How To Complete The Marooned Scenario On Tropico
In this scenario your goal is to put away $1000 per person on the island into your Swiss account. Starting off with only 7 people it seems relatively easy. Until you give it a try. Not so easy. That's why you're reading this.
I suppose your first reaction, like mine, was to issue the Special Building Permit. Not so good of an idea. Once you issue this the cost of everything increases, and you don't have the funds for it, as you can't export anything to make money.
The only way to receive money is through the US and Russia. In order to receive a sustainable amount of money from them, you have to increase your relations with them. Pleasing either your capitalists (US) or your communists (Russia) will automatically increase your relationship with either of the countries. In this scenario you will please the communists. It's easier to please them, and when you start the game, your relations with Russia is better than that of the US.
Before you start building, press "T" on your keyboard to hide the trees so that you can see where you place your buildings. Keep the game paused.
Start off with building a cattle ranch and four country houses. It's best not to build lower class housing as this will make your capitalists unhappy. Although you are not trying to please them, you still need their votes when it's time for the election. Set the rent to $2. They will then move in faster. Build everything close to each other so that the people don't have to walk far to get to where they want to go. When you have placed the cattle ranch, click on it, and click on the last slot to leave only one spot open for someone to come and work.
When a year has passed and you got your money from Russia, build a clinic, and again, only leave one spot open for someone to work at. Set your clinic on Gerontology. It will extend the life span of the people. You need this, as you only have 3 college educated citizens, and because they are already aged, they will die soon unless you do the above. Before the clinic's construction is complete, set the pay to $13, and not $20. Also then set the pay for your construction workers and your farmer to $8. This will make your communists happy and increase your relationship with Russia.
When the clinic is complete, click on the construction office and find the professor. Hold down the shift key and click on the professor - he will then go work at the clinic.
Once you have accumulated $5000, build a diplomatic ministry. Set it to Pro-Russian Policies. When construction is complete. Click on the construction office and find the journalist. Send the journalist to go work at the diplomatic ministry.
You now have to save up for a bank. Set the bank to Presidential Slush Fund. When built, find the banker at the construction office and send him to work at the bank. When you feel you have enough money to send the doctor to work at the bank as well, do so. It will speed up the process of the money going into your Swiss account. Keep an eye on the health care need of your 3 college educated citizens. Whenever one of their health care need is low, send the doctor back to the clinic until they received the care they need, then send him back to bank again. This needs to be repeated until you build your college. Once the college is built, no one should work at the clinic again.
Now would be a good time to construct a pub. Leave only one slot open, and send the cook to go work at the pub.
The next thing to build would be a high school. Wait until you have $10 000 or more before you build one, because you need a positive cash flow in order for the money to accumulate in your Swiss account. Once your high school is built, issue the Social Security and the Literacy Program edicts. Now close all open positions except the slots at the diplomatic ministry. Also leave one slot open at the high school. Fire the lady working at the diplomatic ministry - she will then take up the position as a teacher at the high school. Now fire the cook and the showgirl. They will both go to high school, and then go work in the diplomatic ministry. When they have finished high school, fire the teacher. She will then fill up the last open position in the diplomatic ministry.
Start to construct another 2 or 3 country houses, as the children will almost be grown up and they will need a place to sleep. They will also need a place to work, so open up some slots at the construction office.
As soon as you have enough money to build a college, build one. When completed, send the doctor to the college and leave no open positions there. If your doctor has passed away already, then send the banker to go work at the college.
Now fire Salty Skipmeister and William Gilbert. They will both go to the high school and then to the college. They will then go work in the bank. Fire Samuel Gilbert later on, when he has grown to be 13 or older. He will also then go to high school and college, and then to the bank.
Once you have 2 or three people working in your bank, continue waiting and see how much money you are able to put into your Swiss account. As time goes by, you will receive more and more money from Russia. When you are almost at the end and say you only need another $1500 or so to meet your goal, then issue the Special Building Permit edict, and build what you can to increase the amount of money in your Swiss account, and to get you where you should be.
As I said, it took me about 20 tries to complete this, so this might not work the first time. But maybe the second or the third time. You know... you start the game and they make 15 babies and when you try again, they only make 10. So basically it all depends on that. Good luck!
