One thing that sucks about the game is that there are no advisors to remind you that, "hey, it looks like Jim Hill might be ready to buy you out". Because, after all, a little notice is all we really want!
The thing that sucks even more is realizing that *YOU* could've bought out said competitor, if you had taken the following steps.
1.a. As soon as all your stocks are bought up (especially if they've invested in you!), pause the game. Go to the competition screen, check how much money they have.
1.b. If you each own 50% of the railroad, and it would cost $15 million to buy *yourself* out, assume the AI will also have to spend $15m (if the share split is different the cost will of course be a bit different - you can 'eyeball' the cost for the AI to buy you out, or do it more precisely by calculating it).
1.c. I'll assume you eyeball it like me, you compare the cost of your company to the AI's cash reserves - are they close? If not, look at their annual profits - roughly how many years will it take them to hit the $15m? If they're earning $0.5m a year and have $10m, you have, in theory, 10 years before they can buy you out - less if they earn more money, more if your stock price continues to rise faster than they earn money.
2.a. How much money do you have? How much money will it cost to buy them out?
Let's say you have $5 million in cash, and all the shares of your competitor are owned. To keep things simple, let's say they will cost $14m to buy them out.
Are you going to do the same thing you did in step 1.c.? Yes, but not yet.
You're probably reading this b/c you got bought out - so you don't have years to wait.
2.b. Instead, look at how many stocks you own. We assumed you won 50% of your own company. Let's assume you get an average of $1m for each 10% block you sell.
2.c. If you use your $5m cash, and the $5m your shares are worth (sell them following advice in 2.d.), you only need $4m more. If you own shares in a third or fourth competitor, sell those to bridge the $4m gap.
2.d. Sell all stock SLOWLY. A little quirk in the AI, I've found, is that it won't buy stock as fast as it can. It'll pause. That means it's (usually) okay to sell off a 10% stake in your company - they (Usually!!) won't buy 10%+buy you out in one 'swoop'. Each time the AI buys up the stock you sold, sell ANOTHER 10%.
If you sell two 10% blocks right away, you lose money: the less shares "available" for purchase, the more they're worth. So wait for the AI to jack up the price of your stock for you, THEN sell.
This trick has meant the difference between victory and bitter, bitter defeat more than once!
2.e. If you're a little short (less than a million), 1. try this again and share your own shares more slowly to gain more, 2. do all you can to maximize your income - micromanage train loads to scoop up all available loads, sell off poor track lines.
3. If you have an older saved game and found the AI running away with the game, ask this: how many companies have train lines into "YOUR" cities? How many train lines have you taken into competitor's cities'?
To win, you need to own more cities of your own (secure profit fortresses), and you need to deprive the AI of every last cargo load you can steal for yourself.
I was just playing a Tycoon game where the AI *completely* neglected a couple of cities' mail/passenger needs. Windfall profits for me!
Remember, assuming you have auto-saves enabled, you can always reload them and try the 'last minute' share tip.
Of course - remember that this will only work if you were in tight contention - if you were short by many millions of dollars, you'll have to declare a loss and be more agressive next time, but you were already doing, eh?
Hope this helps!
The thing that sucks even more is realizing that *YOU* could've bought out said competitor, if you had taken the following steps.
1.a. As soon as all your stocks are bought up (especially if they've invested in you!), pause the game. Go to the competition screen, check how much money they have.
1.b. If you each own 50% of the railroad, and it would cost $15 million to buy *yourself* out, assume the AI will also have to spend $15m (if the share split is different the cost will of course be a bit different - you can 'eyeball' the cost for the AI to buy you out, or do it more precisely by calculating it).
1.c. I'll assume you eyeball it like me, you compare the cost of your company to the AI's cash reserves - are they close? If not, look at their annual profits - roughly how many years will it take them to hit the $15m? If they're earning $0.5m a year and have $10m, you have, in theory, 10 years before they can buy you out - less if they earn more money, more if your stock price continues to rise faster than they earn money.
2.a. How much money do you have? How much money will it cost to buy them out?
Let's say you have $5 million in cash, and all the shares of your competitor are owned. To keep things simple, let's say they will cost $14m to buy them out.
Are you going to do the same thing you did in step 1.c.? Yes, but not yet.
You're probably reading this b/c you got bought out - so you don't have years to wait.
2.b. Instead, look at how many stocks you own. We assumed you won 50% of your own company. Let's assume you get an average of $1m for each 10% block you sell.
2.c. If you use your $5m cash, and the $5m your shares are worth (sell them following advice in 2.d.), you only need $4m more. If you own shares in a third or fourth competitor, sell those to bridge the $4m gap.
2.d. Sell all stock SLOWLY. A little quirk in the AI, I've found, is that it won't buy stock as fast as it can. It'll pause. That means it's (usually) okay to sell off a 10% stake in your company - they (Usually!!) won't buy 10%+buy you out in one 'swoop'. Each time the AI buys up the stock you sold, sell ANOTHER 10%.
If you sell two 10% blocks right away, you lose money: the less shares "available" for purchase, the more they're worth. So wait for the AI to jack up the price of your stock for you, THEN sell.
This trick has meant the difference between victory and bitter, bitter defeat more than once!
2.e. If you're a little short (less than a million), 1. try this again and share your own shares more slowly to gain more, 2. do all you can to maximize your income - micromanage train loads to scoop up all available loads, sell off poor track lines.
3. If you have an older saved game and found the AI running away with the game, ask this: how many companies have train lines into "YOUR" cities? How many train lines have you taken into competitor's cities'?
To win, you need to own more cities of your own (secure profit fortresses), and you need to deprive the AI of every last cargo load you can steal for yourself.
I was just playing a Tycoon game where the AI *completely* neglected a couple of cities' mail/passenger needs. Windfall profits for me!
Remember, assuming you have auto-saves enabled, you can always reload them and try the 'last minute' share tip.
Of course - remember that this will only work if you were in tight contention - if you were short by many millions of dollars, you'll have to declare a loss and be more agressive next time, but you were already doing, eh?
Hope this helps!
