinople, by running direct trains through them from each rural businesses here. Wool: 3 trains, Lumber: 3 trains, I didn't directly run trains from sugar to Constantinople but used a warehouse in Corlu for all 3 cities here. I connected the fabrics with 4 trains near Edirne to the tracks between Constantinople and Varna since no many trains run through it there like other tracks. Then I 6-trained from Craiova and 10-trained from Nis for their goods. Next I connected Thessaloniki to Edirne and assigned 7 and 5 luxury trains to Constantinople from Thessaloniki and Plowdiw, then connected and assigned both 4 trains from the salt and olive from here, as well as setup a warehouse for these. I didn't bother here to wait for Constantinople to start demanding salt because empty trains will immediately enter and leave stations. I also setup maintenance depots at both of them for alleviating the burden of possible repairs at Edirne. Finally I assigned 6, 5, 7 trains between Constantinople to Edirne, Corly and Varna before I uppaused the game.

Constantinople started to show 100% of demand fulfillment after a short while, I noticed that there were a bit traffic jams at Constantinople, but once I got rid of both luxury trains after they done of their jobs, no more jams remained. The only thing left to do is to setup an olive oil factory once Edirne reaches 40K people, and buying the 2 factories in Constantinople and upgrade them, the point here is NOT to upgrade the output too much because it will consume corresponding raw materials quicker, ignoring the demands therefore. And setting up a paper mill factory and level it up to level 2 once Constantinople reaches 90K people. The furniture demand here increases as population grows, it didn't work for me for manual load only furniture.

I beat the whole level in 5.4 years skipping 2 optional tasks, still got 613,522 points.
Here is some details:
Points for Completed Tasks: 276k
Difficulty: x1.45
Time Bonus: 147,119

Congratulations and Enjoy your victory! Hopefully it helped. If you don't get 600K, just load back to the start of the last 2 sets of tasks and complete all of them and see it work for you or not. If you have any questions, feel free to leave comments below, I will try answering them as early as I can.

You should also have gotten another 2 achievements for growing the population of the first 4 cities to totally 500k, and 100 white nougats already.



And for the final achievement of the DLC to transfer 3K passengers in that region if you haven't unlocked it, just delete the rail lines between Szeged and Temesvar, then build a station with a hotel and run express trains from both sides to it. The well-grew population here will make it way faster than any custom games.

The other guide offers a perfect target times and some details for each set of tasks, I'd like to give a detailed walkthrough and tips.

To unlock this achievement, You need to score at least 600K points in this "Journey to the East" scenario to achieve Chief Executive rank. Contrary to all base game campaign and scenario levels which more freedom and self-pace are allowed, this achievement is to speedrun the DLC scenario. The only thing matters is the clear time, a bottom line of 6.2 to 6.3 years with all tasks done including optional ones is perhaps the approximate time limit, you will have to try hard to hit UpliftGecko's targeted times of each set of tasks. In order to achieve that, you are more likely to do 2 runs instead of just 1 successful run to learn the map details and what have to be done at certain points of the whole progress, as it's kind of a hard level that requires precise management and all knowledge of the game, and what's more important, it doesn't allow much room of errors. However it's very straightforward and easy once you know what to do, NOT that seemingly impossible and hardcore.

Important Note: This is NOT a Play AnyWhere game, meaning that this DLC only applies to the platform you purchased it from, despite both the base game and the DLC have save data sync and transfer like many other Game Pass games, but only the base game gives freedom to load saves made from another platform. So before you make your purchase, choose carefully where you want to play it, on PC or Console. I don't know if you can still freely switch platforms with saves transferred once the base game leaves Game Pass though, meaning that if you had bought the game from a certain platform, it might limit you to play on that platform only, so if you consider buying the base game from a future sales, carefully choose what platform you buy it from.

PC advantage:
5x Game Speed available
Keyboard and Mouse input, hotkeys from keyboard work like classic RTS games to make it WAY easier and faster to play the game

Console: No major advantage
Controller input only (No KB&M support currently), 3x Game Speed at Maximum.

General Strategy
Assuming you've already read everything and had a good understanding the manual called Tips & Tricks and played all the tutorials, but if you haven't, it's strongly recommended doing that before you start.

