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[Romano]

I will add Arctic Baron archive to Extras on Transarctica page. Later in the evening. I have no FTP at the moment.
If you find this archive better, we could replace the old one!


EDIT:
Arctic Baron - added

[ShadowBlade]

By the way, there seems to be something wrong with the walkthrough provided.


*MAJOR SPOILERS*

At one point, you're required to send a spy to one of five particular locations, so to discover the secret Viking Union base. I got the geiger counter at Oslo and then immediately sent two spies to 63,20 and 63,21.

The jet flew over to the indicated coordinates and I let a few days pass: no news, and I was supposed to get a note telling me they had discovered the base.

What's wrong? Are the coordinates correct? They point to a small, grassy area north of a couple of little mountains, a tile or two away from the railroad. Certainly doesn't look like the Himalaya.

EDIT: I got the message as soon as I sent a third one to 64,21. Seems the other coordinates are incorrect.

And another question, in case anyone has gotten farther than I am. How can you beat the minotaurs, assuming that's the crew of the large, super-strong train that sits near the end of the Himalayan tracks? I'm near the end, but the combination of bugs (the lignite loot replacing total lignite one, and a new one that just wiped out my entire anthracite reserve!) and lots of Viking trains has made it impossible for me to finish the game without backtracking quite a lot.

Even if I had the men and such, I really can't think of a way to beat a train that has like 5 or 6 cannon wagons firing constantly, LOTS of little soldiers and of course a bunch of MG wagons. My guess is having as many cannon wagons as they have, or more, and enough men to sweep your own train and eliminate the enemy's. But again, that means a lot of backtracking.

The game's story's awesome, so I just want to finish it to know how it ends, but this is DAMN hard. I'm still playing level one!

[navarro]

The combat mode totally sucks!! No overview... it's verry difficult. My vote: once you've done what you had to do with trading cars and cranes and all others , sell everything you can, scrap the rest. Sad to see the wagons you've "worked" for just go away, but keep your train to a minimum combat one. Apart from de indispenseable - just the baraks, canons, and some machine guns.

[ShadowBlade]

I tried the 'tons of cannons' option, and it didn't go to well. However, I discovered the key to a better tactic...

1) The first wagon you should destroy is the engine, so that the train's halted forever.

2) Then you empty your entire barracks wagons and send your soldiers (You need LOTS of them) to the front of your own train, where you should've clustered your truly vital wagons (the ones that bring Game Over upon destruction). They need to run along your wagons' roofs, as the Vikings have lots of MGs to shred them.

3) At the same time, you should roll your train forward enough so that the enemy cannons can't touch said critical points. Since the enemy train can't move, the only threat (albeit not a small one) is the Viking troops.

4) If you're lucky, not many of your men will have perished on wagons destroyed by the enemy cannons, and you'll be able to make a stand at the rearmost wagon of your vital section (ideally not farther than wagon 4). Most of the enemy soldiers will try to run through yours, and die if you've enough manpower (this is where I failed last time, as I had a little less than 200 men).

5) Once the Vikings on your train (which is probably a smoldering ruin beyond the vital sections) are dead, it'll be safe to mop up their own if your forces are still strong enough.

6) Avoid the MG wagons and bomb everything to hell once the Viking soldiers are dead (though you can probably bomb on the go). The deplorable state of the Transarctica shouldn't be a problem, as according to the walkthrough the game finishes right after this final battle.

I haven't tried this yet, but it should work just fine. Unfortunately, I need to do a lot of backtracking, and honestly I can't be bothered to do it. Bugs make the game way harder than it should be, and at this point it's a pain in the ass to get all those troops. There are Viking Union trains everywhere, armed to the teeth, missiles are useless (given the minimum range) and even if I manage to win a battle, there's a big chance that lignite-replacing bug comes around and throws everything to the garbage.

Yes, I'm rather upset. It's a game that could've been a masterpiece, given the awesome story and unique premise. However, it's plagued with design flaws and, to a lesser extent, bugs. Nonetheless, those bugs are terribly frustrating and nearly completely destroy my gaming experience.


PS: The HOTU version (Arctic Baron) isn't better, but worse, as the crack doesn't work everywhere, and in that case the copy-protection words aren't the same as in Abandonia's version. So my recommendation is: stick with that one.

[navarro]

Originally Posted by ShadowBlade

I tried the 'tons of cannons' option, and it didn't go to well. However, I discovered the key to a better tactic...

1) The first wagon you should destroy is the engine, so that the train's halted forever.

Yes, I'm rather upset. It's a game that could've been a masterpiece, given the awesome story and unique premise. However, it's plagued with design flaws and, to a lesser extent, bugs. Nonetheless, those bugs are terribly frustrating and nearly completely destroy my gaming experience.

PS: The HOTU version (Arctic Baron) isn't better, but worse, as the crack doesn't work everywhere, and in that case the copy-protection words aren't the same as in Abandonia's version. So my recommendation is: stick with that one.

I totally agree. It would have been interesting if someone could have re-edited the game using the same basic "engine". (See: OpenTTD, X-com I for win 95/98 - that reedited version... )
If you could have paused the game for instance and give commands to your troops, MGs, ang canons, (like you do in the Real Time Combat mode in the tactical missions at X-COM III), and moved around de screen, it would've been easyer. You could've UNpaused the game and watch the action unfold, only to repauseit for new orders/adjustments. The computer can actually do this (comand all his troops, mamooths, and trains, and everything at once, apart from the "pause" part of course. YOU on the other hand have to scroll thorugh the combat screen and train, and do a lot of frantic cliking. NOT cool).

As for the HOTU version - Dunno what to say. This abandonia version ain't workin too well either.

I'm STILL hoping for that english manual. Apart from the time I have to enter copy protection answers my game ( wich is niether de Abandonia or the HOTU version as I have said before in previous posts) works great.
We'll see later...

[ShadowBlade]

I finally did it, but...

THE ENDING SUCKS! :mad:

Nowhere near a decent reward for the vast effort invested in the final battle: 4 lines of text and a crappy, 10-second cutscene.

That's it.

Nothing more.

I'm disappointed.