Just got this press release from 2K:

Just in time for the holidays, 2K will release a free holiday scenario for Sid Meier’s Railroads! In this new special seasonal mode, players reemerge as a former railroad tycoon, determined once again to redeem himself and more importantly, save Christmas! Help Santa and his elves make and transport toys to Santa's Station by the rapidly-approaching December 25th deadline.

The new scenario will be ready next week at www.sidmeiersrailroads.com and will include a new holiday train with 2 skins and custom sounds; holiday-themed goodies like cookies, eggnog and toys; cheerful music to get players in the holiday spirit; a wide-open, rugged North Pole environment; and a challenging scenario that pits you against up to three other robber barons who are out to destroy Christmas.

Here are two nice screenshots:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/1/holiday_special.jpg

Santa Workshop
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/1/santa_workshop.jpg

:santa2: :snowcool: :snowlaugh:

Its very good.I want work map in my country Slovenia.How made a map!Im soory about my english.Im old men.:)

Finally there will be something new in this game. me got bored playing with same maps and scenarios over and over again........

Uhh...Next week it's almost xmas, why do they say just in time for the holidays? Is it out already? Would be nice to have it a few days before xmas. :)

That is nice. Too bad I don't play anymore.

:xmastree: Wow cant wait! Its already 12/18 and I dont see the download yet....Only 7 days till Christmas!:rudolf:

That looks so cool! I like the christmas tree in the city, not to mention that train! :goodjob:

Still unable to find the download. Has anyone found a place to download it yet?:xmassign:

ya it would be nice to have this already.... my guess is they're releasing it with the next patch... which someone said might be out this friday?? hopefully??

whatever the case may be i'd take either at this point

Yea a fix they made for Patch 2 was a result of this scenario, so they are tied together unfortunately. Hopefully QA will let the patch out the door this week.

This is the patch...

Sid Meier's Railroads! Changelog

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|| v 1.100 (61333) || 20-Dec-2006 ||
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* AI - AI now takes industry potential into consideration when making route decisions.
* AI - Changed AI's criteria for building new trains (now uses individual goods rather than depots)
* Functionality - Added new option "Use All Trains", which allows the use of all trains in the game, when in TT mode.
* Functionality - Added the ability to manipulate the camera freely when paused. To do this, pause the game and press "CTRL+F". In this mode, cursor keys move the camera and the camera can be rotated by holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse.
* Functionality - Cities can now accept raw materials directly from resources properly.
* Functionality - Clouds can now be disabled in the options screen.
* Functionality - Enabled terrain editor. To enable the terrain editor, you must add "EditorEnabled = 1" to your settings.INI.
* Functionality - Enabled larger size maps.
* Functionality - Exposed scenario timescale in scenario XML. If "iTurnsPerMonth" is found in the Scenario XML, it will override the default scale of 16 turns per month (every 4 seconds). If the timescale is greater than 60 (a new month every 15 seconds), the date display will also display the current day of the month.
* Functionality - Fixed rerouting cash exploit.
* Functionality - Made track selection easier. (track now takes precedence over depots)
* Functionality - Terminals can now accommodate up to four tracks connected to them.
* Graphics - Parallel tunnel tracks now draw correctly (no longer overlap)
* Graphics - Tracks connected to depots/stations/terminals draw with special graphics to distinguish them from "normal" tracks.
* Interface - Added new city routing icons and chevrons to show which stops on your route map accept the goods in your current consist.
* Interface - Auction window repositioned so it no longer obscures scores on larger resolutions.
* Localization - Misc. localization fixes.
* Multiplayer - XFire support added.

Still unable to find the download. Has anyone found a place to download it yet?:xmassign:

The Holiday Scenario Pack is now available for download either from Sid Meier's Railroads' official site (http://www.2kgames.com/railroads/railroads.html) or from this direct link (http://downloads.2kgames.com/railroads/Railroads_Holiday_Scenario.zip). :xmastree:

Thanks! The new patch is out as well!

yes this is a very fun scenario.. kinda confusing at first with the different goods and whatnot but you get used to it. my first game i tried against 3 ai's but had trouble completeing the scenario objects in time. so i started over with 2 ai's, tycoon, hard routing, and was able to buyout all the ai's and complete the objectives with 25 years to spare.

the difficulty really depends on the proximity of the early goal resources to santa's workshop... if all the tree's are on the far right side of the map you'll have trouble getting the wooden soldiers there in time.

the scenario starts off very slow cause the trains aren't so good. the first set of goals is pretty easy so always keep your eye on the second set. try and figure out how you're going to get that second set accomplished in time. if you get the first and second done the last set of goals is cake since you have so long to complete it.

I got bought out in my first attempt on Mogul with 3AI. It is a nice change of pace.

I started playing this scenario, its actually alot of fun so far. I am not doing very well but having a blast.

well i pulled it off tonight against 3 ai's... although i had to drop the difficulty to mogul to do it. the AI's aggressiveness in establishing routes is insane. one of the AI's even linked santa's workshop before me in what had to be the longest single track i've ever seen it put down.

the early game is sooo important in this scenario. you can't make any mistakes against 3 ai's. maximizing income to the extreme and always being mindful of the goal deadlines. i was distracted trying to make as much $$ as possible and realized i needed to deliver the loads of cookies with 5 years to go on the first set of goals. somehow i pulled it off though!! was very close.

with all the goals accomplished things become much easier. a few years before the 1922 end-point i was pulling in 6.5 million a year and bought out all the AI's.

here's the end-game screenshot... my highest score ever:: 242 ! ! !