1. Make Frequent Saves and Load when necessary
Anytime you feel the need, especially when:
・Once hit each time target
・Before issuing bonds
・Before and In the middle of making long tracks
・It's been a while since your last save
・Uncertain what to do next

2. Construct/Manage Everything/Correcting Errors While Pausing
Undoubtedly the golden rule to save time, should be done throughout the level (Obviously)
・Got money→Pause and spend all to build→Unpause to generate money for a few days→Pause and spend all to build→(rinse and repeat)
・Before Management→Pause and manage→Unpause to continue→Before Management→Pause and manage→Unpause to continue→(rinse and repeat)
・Noticed Errors→Pause and Fix→Unpause to continue→Notice Errors→Pause and Fix→Unpause to continue→(rinse and repeat)

3.Taking Maximum Advantage of Bonds and Expand Aggressively
Bonds are the main source of extra funds that boost your expansion throughout the level, you want full advantage of it. Unfortunately the game doesn't show much how bonds are calculated to offer an explicit way to be fully taken advantage of, however there are a few seemingly useful ways:

・When the game starts, immediately apply the final +10% bonus to the amount of each bonds in the Research page, the icon is a building called "Diversification" in the 1880 era. You should have +40% bonus in total then, this costs 200 research points but you start with 200.

・Since you cannot issue any more bonds if any active individual bonds exceed 10% of your current company value, and a maximum of 3 bonds early and 4 bonds half way through the game are allowed despite the manual says up to 5 bonds can be issued, meaning that you cannot issue more if already have 3 or 4 active.

・Make a save anytime when you can fully pay back one/When new bonds appear:
Calculate 10% of current company value, check all available bonds to smaller and bigger than this amount.
(Might not work at all)Take the one of the smallest amount, another smallest amount one, maybe yet another smallest amount one if you can have a 4th one at that time, then pick up the biggest amount for the last one to get maximum mount you can borrow at a time.

The point here is to always issue the bonds smaller than 10% of current company value first or it will invalid all other bonds, then choose the biggest one available as your last bond (3rd or 4th depends on progress)can be issued at that time. This should be very useful right from the start till about half way through the level, as bigger and way bigger bonds will appear as the progress goes, it takes much more time for your company to grow to that new value of 10% amount compared to the start. Also to be noticed that your company value shrinks more from the 2nd half, because trains gradually lose value while getting old and for this scenario you won't be replacing any of them. You need to load the save multiple times to find out the right order to maximize the mount you can borrow at each time. This is VERY IMPORTANT. At some point probably pass the half point of the whole level, you will issue the bond for one last time because your company won't be growing to whatever the new 10% amount of value before the level ends, so again make a save and find out the maximum amount you can borrow, probably not taking the smallest one but the one close but still below your current company value and take the biggest one at last. I was able to gain 22 millions by doing this for my last time.

4.Minimize Costs
・Lay Short and Fast Tracks While Avoid Tunnels and Bridges
Very important to save money, unless you need to make it across a mountain or river. I tried keeping Max of speed while laying and always connect multiple rural businesses when they are linear back to cities so that I don't need extra trains and only a few trains can deliver multiple goods while travel with maximum speed.

・Avoid All Unnecessary Stuff
Always stick tight to the tasks only, avoid all other costs unrelated to the tasks like building rail lines to non-task cities and assign trains to those. Also obviously, unnecessary rural businesses and city industries.

・Buy Rural Businesses/City Industries Before Running Trains Through Them(Mainly from the 2nd half)
Their purchase prices will go sky-rocket high after train(s) start transferring goods from or pass them. It's best to buy them when they are still cheap. This is NOT always but most of the circumstances, you can level up the production any time once you own them without worrying their prices get too expensive which you cannot afford so whatever city growths get slowed down for it later. This applies to Industries at cities as well, you also should aim for the timing of the 2nd and 3rd industry slots grow out if they haven't, then build your own to avoid it get owned by the city themselves. Some times if a non-player owned industry or rural business doesn't run well, there is a chance that you might get an offer to own it cheap, but before you accept that offer, watch what is it and how much it costs.

5.Avoid Errors/Detecting Errors
・Keep a good habit of Laying tracks→Assign directions→Build Grids at both sides of both stations from the start to avoid errors. Once it starts to generate money quick, the flow changes as Laying tracks→Assign directions→Build Grids at both sides at both stations→Build Maintenance depots at both stations→Build fuel depots along the tracks. If any of your tracks fail to run trains effectively, it eventually slows down the whole progress of city growth, causing extra time. If errors like this keep happening you will ruin your run early. Also for Maintenance Depots too, you don't need many of them at the start but later you should build one at major stations each time you build a new station. For increasing tracks and grids at stations, it's better to extend a certain length before turning the rest of unused tracks to different directions following the original 1 or 2 tracks as parallels, to expand more smoothly later.

