Whenever a computer-controlled player begins the game, immediately look for the player's starting location on the map. Since computers always begin by placing a single railroad station near their company's headquarters, purchase the land on both sides of the station as soon as you can by placing a railroad track on both sides of the station so that the computer can't connect tracks from it. If you do this before the computer starts placing its own tracks from its first station, the computer will do nothing and eventually go bankrupt. If the computer has already started placing tracks from its first station, you can force the computer to resell already placed track by interrupting the computer's placement with your own railroad tracks; the computer may try to build over your tracks with ramps or bridges (costing it more money), so you must interrupt it as much as necessary. At some point the computer will resell its tracks all the way back to its station at which point you may block the railroad station.Doing this will give you more time in the long run to establish a monopoly over your current map. The cost of railroad tracks that you used to block your opponents with is insignificant to the potential amount of money you can take in without competition.
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