Seeing that this thread has revitalised itself in recent days, I thought that I'd give Tropmina a run.
My strategy wasn't too different from Rob's (avoiding the opening tourism exploit strategy). I initially went with three mines near the town and a papaya farm. I switched the eastern farm to papaya also. It wasn't long before I added another construction office, a fourth mine near the town, four cattle ranches, and a second teamsters office.
Before the first election, I built a clinic, church (imported a priest), pub (mardi gras), and diplomatic ministry > Russian Development Aid. I don't think I got any housing up at all, but got over the line nonetheless.
The next few years saw more teamsters offices, all of the cattle ranches upgraded, a high school, three more construction offices, a second dock on the eastern coast, three gold mines in the east, a police station, two prisons next to the Palace, a 'cloth napkins' restaurant, cabaret, and about ten apartment blocks.
As the population grew, more papaya farms and a couple of fishing wharves were also added.
Natural development from there saw; a college, cathedral, 'Coupons and More' newspaper, armory, American Development Aid, two gas-driven power stations, an airport, hospital, half-a-dozen more apartments, and about thirty blue houses.
The cattle ranches and the mines were the big money spinners, while the newspaper made a tidy profit. Unfortunately there were no especially useful trade delegations (a beef bonus would have been nice).
After about twenty-five years an inevitable coup took place. 'Clink' went the handcuffs.
Like Rob, the tourism objective wasn't pursued for quite some time. Three hotels and a dozen bungalows were built about twenty-five years into the game (in the north east), supported by two beach sites, a scenic outlook, pool, nature preserve, cheap-ish charter fishing, arts and crafts shop, and El Presidente's artifact dig. A TV station was added.
'The final act' was reasonably predictable; a handful of positive edicts such as the Tourism Ad Campaign, '100% occupancy rate' in the hotels, cheap residential accommodation, and big pay rises.
- With free tourism rates in the hotels, the 50 tourist target was filled within a couple of months.
- The happiness target was only 50, so teamsters and construction workers could remain on 'sweat shop' while the tax break, 'food for the people', and mardi gras edits were active.
- With seven mines, including three gold mines, the $300K mining target was more than achieved.
Pollution wan't too problematic, as I built all of the pollution-making items in the north-west. My economy had no factories, which may have helped.
I have found that the difficulty with this scenario is winning elections fairly (didn't happen often in this last game!) and surviving coup(s). Covering the 'happiness' basics, having at least two jailors, and a bank balance in the black (should you need to issue a few edits during a coup) should pretty well cover these problems while pursuing; initially the mining, and then tourism objectives. Comparatively little mirco-management is needed, and the game can be completed several years ahead of the deadline.