・Detecting and Fixing Errors
Turn on "Show Warnings" and "Icons at Edge of Screen" in Gameplay settings, all warning signs from anywhere of the whole map will be displayed on screen now.

Signs of Problems: (Shapes in the triangle)

Cross: Train not transferring any goods or passengers or mails
→No needs of that goods/Full storage of that goods/Too many trains VS Too less demand/City populations too small to have enough passengers

Drop of Water: Train running out of water
→Check route and add fuel depot

Exclamation(orange): Small breakdown
→Recover as time passes

Exclamation(yellow): Breakdown
→Takes longer to recover as time passes, Train needs maintenance. Check stations for maintenance depots

Hourglass: Train waiting to be deployed
→All trains assigned will get deployed as time passes

Down arrow with 3 piles of coins: Train revenue decreased
→Normally no actions required, Trains get old as time passes so ticket prices decreases. None of this happened in my playthrough except the luxury trains.

Locomotive: Train has been waiting for a free track for a long time.
→Some train broke down on track/You forgot to assign track directions/Too many trains for a single station to handle so build more tracks and bigger grids for them(Shouldn't be happening in this scenario, you want to avoid this at all costs)

Electricity: Current locomotive are in danger of losing popularity because new locomotives are available
→No need to worry about it for this scenario since no trains need to be replaced

Other Useful Settings
・Turn off "Snow" in display settings to see the whole map more clearly
・Turn off Relevant Newspapers, Auctions and Quarterly Report in Gameplay settings, no need of these. Actions are still active during the game, but it won't be automatic popups that stop the game
・Turn on "Topography map during track constructions" in display settings to show terrain while laying tracks
・Turn on Train Usage in the pause menu (on console, upper left of screen on PC) to track train location and their Usage level (Have to be clicked each time after loading a game) Train colors indicate how much demand of traffic by train between two stations, if it turns red that means there are too less train to transfer all stuff needed including passengers, goods and mails, meaning that goods are NOT being carried at all. Simply add more trains to that rail line or/and by limiting trains to freight only and it will be fine. You have to add trains to almost all train lines made from the early game later.
・(optional)Turn on Track Usage in the pause menu (on console, upper left of screen on PC) to find seldom used tracks in more red color than usual, but it's not needed, the train usage solo above is enough.

About Tasks
Reach Certain Population of A Region or City:
The most time-consuming task among all other tasks, a high-end good that unlocks at 110k population from a city's demand list are present, no doubt it's the Top Priority for this tough clock-ticking scenario, you need to supply almost EVERY goods a city needs for its fastest growth ASAP once available.

Transfer Certain Numbers of Passengers by Luxury Trains:
High priority task among others, it's better to start this as early as possible to get it done early. Be sure to choose "Luxury" trains and check if the tracks miss anything like directions or fuel depots. Once it's done, delete all the trains to get a refund to get the money you spent back. Why so is because their travel distances are long, and don't make money while occupying the tracks.

Deliver Certain Loads of Certain Goods to A City:
Before doing this, You should build and upgrade your own industry (If you don't own it you will have to buy the slot at a high price and demolish it first) to produce enough of the goods as reserve, then Manually Load a train to deliver it.

