To The Edge of the World: A Railway-Building Quest

St. Petersburg,
1895

Letters on your desk show that you've been preempted. That's never a good feeling. You have a letter from the good Count Muravyov talking about the state of the Far Eastern Railway and telling you that he's had to take a few 'executive decisions' about 'accelerating progress'. The big one, though, that gets you to yell at the window for a good two minutes because this fucker preempted you, is that he has unilaterally made the decision to take the China Eastern Railway route through Manchuria rather than use the Amur Line. The St. Petersburg skyline from your window doesn't really take offense at the swearing in three languages, and your secretary is discreet.
And now, having vented, you can think about it more rationally than yelling at someone who has more clout than you do in court.

The Count has taken the chance you offered him, at least in his eyes, to further Russian imperial interests in Manchuria. The rail line has already been advertised in court as an outpost of the Empire on Chinese soil and an avenue to integrating Manchuria – that means Count Muravyov will be working to get the army on board while trying to build the China Eastern Railway. At least in future – right now he's still working to get the hinterland near Vladivostok built up.
It's enough to give you a headache. If this is what passes for section leadership discretion, why even have a Director? You're the one who had to make the decisions at that level.

But you hired the Count comes the treacherous whisper from your mind, and your eyes turn down to face yet more official paperwork waiting for your signature. You hired the Count, yes. But you hired him hoping for an in with the Foreign Ministry and with the expansionists. You didn't expect them to take their pound of flesh first, and leave you to beg them for favors later. You'll have to live with it. There's a lot more to deal with, even if this means you have the Foreign Ministry owing you a favor or two – there are enough Asian expansionists there, and the Great Game extends to China these days.

You have a 100 Funds. You will replenish to 100 every turn. You may choose up to five, and you must rank these in order of priority – those at the highest priority are those which will complete fastest. Bear in mind that 100 Funds per turn are in all likelihood not sufficient to finish on time. Note that all options are not dependent solely on you – some of them may be affected, partially solved or preempted by subordinates, superiors or other parties.

Your Political Capital is High: You have the complete backing of the Minister of Finance for now – you have no major mistakes and are freshly appointed. To not support you would be beyond stupid. Your opposition is at present quiescent, with Count Muravyov having whispered good things to many of the expansionists and the Panslavists at present occupied with attempting to assert some semblance of ascendancy in the army. You also have the backing of the throne and several of the more notable members of the Baltic German nobility. You are, therefore, inclined to make a splash to start with even if it costs you in favors and goodwill. You need to reinforce your position and to produce enough to make things easier later on, and a strong initial push ought to do that. With the foundation stones for the Eastern Line laid in the early 1890s and progress marginal since then, there is pressure from St. Petersburg.

The estimated costs are Problematic: You are no accountant or leader of public works, and are working from estimates produced by state economists and Sergei Witte, who himself has not handled anything of this scale before. Perhaps there has been nothing of this scale before. Either way, you must be prepared for cost overruns and demands for further funding from your future budget. By how much you cannot say, but Minister Witte notes that a worst-case heavens-falling scenario would top out at a fifty percent surcharge for such corruption and tomfoolery. Not even God Himself descending to earth could convince an enterprising Russian to attempt to cheat the throne by more than that, they're too damn scared of the taxman and the army. Hopefully.

Progress Reporting is Accurate: There is too little done to cheat the bureaucracy, and you made sure to get a great deal of information before starting to work on this. That, and the army has been attempting its own inspections during the prior China tensions – you have a good grasp of things for now. As construction progresses, expect that to reduce a great deal.

[][France]Financing the Railway: Future components of the Railway are liable to be more expensive than the present set of initial tracks, having to deal with multiple major rivers and mountain ranges just to start with. And that's before you wind up at the swamps and frost of Siberia, the marshes around Tomsk, the vast muddy half-mountain stretches of Siberia near Baikal, and the general lack of anything east of the Urals. Shit, you're pretty sure that it'd be hard to find a semi literate priest east of the Urals, if one doesn't count the insane political exiles (that madman Kropotkin, for instance) or the saner criminals on katorga. That is why, then, you need to act as an arm of the State and sip at the French loan trough courtesy of Baron Henri Hottinguer, who thinks that the eastern railway is a wonderful chance to profit. This will engage you in a speaking tour of Paris and a meeting with the Baron, who may release funds to increase the replenishment amount every turn. Your estimate, based on conversations with the army staff about the Polish railways and the French state loans directed westwards, would be an additional 20 Funds each turn for the duration of the project.

[]Materials Procurement: The Russian state has plenty of iron, grain, wood, coal and all sorts of minerals. And labor. The problem is procuring that and shipping it off to the pimples on the world's behind, which is where construction is ongoing. Iron from western Russia where it's cheap, labor from Ukraine and the penal colonies in Siberia, wood from fucking everywhere (how hard is it to chop wood anyways?) and coal from Rostov on the Don. All that has to be moved, in the case of the iron and so on processed and also paid for. Which, of course, will have the state in a fit. Because while you have cashflow to pay for existing tracklaying, you'd prefer to have more material and therefore complete the railway sometime before 1950. Will increase speed of track laying in all regions and unlock further options.