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/106701/SMRailroads_0005_copy.jpg

Great job there! I never even came close. In fact, I played without any AIs and was still not able to get all the objectives complete. I started in the far south of the map and had a long way to rail to get to santa's workshop. I will try again with an AI or 2 and think I can do alot better. That new christmas skin for the loco is nice.

Don't feel bad, I haven't beaten it either. My second game(I restarted a couple times though do to getting used to changes with the patches) I was so caught up in staying ahead of the AI's, I missed getting the goals done altogether. So I did not finish the game, just closed and went to bed. The goals are tough no matter were you start, but starting close to Santa's workshop is definately an advantage from what I can tell.

I played this scenario again, actually done better the first try. I am playing it yet again, hopefully I will do better but so far, I think this 3rd attempt is my worst yet.

In fact, I played without any AIs and was still not able to get all the objectives complete.


warspite gave me the idea for an interesting challenge. for any pro's out there: robber baron difficulty, no AI's, and starting city Domovi (far right upper corner)


i was able to complete the first set of goals with just 6 months to spare. the second set proved much more difficult as the only tree's were far far away from santa's workshop. it cost me $1 million to track from the workshop to the city nearest the trees. i thought i had it but my calculations were off and it took the train way to long to carry the wooden soldiers to the workshop. with just 3 years to go i spent another million and double tracked the whole thing. i had two trains carrying loads to the workshop which would have fulfilled the last goal remaining but they didn't arrive in time ! ! ! =/

i will give it another shot tomorrow ... if i can get past the second set of goals it should be downhill from there

I went back to playing a regular scenario, the patches really changed some stuff and I wanted a better frame of reference to learn it.

I think I will play this in just Train Table mode so I can show my daugter Santa's train tonight.

A little update on the 3rd game, I sank. I was so close to completing a goal once, I swear my train was about 2 seconds away, kid you not, 2 seconds! All I needed was 2 more loads and I ran out of time to complete it. I was cutting other goals so close at one point, I was scrapping trains and sending new ones, anything I could to save time. I will try again, I want to see if I can complete this scenario with ALL goals completed. I have not been playing with any AIs, can't imagine if I was.

:) ;) Happy christmas and happy new Year from Slovenia.I know that is questions who dont be there,but I must ask.
Who produce train in Canada.Diesel Locomotive.
Thanks very much for answers and peace for the all world:) :)

well sounds like you are progressing warspite... keep at it !!

i took on my challenge of the domovoi start, robber baron, and 0 AI's this afternoon... the early game was very difficult but i pulled it off and finished all the goals with 20 years to spare. once ya get past the second set of goals this challenge is really easy.

robber baron makes it a real pain early on though... you are so handicapped by the % penalties things go very slowly.

i dunno really where to go from here... i may try with the starting city right below domovoi i think its "weichtenthal" or something like that. or perhaps vs. 3 ai's at tycoon level since i was only able to handle 3 at mogul....

its a fun scenario but i hate the early game trains... they are sooo slow!!!

Pardon my stupidity...
I installed both the game, the patch and the holiday scenario today, in that order. How do I play the holiday scenario? It is not one of the scenario selections in single player games. I also don't see a sandbox option.

This scenario is definitely alot of fun. I have been playing it on easy with no AI. I have tried it twice. Each time I get all but one objective done - the teddy bears/toy soldiers. I can't seem to make that one work. I can get the rest.

Do you guys find you have to sell most of your stock in order to get a good jump start at the front of this scenario? Or can you do it by setting up a couple of tracks and a couple of train routes?

Pardon my stupidity...
I installed both the game, the patch and the holiday scenario today, in that order. How do I play the holiday scenario? It is not one of the scenario selections in single player games. I also don't see a sandbox option.

It is called "A Tycoon Tale" and it will be the very last scenario.

Sandbox is called Train Table and is the first selectable difficulty level.

16 hours trying to get those teddy bears to roll and not forgetting the cookies but finnaly completed it all (mogul noob settings). That was fun, want more.

Thanks, Tae

Do you guys find you have to sell most of your stock in order to get a good jump start at the front of this scenario? Or can you do it by setting up a couple of tracks and a couple of train routes?

yes... the start of the game is very important and you need maximum income coming in right away... dump all of your stock and setup as many routes as possible

here is a another trick for you... lay all track and depots FIRST... spend every single dollar you have after you sell all of your stock... THEN route the trains you need... you can buy trains even if you don't have the money for them and go can into negative dollars... all of my games start with me having about -300,000 $ and as many routes as possible

I have sold all of my stock at the very beginning every time I played. I will probably give this scenario another go this weekend or maybe tomorrow night.

yes... the start of the game is very important and you need maximum income coming in right away... dump all of your stock and setup as many routes as possible

here is a another trick for you... lay all track and depots FIRST... spend every single dollar you have after you sell all of your stock... THEN route the trains you need... you can buy trains even if you don't have the money for them and go can into negative dollars... all of my games start with me having about -300,000 $ and as many routes as possible

That is a good tip and definitely needed in this scenario.

Pardon my stupidity...
I installed both the game, the patch and the holiday scenario today, in that order. How do I play the holiday scenario? It is not one of the scenario selections in single player games. I also don't see a sandbox option.
Do You update version 1.1?
Happy New Year 2007

That is a good tip and definitely needed in this scenario.
Good day and happily new Year.My instructions are next:asks line, all squanders money, that you set lines for you. when train accesses station and you get money, you ask next line for this train at once, that he gave you money and forward. very quickly and efficiently.On train have maximalno coaches, it is he.:) :)