It's All Mine

This next chapter’s notes should give you some cause for concern. Isla de Hierro is apparently seismically unstable, a fact that has chased off corporations with far more money than you made on your last island.

But those are corporations. You are El Presidente, and you need the money.

The map opens with Penultimo telling you that a wealthy CEO is looking your direction to possibly cut a deal on the island for $10,000. Your first objective is to build a mine.

There are two iron deposits that are relatively close by that you can use to fulfill this objective. As always, start by placing the mine, then build a road to it. Food is not a concern early on, as you start with good farms near the Palace.

When placing a mine, you can check what ore you want it to process which in turn will show you where known resources are on an island.

Use that early in any map to determine where resources that can be exploited are to plan your expansion.

Once the first mine is up, CEO Keith Preston will show up and pass you the promised cash, and ask for 500 units of Iron ore. If you’ve built two mines, this shouldn’t take too long.

Consider using some of that extra money to start a cash crop field, as you’ll soon find you will need all of the extra cash you can get.

You get a major choice of the chapter when Preston offers you another ten grand to lower the price of the Iron ore down ten percent.

You can take his money to your Swiss bank account, you can stick it in the treasury, or you could refuse to lower the price and get no money.

Whatever you choose to do, when you complete his request for 500 Iron, he’ll give you $15,000 to your Swiss account. Not too shabby!

You’ll find that early on, these Tropicans are not nearly as placid as the ones from before. Rebels are going to become a concern very quick. Take a look at your Almanac to see what you need to do to sooth the population.

Speaking of rebellions and general unhappiness, the Dock Workers tend to go on strike in 1953. Penultimo gives you a few choices: Bribe them, kill three of the strikers, or let them remain on strike.

The third can cost you productivity at the dock for six to twelve months, and depending on your stance, that may not be acceptable.

The bad news does not stop coming! The price of Iron has fallen worldwide by December 1953, and CEO Preston comes to you for another decision.

You can focus exporting Gold, Bauxite, or Salt. All of these resources are a fair distance away from your starting area, so consider what is worth more and what you can do with each resource before making a decision.

To help stave off some of the discontent, consider giving construction workers and miners a raise. (Not too much of one of course, give them more than an inch they’ll take a mile.)

It’s possible a Drought will hit the island, because apparently life just wasn’t hard enough. The Environmentalist Sunny Flowers recommends water restrictions, which will cost you a paltry amount, but will also make your citizens less happy in the process.

The latter may not be something you can afford. Drought is especially dangerous because it will kill whole crop fields and can even start fires.

If you have the money, be proactive at watering the fields. Dried fields are marked with spinning icons, if you click on them, you can select to water them.

This can be expensive, especially if you’ are agriculture heavy, but the consequences for neglecting this can be significantly higher. Fortunately, the Drought doesn’t last forever.

CEO Preston offers a Task by the Palace for you to buy five mines of any kind. Take up the offer, as mining is going to be one of your key sources of income throughout this chapter.

Complimenting this Task is another where Preston offers to send prospectors to the island to uncover more natural resources.

This is worth the money, so don’t hesitate. Once you have five mines complete, the price of mined commodities will rise ten percent. Finally, some good news!

Until an Earthquake hits, trapping miners deep inside one of your mines.

Penultimo offers you three choices: Rally the people of the island and gain +10 respect, claim that the lives of your miners are worth more than what they’ve been valued by foreigners and increase the price of ore by 5 percent, or request aid and get $10,000 in foreign aid.

Damage control should begin in earnest. Repair anything that got destroyed. If you’ve planted solid cash crops, this should be relatively easy.

China comes to the rescue and offers to send a $10,000 dollar drill to assist you. You have no choice but to pay for the help. Cue yet another Earthquake (just laugh, you’ll feel better).

As it turns out, the drill you purchased had exploded, causing this new tremor.

You can blame China, and lose -50 reputation with them, blame yourselves and lose -10 respect from everyone, or blame the powers that be for a random result. Continue recovery efforts, and expect another quake in the very near future.

Miss Pineapple will suggest creating a Science Academy and relying on your own scientists (or hiring them).

The miners are (still) waiting for rescue (possibly years later)! Once you have the scientists you need, the drill is repaired.

Penultimo gives the choice to either attempt the rescue immediately, or milk the world for more funds.

The immediate rescue unlocks a final objective: you need to make $100,000 from ore exports. Finally, something relatively simple!

With that, the mission is complete.

If you’re still around by 1959, citizens will begin to demand elections. You have the usual choices of making a speech, not making a speech, or outright declining to hold elections.