-[]Contracting: There is a burgeoning business class in Russia, driven by supping at the trough of state contracts and good friends. This is something that is ostensibly less moribund than the Russian bureaucracy and also far less slow to respond, but also something that would cost a great deal of money. Setting up state companies would, however, make a lot of people very happy (barring the Orthodox Church, the insane dissidents, the rabid traditionalists like Pobedonostsev and some elements in the army). You've also heard that they're excellent for the long-term health of the nation. Estimated cost for contracting out materials supply to state companies and contractors: 40 Funds. This has no major political capital cost that you are aware of.

-[]The Army: The army and the internal security apparatus run and supply penal labor camps in Siberia and the army moreover runs supplies to garrisons in far off Central Asia. The great city of Orenburg is the staging ground for the Great Game and an invaluable position...if we are allowed to use it. The same goes for the steel and foundry equipment in the Tula Arsenal, the Putilov Works and other areas operating to fulfill army contracts for now. We'd have to prod them a very great deal, but getting the army involved in this would give us bureaucratic weight later on – as long as we succeed. This would have to be a high priority to get it through reasonably well. And if not – there's always contracting. Estimated cost: 20 Funds. Political capital cost: High – we will owe favors to a great many generals and nobles. But isn't that what court and mega-projects are all about?

[]Colonization: Anatoly Kulomzin is the head of the Colonization Section of the Committee of Siberian Development, and wants to 'surge' a few tens of thousands of migrants into Siberia through the rail lines to establish new cities in Siberia or build up older ones to something approximating civilisation. That takes preparation, involving everything from setting up hostels en route to ensuring that the literature we hand out is more accurate than the American leaflets talking about a Promised Land on the Pacific Coast of all places. Can't be hard to be more honest than the Americans, but the preparation for this colonization surge will take time, patience and money – although the Tsar will approve of it. There is a chance to gain some political capital or at the least imperial favor here once we start sending migrants. Estimated cost: 20 Funds for setup and funding of infrastructure, infrastructure will progress independently of you from here on out. Further options once railway construction is more advanced.

[]Imported Machinery: Importing railway machinery is something that Russia has to do. In this case that means everything from rail-forging equipment to tracklaying gear to the little pilot engines that run near the end of the line to convey equipment and men to the front. Boilers, steam valves, pumps and electric switchgears for the water- and coaling stations on the line. Telegraph equipment in limited amounts because the fucking army is still clogging up domestic production and the telegraph to Central Asia keeps breaking down and needing replacement parts. Bridge components, imported separately and per specification from Russian engineers. Everything seems to come in through the ports, costing a throne's ransom. Enough, as your father once put it to you when he came for a visit, to pay for another Central Asian campaign. This is needed to speed up tracklaying and continue to lay track past natural obstacles within the next two years. Line progress will remain heavily slowed without this equipment.

-[]From Britain: The British and the businessmen who have worked with them prefer this option. A lot of the Russian industrial base has been built by British engineers. Scotsmen, specifically. They seem to be better with steam than the English, much like how Baltic Germans are better at warfare than the Ukrainians. You're not biased at all, of course not. The British are cheaper, having just come off a massive series of orders for heavy engines and gear for the Canadian Pacific and looking for markets to sell – they don't want to stop lines and retool. They're also closer and some factions of the Foreign Ministry want us to order British so that we have a bargaining chip to lobby their government with. The issues, though, are manifold. British engines are good, but not as efficient for long-distance work as American. British engineers are hard to recruit, having attractive postings in their own Empire. And a lot of the Foreign Ministry and Army are against us buying British. Estimated cost 20 Funds. Easier to expand purchase orders. Potential political capital cost, potential for making political rivals. Low chance to gain political capital. Rapid order fulfillment.

-[]From America: America is always willing to sell, especially as it goes through some sort of economic recession. Russian gold spends as well as anyone's, although they won't be as willing as the British to ship immediately. They have their own orders to fill and they don't have as large a railway export sector, or so you're given to understand. The demands of the Trans-Siberian are not something they will be able to fulfill without buildup. That, and they are also very very far from Russia. They can ship to Vladivostok, but again, that takes time. And harbor pilots. And sobriety for the cargo handlers in Vladivostok. These orders aren't that likely to be fulfilled on time, at least initially, and are probably going to hit us with cost overruns. Even you can see that. On the other hand, they aren't anywhere nearly as bad as the British are in the Foreign Ministry's eyes. Or the army's. That is worth some gold. Estimated cost 40 funds. Bottlenecks will delay expansion of purchase orders. Fulfillment takes time. No political cost.