Scenario Overview
The toughest part of the whole level is the first half, you will struggle to only build things necessary while waiting for money to expand. The hurdle here is to increase the population of at least one city to 110k to unlock the demand of White Nougat in the first region, any one or two from Vienna, Preβburg, Budapest and Kecskemet will do, while going for each sets of tasks. You have plenty of time to do this from the start until the end of the 4th set of tasks, but if you didn't aim for it from early, you will lose a lot of time from the 5th set of tasks, ending up in 6+years thus failing the speed run. Any time you finish setting up everything necessary for the current tasks, always go back to the 1st region to check and manage things. At the beginning of the 3rd set of tasks, another hurdle is to lay a track across the mountain to reach a new region, it can be hard for some people since the gradients of the mountain area varies a lot, and the cost of bridges and tunnels can slow down the whole progress. My recommendation here is NOT to make across any mountains but to lay a track along the mountains, to reduce the cost and NOT to mess up with gradients. The correct start and finish point is from Sibiu to Craiova. Once you've done delivering 16 loads of White Nougat to the first region, the rest of this scenario is like a spurt in a race, You will be taking one last advantage from bonds for a massive amount of money and then build the rest with it while pausing the game. The optional tasks become active when the last(7th)set of tasks start, from there, just one final effort. There are totally 5 logistics networks needed to be built, while the 2 from the 1st and 4th region are kind of making up for each other's shortcomings, another 3 are totally separated. Should you have any questions about how warehouses work and industry interactions, a center hub of logistics can only provide up to 9 goods, 6 from warehouses and 3 from each industry. Goods not from it should be delivered directly from other rural businesses by exclusive trains. Industry interactions mean product from one industry supplies another in the same city like Cloth and Clothing, Wooden Planks and Furniture, omitting the needs to deliver these between cities. The last 2 optional tasks of reaching 2M500K population and grow the Greece region can be ignored if you are fast enough. For Research options, there are only 3 things needed for story, Luxury Trains, White Nougat and the one above White Nougat to reach it. You shall focus on increasing revenue, loads/seats, reducing maintenance time and cost once the icon shows 2 or 3 stars. Lastly, the Engineer is the character you want to use as he has a 30% off of building tracks. The "Taff Vale Tank" locomotive is the one you need for 99.9% of the level, for luxury trains, the express type called "Bavarian AA I" and later you unlock "kkStB 170" are all sold to get refund later.


Scenario Walkthrough
Unless I say any trains need to be set to non-automatic like luxury or freight only, all are set to automatic.
Rural businesses get random names when building station near them, so I will just say the goods like grapes, sugar, cheese and etc. I eventually made all stations to 4 tracks (both sides of course) except 1 or 2 for 6 tracks in the first half, from the 2nd half I build 6 tracks (both sides of course) for most of the new stations. Stations with 4 tracks can come up with 2 pairs of parallel tracks, they are all used to connect rails from different directions, so do as stations with 6 tracks to connect 3 directions. I put my completing dates behind UpliftGecko's on each task, you can see how a single delay can cause more delay after.

1st Set: One Step at a Time
・Set up a luxury line between Vienna and Budapest - Jan 18, 1881 Mine: Mar 10, 1881
・Transport a total of 250 passengers in luxury train lines - Mar 11, 1881 Mine: Aug 14, 1881
・Reach 220,000 citizens in the Austria-Hungary region - Oct 22, 1881 Mine: Sep 7, 1881

Apply +10% of bonus bonds and get your total balance to 2.18M(2 bottom 130k bonds, and one final 460K one) before you start to build. Aim for all 4 connection bonuses and setup a maintenance depot and warehouse at Preβburg. From Budapest onward to Kolozsvar I only single-tracked and some times one-trained between each 2 stations until I setup everything for Kolovszar to grow its population to unlock its 2nd industry slot in the 2nd region for the 2nd set of tasks, to save money. Set that warehouse to lumber, grain, cheese, sugar, olive and wooden planks for now. I used double tracks connecting lumber, sugar and cheese, since multiple trains run on it. One train delivers lumber and grain by going left and right of Preβburg(stops setup: lumber→Preβburg→grain→Preβburg), another 1 delivers cheese and sugar(stops setup: cheese→sugar→Preβburg→sugar→Preβburg so it can stop by sugar if it doesn't get full load of cheese), for their similar distances to Preβburg. The cheese and sugar here seem to be insufficient to supply further cities, but the actual demands of these 2 aren't much at all, so these 2 are capable of supplying Kolozsvar too. I single-tracked grapes to livestock to Vienna, and setup one train deliver grapes only to both Vienna and Preβburg(stops setup: grapes→Vienna→ Preβburg→Vienna→grapes) for the 1st set of tasks since the needs aren't too big. I assigned 2 trains for round trips between cities at the start, then once I get more monetized I assigned 4 to 5 trains depend on traffic demands. Once the first 3 bonuses are all given, next add certain fuel depots along the tracks.

