Battle for Britain

**Battle for Britain** is the second mission of the Second Century campaign in Railroad Tycoon II, as well as the second mission in the World War II and Aftermath act. The premise is the operation of British railways during the Battle of Britain in World War II.

## Overview

### Introduction Spiel

> *World War II has broken out in Europe. The Axis forces are on the move and in the air hitting everything in sight, including your lines. Follow Mr. Churchill's resilience to stop the Axis tide that threatens to swamp the British Isles. Build and make it fast, and God save the queen.*
>
>

### Ending Spiel

> *Well, the British Isles appear to be out of danger for now, and...that knighthood doesn't look too bad on your resume either. But now, there's a storm brewing in the east.*
>
>

### Strategy

First thing, pause the game, get an overview and stop all trains, until all have a useful route assigned. There are multiple engines, some high speed, some slow. I neglected the speed and power, and went to use the trains for the purpose closest to their starting position.

Troops are the scarcest resource on the map, as they can not be manufactored. Keep note of the remaining loads to deliver, one gets lost easily, and the overview comes only once a day. London is bombed multiple times, tracks are being destroyed, and eventually even London Central and poor trains nearby can get hit. I lost two trains in my attempt, keep an eye on supply gaps caused by that.

The following plan is going for gold.

#### Supply Oxford first

Starting off, there is an isolated train in Dover. To use the time until tracks can be repaired, it can collect 3 troops and 3 ammo in Margate, and ship them to Oxford eventually. Together with the train in Bognor Regis, ammo should be covered for Oxford. There are two broken track parts west from Northampton, fix the one going straight west to unblock trains between Banbury and Northampton. A food chain can be easily established with 2-3 trains near Banbury, carrying cattle to Northamptom and Food back to Oxford. Keep going until 12 food are reached.

#### Transition to Liverpool

These food trains can then be sent to Liverpool. There one can collect troops back to Oxford, making a nice roundtrip, until 12 food are reached for Liverpool, and 6 troops in Oxford (remember the Margate train). North of Liverpool there's a broken track to Southport, which supplies ammo. Fix the track and send a train with 3 cars of ammo (two times), so Liverpool also has enough ammo. Troops for Liverpool can come from Leeds, and York if you fix the tracks there. With one train, I collected coal and iron from Halifax, sent it to Manchester steel mill, and steel to Coventry. As I am writing this, I see that there's an even better steel chain from Gloucester Junction to Birmingham and Coventry.

#### Finale in Portland

Fix the tracks to Portland when you can. The previous steel train together with chemicals from the train next to Worcester, can get 6 loads of ammo from Coventry to Portland. With the original food trains from Oxford, a food chain for Portland can start in Taunton Crossing (cattle), collecting food and 1 troops in Taunton. With this strategy, the last challenge remaining is getting enough troops to Portland, before time runs out. With the trains not needed for other things (preferably high speed, the blue ones), collect troops from everywhere you can. Cannock and Gloucester have barracks close to Portland.