-[]From France: France is an ally of Russia and is always willing to aid in Russia's industrialization, especially when as in this case it aids in diverting Britain. Colonial rivalries are bitter in Asia, and the French are nervous about the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. What you're nervous about is the French railway industry. You've been told a great many convincing, glowing things about it at the French Embassy and the army is happy with the advice they had for the western railway network, but the French rail sector is smaller than Britain or America and you don't have near as much leverage since the French Government holds so much Russian debt. Not to mention that the French have never done long-distance cold weather work like this, who knows how their engines will hold up? You'll get some goodwill in the pro-French circles in court with this, though, and the French government may extend credit for the order so you won't be as much in hock to the imperial fisc. Estimated cost: 15 Funds, this estimate is accurate and provided by the French Embassy. Severe bottlenecking may occur. Fulfillment will take time. Uncertainty about quality and suitability for the Russian environment. High chance of political goodwill.

[][Urgent]Releasing Resources: There is a choice to be made in the West before track is laid any further, and that involves which route to take from Moscow/Tula to Chelyabinsk. One can sweep south through Samara and lay a spur line along the Volga to make the shipment of coal and iron from the Donbass Basin even easier, or one can go north and take the line through Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Ekaterinburg, which would mean that those already-extant industrial centers see more traffic. The first would please the Orthodox Church and be somewhat easier to lay track for, and the second would please the industrialists and potentially make supply and logistics easier in the long run. Both of these directions require that we give the Western Railway a boost in resourcing, though, and release more machinery and funding to keep them going. They're working on volunteer labor and Chief Engineer Mezheninov is dealing with the tangle of land disputes and noble titles that surround a great deal of Western Russian cities. Money will be needed not just for track but for bribes and bureaucracy. And occasionally, lawyers.

-[]North: Take the iron road north, through the onion domes of Nizhny Novgorod and to Kazan, the Tatar City on the steppe where Ivan the Terrible once trod, where the mosques call the muezzin openly and proudly while the Orthodox Church fumes on the sidelines. Ekaterinburg, once the gateway to the east and now a prosperous, confident city, beckons. And you'll have plaudits from the more modern faction in court. Always more pleasant than dealing with the Orthodox Church. You're a Protestant, you don't really hew to that heresy. Estimated Cost: 30 Funds. This is likely to extend construction time somewhat. Potential for goodwill with the army and the industrialists. This will cost goodwill with the Church and some of the church-aligned traditionalists.

-[]South: Take the iron road along the Volga and past Samara, on the warm steppe where the Mongols came all those centuries ago. Dusty and dry in places, speckled with towns and cities and church steeples by the centuries of paranoid settlement fostered by the Romanov throne, and a bastion of the Orthodox Church. A place that they want the rails to go, to make the Christianization and Russification of the areas adjacent to the Volga somewhat easier. They promise much – the black coal of the Donbass and workers from Ukraine, taking ship up the Volga and rail from its headwaters to your railroad. Whether they deliver is the question – they certainly can. The Church has wealth. A very great deal of it. Estimated cost: 10 Funds. This will gain goodwill with the Orthodox Church and lose it with industrialists and potentially the army.

[]Labor Procurement: There are plenty of sources of labor to tap in Russia. The problem is twofold: Sobering them up, and also making sure they get to where they're supposed to be. And then, of course, comes the problem of feeding them. And watering them. And making sure they don't die on the job. The Nikolayev Line from Moscow to St Petersburg was infamous for its casualty rate, one that you can't afford. You're not working with serfs anymore. You're working with volunteers. Yet from what you can see in the reports on your table…you might not have to work with volunteers. This is needed to continue progress on the railway by the end of next turn. This is needed immediately to speed the construction of the railway.

-[]Katorga: The prison camps have labor, a great deal of it. And you need that labor, since it's already where you need it – Mid-Siberia and the Far East. There are already logistical arrangements in place to feed them and water them, and guards in place to make sure they don't run. All you need to do is incentivize them and avoid the sort of slapdash work-to-rule that ruled in the serf-built railroads of yore. Which means a mix of better food, better living conditions, relaxation of discipline and a reduction in sentencing based on time worked. The current proposal is two years off sentence for every year worked, and that may be raised to three for particularly dangerous areas of the line. Like Baikal, which might be bad enough to need a separate directorate if the surveys are correct. Costs moderate political capital with the Okhrana, convict labor is used in the Mid-Siberian and Far Eastern zone. Estimated cost: 25 Funds. This estimate is accurate as the Okhrana is responsible for cost overruns.

-[]Volunteer Labor: Recruitment of volunteer labor is difficult and unlikely to succeed until the rail lines east are built up enough to make work on them less arduous and make logistical support easier. Right now, Siberia is far, far away and getting a peasant to move there is hard. Convincing volunteers to work in Siberia means allowing concessions. For instance, draft exemption. Or getting the Church to endorse you and advertise. Or getting a great deal of money. Preferably, though, all three and more will be needed. Land grants after completion, for a certainty. And temporary work contracts. No peasant wants to spend a decade on the Transsib. Costs minor political capital, costs 40 Funds, uses volunteer labor in all zones. Will greatly benefit Western Railway, minor benefit on others until completion of the Western section.

AN: You may want to closely read the options. This quest is, after all, based on incomplete and biased information.
Please note that plans are to be formatted as follows:
[]Plan Name
-[1]Priority One
-[2]Priority Two
-[3]Priority Three
-[4]Priority Four
-[5]Priority Five