I was able to get new bonds as this is my 2nd time, by paying back a 130k one and getting another 640k one. You shall save and load to find out where to see current company value and what amount is for the next possible bonds. Then build a returning/2nd track from Budapest back to Preβburg. Once you get enough research points of 100, apply the luxury train (looks like a ticket) in the research page immediately and then assign 3 luxury trains from Vienna to Budapest. For Kecskemet, after getting its bonus, I connected both lumber and grain there by a single track and assigned 1 train to load both, similar to the cheese and sugar back at Preβburg, it should somehow supply the city. The first 3 cities should be growing fast with 2 upward-arrows now, 200K population isn't too many here, even though Debrecen is growing slow for scarcity of goods. Setup another maintenance depot at Kecskemet. Once the luxury trains finish their job, delete them to get refund. We will have to buy/build and upgrade both the iron rural business and steel industry to level 2 in the next set, since it costs 2 units iron to produce 1 unit of steel. And a unlocking fee of next region always awaits you.

2st Set: A Daunting Task
・Produce 20 loads of Steel in Kolozsvar via one of your factories - Jul 1, 1882 Mine: Jul 1, 1882
・Reach 55,000 citizens in Sibiu - Nov 11, 1882 Mine: Nov 2, 1882
・Deliver 40 loads of Steel to Sibiu - Nov 13, 1882 Mine: Nov 27, 1882
・Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Sibiu without changing trains
- Aug 30, 1882 Mine: Oct 13, 1882

Next region costs around 500k for me, each time you unlock a new region it costs quite random prices, usually 1M+ so keep that in mind. Reaching 55k in Sibiu and growing Kolovszar are the next priority. I double tracked and assigned 2 trains between Kolovszar and Sibiu, they somehow supply each other and a new olive near Sibiu are also useful, I setup a warehouse and maintenance depot at Kolovszar, and run a train from that olive directly back to Kolovszar and add a fuel depot from the 2 cities. Sibiu simply doesn't need other goods. Once Kolovszar unlocks its 2nd industry slot, it some times gives a bonus for that slot. Build a steel factory and buy the iron rural business. Connect that iron by 2 tracks 2 trains and coal by 1 track 1 train back to Kolovszar, start to produce iron. Once you get enough money, upgrade both to level 2, and we are done for it. Check research points and apply some properly, you can go for extra freight loads and discount on building tracks.

This is my 3rd bonds time, paying back a 130K one but 1.4M one. The next bunch of things are to build return tracks for stations on the way here, and add more trains in between. Connect the Olive/Livestock to your tracks between Kecskemet and Debrecen, build then assign 1 train back to Kecskemet. Setup another warehouse at Kecskemet for lumber, grain, olive, sugar and cheese. Then assign 4 luxury trains from Budapest to Sibiu, they will finish the job soon, delete them once the task is done. Now it's time to deliver cheese and sugar to Kecskemet, 2 trains are enough for these. Also 2 trains from the livestock and olive back to Preβburg. Preβburg is likely to have its 2nd industry of a cloth factory, but we don't start supplying it with wool now. We will eventually produce Wooden Planks and Furniture in Kecskemet since it's close to lumber for further growth of the first 4 cities.

The next set of tasks will cost you a lot of money about 2M(millions) to start, 1 regions of 1M to unlock and a long single non-bridge/tunnel track from Sibiu to Craiova of 800K in total, separated by 2 parts because the maximum length of tracks have a limit. Don't connect Szeged and Temesvar at this time, you don't have to worry about it now.

3rd Set: The First Route
・Make 10 different goods available in Bucharest at the same time - Apr 8, 1883 Mine: Jun 20, 1883
・Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Bucharest to Varna without changing trains
- Jun 6, 1883 Mine: Aug 17, 1883
・Reach 280,000 citizens in the Wallachia region - Nov 5, 1883 Mine: Dec 29, 1883


This is the first obstacle for some people, laying a single track from Sibiu to Craiova along the mountain isn't very easy, you can make multiple saves for parts of the whole track since the next joint cannot be deleted if end up in extreme gradient change, sharp turns or any other limits. The maximum gradient change allowed is 10% for each part without it becoming red or greyed out, perhaps keeping the same latitude for short curve parts and gradually lose latitude for longer straight parts work the best for you. You might get prompted to connect to Brasov for a bonus, but if you do so you cannot delete it or it will ask you to connect it again first before other cities. I was lucky to have my 4th bonds time at this time, got a new 2M with no payback of the old since the oldest met maturity.

