All Things Fruitas: evil peasants ate my pineapple

[Maus]

I felt it appropriate to start a thread devoted to analysis of the "Fruitas" prebuilt.  It's pretty clear in this scenario that he/she who achieves the highest score will, by definition, have mastered (or mistressed??) the subtleties of farm output, market networks, and teamster wrangling.

My initial beer-soaked encounter with the Fruitas Corporation suggests that the export quota is reasonably "doable", but the truly stellar export scores are threatened by the greedy little rat-claws of the Peasants who think that their food needs somehow outweigh my commitment to Fruitas.

OK, I admit that my knee-jerk solution was a bit counterproductive: I went to Edit mode and simply eliminated every non-farmer or non-teamster who came near the sacred fruit groves.  Satisfying, but it didn't solve the problem of teamsters tapping my exports to fill shortfalls in the market netowrk.  Once my hangover subsides, I'll work the calculated approach....

[radzman]

The key to Fruitas is to keep only one marketplace, placed in town.Build plenty of corn farms seperating your cash crops to create a buffer zone. Your teamsters on the town side will get to the corn first, and keep the marketplace full, while the teamsters on the other side will get to the cash crops on the other.Build a dock closer to that side, and DO NOT issue the Food For The People Edict. I played the scenario four times, and this is the only strategy that worked for me.

[El_Coronel]

Bah, my second try I beat it 10 years early.  I let them eat pineappes if they wished, including some canned, I suspect.  The key is focus.  Forget building a massive economy, concentrate on building the farms you'll need as early as possible and get them producing.  Beyond that, stay in office.  I ended up with three ports, one up from down, one over the lower-right side bay.  This keeps the producing farms close to the docks so frruit doesn't end up rotting when the teamsters dump it at roadside to go knock back a cerveza or three.  Also, I used road to help them getting over or up those hillside to the good papaya groves.

Some other things to try, goat meat is popular.  Start a ranch or two and the peasants will eat that first.  They also really like fish.  I toyed with both, but don't think it mattered once I stopped messing around with building up a lot.

[Crandaddy]

I think part of the key to this map (to expand on El_Coronel's post) is to not expand the population too large with a lot of extras.  Trying to keep people happy with services will only expand the population.  People did not seem to revolt in this game too much, so you only need to provide the basics--one church, one clinic, one pub, medium-quality housing.  If I'm remembering correctly, I also tapped into a gold mine nearby for a little extra cash.  Solved this scenario on the first attempt, but you have to have fishing wharves or ranches for the extra food.

[Mirage]

Well that's an interesting subject; markets. I never thought too much about them. How do you gauge your farm production against your people's needs?

Mirage

[Mjara]

In the almanac, you can click on Food quality and get a breakdown of meals eaten, meals skipped, and reserves.

Additionally, it will tell you how much food you produced for the year vs food consumed (I'm typically waaay waaay ahead in food produced, maybe 8-10x, which not only keeps the food happiness up, but keeps the economy rolling as the food gets exported).

[Maus]

Starting this scenario yet again....El_Colonel's strategy is definitely the key; as long as you can stay in power and build farms, it's a walkthrough to do it within 30 years.  I'm convinced that it can be done within 20 years, give or take.  Socially and spiritually, this is a brutal scenario; the sooner you hit the export quota, the more suffering your people have to endure.  That said, based on previous models, here's the approach that's gonna by-God do it within 20 years this weekend:

1) Give the peasants nothing for at least 10 years. With a 20+ year goal, you only have to ride out two elections, maybe three.  Build no infrastructure whatsoever, only farms and (not yet sure on this) a Bauxite mine. No Tenements, no Markets, no nothing, just keep wages above the Caribbean average. The overall happiness level will still be high enough by the first election that you can win by doctoring the returns.  For the second election, toss the Proles a few tenements and a pub; they'll be so miserable that they'll think you're doing them a huge favor.  If you try to be nice and give them decent amenities early on, they'll just demand more expensive amenities sooner.  Your Agriculture income is pretty pathetic, but by the early 60's, it's more than enough to dazzle a troop of shack-dwellers.

2) As El_Colonel states, dont bother trying to protect the victory crops, beyond adding a few extra corn or meat farms.  Dont build ANY markets, 'cause it just distracts your teamsters from the prime task of hauling fruit to the docks. Likewise, shut down the cannery; it's just a chokepoint in the the fruity pipeline.  Let the HoiPolloi grab snacks from the farms.

3)  It appears that three Pineapple, four Banana, and five Papaya farms can do the 20-year job, if they come online fast enough and are augmented by other food sources.  One of the corn farms SE of the palace is in good Pineapple country, convert it from the start and it will produce up to 36 squares of harvest in the initial bumper-crop phase.  The main axis of expansion is along the south shoreline; an additional teamster office, construction office, and dock near the Archaeological site appear (??) to be sufficient.  Use roads to connect every farm you build in the southern expansion to the southern dock, likewise connect all northern farms to the northern dock, but DONT build any roads that link the southern and northern hubs; the teamsters tend to go into brain-lock trying to choose a destination.

4) Be prepared to bribe, imprison, and assasinate at any moment.  Investing in a prison and bank after the first election gives you a lot of options.  When your economy goes bad (and it will), make sure to keep $500 on hand to snuff at least one troublemaker.  Always remember: "I realized that before I could become a benevolent despot, I must first become a despot".

[Maus]

Bwahaha!  Got it in 21 years, and that was playing off-the-cuff at warp speed, using just a single Construction Office.  Only two bannana farms are needed; Jesu Christo, they cranked out 100 units in 16 years!  

Now I'm wondering what the absolute minimum time is for this scenario....16 years? 14?  However, I can't bring myself to try again for a while; the requisite ruthless savagery is getting to me.  I can oppress with the best of 'em, but it's a bit much when I have to turn into Pol Pot.  I need to play a few random maps and make my people so happy that they puke ("El Presidente, the people, they spew their love for you in the streets")