Bickering Factions

The introduction to the island of Santa Teresa warns of simmering political tensions that threaten to boil over, as well as increased rebel resistance far above the norm.

You’ll have to juggle appeasing all the right people with favors and bargains, while simultaneously maintaining an iron wall of protection against those who would overthrow you.

Early on, Marco Moreno warns you to tread lightly on the people, or he will not be so light on you. There are points in this chapter where you are expected to side with one faction while incurring the wrath of another.

Of course, the Tropican weather will go out of it’s way to make things more difficult.

This chapter will teach you the value of the Ministry, and some of the more harsh Edicts you have at your disposal.

Almost immediately after starting out, you’re given a choice: Side with the Communists, or side with the Capitalists.

Side with the Capitalists:

The Communist Faction Disaster – Rebel Incursion is going to be a thorn in your side.

Your first task is to get a tourist dock and three hotels up and running, and your reward will be $15,000. Your early options to set up Hotels are limited at first.

Try to keep the hotels closer to the beach and connected to the tourist dock, while keeping them in the in the greenish placement grids.

Once the Hotels are up and running, Moreno signals that it’s time to bring you down. Fortunately, your advisors eventually manage to end the Faction Disaster, but the message is clear: you’re going to need a better army.

The Rebels can take hostages at your Hotels. You can either hush up the incident at no negative cost, pay the ransom, send in the army, or refuse to negotiate and lose tourism ratings.

As you continue the chapter, the rebels will continue to harass your income generating tourist areas. You’ll have a variety of options available to deal with them based on what buildings you have constructed.

Side with the Communists:

Your first order of business is to recruit 30 farmers. This is easily done, and you can use this as a reason to get two Sugar fields up and running as part of this objective.

The Capitalist Faction Disaster will cause you to lose 20 percent of export profits, but that’s not a big loss considering you still need to wait six months at least for your cash crops to even see the effects.

Regardless of your choice, Marco Moreno will find reason to attempt to overthrow you.

After dealing with the fallout of your first political decision, another hard choice to make comes up right away: The Militarists want a bigger army to deal with the rebel threat. The Intellectuals don’t agree.

Side with the Militarists:

You need to get 12 soldiers to satisfy the request of the militarists. Start with an armory, and get guard towers up with each general that comes to the island.

The Intellectual Faction Disaster will prevent anyone from graduating out of schools, but if you’ve sided with the Militarists and the Capitalists in order, you likely do not have the money to be opening schools in the first place.

Eventually, the faction disaster ends, and schools will function normally. get a High School up and running to help make soldiers.

A Task will show up near the Palace. Penultimo believes the Rebels are being incited by a faction in secret. To find this out, you need to establish the Secret Police.

This will require a Ministry, and a Minister of the Interior before you can establish this HQ.

Secret Police structures can be made out of regular Police buildings, Restaurants, Cabarets, Immigration Offices, and Churches, but the original purpose of the building cannot be fulfilled after conversion.

Once you have the 3 secret agents you need, you uncover that a foreign power is responsible for the rebel uprisings.

The rebels are not deterred by the secret police, and will be taking hostages at your hotels, if you’ve sided with the Capitalists.

Side with the Intellectuals:

Miss Pineapple points out that you don’t need soldiers unless they are attacking your palace, and instead wants to use funds for five Radar Dishes to seek intelligent life beyond Tropico.

Get started on those as quick as you can while juggling your other responsibilities. When constructed, the dishes will prevent a rebel attack.

A third decision point involves you siding either with the Environmentalist or the Religious factions.

Side with Environmentalists:

The Environmentalists will request you build a Horticulture station and 3 Garbage Dumps to help clean up the island. The Religious Faction Disaster will cause any who visit a Church or Cathedral to lose respect for you.

Side with Religious:

Reverend Esteban needs you to build a Christ the Savior statue to satisfy the least religious bet ever. This is a very expensive structure, so it may take some time before you can build it.

The fourth major decision point is between the Nationalists and the Loyalists.

Side with Nationalists:

The Nationalists want you to start a Nuclear Program on the island. At $72,000, don’t expect to get this started right away, especially since it needs power to even run.

Get a Power Plant going first, then concentrate on securing your rule by getting your citizens the necessary schooling they need to take advanced jobs.

The Loyalist Faction Disaster will cause any Loyalists to doubt your leadership, and they will leave the faction one by one until they are appeased or until none are left.

Side with Loyalists:

You will need to build a Mausoleum to satisfy this faction. At this point, you will have a significant rebel threat to deal with, so make certain you are keeping your military happy and well staffed.

The Nationalist Faction Disaster will make life a little more interesting for you and any foreigners on the island. This is why you have the police and military around to prescribe Excedrin Headache 762 to these dissidents!

With the final set of faction-based objectives completed, Moreno offers a final ultimatum: Capitulate within two years, or the Palace will be destroyed, along with you.

Another Task will appear near the palace: Recruit as many soldiers as possible before the final battle.

For each one, you will get $500 dollars towards your Swiss account! Rebel attacks will be constant as part of the lead up to the final battle, so remain vigilant and get those Guard Towers up and running.

If you haven’t yet, signing the Military Modernization Edict will also help your cause.

Once the final battle has come and gone, Chapter 6 is complete. You have no idea who was supporting Moreno, but victory is victory.