Bucharest is a perfect hub for a warehouse, grapes and cheese are below, olive, lumber and livestock are all around it, its instant meat industry is to supply surrounding cities with meat. Craiova produces cloth, it will be our supply of both cloth and clothing to NOT just here, but also for Constantinople later in the last set of tasks. A grain near Craiova can supply Bucharest but need a warehouse. Russe produces wine which is also convenient. For Bucharest it's easy to build wooden planks and furniture industries later, non of these industries need upgrades yet. I only 6-tracked Bucharest here and 4-tracked Craiova, left Varna and Russe 2-tracked only. I didn't connect Pitesti to NOT mess up with gradients. You shall leave livestock as the last one as the demand of meat will not increase for a while, but keep on eye on it. The lumber here in the mountains can cause trouble, I connected mine to the midpoint from the olive here to Bucharest, it cost me 650K only for the first single track. Finally I assigned 4 luxury trains for the task here. Don't forget to add fuel and maintenance depots on the each track here, as well as activating new research items. While Varna, Craiova, Bucharest and Russe all got double-upward arrows for that total 280K population, I connected the wool to Craiova and move back to the first region.

From now on it's a revisit and upgrade of the first region, things here become tedious and quite boring, I'd recommend saving it first. Time won't pass much since you will do everything when paused. Check populations, demand and supply levels of each first 4 cities. Double-track the supply line from grapes, livestock to Preβburg, 4-track both sides of Preβburg with 2 new grids, and add 2 direct trains from the grapes here to Preβburg and set the original grapes→Vienna→Preβburg train to supply livestock to Vienna only. We will supply meat from Preβburg directly to Novi Sad. Next I 6-tracked both sides of Preβburg and replaced the grid, there were already many trains across it so I laid direct tracks from sugar to the Preβburg→Budapest line to alleviate the traffic burden. Also added necessary fuel depots and added maintenance depot at Vienna and Budapest. One additional train of cheese and sugar for Preβburg. Then I got a popup of being offered of that poor 2nd cloth factory for a cheap 130K, then connected the wool to the tracks of Preβburg→Budapest and assigned 2 trains. Kecskemet already had its 2nd industry, but I couldn't afford tearing it up for a wooden plank factory. Then 4-track and new grid Budapeset, 6-track Kecskemet with a new grid.

It's time to go back check Bucharest and surrounding cities. I was able to build a wooden plank factory in Bucharest and a clothing factory Craiova in as its 2nd, and add some trains for the lines showing red locomotives. Now it's time for a preparation of the 4th region, I connected, 6-tracked both Szeged and Temesvar. In the next set Novi Sad gets the priority to grow, the demands are lumber and cheese from Temesvar, meat from Vienna, whereas grapes, grain and sugar from nearby, bread is supplied from Szeged. so setup a warehouse and assign the goods there. I was able to connect both lumber and cheese, and setting up the warehouse before the next set of tasks begun.

4th Set: A Fruitful Endeavor
・Produce 20 loads of Wine in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Mar 26, 1884 Mine: Mar 26, 1884
・Produce 10 loads White Nougat in the Vojvodina region via your factories and businesses - Jul 11, 1884 Mine: Feb 22, 1884
・Construct a library in Nova Sad - Jul 17, 1884 Mine: Oct 16, 1884

From this timing the demand of train traveling significantly increases, meaning that your income is quite an amount but some lines may fall to red trains, you should consider changing some trains to freight exclusive rather than only adding more trains to avoid saturation of tracks. This period of the current set is known to be messy, tedious and troublesome as the most patience/concentration-testing time of the whole level, but once you complete it the rest is quite a breeze. I was able to gain my 5th boost from bonds of 4.5M once this new set started.

6-track Novi Sad and connect tracks from Temesvar, Szeged and Osijek, including sugar, wine and grain, also lay a pair of parallel tracks from the bridges of between Budapest and Kecskemet to Novi Sad, since direct train from Vienna are coming through it instead of passing through Kecskemet and Szeged, also later white nougats may also use this line. I only 2-tracked from Novi Sad to Osijek because only grapes is needed, you need to buy the wine industry here for the task, and a immigration offices a small boost to Novi Sad once it reached 30K people. As library unlocks at 50k population, it shouldn't be hard for it to grow. I replaced the first industry in Novi Sad with White Nougat level 2. Don't forget to assign trains, and add fuel and maintenance depots. Then it's all set.

