This first chapter acts as an extension of the tutorial. What you learn here can be applied to every single later chapter in the game.
Generalissimo Santana greets you, and lists the basic needs of every island (though you will find it isn’t always done in this order in the campaign):
1) Food
2) Religion
3) Healthcare
4) Homes
5) Fun
Step One is to build farms for the people, and your advisor Penultimo will request two be built. Build them near roads, so citizens can get to them via truck easier to help with harvesting and shipping, and be sure they are Corn farms to feed the people.
Take care to place them in the green zones on the map that will appear when placing farms, that indicates good location.
Penultimo will suggest an additional farm for every 50 citizens, and this is a very good rule of thumb to follow. It will take 6 months before the farms are harvesting crops, but this will be a good start.
Keep in mind that Sugar, Tobacco, and Coffee are cash crops, and will not feed the masses!
You’ll get your first additional Task here. Antonio Lopez of the Capitalist Faction will suggest a Tobacco field to two to help kickstart the island economy.
This is an excellent plan. Take notice how Tobacco farms grow in different locations from the more adaptable Corn Farms, and bear that in mind whenever placing crop fields that they will not all grow in the same areas.
You’ll need to craft island infrastructure around that fact. The optimal areas for Tobacco growth are not exactly close by. Get some roads out to them so your workers can get to them faster.
The deal with Lopez requires 500 units of Tobacco to be exported, but this is something that will take quite some time to see completed. For now, construct the farms in the best spots possible and be patient.
With food (and money) dealt with, now we have Step Two: Religion. Reverend Esteban explains that a US donation of $10,000 has been made, and he wants a Church constructed using those funds.
Placement of the Church is up to you, but it is easier for the Tropicans if it is closer to where they live.
The Church will need to be staffed by four priests, so you may need to hire foreigners if there are not enough Tropicans on the island who can take the job.
During all this, feel free to send El Presidente to the newly constructed farms to boost their production. It takes time for him to get to a destination, but the wait is worth the boosts in construction and production.
After a year has passed, you will receive your first foreign aid donation. If you’re particularly shrewd, you can maintain healthy relationships with the US and the USSR and over-spend just enough to have them pay off part of your debts every year.
Miss Pineapple might message you regarding the necessity for a High School. Schools in general are important steps to take. An educated population will be able to work in jobs that benefit them and you more in the long run.
Comrade Vasquez may also chip in sooner or later, asking you to take a look at the housing situation on the island. The shacks and shanties don’t provide much in the way of comfort, and that affects the overall Happiness rating.
As a general rule, the special advisors for the different factions will pause gameplay with tips that will appease not only their faction, but contribute to the overall well-being of an island.
You can turn them off, but a friendly reminder to build important structures never hurt anyone.
Once the Church is properly staffed, Step Three is Healthcare. Penultimo melodramatically makes his point by being sick when he requests you build a Clinic. Like the Church, a Clinic that is placed closer to home is easier for Tropicans to use.
You’ll likely need to hire doctors, don’t shy away from the cost of doing so. A Clinic or Hospital without doctors may as well not have been built in the first place.
To get to the requested 45% healthcare satisfaction rating, two clinics fully staffed help speed the process up.
Generalissmo Santana will offer you a Task as a bet: He says you can’t export 500 fish. Take the bet, and build a Fisherman’s Wharf or two near your Harbor.
Don’t forget to extend roads out to them. He will also offer you a Task that requires the island to have four doctors. You should already be on your way towards this, if you’re not already there.
While you’re waiting for the Healthcare to improve, you should be seeing some revenue from the Tobacco. Use that to build better housing where you see clusters of shacks building up. Shacks tend to spring up around places people go to work.
Extra money you have can be used to add things like the earlier mentioned schools, or to help fulfill optional Tasks, such as to build a Rum Distillery.
Just as you get Healthcare taken care of, Senator Nick Richards (who is not a crook) will show up and tell you that you need to build a Ministry, and fully staff it with five ministers.
The Ministry is an important building as it allows you sign Edicts that cause varying effects, such as free housing, or tax cuts, or converting a Police Station to be a Secret Police HQ.
Hiring the ministers can be expensive, but you can try to get more qualified individuals by building schools and a College.
After you have set up the Cabinet at the Ministry, you can tend to the housing needs of the people if you haven’t been already.
Penultimo will ask if you you to choose between three different forms of housing. If you have the money (and are not feeling cruel), there’s no reason to not choose Apartments.
If you’re looking to keep the island stable, Apartments are a good value, provide better satisfaction to citizens, and like Tenements, can be upgraded with Climate Control (assuming you have a power grid up and running).
You will have to build more Apartments than Tenements, however, as they house fewer citizens.
A Task will show up near the Palace from the Generalissimo. He is challenging you to make $25,000 in exports. Your Tobacco alone can easily make this goal, but bear in mind that you may not always be able to make that your primary cash crop.
Sugar works almost as well, and can also be of dual use with a Rum Distillery. You might also be requested under pain of missile attack by US Ambassador Crane to export Crude Oil to his country.
There are land locked sources of oil that are much farther inland, and an Oil Well can pull in that resource.
By now, you should probably already have a fairly steady economy running, which will allow you to pick up on the various optional tasks the game presents to you.
Occasionally, you’ll find that world events will require El Presidente to state his or her opinion publicly.
This can affect your foreign relationships significantly, so before you answer blindly, consider the benefits the choices provide, and remember that when it comes down to it, the US and the USSR can invade you. The other foreign powers can’t.
Eventually, if you’ve been following all of the advice provided, the Generalissimo will ask you to raise the happiness of the citizens above 45 percent.
If you’ve been meeting the needs of the people thus far, this isn’t difficult to accomplish. He’ll reward you $25,000 to your Swiss bank account when this is done.
In 1965, you’ll have your first election. It’s not as difficult as it sounds to win. If you’ve kept up on the demands of the people, you start with huge amounts of support.
You are given the choice to give a speech about the election, or decline. If you do, you have three categories to select options from, in order to rally support to you.
If you choose incorrectly, you might be handing a lot of support to your opponent. You can still ‘win’ in a scenario like this by rigging the vote in your favor.
Senator Richards will offer you $100,000 to help win the election, pointing out that your opponent experienced a sudden spike in approval. You can tuck this money in the Swiss bank account, or put it into the treasury.
Either way, you can use the Tax Cut edict and the Social Security edict to effectively shut your opponent out of the race. Once you secure your presidency, you’ve won the first map!