Kecskemet and Preβburg are likely your best bets to reach 110k population. An university is required to reach the population from 100K to 110K, once both cities reach 90K, build one at each city. Buy the 2nd industry of Kecskemet, change it to wooden planks and build a 3rd of Furniture and upgrade them to level 4 and 3 respectively. Check the lumber supply, I broke down the grain and lumber here to connect both of them back to Kecskemet by their own rails. Then I assigned 3 trains and 2 trains for lumber and grain respectively. For Preβburg, buy the cloth industry if you didn't get offered of it for cheap and build a 3rd as clothing, and upgrade them to level 4 and 3 respectively. Then you want to run trains from these 2 cities to exchange these productions. I manual loaded trains by prioritizing those 4 goods. You might end up in doing this from the 5th set of tasks, but hopefully not, I could start manually load white nougats immediately after it starts, but if you can't, focus on increasing the population. Add one more train for wool transfer, and connect the salt below wool to both directions to Preβburg and Budapest. Run 2 trains to each cities with salt, then build and set a warehouse to wooden planks, furniture and salt at Budapest.

Then I unpaused the game and started overseeing and checking between 2 regions. I was able to grow Preβburg to 110K+ and Kecskemet to 108K before Novi Sad reach 50K. From the beginning of this set my money started to generate quick, and now it was even quicker, I didn't bother checking the bonds.

5th Set: Business Venture
・Transport 100 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Budapest to Novi Sad without changing trains - Aug 7, 1884 Mine: Nov 13, 1884
・Reach 40,000 citizens in Nis - Sep 15, 1884 Mine: Dec 20, 1884
・Deliver 16 loads of White Nougat from region Vojvodina to region Austria-Hungary - Aug 26, 1884 Mine: Dec 26, 1884

Once saved, I immediately manual load by banning all other goods but white nougats and sent trains back to Preβburg. Also assigned 7 luxury trains from Budapest to Novi Sad. The rest of the level is a breeze now, but it can still end up in errors so I'd recommend keeping up what you've been doing since start. Then I changed some settings to achieve a 125% efficiency on all personnel: engineer, stoker, conductor, and security since money is quite infinite now: Training 160%, Wage 110%, Recruit 110% and Welfare 120%. Also spent research points.

For Nis to grow only 5k population, I connected the cheese with another pair of tracks to Craiova and assigned 2 trains to Nis directly to save time, and run 4 trains from Craiova for grapes, cloth and clothing. Nis is the production base of wooden planks and furniture for our final destination Constantinople, but 2 trains from the lumber here are enough to supply both. I bought the wooden planks here, also upgraded the cloth and clothing factory at Craiova to level 4 and 3 respectively. Then I built a warehouse at Nis to supply Sofia cheese, lumber, cloth and clothing later.

This set of tasks was very short, and next is a bit longer but still very short.

6th Set: A Peculiar Request
・Make 8 different goods available in Sofia at the same time Nov 17, 1884 Mine: Apr 8, 1885
・Reach 50,000 citizens in Sofia - Dec 6, 1884 Mine: Apr 4, 1885
・Transport 150 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Nils to Plowdiw without changing trains - Dec 16, 1884 Mine: Mar 25, 1885

Officially the 2nd time you need to lay a track across a mountain by a tunnel, the point here is to build the station in Sofia as far as you can so that length of the down-slope track can buffer the gradient down the mountain there. This can take a few tries. Tunnels don't allow the full copy and paste of parallel tracks but if you separate the whole tracks into parts with the tunnel only and others, it will some times work. I ran 2 trains from the olive above Bucharest to it directly, another 2 from Bucharest to supply meat, and as said above lumber, cheese, cloth from the warehouse at Nis. Then I made haste to connect Plowdiw making both stations 6-tracked, and then ran 5 luxury trains from Nis to there. Then I built up and upgraded a furniture factory in Nis to level 3, and upgraded the wooden plank factory too.

7th Set: Express to the Orient
・Reach 120,000 citizens in Constantinople - Dec 27, 1885 Mine: Apr 6, 1886
・Deliver 40 loads of Furniture to Constantinople - Jan 8, 1886 Mine: May 20, 1886
・Transport 300 passengers in a luxury train line directly from Plowdiw to Constantinople without changing trains - Jun 15, 1885 Mine: Feb 17, 1886

Optional Tasks
・Reach 160,000 citizens in the Greece region - Jul 29, 1885 Mine: SKIPPED
・Transport 300 passengers from Thessaloniki to Constantinople - Jun 30, 1885 Mine: Nov 6, 1885
・Connect 2,500,000 citizens to you rail network - Apr 19, 1885 Mine: SKIPPED

The last part consists of the final set of main tasks and optional tasks at the same time, I skipped the optional Greece region but only went for the one to run luxury trains from Thessaloniki to Constantinople. I was able to setup everything before unpausing the game, while taking a final bond in the middle of 22M. The final destination Constantinople needs to be supplied by everything from grapes to toilet paper except the industrial materials in the middle of the list, a breakdown of these goods is:
Grapes: Self-sustainable
Livestock: Nearby livestock, need to be upgraded to sustain the output
Grain: Self-sustainable
Lumber: Below Sugar
Meat: Self-Profuct, need to be upgraded to sustain its own demand
Sugar: Below Corlu
Fabrics: From the fabrics near Edirne
Other Industrial Materials in-between: NO NEED
Cheese: The cheese from Varna through warehouse
Wine: From Edirne
Bread: From Corlu
Olive: On the way from Thessaloniki to Edirne
Cloth: From Craiova
Clothing: From Craiova
Wooden Planks: From Nis
Carpet: Self-Profuct, need to be upgraded to sustain its own demand, also the rural business needs level up
Olive Oil: Grow Edirne to 40K people to build factory there and upgrade it
Salt: On the way from Thessaloniki to Edirne
Furniture: From Nis, 40 loads of this as probably the most time-consuming task
Toilet Paper: Self-Profuct as the 3rd factory once reach 90k people.

Firstly I bought all the rural businesses needed here in order to upgrade them now since I got kind of infinite money, then 6-tracked both Edirne and Corlu, 8-tracked Constantinople, connected all 4 pairs of tracks to all 4 directions. I intentionally used a Corlu and the sugar below (4-tracked)as repair stations to alleviate the burden of Constantinople, by running direct trains through them from each rural businesses here. Wool: 3 trains, Lumber: 3 trains, I didn't directly run trains from sugar to Constantinople but used a warehouse in Corlu for all 3 cities here. I connected the fabrics with 4 trains near Edirne to the tracks between Constantinople and Varna since no many trains run through it there like other tracks. Then I 6-trained from Craiova and 10-trained from Nis for their goods. Next I connected Thessaloniki to Edirne and assigned 7 and 5 luxury trains to Constantinople from Thessaloniki and Plowdiw, then connected and assigned both 4 trains from the salt and olive from here, as well as setup a warehouse for these. I didn't bother here to wait for Constantinople to start demanding salt because empty trains will immediately enter and leave stations. I also setup maintenance depots at both of them for alleviating the burden of possible repairs at Edirne. Finally I assigned 6, 5, 7 trains between Constantinople to Edirne, Corly and Varna before I uppaused the game.

Constantinople started to show 100% of demand fulfillment after a short while, I noticed that there were a bit traffic jams at Constantinople, but once I got rid of both luxury trains after they done of their jobs, no more jams remained. The only thing left to do is to setup an olive oil factory once Edirne reaches 40K people, and buying the 2 factories in Constantinople and upgrade them, the point here is NOT to upgrade the output too much because it will consume corresponding raw materials quicker, ignoring the demands therefore. And setting up a paper mill factory and level it up to level 2 once Constantinople reaches 90K people. The furniture demand here increases as population grows, it didn't work for me for manual load only furniture.

I beat the whole level in 5.4 years skipping 2 optional tasks, still got 613,522 points.
Here is some details:
Points for Completed Tasks: 276k
Difficulty: x1.45
Time Bonus: 147,119

Congratulations and Enjoy your victory! Hopefully it helped. If you don't get 600K, just load back to the start of the last 2 sets of tasks and complete all of them and see it work for you or not. If you have any questions, feel free to leave comments below, I will try answering them as early as I can.

You should also have gotten another 2 achievements for growing the population of the first 4 cities to totally 500k, and 100 white nougats already.



And for the final achievement of the DLC to transfer 3K passengers in that region if you haven't unlocked it, just delete the rail lines between Szeged and Temesvar, then build a station with a hotel and run express trains from both sides to it. The well-grew population here will make it way faster than any custom games.